Enlightened by a female smart-aleck

Girlamatic has been home to some nice online manga over the years, so it’s good news that it is being relaunched with a new, all-free format. I talked to editor Diana McQueen about it in this week’s Unbound column at Robot 6. I also interviewed Scott Christian Sava, creator of The Dreamland Chronicles, for Graphic Novel Reporter. (Yeah, busy week—that’s why I haven’t been on Twitter much.)

Kate Dacey and Red Baylon look over this week’s new releases.

Lorena Nava Ruggero has a very informative report on the women in manga panel at SDCC.

And Kate Dacey has an interesting poll at The Manga Critic: What was the most exciting licensing news that came out of the con?

In international manga news—well, I don’t think I can say this any better than The China Post:

Yiin Chii-ming, minister of economic affairs, has buckled under pressure to apologize for an offensive manga designed to promote his priority economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) between Taiwan and China.

The comic strip, published by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), depicts a dolt being enlightened by a female smart-aleck polyglot on the pact Taipei wants to sign with Beijing — an act that is considered a sellout of Taiwan by the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

First of all, in Taiwan they use manga to promote economic agreements? Who knew! But if you’re going to go that route, you have to accept that “dolt being enlightened by a female smart-aleck something-or-other” is a standard storyline, and just go with it.

News from Japan: ANN has news of several new series debuting in Evening magazine, including one by Makoto Kobayashi, the creator of Where’s Michael? and Club 9. Canned Dogs reports that Sanrio will be selling official Hello Kitty products at Comiket (one hopes the accompanying illustration is a parody and not one of the items on offer).

Reviews: Connie has an interesting look at some vintage manga, including Tezuka’s New Treasure Island, at Slightly Biased Manga. This one gets my vote for post of the day. Ed Sizemore posts brief reviews of some recent Del Rey releases at Comics Worth Reading.

John Thomas on vol. 1 of 20th Century Boys (Comics Village)
Casey Brienza on vol. 1 of Angelic Runes (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Emily on Aniki wa Tsunayoshi! (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Courtney Kraft on vol. 6 of Black God (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 2 of Black Jack (Kuriousity)
Julie on vol. 1 of B.O.D.Y. (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Joe McCulloch on The Color of Earth (Bookforum)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 5 of Emma (i heart manga)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of Gestalt (Prospero’s Manga)
Melinda Beasi on vol. 2 of Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit (There it is, Plain as Daylight)
Alex Hoffman on vol. 1 of Jack Frost (Comics Village)
David Welsh on vol. 1 of Kimi ni Todoke (Precocious Curmudgeon)
Lori Henderson on vol. 31 of Naruto (Manga Xanadu)
Holly Ellingwood on vol. 11 of Oh My Goddess! (Active Anime)
Danielle Leigh on Oishinbo: Fish, Sushi & Sashimi (Comics Should Be Good)
Oyceter on vols. 11 and 12 of Ouran High School Host Club (Sakura of DOOM)
Casey Brienza on Princess Princess Plus (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Holly Ellingwood on vol. 5 of Sand Chronicles (Active Anime)
Greg McElhatton on chapter 1 of Saturn Apartments (Read About Comics)
Courtney Kraft on vol. 1 of Train*Train (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Sandra Scholes on vol. 1 of Treasure (Active Anime)