Archives for August 2010

Good Comics for Kids is hosting the Manga Moveable Feast this month, and the topic is Yotsuba&! Robin Brenner gets us rolling with an introduction and an archive of recent and older reviews and essays. This month, reviewers are invited to comment not only on Yotsuba&! but also on another kids’ manga of their choice. Sean Gaffney weighs in with a thought-provoking essay comparing Yotsuba&! and Strawberry Marshmallow, which are sort of the same and sort of not, and Lori Henderson contributes a brief review of vol. 8 of Yotsuba&! and The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass at Manga Xanadu. Matt Blind warms up with reviews of three children’s manga at Rocket Bomber. And Michelle Smith jumps right in with a review of vols. 2-8 of Yotsuba&! at Soliloquy In Blue.

Anne Ishii tried to interview Detroit Metal City creator Kiminori Wakasugi a while back but ran into a brick wall, so instead she chats it up with hard-core DMC fan Johnny Ryan at The Comics Journal.

Melinda Beasi has the latest Korean Comics news in this week’s Manhwa Monday post, and she and Michelle Smith launch a new feature, Let’s Get Visual, in which they analyze individual panels, at Soliloquy in Blue.

Sean Gaffney looks at this week’s new manga, and David Welsh checks out upcoming titles from the latest Previews.

Matt Blind has the past week’s manga sales rankings, based on online sales, at Rocket Bomber.

License requests: Sean Gaffney would like to see Yankee-kun to Megane-chan, which currently runs in Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen magazine, and David Welsh casts his vote for Cesare, by ES: Eternal Sabbath creator Fumi Soryo.

At A Feminist Otaku, Caddy C. makes the mistake of reading internet comments on Yana Toboso’s request that people stop pirating her work.

David Welsh asks the readers: What is your favorite manga created by a woman for a male audience?

Reviews: Carlo Santos turns his critical eye on another batch of recently released manga in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN.

Chris Zimmerman on vol. 4 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (The Comic Book Bin)
Chris Zimmerman on Chibi Vampire: Airmail (The Comic Book Bin)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 18 of D.Gray-man (The Comic Book bin)
Sean Gaffney on A Drunken Dream and Other Stories (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kelakagandy on vols. 1 and 2 of Flower of the Deep Sleep (kelakagandy’s ramblings)
Tangognat on vol. 7 of Future Diary (Tangognat)
J. Caleb Mozzocco on vol. 1 of The Good Witch of the West and vol. 1 of Hayate the Combat Butler (Every Day Is Like Wednesday)
Zack Davisson on vol. 4 of Happy Cafe (Japan Reviewed)
Zack Davisson on vol. 1 of Hyde and Closer (Japan Reviewed)
Cynthia on Isle of Forbidden Love (Boys Next Door)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Madness (The Comic Book Bin)
Sarah Boslaugh on Manga and Philosophy (PopMatters)
Charles Webb on vols. 36 and 37 of One Piece (Manga Life)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Pink Innocent (The Comic Book Bin)
Deb Aoki on vol. 1 of Seiho Boys High School (About.com)
Zack Davisson on vol. 1 of Seiho Boys High School (Japan Reviewed)
Lissa Pattillo on Seven Days – Monday to Thursday (Kuriousity)
Billy Aguiar on Songs to Make You Smile (Prospero’s Manga)
Cynthia on vol. 1 of Under Grand Hotel (Boys Next Door)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Urusei Yatsura (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Julie Opipari on vol. 18 of The Wallflower (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Connie C. on vol. 1 of Wolf God (Comics Village)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Yuri Shoujo (Okazu)

I have family visiting from out of town so this will be brief—watch for more news and reviews tomorrow!

Siloconera talks to Tokyopop CEO Stu Levy about piracy, copyright, and Tokyopop’s possible foray into video games.

Tokyopop has posted a video interview with You Higuri, creator of Cantarella and Gorgeous Carat.

Lori Henderson sums up the week’s manga news at Manga Xanadu, and Erica Friedman presents another edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu.

Congratulations to Helen McCarthy, whose book The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga won the Harvey Award for Best American Edition of Foreign Material.

Daniella Orihuela-Gruber looks back at ten years as a manga fan.

News from Japan: Shueisha, one of the largest publishers in Japan, finished the last fiscal year in the red, although manga was not to blame—sales of both magazines and single volumes were up. Eiichiro Oda will put One Piece on a four-week hiatus starting Sept. 6. Amanchu! will go quarterly due to creator Kozue Amano’s pregnancy. Gottsu-Iiyan gives us a peek at the 25th anniversary edition of Switch, which features Takehiko Inoue.

Reviews

Shannon Fay on Black Blizzard (Kuriousity)
Kristin on vol. 32 of Bleach (Comic Attack)
Clive Owen on vol. 1 of Code:Breaker (Animanga Nation)
Connie on vol. 2 of Dokkoida?! (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lissa Pattillo on A Drunken Dream and Other Stories (ANN)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of Hyde and Closer (Tangognat)
Kristin on vol. 6 of Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit (Comic Attack)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 7 of Kitchen Princess (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Sesho on vol. 3 of One Piece (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Connie on vol. 3 of Pet Shop of Horrors (Slightly Biased Manga)
Shaenon Garrity on Romeo x Juliet (About.com)
Erica Friedman on Sakura Buntsuu (Okazu)
Connie on vol. 1 of Sarasah (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 6 of Shakugan no Shana (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Stolen Hearts (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 2 of Ze (Slightly Biased Manga)

Moe: Enough, already!

Can’t say I’ll miss ’em, but I doubt he’s right: Negima creator Ken Akamatsu says moe and harem manga are dead. Akamatsu briefly toys with the idea that yuri could be the next trend but decides it’s not popular enough.

Speaking of yuri, Jason Thompson takes a look at Rica Takashima and the Yuri Monogatari anthologies in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

And for those who prefer beautiful boys, JR Brown has an NSFW but cool look at the history of bishounen at The Hooded Utilitarian.

David Welsh reaches the letter F (as in fanservice) in his seinen alphabet at The Manga Curmudgeon.

Translators Alethea and Athena Nibley discuss the problem of spelling Greek and Latin words in manga.

News from Japan: One Piece has sold over 20 million copies this year alone, if we count all the volumes, and the last three have sold at least 2 million each. Also, ANN has the Japanese comics rankings.

Reviews: Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith discuss some new releases in their latest Off the Shelf column at Manga Bookshelf.

Tangognat on vol. 1 of Alice the 101st (Tangognat)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Bakuman (Manga Xanadu)
Jaime Samms on vol. 3 of Can’t Win With You (Kuriousity)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Chi’s Sweet Home (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ken Haley on vol. 1 of Knights (Sequential Ink)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Nabari no Ou and vol. 1 of Sumomomo, Momomo (Comic Attack)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Panic x Panic (I Reads You)
Caddy C. on vol. 21 of Skip Beat (Ani.me)
Julie Opipari on vol. 2 of Stepping on Roses (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Justin Colussy-Estes on vol. 2 of Ultimo (Comics Village)
Erica Friedman on vol. 3 of Watashi no Taisestuna (Okazu)
Courtney Kraft on vol. 1 of Wolf God (Graphic Novel Reporter)

The judges in Kodansha’s fourth Morning International Comics Competition have announced the winners, and the top prize goes to Korean creator Kim DaeJin for his rather surrealistic tale The Unreverberating Echo. As I observed at Robot 6, the judges seem to be a lot happier with this year’s selections than they were last year.

At PWCW, Kai-Ming Cha looks at manga publishers’ efforts to go digital, after successfully shooting down the biggest of the bootleg manga websites.

David Welsh takes a look at this week’s list of new releases. Melinda Beasi’s pick of the week is Moto Hagio’s A Drunken Dream and Other Stories. And the Comics Village team goes over their haul from last week and calls out their favorites.

I didn’t bother reading ICv2’s interview with DC’s co-publishers Dan Didio and Jim Lee, but I’m glad Sunday Comics Debt did, because they picked up on something I missed: The discussion of CMX, DC’s late, lamented manga line. Here’s Jim Lee:

We had great staff, and Asako Suzuki was instrumental in spearheading the CMX line. I think we had some relative success given the licenses we had. But if you look at what’s shaking out in the market right now, from what I can tell, it’s just a very few, very dominant licenses that account for the bulk of the business and everything else has fallen to the wayside.

We looked at a number of different alternatives. We talked to a number of key publishers there about alternatives and then we couldn’t make the numbers work. The numbers on CMX were, comparatively, super low compared to the rest of our offerings and just reached a point where it made more sense for us to be out of the business than to continue struggling with it.

Lee also says that other publishers (he mentions Dark Horse by name) have expressed interest in some CMX licenses, so there is a possibility that some of the series may be rescued.

Teacher and cartoonist Sean Michael Robinson muses about “those damn anime kids” and art teachers who somehow think that kids who like drawing their own manga are a problem. He also shows off some pretty fine examples of their art.

A Danish museum is drawing fire (images may be NSFW) for holding a manga exhibit that includes images from porn manga, including Swing Out Sisters, Bondage Fairies, and The Spirit of Capitalism, all of which have been published in the U.S. According to the Copenhagen Post, unnamed critics are calling the show “child pornography,” and the Danish Psychological Association opposes the show, but the curator says the whole point is to stimulate discussion.

Tony Yao takes a look at the psychological aspects of the scanlation debate, particularly the reactions to Yana Toboso’s lament, at Manga Therapy.

News from Japan: I don’t usually cover anime news here, but this is a big story: Satoshi Kon, the director of Paprika, has died at the age of 47. Kon actually worked as a manga-ka before moving over to the anime side of things.

Reviews

Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Akira (The Comic Book Bin)
Penny Kenny on vol. 2 of Arata, The Legend (Manga Life)
Julie Opipari on vol. 14 of InuBaka: Crazy for Dogs (Blog@Newsarama)
Shannon Fay on vol. 51 of One Piece (Kuriousity)
Katherine Farmar on The Prime Minister’s Secret Diplomacy (Comics Village)
Michelle Smith on vols. 1-5 of Sugarholic (Soliloquy in Blue)
Billy Aguiar on World of Warcraft Shadow Wing, vol. 1: The Dragons of Outland (Prospero’s Manga)

Melinda Beasi takes a look at what’s hot and what’s not in her latest Manhwa Mondaymang column at Manga Bookshelf.

At Manga Xanadu, Lori Henderson is enjoying the world of Ai Yazawa, whose books share a common universe, and she has three more series she’d like to see licensed.

Mega Man Megamix creator Hitoshi Ariga will be at Fan Expo Canada in Toronto this weekend.

News from Japan: Canned Dogs translates a note saying that One Piece will go on a one-month hiatus. Ouran High School Host Club will come to an end with the next issue of LaLa magazine. And Ed Chavez posts the latest manga rankings from Taiyosha at MangaCast.

Reviews

Tangognat on vol. 4 of Alice in the Country of Hearts and vol. 4 of Happy Cafe (Tangognat)
Caddy C. on Antique Bakery (A Feminist Otaku)
Julie Opipari on vol. 1 of Crown of Love (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 16 of Excel Saga (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Julie Opipari on vol. 2 of Flower in a Storm (Mania.com)
Nicola on vols. 1 and 2 of Hanako and the Terror of Allegory (Back to Books)
Sophie Stevens on vol. 10 of Honey and Clover (Animanga Nation)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 6 of Kitchen Princess (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Kate Dacey on vol. 2 of Library Wars, vol. 4 of Ooku, and vol. 6 of Your and My Secret (The Manga Critic)

At Robot 6, Sean Michael Wilson discusses Ax, the alt-manga anthology he edited for Top Shelf, as well as his future projects, with Christopher Mautner.

David Brothers talks to Ed Chavez of Vertical, Michael Gombos of Dark Horse, and Marco Pavia of Tokyopop about the realities of the manga market today.

Erica Friedman discusses the issues she faces as a publisher of yuri (most of which applies to any niche manga). The numbers aren’t pretty.

Lori Henderson has a quick look at the week’s manga news at Manga Xanadu, while Erica Friedman posts the most recent edition of Yuri News Network at Okazu.

At iFanboy.com, Molly McIsaac has a handy starter guide to robot manga.

Shannon Fay critiques the manga readers used by different publishers and lets them know her likes and dislikes at Kuriousity.

Deb Aoki has a transcript up of the Lost in Translation panel from San Diego Comic-Con.

Daniella Orihuela-Gruber looks into her crystal ball and predicts an unhappy end for the manga industry if scanlation continues. Meanwhile, a couple of manga creators have been letting off a little steam by wishing for an unhappy end for scanlators.

Job board: Comix 411 has links for internships at Viz and Tokyopop.

News from Japan: Ken Akamatsu is celebrating the 300th chapter of Negima by releasing a six-page Love Hina one-shot. Natsu no Arashi! is coming to an end, and manga-ka Jin Kobayashi (School Rumble) is already planning a new series. And Erica Friedman notes that all three of the big shoujo magazines are carrying yuri stories.

Special edition: I didn’t realize that Ed Chavez is blogging again at MangaCast, but he is, and he has a bunch of news in his latest post: series that are ending or moving on because Weekly Comic Bunch has folded; two series, Blood Alone and Hayate X Blade, that are moving to new publishers, which may affect their licenses with Seven Seas; and word of a Yoshihiro Tatsumi biopic.

Reviews

Sesho on vol. 1 of Afterschool Charisma (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Connie on vol. 4 of Breath (Slightly Biased Manga)
Zack Davisson on Chibi Vampire: Airmail (Japan Reviewed)
Ken Haley on issues 1-4 of Devil (Sequential Ink)
Connie on vol. 2 of Dorohedoro (Slightly Biased Manga)
Johanna Draper Carlson on The Dreaming Collection (Comics Worth Reading)
Sean Gaffey on vol. 7 of Gatcha Gacha (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Gente and vol. 1 of House of Five Leaves (Comic Attack)
Connie on vol. 1 of Icaro (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 5 of Kimi ni Todoke (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on vol. 1 of Moyasimon (Slightly Biased Manga)
Carlo Santos on vol. 27 of Negima (ANN)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 3 of Ninja Girls (Mania.com)
Michelle Smith on vols. 25-27 of One Piece (Soliloquy in Blue)
Shaenon Garrity on vol. 1 of Peepo Choo (About.com)
Julie Opipari on vols. 1-9 of Sand Chronicles (Blog@Newsarama)
Andre on vol. 7 of St. Dragon Girl (Kuriousity)
Connie on vol. 5 of Your and My Secret (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kinukitty on Yokan Premonition (The Hooded Utilitarian)