The road to San Diego

Kate Dacey looks forward to this week’s new releases at The Manga Critic.

San Diego Comic-Con is this week. We will be following the action from afar, but if you’re going, check out Christopher Mautner’s handy guide to five things an anime and manga fan shouldn’t miss. And here’s an addendum to that list: Have your books signed by Trigun creator Yasuhiro Nightow, and Batman: Death Mask artist Yoshinori Natsumi, Yokaiden creator Nina Matsumoto, and Maximum Ride artist NaRae Lee. Deb Aoki has all the details. And watch this space for announcements—con time means lots of new licenses and other news.

Also, Otakon was this past weekend. Most of the coverage I have seen has focused on the anime and cosplay aspects, but Brad Rice has a nice summary at Japanator.

At Manga Xanadu, Lori Henderson provides a handy digest of the week’s manga new, including an interesting comment on OEL manga by writer Helen McCarthy.

Christopher MacDonald interviews Yen Press director of publishing Kurt Hassler at ANN. This looks like it was done in February, actually, as there are references to a recent ICv2 conference and several anticipated books that are actually already out, but it’s a good read nonetheless.

Deb Aoki has more images from the planned Twilight manga. Sesho explains why this is good for manga.

Erica Friedman is relaunching her weekly yuri news roundup as Yuri Network News, and she’s running a logo contest to kick things off.

Johanna Draper Carlson lists her picks for best graphic novels of 2008, including a handful of manga.

News from Japan: ANN reports that Tomoko Ninomiya will resume Nodame Cantabile, after a hiatus due to appendicitis, and will wrap up the series soon. Another creator, Ritz Kobayashi, is also returning to the high school mahjong manga Saki. In his latest MangaScope column, Ed Chavez reassures us that reports of the death of shounen manga are premature.

Reviews: Lori Henderson takes a look at some space manga in honor of the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. John Jakala is the guest on this week’s What Are You Reading? feature at Robot 6, and he has more at Sporadic Sequential.

Laura on After School Nightmare (Heart of Manga)
James Fleenor on vol. 4 of Baccano! (Anime Sentinel)
Shojo Flash on vol. 1 of Ballad of a Shinigami (Shojo Flash)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 1 of Bamboo Blade (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Connie on vol. 7 of Black Lagoon (Slightly Biased Manga)
Tangognat on vol. 36 of Boys Over Flowers (Tangognat)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 2 of Cirque du Freak (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Danielle Leigh on Color (Comics Should Be Good)
J. Caleb Mozzocco on vol. 1 of Dinosaur Hour (Blog@Newsarama)
Connie on Disappearance Diary (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lorena on vol. 3 of Dororo (i heart manga)
Lorena on vol. 2 of Emma (i heart manga)
Shannon Fay on Falling Into Love (Kuriousity)
Connie on vols. 22 and 23 of Fruits Basket (Slightly Biased Manga)
Melinda Beasi on vol. 23 of Fruits Basket (There it is, Plain as Daylight)
Sesho on vol. 2 of Fullmetal Alchemist (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Future Diary (Anime Sentinel)
Michelle Smith on vols. 1 and 2 of Il Gatto Sul G. (Soliloquy in Blue)
Jones, one of the Jones boys, on Good-Bye (Let’s You and Him Fight)
Carlo Santos on vol. 1 of Gurren Lagann (ANN)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 10 of High School Debut (Comics Worth Reading)
Sophie Stevens on vol. 6 of Honey and Clover (Animanga Nation)
Cynthia on vol. 10 of Junjo Romantica (Boys Next Door)
Connie on vol. 2 of Jyu-Oh-Sei (Sightly Biased Manga)
Lorena on vol. 5 of Land of the Blindfolded (i heart manga)
Julie on The Manga Guide to Electricity (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 2 of Monkey High (Kuriousity)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Moon Boy (Kuriousity)
Kris on Naughty But Nice (Manic About Manga)
Derik Badman on vols. 1 and 2 of Oishinbo (Madinkbeard)
Lori Henderson on Oishinbo A la Carte: Fish, Sushi & Sashimi (Comics Village)
Michelle Smith on vols. 10 and 11 of One Piece (Soliloquy in Blue)
Ed Chavez on vol. 1 of Samurai Harem (MangaCast)
Sesho on Solanin (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Cynthia on vol. 2 of Steal Moon (Boys Next Door)
Julie on vol. 2 of A Strange and Mystifying Story (MangaCast)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 1 of Tena on S-String (There it is, Plain as Daylight)
Melinda Beasi on vol. 1 of Venus Capriccio (There it is, Plain as Daylight)

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Comments

  1. Hi Brigid! Just wanted to let you know that “Lorena” of i heart manga and “Lorena Nava Ruggero” at There it is, Plain as Daylight are one and the same; I’ve also updated my site as such. Please feel free to stick with just Lorena or use my full name if you like. Thanks!

  2. DC Miller says

    An anime review? I was surprised to see the link to Baccano! v4. I loved watching Baccano!, so any publicity is good publicity, even if seems to be a little misplaced. ^_^

    I’d love for someone to bring over the novels, but that’s probably pretty unlikely these days. Yen? Please? ^_^;;