Archives for February 2010

Lori Henderson posts this week’s all-ages comics and manga at Good Comics for Kids. And check out our lively roundtable on the Great Graphic Novels for Teens list.

Julie looks at some animal manga she’d like to see licensed at Manga Maniac Cafe.

Here’s an interesting inside look at the business: Dan Copulsky interviews manga letterer and retoucher Sabrina Heep at Question Riot.

Christopher Butcher talks about manga, Japan, TCAF, The Beguiling, and Comics212.net, among other things, in this interview with The Torontoist.

Simon Jones speculates on the possibility of Sailor Moon returning to print sometime in the fairly distant future.

At Comics Worth Reading, you could win six volumes of One Piece. Post a comment to enter! Get your creative juices flowing for The Yaoi Review’s funny dialogue contest, and you might win some free yaoi.

News from Japan: Asumi Hara will draw a shoujo manga about the life of actress and singer Shoko Nakagawa for Nakayoshi magazine. And ANN has the latest comics rankings from Oricon.

Reviews: Carlo Santos subjects another stack of review copies to his quick and witty commentary in his latest Right Turn Only!! column. David Welsh jumps into the water in the middle of a story arc and still finds lots to like about vols. 29, 30, and 31 of One Piece at Manga Curmudgeon. Park Cooper posts some short takes on recent manga at Manga Life. Other reviews that are worthy of note:

Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (Soliloquy in Blue)
Tangognat on All My Darling Daughters (Tangognat)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 8 of Black Lagoon (Sequential Tart)
Rob on vol. 1 of Bride of the Water God (Panel Patter)
Susan S. on Color (Manga Jouhou)
Karen Maeda on vol. 1 of Crown of Love (Sequential Tart)
Zack Davisson on vol. 1 of Deadman Wonderland (Manga Life)
Todd Douglass on vol. 6 of Fate/Stay Night (Anime Maki)
Carlo Santos on vol. 22 of Fullmetal Alchemist (ANN)
Lissa Pattillo on Jack and the Princess (Kuriousity)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 3 of Kimi ni Todoke (The Comic Book Bin)
Danielle Leigh on vol. 3 of Kimi ni Todoke (Comics Should Be Good!)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 4 of Kitchen Princess (i heart manga)
Sakura Eries on Kitchen Princess: Search for the Angel Cake (light novel) (Mania.com)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 6 of The Magic Touch (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 2 of The Moon and The Sandals (Comics Worth Reading)
Amanda Tarbet on vol. 47 of Naruto (Sequential Tart)
Greg McElhatton on vols. 1 and 2 of Nightschool (Read About Comics)
Karen Maeda on vol. 18 of Sgt. Frog (Sequential Tart)
Erica Friedman on Shokitan (Okazu)
Wolfen Moondaughter on vol. 8 of Slam Dunk (Sequential Tart)
Scott VonSchilling on vol. 1 of Stolen Hearts (The Anime Almanac)

Yen Press announced a fresh batch of new licenses on their website yesterday, including The Melancholy of Suzmiya-Haruhi-Chan, a 4-koma gag strip based on that other Haruhi manga; another 4-koma manga, this one based on the anime K-On!, about a girl band; Fumi Yoshinaga’s Not Love But Delicious Foods; a novel, Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime; and a children’s book by French creator Émile Bravo, Goldilocks and the Seven Squat Bears. David Welsh expresses his pleasure at Manga Curmudgeon, but Scott VonSchilling dissents on the 4-koma manga at The Anime Almanac.

ICv2 has the scoop on Drawn & Quarterly’s plans for Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s Black Blizzard.

Julie is looking forward to Rampage and Rasetsu among this week’s new manga.

Yamila Abraham writes of her disappointment that the very mild (13+) comic Zesty was not approved for the iTunes store; YP graphic novels are available on Kindle, which means they can be read on the iPhone through the Kindle app, but it’s very tiny.

Gottsu-Iiyan gives us a sneak peek at the latest chapter of Billy Bat.

Shaenon Garrity looks at the many faces of Lum.

Gia unearths what looks like a fascinating book: The daughters of Osamu Tezuka, Shigeru Mizuki, and Fujio Akatsuka have collaborated on a book about their manga-ka fathers, in which many things are revealed, including the fact that Black Jack’s “wife” Pinoko is modeled on Tezuka’s daughter. (I don’t think I’d admit that, myself.) Can Yen Press please license that one?

Akemi has a brief post describing the essence of shonen manga at Myth and Manga.

Tell David Welsh who your favorite manga mother is and you could win a copy of All My Darling Daughters. Also, David is up to the letter Q in his shoujo/sunjeong alphabet, which makes this a shorter entry than most.

Congratulations (I think) to Jonathan Clements, whose Schoolgirl Milky Crisis was nominated for a Diagram Award, which is given to the book with the oddest title of the year.

Giant Robot is looking for donations so they can keep publishing.

Reviews

Danielle Leigh on vol. 1 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (Comics Should Be Good!)
Kate Dacey on The Box Man (The Manga Critic)
Deb Aoki on vol. 1 of Deadman Wonderland (About.com)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Deadman Wonderland (Anime Sentinel)
Leroy Douresseaux on Electric Hands (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 30 of Eyeshield 21 (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 8 of Land of the Blindfolded (i heart manga)
Kinukitty on Madness (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Lori Henderson on Make Love and Peace (Comics Village)
Snow Wildsmith on Natsume’s Book of Friends (Good Comics for Kids)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of Stolen Hearts (Manga Recon)
Brenda Gregson on vol. 2 of Venus Capriccio (Animanga Nation)

Kate Dacey, David Welsh and Brad Rice look at this week’s new comics.

Danica Davidson talks to Stan Lee about Ultimo, the manga he co-authored, at Comic Book Resources.

Chris Sims counts down the seven most shoujo moments in X-Men: Misfits. It’s an affectionate take on the material; too bad there was so much negativity in the comments.

At PWCW, Calvin Reid and Heidi MacDonald survey comics publishers, including Viz’s Gonzalo Ferreyra, on their plans for the iPad.

Make your own gaming comic and you may win a copy of King of RPGs, Jason Thompson’s new graphic novel.

The Ninja Consultants present part 2 of their Black Lagoon podcast.

Del Rey editor extraordinaire Dallas Middaugh is teaching a course in the graphic novel at NYU, starting this weekend.

Not manga, but possibly of interest: I interviewed Phil Foglio, creator of Girl Genius, for Robot 6.

Reviews: Noah Berlatsky finds not one but three untruths in the title of The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga at The Hooded Utilitarian.

Laura on vol. 3 of Black Bird (Heart of Manga)
Matthew Brady on vol. 1 of Black Jack (Warren Peace Sings the Blues)
Julie on vol. 5 of Dance in the Vampire Bund (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Danica Davidson on The Devil’s Trill (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Danica Davidson on vols. 4-7 of La Esperanca (Graphic Novel Reporter)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 13 of Hayate the Combat Butler (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Russell Philllips on vol. 1 of Ichigeki Sacchu!! Hoihoi-San (Manga Jouhou)
Emily on Kokoro Button (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of The Lizard Prince (Prospero’s Manga)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of The Lizard Prince (Manga Xanadu)
Connie on vol. 2 of Ludwig II (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of Maid-Sama (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Todd Douglass on Natsume’s Book of Friends (Anime Maki)
Justin Colussy-Estes on not simple (Comics Village)
Ken Haley on not simple (Manga Recon)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 5 of Otomen (Comics Worth Reading)
Danielle Leigh on Our Kingdom: Arabian Nights (Comics Should Be Good)
Connie on vol. 4 of Rasetsu (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Yellow 2 (Kuriousity)
Erica Friedman on vol. 10 of Yuri Hime S (Okazu)

Looking for a good read for the kids in your life? Lori Henderson has posted a list of all her all-ages comics and manga picks for the past year at Good Comics for Kids.

Deb Aoki checks in with some manga publishers and creators regarding their plans for the iPad.

Robot 6 looks at Del Rey’s plans for 2010, including some interesting new manga.

Oyceter looks back at the comics she read in 2009, with commentary.

ICv2 reports that a second volume of Chip Kidd’s Bat-Manga is in the works.

Jonathan Clements writes about the late Keiko Tobe, her manga With the Light, and the Japanese entertainment media’s view of autism at Schoolgirl Milky Crisis.

Pink Tentacle has some cool illustrations of the robots of the future from a 1969 issue of Shonen Sunday. (Via The Manga Critic.)

Same Hat has another vintage treat for us: Scans of Shinobu Kaze’s Violence Becomes Tranquility, from the March 1980 issue of Heavy Metal.

Reviews: Ed Sizemore takes a quick look at some new titles from Viz at Comics Worth Reading. Other reviews of note:

Connie on B.O.D.Y. (Slightly Biased Manga)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of Butterflies, Flowers (Comics-and-More)
Julie Opipari on vol. 5 of Comic (Mania.com)
Jaime Samms on Dark Walker (Kuriousity)
Snow Wildsmith on Dog x Cat (Fujoshi Librarian)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 13 of High School Debut (Comics Worth Reading)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 47 of Naruto (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 34 of Oh My Goddess! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 13 of Ouran High School Host Club (Slightly Biased Manga)
Julie on vol. 8 of Shaman Warrior (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Katherine Farmar on vol. 1 of Shinobi Life (Comics Village)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Stolen Hearts (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Ultimo (The Manga Critic)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of What a Wonderful World (Tangognat)

J.L. Bell winces at the lettering in the Twilight graphic novel and explains why it matters.

Erica Friedman rounds up the latest Yuri Network News. Melinda Beasi notes the end of Infinity and some worthwhile reviews in today’s Manhwa Monday post, and Lori Henderson ably sums up the week in manga at Manga Xanadu.

Following Joy Kim’s footsteps, Oyceter lists some manga that feature female friendships.

David Welsh’s latest license request is Dobutsu No Oishasan.

Erica Friedman looks at Rakuen Le Paradis, a manga magazine that is less demographically targeted than most.

Technique talk: At the Manga University blog, Atushisa Okura (Moe USA, 50 Things We Love About Japan) explains how to draw backgrounds. Jonathan Moo presents an intro to inking at Manga Journey, and Narutaki discusses the use of screentone in global manga at Reverse Thieves.

Julie notes that Yen Press is looking for artists.

News from Japan: ANN reports that Shueisha was the top manga publisher in Japan in 2009, with 11% of the market. Also, according to Oricon, manga accounted for 23.4% of the entire book market by yen paid and 38.3% of the books sold.

Reviews: Sean Gaffney’s review of vols. 1-4 of Higurashi When They Cry is also a good introduction to the basic idea of the series, although there are some mild spoilers. Adam Stephanides follows up the Hooded Utilitarian’s roundtable by reading all of xxxHoLic. The Manga Recon folks have posted a fresh set of Manga Minis to start off the week. Other reviews of note:

Lori Henderson on vol. 7 of 20th Century Boys (Manga Xanadu)
Sterg Botzakis on vol. 1 of Barefoot Gen (Graphic Novel Resources)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Biomega (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on vols. 1 and 2 of Blade of the Immortal (Slightly Biased Manga)
Greg McElhatton on vol. 1 of Bokurano: Ours (Read About Comics)
Julie on vol. 1 of Deadman Wonderland (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of Deadman Wonderland (Soliloquy in Blue)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of Deadman Wonderland (Tangognat)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vols. 00 and 01 of Dogs: Bullets and Carnage (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Connie on Electric Hands (Manga Recon)
Susan S. on vol. 1 of Great Place High School Student Council (Manga Jouhou)
Andre on vol. 1 of Hero Tales (Kuriousity)
Connie on vol. 8 of Honey and Clover (Slightly Biased Manga)
Julie on Jack and the Princess (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Sophie Stevens on vol. 2 of Kimi ni Todoke (Animanga Nation)
Melinda Beasi on vol. 3 of Kimi ni Todoke (Manga Bookshelf)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 1 of Laon (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Connie on vol. 17 of Lovely Complex (Slightly Biased Manga)
Shaenon Garrity on vols. 1 and 2 of Ludwig II (About.com)
Alexander Hoffman on Oishinbo a la Carte: Japanese Cuisine (Comics Village)
David Welsh on Oishinbo: Izakaya: Pub Food (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Connie on vol. 35 of One Piece (Slightly Biased Manga)
Joy Kim on vol. 13 of Ouran High School Host Club (Joy Kim)
Julie on vol. 28 of Red River (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Michelle Smith on Sand Land (Soliloquy in Blue)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 5 of Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 18 of Sgt. Frog (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 8 of Slam Dunk (The Comic Book Bin)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Stolen Hearts (Comics Worth Reading)
Bill Sherman on vol. 1 of Stolen Hearts (Blogcritics)
Isaac Hale on Take Me To Heaven (Manga Recon)
Michelle Smith on vol. 2 of Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee (Soliloquy in Blue)
Phil Guie on vol. 1 of This Ugly Yet Beautiful World (Manga Recon)
Julie on Valerie (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 9 of Vampire Knight (The Comic Book Bin)
Laura on vol. 8 of We Were There (Heart of Manga)