That was the week that was

Lori Henderson rounds up an unusually active week in manga at Manga Xanadu, and Erica Friedman has the latest new releases and other yuri news at Okazu.

At Blog@Newsarama, Julie Opipari discusses the manga she’s most looking forward to from the latest Previews.

Jason Yadao writes a brief history of Go! Comi, which seems to be slowly fading to black.

Erica Friedman interviews yuri manga artist Fujieda MIyabi, creator of Iono-sama Fanatics and Ame-iro Kouchkan Kandan.

Kai-Ming Cha ponders why Japanese publishers are so resistant to digital media and e-books, and she sees the answer in cultural factors such as the attention paid to craft and process, as well as the decoupling of hardware and software.

Metropolis magazine talks to Helen McCarthy about her book, The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga.

The New York Times looks at the popularity of manga among the extremely diverse groups of teens using the Queens libraries; this article is better than your standard run of manga-in-the-library articles, and librarian Christian Zabriskie does a great job of articulating why it is important to have manga available for his multicultural clientele.

A couple of personal notes: Congratulations to Manga Recon blogger Sam Kusek, who is graduating from Emerson College today. Well done! And happy birthday to Mail Order Ninja creator Josh Elder, who shares a birthday with me (although we are a few years apart).

News from Japan: Christopher Butcher points out what a great deal manga is if you buy it in Japan: Monthly Shonen Gangan, over 1100 pages of manga (including chapters of Fullmetal Alchemist and Stan Lee’s Heroman), plus two free gifts, for about five bucks. ANN has word of Sengoku Angelique Project, a games/history mashup that will combine characters from the game franchise Angelique with characters from the sengoku period of Japanese history, all drawn by Marie Hadori.

Reviews: Johanna Draper Carlson reviews some recent Shojo Beat releases at Comics Worth Reading, and the Manga Recon team checks in as well with their latest On the Shojo Beat column.

Andre on vol. 1 of The Battle of Genryu (Kuriousity)
Cynthia on vol. 1 of Breath (Boys Next Door)
Sophie Stevens on vol. 1 of Diamond Girl (Animanga Nation)
Chris Wilson on vol. 1 of Dinosaur King (The Graphic Classroom)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Happy Boys (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on vol. 1 of I’ll Give It My All… Tomorrow (Slightly Biased Manga)
Cynthia on vol. 1 of In the Walnut (Boys Next Door)
Michelle Smith on vol. 3 of Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You (Soliloquy in Blue)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Maiden Rose (Comic Attack)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Maoh: Juvenile Remix (Anime Sentinel)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of My Girlfriend’s a Geek (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Todd Douglass on vol. 1 of Neko Ramen (Anime Maki)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of Neko Ramen (Soliloquy in Blue)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 48 of One Piece (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Shannon Fay on vol. 6 of Otomen (Kuriousity)
Connie on vol. 3 of Princess Knight (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Ratman (I Reads You)
Greg McElhatton on vol. 8 of Real (Read About Comics)
Ken Haley on vol. 1 of Red Hot Chili Samurai (Manga Recon)
Connie on vol. 3 of Rin-ne (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Saturn Apartments (The Manga Critic)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 6 of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (Comics Worth Reading)
Cynthia on vol. 4 of Tea for Two (Boys Next Door)
A Library Girl on vol. 2 of Tramps Like Us (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 4 of Yotsuba&! (Panel Patter)

Did you enjoy this article? Consider supporting us.