Manga Moveable Feast update: Michelle Smith and Melinda Beasi devote this edition of Off the Shelf, their discussion column, to the Color of Earth trilogy. At The Manga Curmudgeon, David Welsh objects to the portrayal of sexuality in the story. Michelle Smith reviews The Color of Heaven at Soliloquy in Blue.
The Hooded Utilitarian’s roundtable on marketing manga to adults continues with a brief note from Peggy Burns on Drawn & Quarterly’s success with gekiga manga and a longer essay from Ryan Sands on the nature of indie manga, illustrated with plenty of examples.
Yesterday, Deb Aoki reported on the “shell game” scanlators are playing with the publishers; at Robot 6 I did a little more digging and found some supposedly deleted series on my iPod. I also daydreamed a bit about my ideal comics store, one geared more toward the tasets and preferences of women than men.
News that Media Blasters has apparently put three volumes on hold causes Lissa Pattillo to speculate about the company’s health.
Del Rey has announced that it will publish two more Odd Thomas graphic novels, bringing the total in the series to four.
Translators Alethea and Athena Nibley discuss conveying the subtleties of another language in their latest column at Manga Life.
News from Japan: A manga version of the TV anime Mobile Fighter G Gundam is in the works. ANN also has the latest comics rankings from Japan.
Reviews
Deb Aoki on vols. 1-3 of Butterflies, Flowers (About.com)
Danica Davidson on vols. 5-8 of Click (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Danica Davidson on vols. 1-3 of Do Whatever You Want (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Susan S. on Fevered Kiss (Manga Jouhou)
Julie Opipari on vol. 10 of Gantz (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Kristin on vol. 1 of I’ll Give It My All… Tomorrow (Comic Attack)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 2 of Itazura Na Kiss (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Snow Wildsmith on Kingyo Used Books (Fujoshi Librarian)
Leroy Douresseaux on The Last Airbender: Prequel: Zuko’s Story (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Snow Wildsmith on vols. 1-9 of One Thousand and One Nights (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Jones, one of the Jones boys, on vols. 10-12 of Phoenix (Let’s You and Him Fight)
Nina Stone on vol. 1 of Pluto (Romancing the Stone)
Laura on vol. 5 of Shinobi Life (Heart of Manga)
Zack Davisson on vol. 1 of The Times of Botchan (Japan Reviewed)