Weekend reading: Incest, morality, and Moto Hagio

Lori Henderson checks out this week’s all-ages comics and manga at Good Comics for Kids. At Anime Vice, Geekachu presents this week’s quick picks in text rather than video form, and at Manga Worth Reading, Johanna takes a look at what we will be buying in May.

Lots of good stuff to read this weekend: Here are parts three and four of Matt Thorn’s interview with Moto Hagio at The Comics Journal, and at the same site, Shaenon Garrity explains why Hagio is so awesome. At comiXology, Jason Thompson discusses why incest is such a common theme in manga, while at io9 he takes a look at the morality of action manga.

One more: When I read this article, by some guy who hates manga but didn’t totally hate Scott Pilgrim, I totally disregarded it. Kate Dacey, on the other hand, was inspired to offer a primer for the clueless on how to write about manga, even if it’s not your favorite medium. I certainly think that even if we don’t care much for superhero comics, most manga readers could come up with a more intelligent critique than “It’s in color and the pages are too big!” (Also, I may be going out on a limb here, but I have never regarded Scott Pilgrim as manga, and I don’t believe Bryan Lee O’Malley does, either.)

ICv2 has the February sales numbers from Diamond, which distributes comics and graphic novels to comics stores. Graphic novel sales were up a touch from this time last year, the first uptick since last March. Here’s their list of the top 300 graphic novels for the month featuring Naruto and Berserk in the top ten.

Wondering what to do this summer? Why not go for an internship at Tokyopop?

Here’s an interesting review of a San Diego restaurant that keeps manga around for its patrons.

Reviews: The Manga Moveable Feast continues with David Welsh’s look at vol. 10 of Emma. Other reviews of note:

Lissa Pattillo on 9th Sleep (Kuriousity)
Ed Sizemore on vols. 4-8 of Alive: The Final Evolution (Comics Worth Reading)
Chris Zimmerman on vol. 1 of Arata the Legend (cbs4.com)
Connie on vol. 3 of Astral Project (Slightly Biased Manga)
Michelle Smith on vol. 2 of Banana Fish (Soliloquy in Blue)
Shaenon Garrity on Blood Honey (About.com)
Julie Opipari on vol. 4 of B.O.D.Y. (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Sarah Boslaugh on vol. 1 of Bokurano Ours (PLAYBACK:stl)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 1 of Dorohedoro (ICv2)
Carlo Santos on vol. 1 of Eureka Seven (omnibus) (ANN)
Sadie Mattox on GoGo Monster (Extremely Graphic)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of Hanako and the Terror of Allegory (Prospero’s Manga)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 1 of Hanako and the Terror of Allegory (ICv2)
Tangognat on vol. 13 of High School Debut (Tangognat)
Julie Opipari on vol. 1 of Loudest Whisper (Mania.com)
Lori Henderson on vol. 3 of Rin-ne (Manga Xanadu)
Snow Wildsmith on Ristorante Paradiso (ICv2)
Connie on vol. 6 of St. Dragon Girl (Slightly Biased Manga)
John Zakrzewski on vol. 1 of Samurai Harem (Mania.com)
Melinda Beasi on vol. 1 of Stepping on Roses (Manga Bookshelf)
Russell Williams on vol. 4 of Sunshine Sketch (Manga Jouhou)

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Comments

  1. Thanks for highlighting my essay, Brigid! Unfortunately, the second link goes back to the IDS website as well. Here’s the link to what I wrote: http://mangacritic.com/?p=3798.

    And for the record, I agree that Scott Pilgrim is an odd choice for someone who’s dipping his toe into manga. I didn’t want to get into the whole “is it manga” issue again, as that’s been done to death. There were bigger problems with that review!

  2. Fixed it! Sorry, Kate!

  3. Just had to comment — it was nice seeing the review of Tajima in San Diego linked here, especially since it was in the student newspaper at the university I work at (and which I wrote for myself as an undergrad). I think I just might have to head there to try out the ramen and see what they’ve included in their manga collection…

  4. I don’t think of Scott Pilgrim as being manga, but I do think that O’Malley’s artwork style is influenced by manga. Kind of like Blue Monday. It’s using the art style, certainly, but they’re very Western in terms of how the characters act.

    That’s just my take, though.