Archives for April 2010

Always the intrepid reporter, Gia Manry spoke directly to Kurt Hassler and got some info on Yen Plus’s move to digital. It seems to be a for-pay model, and they will have their own dedicated browser that lets you read the whole magazine at once. Check it out.

In case you missed it yesterday, the big news was that Yen Press will no longer be publishing Yen Plus magazine in print; the manga anthology will go online, but there seem to be questions yet about how exactly that will work.

David Welsh winds up his shoujo-sunjeong alphabet with some books whose titles don’t start with a letter at all.

News from Japan: Kodansha is posting videos of manga-ka at work on its YouTube channel. Also, ANN has the latest Japanese comics rankings. GetBackers creators Yuya Aoki and Rando Ayamine are coming up with a new manga, Oniwaka to Ushiwaka: Edge of the World.

Reviews

Eric Robinson on vol. 8 of Black God (Manga Jouhou)
Eva Volin on vol. 1 of Bunny Drop (ICv2)
Kate Dacey on vol. 4 of Choco Mimi (Good Comics for Kids)
Ken Haley on vol. 1 of Deadman Wonderland (Manga Recon)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Flower in a Storm (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on vol. 14 of The Gentlemen’s Alliance+ (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin on How to Seduce a Vampire (Comic Attack)
Tangognat on vol. 3 of Karakuri Odette (Tangognat)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Kingyo Used Books (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Shawn O’Rourke on Lone Wolf and Cub (Pop Matters)
Carlo Santos on vol. 4 of Maid Sama! (ANN)
Shaenon Garrity on vol. 1 of My Darling Miss Bancho! (About.com)
Eduardo Zacarias on vol. 24 of One Piece (Animanga Nation)
Chris Zimmerman on vols. 24-25 of One Piece (cbs4.com)
Danielle Leigh on vol. 1 of Otodama: Voice from the Dead (Comics Should Be Good)
Shannon Fay on Physical Attraction (Kuriousity)
Carlo Santos on vol. 8 of Pluto (ANN)
Eva Volin on vol. 1 of Stepping on Roses (ICv2)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of There’s Something About Sunyool (Manga Recon)
Connie on vol. 4 of Venus in Love (Slightly Biased Manga)

Two things, quickly: Yen Plus magazine is ending its print edition and going to a digital-only format. Kurt Hassler breaks the news at the Yen Press site.

Also: If you are one of the people who got a faulty copy of Croquis—some copies had some of the pages printed in German—and requested a replacement, your wait is over. I checked in with Tokyopop marketing director Marco Pavia and he said there was a delay due to coordination between the printer and the warehouse, but he has good news:

I just got confirmation that the CROQUIS books will definitely be physically put in the mail next week. I’ll tweet on the day it’s leaving our hands next week. (There are probably a few hundred that sent us in a proof of purchase from a defective copy; we’re going to add a little something extra as a small thank you for everyone’s patience.)

I’m still busy with post-con duties, but I wrapped up my impressions of C2E2 at Robot 6, and Michael May has a nice post on the bloggers’ panel, which I participated in along with Johanna Draper Carlson, Heidi MacDonald, and a host of other luminaries. I covered the Mike Mignola panel for CBR and the kids’ comics scene for PWCW.

The Sydney Morning Herald takes a look at the Australian comics scene, including an interview with Queenie Chan, creator of The Dreaming and artist for the Odd Thomas graphic novels.

It’s that time of the week again, and Kate Dacey, Gia Manry, and David Welsh take a look at this week’s new releases. Kate also looks at the Free Comic Book Day offerings and notes the absence of manga—quite a difference from a few years ago.

On the other hand, I reported the other day that Dark Horse is resurrecting the print version of its Dark Horse Presents comics, and Gia checked in with them and learned that the comics will include manga, although no titles have been revealed yet.

Sean Kleefeld notes that the movie Manga Mad is available on Hulu.

Lori Henderson shares her personal memories of anime pioneer Carl Macek, who passed away recently.

Reviews

Zack Davisson on vol. 1 of Black Butler (Manga Life)
Tom Langston on vol. 1 of Diamond Girl (Nigorimasen!)
Sam Kusek on vols. 1 and 2 of Dinosaur King (Manga Recon)
Bill Sherman on vol. 1 of Dorohedoro (Blogcritics)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 31 of Eyeshield 21 (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Susan S. on Happiness Recommended (Manga Jouhou)
Todd Douglass on vol. 3 of Karakuri Odette (Anime Maki)
Ed Sizemore on vol. 1 of One Fine Day (Comics Worth Reading)
Todd Douglass on vol. 10 of One Thousand and One Nights (Anime Maki)
Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 20 of Skip Beat (Manga Life)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 8 of Yotsuba&! (Kuriousity)
Erica Friedman on vol. 12 of Yuri Hime S (Okazu)

Melinda Beasi brings us up to date on the manhwa scene in her latest Manhwa Monday post at Manga Bookshelf. Lori Henderson has the week’s manga news at Manga Xanadu. And Erica Friedman brings another edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu.

Roland Kelts was at Anime Boston the day the iPad launched, and he talks to Fred Schodt and Ed Chavez about how it may change the manga marketplace here and abroad.

Ryan Holmberg pens an essay on the early days of Garo magazine, in tandem with the exhibit that’s up right now at the Center for Book Arts in New York.

Mio Ozaki profiles Inio Asano, the creator of solanin and What a Wonderful World.

David Welsh helps the Kodansha USA folks by focusing on some Kodansha manga he’d like to see.

Jason S. Yadao files his con reports from Kawaii Kon, with plenty of photos (day 1, day 2, day 3).

Reviews: The Manga Recon crew kicks off the week with a fresh crop of Manga Minis and some quick takes on recent Shojo Beat releases. David Welsh looks at some second volumes at Precocious Curmudgeon.

Connie on vol. 3 of 13th Boy (Slightly Biased Manga)
A Library Girl on vol. 9 of After School Nightmare (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Erin Jones on vols. 1 and 2 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (Mania.com)
Julie Opipari on vol. 3 of Animal Academy (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Andrew Wheeler on Black Blizzard (Antick Musings)
Eric Robinson on vols. 6 and 7 of Black God (Manga Jouhou)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of Bunny Drop (Tangognat)
Connie on vol. 2 of Butterflies, Flowers (Slightly Biased Manga)
Tangognat on vol. 2 of Butterflies, Flowers (Tangognat)
Connie on vol. 5 of Cipher (Slightly Biased Manga)
Susan S. on Croquis (Manga Jouhou)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Crown of Love (Comic Attack)
Charles Webb on vol. 4 of Detroit Metal City (Manga Life)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Diamond Girl (The Manga Critic)
Jones (welcome back!) on A Drifting Life (Let’s you and him fight)
Todd Douglass on Fruits Basket: Banquet (Anime Maki)
Connie on vols. 1, 2, and 3 of The Gentlemen’s Alliance+ (Slightly Biased Manga)
Zaki Zakaria on Haru Hana: The Complete Collection (The Star of Malaysia)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 14 of Hayate the Combat Butler (The Comic Book Bin)
Andre on vol. 2 of Hero Tales (Kuriousity)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 9 of I Hate You More Than Anyone! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Kingyo Used Books (The Manga Critic)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Kurashina Sensei’s Passion (The Comic Book Bin)
Max Loh on vol. 3 of Maid Sama! (The Star of Malaysia)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 4 of Maid Sama! (The Comic Book Bin)
Sesho on vol. 47 of Naruto (Sesoh’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Andrew Wheeler on vol. 3 of Nightschool (Antick Musings)
Sesho on vol. 1 of One Piece (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Connie on vols. 41, 42, and 43 of One Piece (Slightly Biased Manga)
Oyceter on vols. 4-6 of Pluto (Sakura of DOOM)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Portrait of M&N (Anime Sentinel)
Kitty Sensei on Ristorante Paradiso (The Star of Malaysia)
Connie on vol. 2 of Seimaden (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Stolen Hearts (Manga Xanadu)
Erica Friedman on vol. 1 of To Aru Kagaku no Railgun (Okazu)
Martin on Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms (Mono no aware)
Tim Maughan on vol. 1 of Twin Spica (tim maughan books)
Julie Opipari on vol. 1 of Twin Spica (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Connie on vol. 6 of Vagabond (Slightly Biased Manga)
Andre on vol. 4 of Vampire Hunter D (Kuriousity)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of What a Wonderful World! (Anime Sentinel)
Billy Aguiar on The World I Create (Prospero’s Manga)

I’m back from C2E2 and almost recovered. It was a great con, but there was almost no manga there. I’m saying “almost” because Del Rey’s Ali T. Kokmen was there, and we chatted a bit, but there were no panels or publisher booths. Everyone at the show was having a good time, though, and it was a much calmer, nicer atmosphere than NYCC, so maybe next year.

Oh, I also talked to Dark Horse marketing director Jeremy Atkins about the CLAMP mangettes, and he said they were focusing on doing a good job with the omnibus editions of CLAMP’s older work before diving into anything new.

And I went to the ICv2 White Paper presentation, in which they noted that manga sales are down, not surprising as manga releases are down as well. Comics maven Milton Greipp speculated that one reason was that girls have shifted from shoujo manga to Twilight, and he also pointed out that Cartoon Network isn’t showing much anime these days. I’ll try to parse out those numbers a little better later in the week.

My other C2E2 coverage was not manga-specific, but check it out anyhow: Talked to Carla Speed McNeil, Brad Guigar, Amy Mebberson, a bunch of creators, and another bunch of creators, and covered the Oni Press and BOOM! Studios panels. Yes, I was in the same room with Brobee from Yo Gabba Gabba! That alone was probably worth the trip.

Curious about Kodansha USA’s rather desultory debut—two reprints, nothing since then, no website, next volumes pushed back—Gia Manry went straight to the source and asked KUSA general manager Kumi Shimizu about it. The response was fairly vague but suggests that yes, they are in business here for the long haul; it’s just taking them a while to sort things out.

Meanwhile, back in Japan, the editors of Kodansha’s Weekly Morning magazine have announced the list of comics that made the first cut in their Morning International Comics Competition.

A site called Tsurupeta says that Google has delisted a lolicon doujinshi site because of a complaint that it was hosting child porn. The complaint appears to be false (but possibly plausible). Simon Jones explains why this is a bad thing for all involved.

Lissa Pattillo takes a look at manga about making manga at Kuriousity.

Check this out: Vertical just posted a 30-page preview of Twin Spica. The first volume will be out next month.

Manga-ka Akindo Kondoh, who is a contributor to the underground anthology AX, will be speaking in New York on April 21 in connection with the “Garo Manga, 1964-1973” exhibit at The Center for Book Arts.

More podcast! Ed Sizemore and Johanna Draper Carlson discuss Pluto in the latest episode of Manga Out Loud.

David Welsh winds up his shoujo-sunjeong alphabet at The Manga Curmudgeon with a look at manga that start with the letter Z.

News from Japan: The 14th annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize winners have been announced, and Thermae Romae picks up its second prize of the year. And the editors of Weekly Shonen Jump are publishing an open letter to their readers regarding bootleg manga, stating that “the unauthorized online copies do harm to the manga culture, the manga creators’ rights, and above all, the manga creators’ spirits.” (ANN’s translation.) And this sidenote is an interesting twist:

In another development, the raw-paradise.com website, which hosted scanned copies of manga magazines without permission, currently redirects to Shueisha’s website.

Coincidence? I think not!

Reviews: Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane has short takes on manga she’s reading at Manga Life.

Erica Friedman on vol. 3 of Comic Lily (Okazu)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Diamond Girl (The Manga Critic)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of Nabari no Ou (About.com)
Sarah Boslaugh on vol. 1 of Ninja Girls and vol. 2 of ES: Eternal Sabbath (PLAYBACK:stl)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of Gestalt (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 5 of Gunsmith Cats Burst (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Danielle Leigh on vol. 4 of Honey Hunt (Comics Should Be Good)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 4 of Maid-Sama! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sean Gaffney on vols. 42 and 43 of One Piece (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Zack Davisson on vol. 2 of Soul Eater (Manga Life)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Stepping on Roses (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ai Kano on vol. 2 of Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee (Animanga Nation)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 8 of Yotsuba&! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ed Sizemore on vol. 8 of Yotsuba&! (Comics Worth Reading)
Susan S. on vol. 3 of Ze (Manga Jouhou)