Translations, best-of lists, and deep thoughts

David Welsh and Kate Dacey make their picks from this week’s batch of new comics, and the Comics Village team picks the best of the last week’s releases as well as their November manga of the month.

You could read all the best-manga-of-2009 lists, or you could let Deb Aoki boil them down into a single list of critics’ recommendations for you, since a lot of books are being mentioned over and over this year. Deb also lists her choices for the best continuing series of the year. Erica Friedman lists her top ten yuri manga of 2009 at Okazu.

Kate Dacey her nominations for the 2009 Manga Hall of Shame and invites readers to submit their own suggestions. Then Yen Press director Kurt Hassler turns the tables and critiques Kate’s critique of the Yen book Pig Bride. Good times! At Precocious Curmudgeon, David Welsh waves farewell to the series that ended in 2009.

Svetlana Chmakova is the featured guest on the latest Girlamatic podcast.

A while back, Matt Thorn complained about the poor quality of most manga translations. Shaenon Garrity responds at The Comics Journal, pointing out that the more literary choices may not please the readers. Over at Manga Life, Alethea and Althea Nibley take up the question of honorifics.

Christopher Butcher responds to Tokyopop’s online manga poll as only Chris can. Read the comments, too, for an interesting discussion about several topics in addition to some further explanation from the Tokyopop folks.

Melinda Beasi rounds up the latest manhwa reviews in her Manhwa Monday post at Manga Bookshelf.

This week’s edition of the Shojo-Sunjeong Alphabet is brought to you by the letter K.

Happy anniversary to Johanna Draper Carlson, who has been blogging at Comics Worth Reading for 10 years. Awesome!

News from Japan: Comic Gear magazine is folding after only two issues. Simon Jones has some thoughts (scroll down). Gundam: Zeon Children’s Academy launches in January in Gundam Ace. And ANN has the latest Japanese comics rankings.

Reviews: Carlo Santos posts the pros and cons of the latest batch of new manga in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Ed Sizemore posts brief reviews of some new Viz titles at Comics Worth Reading.

Sean T. Collins on vols. 1-3 of 20th Century Boys (Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat)
Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 1 of Butterflies, Flowers (Manga Life)
Lori Henderson on vols. 7 and 8 of Comic (Manga Xanadu)
Julie on vol. 2 of Fire Investigator Nanase (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of Happy Cafe (Soliloquy in Blue)
Sophie Stephens on vol. 12 of High School Debut (Animanga Nation)
Vom Marlowe on How to Draw Manga: Ultimate Manga Lessons, Vol. 5: Basics of Portraying Action (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of Itazura Na Kiss (Manga Recon)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 1 of Noodle Shop Affair (Fujoshi Librarian)
Connie on vol. 29 of One Piece (Slightly Biased Manga)
Rob on vol. 1 of Ooku: The Inner Chambers (Panel Patter)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Pluto (Anime Sentinel)
Lori Henderson on vol. 3 of Rasetsu (Comics Village)
Melinda Beasi on vols. 1-3 of Roureville (Manga Bookshelf)
Sam on vol. 8 of Rozen Maiden (The Otaku’s Study)
Carlo Santos on vol. 4 of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (ANN)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of The Secret Saturdays: The Kur Stone (Good Comics for Kids)
Ed Chavez on vol. 2 of Sumomomo Momomo (MangaCast)
Rob on vol. 5 of Tarot Cafe (Panel Patter)
Connie on vols. 4 and 5 of Totally Captivated (Slightly Biased Manga)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Transistor Tea Set (Okazu)
Derik Badman on Yuichi Yokoyama’s Travel (Madinkbeard)
Connie on vols. 16 and 17 of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle (Slightly Biased Manga)
Erica Friedman on vol. 4 of Tsubomi (Okazu)
Grant Goodman on vol. 1 of What a Wonderful World (Manga Recon)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 14 of xxxHOLiC (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)

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Comments

  1. Thanks very much for the good wishes! It doesn’t seem nearly that long.