Sorry for the lack of blog yesterday—I worked a good portion of the weekend, then started out Monday morning with a session in the dentist’s chair, so I lost my usual blogging times. The great thing about starting your day with 20 minutes of drill time is that your day is guaranteed to get better from there.
Anyway, we have lots of great content today to make up for yesterday’s dearth, so let’s get to it!
Interviews! Get comfortable before you settle in with Deb Aoki’s Moto Hagio post at About.com; she transcribes Hagio’s panel and her contributions to another, then interviews the veteran shoujo manga creator herself. ICv2 talks to Tokyopop’s Cindy Suzuki, the product manager of the Hetalia franchise, about the Hetalia: Axis Powers manga, which has launched electronically on Zinio and will hit bookstores on September 21.
Roundups! Lori Henderson presents the week’s manga news in a single handy package at Manga Xanadu. Melinda Beasi has another roundup of reviews of Korean comics in her latest Manhwa Monday post at Manga Bookshelf. And Erica Friedman checks in with the latest edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu.
Controversy! I linked to my Robot 6 piece about gender vs. genre on Friday, but I’ll link again because a lively argument has broken out in the comments section. For the record, I really like shoujo manga but I recognize shoujo romance (I should have clarified that) as a genre, and I merely made the point that for those *outside* the fandom, any genre is boring and easily dismissed, whether it’s sparkly girly manga, studly superheroes, or bodice-ripping romance novels. Melinda Beasi has more on shoujo manga at Manga Bookshelf. Daniel BT goes off on an interesting tangent at Sunday Comics Debt, comparing the covers of American and Japanese romance comics.
Creators! Masters of Manga has a video of Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, one of the creators of the Mobile Suit Gundam anime and the Gundam manga, drawing the villain Char Aznable. Matthias Wivel discusses the manga-ka Yoshiharu Tsuge, whose work is not well known in English, at The Hooded Utilitarian.
Numbers! Matt Blind has the top 500 manga (online sales) for the past week at Rocket Bomber.
Daniella Orihuela-Gruber asks her readers to help hunt down manga that include prostitution or “compensated dating” at All About Manga.
Melinda Beasi pauses to consider why she continues to like shoujo manga even though she’s all grown up now.
News from Japan: Shiho Inada is bringing Ghost Hunt to a close after 12 volumes. At MangaCast, Ed Chavez takes a look at the doujin scene and notes that more and more doujinshi are being labeled 18+ (which sometimes means more explicitness between the covers) and that doujin events are starting to be restricted to adults only as well.
Reviews: Carlo Santos gives his quick take on some new manga in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Erica Friedman doesn’t just review Ebisu-san to Hotei-san at Okazu, she’s also giving away a couple of copies.
Connie on vol. 8 of 20th Century Boys (Slightly Biased Manga)
Brenda Gregson on vol. 1 of Afterschool Charisma (Animanga Nation)
Sesho on vol. 1 of Andromeda Stories (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Julie Opipari on vol. 3 of Biomega (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Connie on vol. 1 of Black Lagoon (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 4 of Butterflies, Flowers (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 34 of Case Closed (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sean Kleefeld on Destiny’s Hand (omnibus edition) (Kleefeld on Comics)
Connie on vol. 6 of Detroit Metal City (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of Detroit Metal City (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on A Drunken Dream and Other Stories (Slightly Biased Manga)
Erica Friedman on Fidanzato no Tameiki (Okazu)
Kris on Finder, vol. 2: Cage in the Finder (Manic About Manga)
Connie on vol. 4 of Fushigi Yugi (VizBIG edition) (Slightly Biased Manga)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of Gente (Tangognat)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of .hack//CELL (Prospero’s Manga)
Connie on vol. 18 of Hoshin Engi (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lori Henderson on vol. 18 of Kaze Hikaru (Manga Xanadu)
Charles Webb on vol. 4 of Maximum Ride (Manga Life)
Julie Opipari on Midnight Bloom (Mania.com)
Greg Hackmann on vols. 8-10 of Mushishi (Mania.com)
Connie on vol. 6 of Rasetsu (Slightly Biased Manga)
Erica Friedman on vol. 4 of Saki (Okazu)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 2 of Seiho Boys High School (Kuriousity)
Kelakagandy on vol. 8 of St. ♥ Dragon Girl (kelakagandy’s ramblings)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 3 of Stepping on Roses (Comics Worth Reading)
David Welsh on There’s Something About Sunyool (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Toriko (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Carlo Santos on vol. 3 of Twin Spica (ANN)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of The Tyrant Falls in Love (ANN)
Billy Aguiar on World of Warcraft: Mage (Prospero’s Manga)