David Welsh looks at the best of this week’s new releases—and a few from last week as well—at The Manga Curmudgeon.
R.C. Harvey has a thoughtful (but NSFW) response to the prosecution and sentencing of Christopher Handley at The Comics Journal. Dru Pasagliotti brings up the question of whether some yaoi manga breaks the law; the conclusion seems to be probably not, but scanlations and imported material could be a problem. (Via Simon Jones.)
John Hogan talks to Benjamin, the creator of Remember and Orange, at Graphic Novel Reporter.
This is interesting: Ryan at Same Hat is compiling a chronology of early translated manga, with links to reference sources.
Michelle Smith is looking forward to some new Shojo Beat series.
Bandai has a new website just for their manga, and Lissa Pattillo has some comments.
Advise a beginner on how to get started in yaoi, and you may win a pair of Fumi Yoshinga manga from Manga Worth Reading!
Sean Gaffney looks at the works of Mitsuru Adachi, creator of Short Program and a lot of other works that haven’t been licensed here (yet).
Not manga, but kind of fun: I hunted up some gag comics that may actually make you laugh for my latest Unbound column at Robot 6, and I reviewed the kids’ comic Benny and Penny in The Toy Breaker for Graphic Novel Reporter.
News from Japan: Shuuhou Satou’s online version of Say Hello to Black Jack brought in 500,000 yen in January, not bad for a manga that’s already out there in print. However, the price may be high:
According to Canned Dogs, Satou stated that he doesn’t expect to publish any more manga in traditional venues in the future- presumably because he doubts that manga anthologies will give him new contracts, now that they know he’ll be selling his back catalog himself. Even if Satou technically has the rights to do whatever he wants with Say Hello to Blackjack and other titles, selling the series online for a pittance could obviously affect tankouban sales, and the (relatively) lucrative tankouban market has been keeping the industry afloat.
Simon Jones puts it in perspective at the Icarus blog.
Reviews
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 1 of Black Butler (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Matthew Brady on vol. 9 of The Drifting Classroom (Warren Peace Sings the Blues)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Excel Saga (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 5 of Gestalt (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean T. Collins on GoGo Monster (Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of Hanako and the Terror of Allegory (Tangognat)
Joy Kim on I Hate You More Than Anyone and V.B. Rose (Joy Kim)
Danielle Leigh on How to Capture a Martini (Comics Should Be Good!)
Connie on vol. 15 of Inubaka (Slightly Biased Manga)
Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vols. 5 and 6 of Magic Touch (Manga Life)
Park Cooper on MW (Manga Life)
Connie C. on vol. 1 of Night Head Genesis (Manga Recon)
Lori Henderson on the March issue of Shonen Jump (Manga Xanadu)
Julie on vol. 2 of Nabari no Ou (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Snow Wildsmith on vols. 1 and 2 of Nightschool (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of Operation Liberate Men (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Leroy Douresseaux on Remember (I Reads You)
Shaenon Garrity on vol. 1 of Summit of the Gods (About.com)
Emily on Tokyo Rock Shounen (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Danica Davidson on vols. 1 and 2 of Two Will Come (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 2 of Welcome to Wakaba-soh (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Greg McElhatton on vol. 7 of Yotsuba&! (Read About Comics)
Oh man, I really want more of Adachi’s works to be licensed here! Didn’t Cross Game just recently finish, and it’s not too long? Seems a perfect choice for VIZ’s new Shonen Sunday imprint!
Yes, more Adachi please. Because I would like to read an official adaptation of one of his longer works.