Amnesia Labyrinth
New title guessing game: Seven Seas has three new titles to announce, and they are doing it in an unorthodox way: As puzzles via Twitter. Yesterday’s clues were “Anagram: ‘Toad Roar'” and “Tiger, tiger, burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” ANN is taking this to mean that the title is Toradora. Their guess for today’s clues is Amnesia Labyrinth. Stay tuned for the third set of clues tomorrow.
At 4thletter!, David Brothers has posted insightful illustrated essays on manga creators Eiichiro Oda and Inio Asano, focusing on their work as writers.
Erica Friedman posts the Yuri Network News at Okazu, and Lori Henderson rounds up this week’s manga news at Manga Xanadu.
Melinda Beasi is featuring the work of Fumi Yoshinaga all week long at Manga Bookshelf, and she kicks things off with a review of vols. 1-4 of Flower of Life.
Dale North finds manga at Wal-Mart and asks his readers: Are they doing it right? The comments reveal a wide range of responses.
This piece on the Wall Street Journal’s Japan Real Time blog doesn’t break any news about the anti-scanlator coalition, but it has some rather pointed quotes from Vertical editorial director Ioannis Mentzas, and it’s notable that the Wall Street Journal is following the story at all.
The JoongAng Daily News has a brief article about South Korean cartoonist Kim Sung-hwan, who started his career as a teenager, drawing quick sketches of the events of the Korean War.
Matt Blind is back at it again with his manga rankings based on online sales; here are his figures for last week, and you can trace back to earlier weeks if you’re interested.
Deb Aoki shows off a new Junko Mizuno print that the artist will be offering at San Diego Comic-Con next weekend—look for her at the Last Gasp booth. Deb also has the details on two SDCC events, Udon’s 10th anniversary and Vertical’s signing schedule (at SDCC and beyond, actually) for Peepo Choo creator Felipe Smith.
With summer intern season in full swing, Daniella Orihuela-Gruber has some advice for would-be manga interns.
News from Japan: Both Tenjho Tenge and Shugurui are coming to an end in Japan, and manga-ka Kimihiko Tsukuda, creator of the long-running newspaper strip Honobono-kun, has died at the age of 80. Erica Friedman reports on two shoujo series with yuri storylines, Blue Friends (which starts out yuri but may not end up that way) and Nobari no Mori no Otome-tachi.
Reviews
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of Afterschool Charisma (Comics Should Be Good)
Greg McElhatton on vol. 1 of Bakuman (Read About Comics)
Sesho on vol. 1 of Blame! (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Kristin on vol. 2 of Butterflies, Flowers (Comic Attack)
Carlo Santos on vol. 5 of Detroit Metal City (ANN)
Julie Opipari on vol. 1 of Fairy Navigator Runa (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Connie on vol. 5 of Fake (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Flower in a Storm (Slightly Biased Manga)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 2 of Itazura Na Kiss (Comics Worth Reading)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 1 of Kobato (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Connie on vol. 1 of Lone Wolf and Cub (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Maoh: Juvenile Remix (ANN)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 6 of Megatokyo (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Clive Owen on vol. 1 of Ninja Girls (Animanga Nation)
Daniella Orihuela-Gruber on Oishinbo (Comic Attack)
Connie on vol. 50 of One Piece (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Peepo Choo (The Manga Critic)
Ken Haley on vol. 1 of Peepo Choo (Sequential Ink)
Charles Webb on vol. 1 of Peepo Choo (Manga Life)
Carlo Santos on vol. 6 of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (ANN)
Todd Douglass on vol. 2 of Spice and Wolf (Anime Maki)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 7 of Teru Teru x Shonen (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Ultimo (The Comic Book Bin)