Archives for October 2009

ICv2 posts Bookscan’s top 20 graphic novels for September. Lots of manga, as always.

The Wicomico, Maryland, superintendent of schools has pledged to remove the first volume of Dragon Ball from an elementary school library after the mother of a fourth-grader complained that the book contained “nudity, sexual contact between children and sexual innuendo among adults and children.”

This is good news for aspiring creators, and it also signals an interesting new direction: Viz is accepting submissions for original comics.

David Welsh takes a good look at this month’s Previews at Precocious Curmudgeon.

Sesho is not happy with Dark Horse’s slow release schedule for Eden, and he has an idea for a more worthy home for it…

Lissa Pattillo finds some possible Digital Manga licenses on Amazon.ca.

Blogging about blogging: The Manga Recon team welcomes new reviewer Jennifer Dunbar.

News from Japan: The publishers Kodansha and Akita Shoten have struck a deal under which Kodansha will publish some of Akita Shoten’s works, if I’m reading this report from ANN correctly. ANN also postst the latest comics rankings from Oricon and Tohan.

Reviews: Kate Holden, who has a degree in English literature, analyzes Emma Vieceli’s manga adaptation of Hamlet at Comic Mole Investigates. EvilOmar posts a handful of short manga reviews at About Heroes. At Precocious Curmudgeon, David Welsh takes a look at King City in pamphlet form. Park Cooper and wife Barb chat about various manga at Manga Life. Other reviews of note:

Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 8 of The Antique Gift Shop (Manga Bookshelf)
Casey Brienza on The Color of Heaven (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Alain Mendez on vol. 1 of Flame of Recca (Comics Village)
Connie on vol. 21 of Fullmetal Alchemist (Slightly Biased Manga)
Danica Davidson on vol. 3 of Il Gatto Sul G (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Diana Dang on Genghis Khan: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea (Stop, Drop, and Read)
Sam on Hollow Fields (omnibus edition) (The Otaku’s Study)
Connie on vol. 14 of I”s (Slightly Biased Manga)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of Karakuri Odette (Prospero’s Manga)
Deb Aoki on vol. 1 of Karakuri Odette (About.com)
Cathy on vol. 2 of Kimi ni Todoke (t can’t all be about manga…)
Lissa Pattillo on Mr. Flower Groom (Kuriousity)
Barb Lien-Cooper on vol. 46 of Naruto (Manga Life)
Julie on vol. 2 of Nightschool (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of Ninja Girls (Prospero’s Manga)
Michelle Smith on vols. 13-15 of One Piece (Soliloquy in Blue)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 1 of Ooku (Fujoshi Librarian)
Julie on vol. 1 of Rin-ne (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Erica Friedman on vol. 5 of Sasamekikoto (Okazu)
David Brothers on Solanin (4thletter!)
Casey Brienza on vols. 1 and 2 of Takeru: Opera Susanoh: Sword of the Devil (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Emily on Tonari no Koigatari (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Erica Friedman on vol. 3 of Tsubomi (Okazu)
Julie on vol. 7 of Venus in Love (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 6 of We Were There (Manga Life)
Tangognat on vols. 1-5 of Wild Act (Tangognat)

Friends of Lulu nominations are up, and now you, the general public, can vote for your favorites. I was honored to be asked to be a judge this year, so I supplied a nomination in each category. However, so many of the other nominees were on my short list that I actually had to go back and check my e-mail to see which came from me. I may be biased, but I do think we came up with a very good list.

Kate Dacey and David Welsh paw through this week’s new releases.

In his latest comiXology column, Jason Thompson explains what Felipe Smith is up to in Peepo Choo.

Kate Dacey summarizes the controversy over the cover for the American edition of the Spice and Wolf light novel.

Joy Fleishhacker writes about the many incarnations of Astro Boy at School Library Journal.

Reviews: John Thomas includes a short review of MPD-Psycho in the latest Sci-Guys podcast.

Brad Rice on Apollo’s Song (Japanator)
Connie on vol. 1 of Beast Master (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 1 of Broken Blade (MangaCast)
Sam Kusek on A Drifting Life (Manga Recon)
Lori Henderson on History of the West Wing (Manga Xanadu)
A Library Girl on In Odd We Trust (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Connie on vol. 3 of I”s (Slightly Biased Manga)
Danielle Leigh on vol. 2 of Kimi ni Todoke and vol. 2 of Black Bird (Comics Should Be Good)
Erin Jones on vol. 13 of Love*Com (Mania.com)
Matthew Rozier on vol. 5 of Pluto (Comics Village)
Katherine Farmar on vol. 1 of Sugarholic (Comics Village)

The FTC has just released new guidelines for bloggers that require reviewers to reveal any compensation they get from the maker of the product being reviewed. This has been interpreted to include review copies themselves. Although talk of $11,000 fines is being batted about, I don’t think the FTC is going to be swooping in on manga bloggers anytime soon. I suspect this is really aimed at those fake weight-loss blogs, shopping blogs, etc.

However, it seems like as good a time as any to make clear the guidelines under which MangaBlog operates. It’s basic journalistic ethics: I write honest reviews, and I avoid conflicts of interest and disclose those that can’t be avoided, no matter how small.

I cheerfully accept review copies, and if a review is based on a complimentary copy, I always note that at the end of the review (except sometimes I forget). I always do an honest review, no matter where a book comes from. I believe that publishers are grownups and can handle a bad review, and if I pull my punches, all my reviews lose credibility.

(Incidentally, since manga retails for $10 to $12, and it takes me 3-4 hours to read and review a book, the hourly wage on this thing is pretty low. Certainly not worth selling out my integrity for.)

The only obligation that a free book creates in my mind is the obligation to write about it. I am more likely to write about a review copy than a book I bought myself because I do feel that I owe the publisher some sort of review.

I read as many review copies as possible, and I mention a few every week at Robot 6 in my weekly contributions to their What Are You Reading? column. In addition to MangaBlog, I write for PWCW and Graphic Novel Reporter, and I often base my articles for those venues on review copies. And since I’m the editor of Good Comics for Kids, I may review a kid- or teen-friendly book and then pass it along to one of the writers there, so some publishers get double duty for their review copies.

If I have any connection at all with a book, I will disclose that in the review. If I feel that I’m too friendly with a creator to write an objective review of their book, I won’t review it, but I might look for a guest reviewer (I have a few of these in the works).

I keep a lot of my review copies, but space is finite, so I donate some of them to the excellent Reader to Reader program and to my local library. I also have been bringing kids’ comics into the office because I deal with a lot of families with kids, especially during the holiday season. Occasionally I put some books up on Paperback Swap, which is also a great place to find that missing volume of an older series. I do sell books on eBay, but not very often, as it’s really not worth the trouble (except for yaoi, which can’t really be donated to my usual venues).

As I mentioned this morning, Calvin Reid interviewed Yoichi Irie of Kodansha Comics about his company’s plans to take over the world release manga in the U.S.

Also, here’s a review I wrote of Paradigm Shift for Robot 6. Enjoy!

The big news today is yesterday’s revelation that Kodansha is setting up shop in the U.S. Calvin Reid promises to have a full interview with Kodansha vp Yochio Irie in this week’s Publishers Weekly Comics Week; stay tuned, and I’ll link to it when it comes out.

David Welsh interviews Vertical’s Ed Chavez about his company’s new announcements at NYAF.

The Sydney Herald talks to Oishinbo creator Tetsu Kariya, who has lived in Australia for the past 20 years.

Tangognat checks out the best of this month’s Previews.

At Okazu, Erica Friedman has an interesting market research question for her readers—would you make a commitment to a whole series, and if so, how much?

Can’t get enough NYAF coverage? I run through the high points of the new book announcements at Graphic Novel Reporter, and Deb Aoki goes into more depth on the Del Rey panel.

Christopher Butcher’s Japan travelogue continues with pictures of the Pokemon World Center.

Reviews: Dave Ferraro has short takes on a lot of different manga at Comics-and-More.

Snow Wildsmith on FreshMen (Fujoshi Librarian)
Sesho on vol. 3 of Future Diary (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Brad Rice on vol. 1 of Higurashi: When They Cry (Japanator)
Emily on Oh! My Brother (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Scott VonSchilling on vol. 1 of Oh! My Brother (The Anime Almanac)
Ben Leary on vol. 1 of St. Dragon Girl (Mania.com)
Julie on vol. 17 of The Wallflower (Manga Maniac Cafe)

Calvin Reid has the scoop at Publishers Weekly: Kodansha, the largest publisher in Japan, is setting up a New York office to publish and sell manga in the U.S. under the name Kodansha Comics. Apparently they plan to start slow, and yes, those reissues of Akira and Ghost in the Shell that popped up on Amazon a while ago are going to be their first two series. More titles are on the way. But don’t despair, Del Rey (and Vertical) fans—Kodansha U.S.A. honcho Yoshio Irie says “Kodansha Comics doesn’t aim to be the exclusive label for titles from Kodansha.” With a backlist the size of theirs, they probably have plenty of manga to go around.