Lori Henderson rounds up this week’s all-ages comics and manga at Good Comics for Kids.

After Twittering with fellow bloggers David Welsh and Sean Gaffney about female friendship in shoujo manga, Joy Kim posts a list of manga that feature female friendships in a positive light.

Karen Gellender responds to fan snobbery about Twilight at Japanator.

Sad news from Japan: With the Light creator Keiko Tobe has died.

Gia looks at the One Piece phenomenon in Japan at Anime Vice.

Blogging about blogging: This is not specific to manga, but Heidi MacDonald’s The Beat is one of the top blogs in the comics biz, and Heidi has been a good promoter of manga (and of MangaBlog!), so it’s big news that she’s moving to a new location. Reset your bookmarks and RSS feeds accordingly.

Reviews

Michelle Smith on All My Darling Daughters (Manga Recon)
Lissa Pattillo on The Apartment (Kuriousity)
Eric Robinson on vol. 1 of Bamboo Blade (Manga Jouhou)
Kevin Church on vols. 1 and 2 of A Distant Neighborhood (About.com)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of Kimi Ni Todoke (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Kimochi no Katachi (Okazu)
Connie on vol. 34 of One Piece (Slightly Biased Manga)
Julie on Only By Chance (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Emily on Sensei Datte Otoshigoro (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 1 of V.B. Rose (i heart manga)
Snow Wildsmith on vols. 1-5 of Very! Very! Sweet (Good Comics for Kids)
Lori Henderson on Voices of Love (Comics Village)

Can you handle one more best manga of 2009 post? This one is from manga expert (and banned author!) Paul Gravett, so you know it’s good.

Melinda Beasi ponders the larger significance of the Twilight graphic novel at There it is, Plain as Daylight.

Myth and Manga looks at the monkey king, the literary ancestor of Dragon Ball, Naruto, and many others.

Julie is looking forward to Alice in the Country of Hearts at Manga Maniac Cafe.

The shoujo-sunjeong alphabet reaches the letter P at Manga Curmudgeon.

Manga Views profiles blogger Lorena Nava Ruggero.

Not manga, but fun: The Manga Critic plays test kitchen with Vertical’s Worry-Free Bakery.

News from Japan: Canned Dogs gets word of a doujin opera adaptation of Higurashi When They Cry. My first reaction was “That’s a great manga to adapt into opera,” but my second thought was “Doujin opera???!?!!”

Reviews: Park Cooper tells us what he has been reading lately at Manga Life. Other reviews of note:

Rob on vol. 1 of 11th Cat (Panel Patter)
Danielle Leigh on vols. 6 and 7 of 20th Century Boys (Comics Should Be Good)
Noah Berlatsky on vol. 1 of Biomega and vol. 4 of Ikigami (The Comics Journal)
Charles Webb on vol. 1 of Biomega (Manga Life)
David Goodwin on The Box Man (Eastern Standard)
Connie on vol. 4 of Bride of the Water God (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 31 of Case Closed (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Crown of Love (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on Darkside Blues (Slightly Biased Manga)
Simon Abrams on vols. 1-3 of Dororo (The Comics Journal)
Katherine Farmar on vol. 1 of I’ll Give It My All… Tomorrow (Comics Village)
Joy Kim on vol. 1 of The Lapis Lazuli Crown (Joy Kim)
Leroy Douresseaux on Love Hurts (The Comic Book Bin)
Christopher Butcher on not simple (About.com)
Nina Stone on not simple (The Factual Opinion)
Connie on vols. 32 and 33 of One Piece (Slightly Biased Manga)
Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 4 of Otomen (Manga Life)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Portrait of M&N (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Rin-ne (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on Saber Tiger (Slightly Biased Manga)
Susan S. on vol. 1 of Sea View (Manga Jouhou)
Dan Polley on vols. 23 and 24 of Tsubasa (Comics Village)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 2 of We Were There (i heart manga)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 2 of Yokaiden (Kuriousity)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 7 of Yotsuba&! (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)

At PWCW, Kai-Ming Cha talks to author and translator Fred Schodt. There’s lots of interesting commentary here, including Schodt’s take on unflipped manga:

It preserves the idea of original manga but disturbs the flow of the reading. Because it is in a hybrid, unorthodox format, it’s harder to get people not in the manga scene or part of the fandom to read it. This will probably be solved by a virtual or e-reader where people can read manga page by page on the computer.

Schodt’s current projects include translating Pluto. Also at PWCW: Michael Fitzpatrick looks at the popularity of manga on e-books in Japan.

David Welsh, Gia Manry, and Brad Rice look over this week’s new manga. Ryan Sands goes over some recent purchases at Same Hat! Same Hat!

Deb Aoki notes that the Twilight graphic novel shot into Amazon’s top ten—not just graphic novel, top ten bestselling books, period—on the strength of preorders alone.

Kristy Valenti concludes her analysis of Fruits Basket at comiXology.

Manga Curmudgeon David Welsh will be organizing the first round of the Manga Moveable Feast: During the week of Feb. 8, a bunch of us manga bloggers will be reviewing Sexy Voice and Robo. David will track the posts and even host reviewer who don’t have a blog of their own.

Same Hat! Same Hat! has some comics and covers to look at (some are quite NSFW): Desert Eyeball, by Maki Sasaki (in Japanese), more Shintaro Kago gag cartoons, and the covers to vols. 1-4 of Kazuo Umezu’s My Name is Shingo.

Deb Aoki posts the results of her best manga of 2009 polls at About.com. Deb, Jason Thompson, and JD Banks also discuss manga and comics in the latest Anime 3000 podcast.

Manga University will debut a new online manga next week, based on the game StepMania.

ANN sums up a Mainichi interview with Tetsuya Chiba, the creator of Ashita no Joe.

Hey, someone wrote a book about yaoi manga!

At Rocket Bomber, Matt Blind has the graphic novel rankings (online sales) for the week of Jan. 10, as well as a report on new releases and preorders.

Blogging about blogging: Coffeeandink accuses the bloggers and commenters at The Hooded Utilitarian of sexism; Noah Berlatsky responds.

Matt Blind has some tips for would-be podcasters.

News from Japan: Big news: Yuu Watase has ended Sakura-Gari and resumed work on Fushigi Yûgi Genbu Kaiden, which she had set aside in 2008. The last chapter of Tsukihime has been delayed, and the creator of Kōshokuaika Moto Volleyboys has put that series on hold while he recuperates from cancer surgery. On a lighter note, Michio Ueyama, the creator of Zoids, has posted a Doraemon/Loveplus crossover comic. According to Asiajin, the first manga has arrived for Kindle. At MangaCast, Ed Chavez posts Taiyosha’s manga rankings for last week and this week.

Reviews: The Ninja Consultants devote their latest podcast to Black Lagoon.

Sean Gaffney on All My Darling Daughters (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Greg McElhatton on All My Darling Daughters (Read About Comics)
Julie on The Apartment (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Julie on vol. 1 of Black Butler (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Danielle Leigh on vol. 1 of Black Butler (Comics Should Be Good)
Amy Grockl on vol. 1 of Happy Cafe (Comics Village)
Chris Zimmerman on Haridama: Magic Cram School and vol. 1 of X-Men: Misfits (cbs4.com)
Rebecca Bundy on vol. 18 of Hikaru no Go (ANN)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Jack Frost (Manga Xanadu)
Eric Robinson on vol. 2 of Maximum Ride (Manga Jouhou)
Danica Davidson on Only One Wish (About.com)
Julie on vol. 1 of Portrait of M & N (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 2 of Rin-ne (Kuriousity)
Michelle Smith on vol. 2 of Rin-ne (Soliloquy in Blue)
Kinukitty on Sense & Sexuality (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Oyceter on vols. 1 and 2 of Shitsuren Chocolatier (Sakura of DOOM)
Johanna Draper Carlson on Solfege (Comics Worth Reading)
Julie on vol. 1 of Stolen Hearts (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 1 of Stolen Hearts (MangaCast)
Ng Suat Tong on Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Carlo Santos on vol. 25 of Tsubasa (ANN)
Erica Friedman on vol. 1 of Ultimo (About.com)
Brenda Gregson on vol. 1 of Venus Capriccio (Animanga Nation)

Christopher Handley may be heading for a plea bargain after pleading guilty to possession of obscene materials (manga) last year.

Kate Dacey checks out this week’s new manga at The Manga Critic.

Lissa Pattillo rounds up the latest contests and other news at Kuriousity. (Don’t forget to check out the big post-Christmas giveaway at The Manga Critic.) And Erica Friedman has all the yuri news at Okazu.

Reviews: The Manga Recon team posts short takes on recent titles in their Manga Minis column. Jog critiques quite a few manga in his weekly comics roundup.

Tangognat on vol. 1 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (Tangognat)
Dave Ferraro on All My Darling Daughters (Comics-and-More)
Erica Friedman on Aoi Hana Official Book (Okazu)
Tangognat on vol. 2 of Karakuri Odette (Tangognat)
Snow Wildsmith on vols. 1-4 of Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl (Fujoshi Librarian)
Michelle Smith on Live for Love (Soliloquy in Blue)
Snow Wildsmith on Love Skit (Fujoshi Librarian)
Jen Dunbar on Mr. Flower Bride (A word is a unit of language)
Erica Friedman on Otome Senshi Lovely 5 (Okazu)
Shannon Fay on vol. 7 of Sand Chronicles (Kuriousity)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of St. Dragon Girl (Tangognat)
Andre on Toxic Planet (Kuriousity)

While we are all busy discussing the latest Fumi Yoshinaga and Naoki Urasawa releases in Viz’s Signature line, they are quietly publishing manga for kids as well. These books may not make as much of a splash with bloggers, but they are gettin good reviews from those who know—both educators and kids. Here’s the dope on the latest title in the lineup, Dinosaur King, because you can never have too many comics about dinosaurs—or spiky-haired kids!

[Read more...]

The New York Times graphic books best-seller list is up and it’s pretty Viz-a-licious, with the exception of the two volumes of Maximum Ride.

At the Good Comics for Kids blog, Peter Gutierrez recommends ten comics that are great for classroom use—including Dinosaur Hour!

Lori Henderson has the executive summary of the week in manga at Manga Xanadu. And it’s another Manhwa Monday over at Manga Bookshelf.

Go! Comi has been rather quiet lately, with no new releases for the past couple of months, so they posted an update on their forum. It sounds like things are tough right now, and they seem to have cut back on staff and licenses, but nothing is stated directly. (Hat tip: The Yaoi Review.)

Melinda Beasi reacts to the xxxHoLiC roundtable and muses a bit on reviewing in general at Manga Bookshelf.

Jason S. Yadao takes an affectionate look at the One Piece franchise.

Episode 4 of the Jouhou Cast is up at Manga Jouhou.

News from Japan: Michael Pinto has a mini Leiji Matsumoto retrospective on the occasion of the manga-ka’s 72nd birthday. Hajime Segawa is bringing The Enchained Spiritual Beast Ga-Rei to a close and previewing a new series, Tokyo ESP, in the same magazine. Three new series, including an Evangelion manga, will launch in the Feb. 24 issue of Asuka.

Reviews: Deb Aoki discusses a few recent manga in the latest edition of What Are You Reading? at Robot 6.

Jennifer Dunbar on vol. 1 of Deka Kyoshi (Manga Recon)
Russell Phillips on vol. 1 of Dramacon (Manga Jouhou)
Shaun A. Noordin on GoGo Monster (The Star of Malaysia)
Lianne Sentar on Kami no Shizuku (Drops of the Gods) (Sleep Is For the Weak)
Ed Sizemore on vols. 1 and 2 of The King of Debris (Comics Worth Reading)
Rob on vol. 2 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Panel Patter)
Joy Kim on vol. 1 of The Lapis Lazuli Crown (Joy Kim)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of The Moon and Sandals (Comics Worth Reading)
Sean Gaffney on Oishinbo – Izakaya: Pub Food (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of One Fine Day and Talking to Strangers (The Manga Critic)
Connie on One Piece 1-3 (Omnibus)
Connie on vol. 31 of One Piece (Slightly Biased Manga)
Jia on vol. 2 of Ooku: The Inner Chamber (Dear Author)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Raiders (The Manga Critic)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 4 of Sunshine Sketch (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Steffi MC on vols. 1 and 2 of What a Wonderful World (The Star of Malaysia)
Connie on vol. 7 of Wild Act (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kitty Sensei on vols. 1-5 of With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child (The Star of Malaysia)