Ratings, con reports, and more online manga

Lori Henderson rounds up a week’s worth of manga news in her handy digest at Manga Xanadu, and Erica Friedman brings us the latest edition of Yuri Network News.

Deb Aoki checks out this week’s new manga at About.com.

Ed Sizemore files his con report on NYAF at Comics Worth Reading. Ed went to a lot of different panels than I did, so I found his report very interesting even though I was there. Ditto Erin Finnegan’s coverage at Otaku USA and her NYAF podcast, as she talks about a lot of things besides manga.

Yen Press is publishing the Spice and Wolf light novel with a new cover—while the Japanese edition had a manga-style cover, Yen’s features a not-very-revealing nude photo of a woman. You could read the 160 comments at the Yen Press blog, or you could save some time and read Gia’s excellent summary at Anime Vice. I’m with Gia on this one: I get that light novels need a different type of cover to sell to non-otaku, but I don’t like this particular choice.

Does an absence of sex and violence mean that a manga is really an all ages book? Lori Henderson has some thoughts on age ratings at Manga Xanadu.

The Star of Malaysia has an interview with Benny Wong, the Malaysian artist who won the Morning 2 international manga competition in 2007, started a manga magazine of his own (which recently folded) and is now putting his work online. Wong, who has a degree in business, started out making comics for the online game Celestial Destroyer but has moved on to more original properties.

ICv2 has the details on the new manga announced at NYAF by Del Rey, Viz, and Vertical. And Deb Aoki has more info on Tokyopop’s new titles.

Deux Press is having a back-to-school sale.

Reset your RSS feeds: Melinda Beasi has a new address; her blog is going from There it is, Plain as Daylight to the more relevantly titled Manga Bookshelf. Same great content, new URL and site design.

Christopher Butcher couldn’t afford to buy all the cool stuff he saw on his last trip to Japan, so he took pictures instead and posted them at Comics212.

News from Japan: The 4-koma slice-of-life manga Working!!, which chronicles life in a restaurant, will spin off a biweekly web version. And Gantz is going into its final story arc in Japan. Connie shows off a copy of Black Jack magazine at Slightly Biased Manga.

Reviews: The Manga Recon crew has another set of Manga Minis up, brief reviews of recent titles. Singaporean blogger Parka reviews Helen McCarthy’s new book The Art of Osamu Tezuka. Heart of Manga blogger Laura Mucciarone drops in at The Manga Critic to post a guest review of Boys Over Flowers: Jewelry Box. Andrew Wheeler checks out three manga about teens with supernatural powers at ComicMix.

Erica Friedman on vol. 4 of Aria (Okazu)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 7 of Black God (Kuriousity)
Shannon Fay on Cowa! (Kuriousity)
Michelle Smith on vols. 1-6 of Dokebi Bride (Soliloquy in Blue)
Casey Brienza on vols. 1-3 of Flock of Angels (ANN)
Melinda Beasi on vol. 20 of Fullmetal Alchemist (Manga Bookshelf)
Connie on Haunted House (Slightly Biased Manga)
Faith McAdams on vol. 11 of High School Debut (Animanga Nation)
Connie on vol. 17 of Hikaru no Go (Slightly Biased Manga)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Karakuri Odette (Comics Worth Reading)
Ed Chavez on Oishinbo: Sushi and Sashimi (MangaCast)
Shannon Fay on vol. 25 of Red River (Kuriousity)
Amy Grockl on Sounds of Love (Comics Village)
Julie on vol. 1 of Sugarholic (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 1 of Swans in Space (Manga Jouhou)
Snow Wildsmith on White Brand (Manga Jouhou)
Sesho on the November issue of Yen Plus (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 1 of Yotsuba&! (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)

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