Archives for October 2010

Deb Aoki posts a transcript of the Gay for You: Yuri & Yaoi Manga for GLBT Readers panel, which was definitely one of the best at NYCC. Moderated by Robin Brenner, and starring Chris Butcher, Scott Robins, Alex Woolfson, Leyla Aker, and Erica Friedman, it was both entertaining and informative. Deb posts the panel’s recommended reading list as well. Check it out!

Lissa Pattillo shows off this week’s manga haul at Kuriousity, and Brad Rice has this week’s new releases at Japanator.

Chris Sims finds a gallery of classic covers from the manga Tetsujin 28 (which inspired Gigantor) and has some fun with them.

Job board: Tokyopop is looking for a Director of Digital Business. (Via Comics 411.)

News from Japan: ANN has the Japanese comics rankings for the past week. Enterbrain has taken the first two volumes of the manga Kai Yorihito Kaiyori Shiki out of print after confirming allegations that the creator, Kazuaki, had used copyrighted photographs without permission.

Reviews: Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith look over some October Boys Love titles at Manga Bookshelf. Noah Berlatsky continues his story-by-story look at Moto Hagio’s A Drunken Dream and Other Stories with a review of the story Angel Mimic.

Lissa Pattillo on vol. 3 of Deadman Wonderland (ANN)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-Chan (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ken Haley on Tale of a White Knight (Sequential Ink)

Simon & Schuster, which distributes Viz manga, is listing Kazue Katō’s manga Blue Exorcist (Ao no Exorcist) with an April release date.

Johanna Draper Carlson takes an advance look at the manga that are due out in December. And Melinda Beasi makes her pick of the week at Manga Bookshelf.

Melinda Beasi posts the latest in the world of Korean comics in her latest Manhwa Monday post.

Speaking of Korean comics, the military news website Strategy Page has an interesting article on how South Korean manhwa are filtering into North Korea, via pirated CDs. Apparently entertainment media in North Korea is basically all government propaganda, and the kids are looking for something a little different.

Kristin Bomba drops in at All About Manga to do a guest post on strong women in manga.

Anna, who blogs as the palindromic Tangognat, has set up a new blog just for her manga reviews, Manga Report. Bookmark it now, and check out her most recent reviews, of The Cinderella Inheritance and The Cinderella Solution, The Dreaming Complete Collection, and vol. 1 of The Story of Saiunkoku.

At Mania.com, Thomas Zoth counts down “The Top 10 Scariest Manga You Haven’t Read,” although if you’re reading this you have probably read at least one of them (I have).

David Welsh is up to the letter M in his seinen alphabet at The Manga Curmudgeon.

Christopher Butcher posts his thoughts on NYCC, which boil down to: Lots of great people, not well organized, too crowded. But of course Chris’s take is much more entertaining than that, and he posts lots of pictures, one of which includes yours truly.

News from Japan: A new shonen magazine is in the works: Sakura Hearts, due out from Nihonbungeisha on December 9.

Reviews: Kate Dacey posts short takes on recent volumes of Chi’s Sweet Home, Kingyo Used Books, and 13th Boy at The Manga Critic.

Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of 7 Billion Needles (Comics-and-More)
Sesho on vol. 2 of Andromeda Stories (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Julie Opipari on A Bed of Sand (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Nicola on vols. 1-3 of Black Gate (Back to Books)
Kris on vol. 2 of Brilliant Blue (Manic About Manga)
Carlo Santos on vol. 3 of Chi’s Sweet Home (ANN)
Erica Friedman on vol. 6 of Click (Okazu)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Cross Game (Comic Attack)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of Cross Game (Comics Should Be Good)
Michael C. Lorah on A Drunken Dream and Other Stories (Blog@Newsarama)
David Welsh on Grand Guignol Orchestra (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Hanako and the Terror of Allegory (Manga Xanadu)
Katherine Farmar on vols. 1-3 of Hero Heel (Comics Village)
Zack Davisson on vol. 1 of Hetalia: Axis Powers (Manga Life)
Bill Sherman on vol. 1 of Hetalia: Axis Powers (Blogcritics)
Todd on vol. 1 of House of Five Leaves (Anime Maki)
Kinukitty on How to Seduce a Vampire (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Kingyo Used Books (The Comic Book Bin)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 3 of Kobato (Kuriousity)
Kris on vol. 5 of Kyo Kara MAOH! (Manic About Manga)
Kris on Live for Love (Manic About Manga)
Kristin on vol. 1 of March Story (Comic Attack)
Shannon Fay on vol. 1 of Octopus Girl (Kuriousity)
Edouardo Zacarias on vol. 28 of One Piece (Animanga Nation)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Seiho Boys High School! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of Stepping on Roses (A Case Suitable for Treatment)

Patrick Macias writes about a new computerized manga creation system that is causing great excitement in Japan.

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

David Welsh really knows how to get a conversation started. This time, he asks his readers which manga they have read the most volumes of, and he gets plenty of responses.

Reviews: Melinda Beasi takes a quick look at some shonen manga at Manga Bookshelf and Michelle Smith does the same at Soliloquy in Blue.

Lissa Pattillo on vols. 1-3 of Black Gate (omnibus edition)
Andre on vols. 1 and 2 of Bokurano: Ours (Kuriousity)
Connie on vol. 2 of Bokurano: Ours (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 5 of Bride of the Water God (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kris on vol. 1 of Brilliant Blue (Manic About Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Chobits (omnibus edition) (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 7 of Cipher (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on Crushing Love (I Reads You)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Dengeki Daisy (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lori Henderson on vol. 11 of The Gentlemen’s Alliance + (Comics Village)
Connie on vol. 5 of Kimi ni Todoke (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 2 of Knights of the Zodiac (Slightly Biased Manga)
Jennifer LeBlanc on Loud Snow (The Yaoi Review)
Connie on vol. 1 of Maoh: Juvenile Remix (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of March Story (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on vol. 1 of Story of Saiunkoku (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on The Vampire Knight Official Fanbook (The Comic Book Bin)
Erica Friedman on vol. 6 of Yuri Hime Wildrose (Okazu)

Oops! Vertical, Inc., announced at NYCC/NYAF that it had the license for Usumaru Furuya’s No Longer Human, but the company seems to have jumped the gun a bit:

Due to a communication error between the company’s New York and Tokyo offices, the property was falsely presented as slated for publication. While the licensors for this series and Vertical are currently actively in contract negotiations, the North American rights have not been secured. Vertical, Inc. will continue to work with the rights holders for No Longer Human with hopes to properly acquire the license, and it apologizes to all parties involved in this unfortunate and unintentional error.

Also, Tokyopop will be publishing its Blu manga on Digital’s eManga site. This isn’t the first time manga publishers have crossed boundaries like this—Yaoi Press also publishes at eManga—but it’s an interesting experiment. The books will be $5.99, cheaper than print editions but dearer than eManga’s other offerings. (Although Melinda Beasi points out in comments that if you consider the rent-to-own model, it’s not that much more expensive.) Rob McMonigal has some thoughts.

Both Dark Horse and Yen Press announced at NYCC/NYAF that they would be building their own digital platforms, rather than hopping onto something like comiXology; Lori Henderson thinks that’s a bad idea.

Asako Suzuki, who was responsible for licensing some of my favorite manga as the editor director of manga at CMX, is back in the biz—her Facebook now lists her as a manga line editor at Tokyopop.

Sean Gaffney looks forward to next week’s new manga.

Melinda Beasi inaugurates a new feature, Three Things Thursday, with a look at some good shoujo manga. David Welsh chimes in with three of his favorites at The Manga Curmudgeon.

David also posts his weekly license request: Yuu Watase’s Sakura-Gari, which is very different from her other work.

Jason Thompson looks at Gold Ring (Siwari Al-Dhahab), a collaboration between a United Arab Emirates writer and a Japanese artist.

At Kuriousity, Shannon Fay continues her Halloween-themed roundup with a look at Cowa!

NYCC/NYAF news: Alex Leavitt posts full audio of the Anime in Academia panel, featuring Casey Brienza, Mikhail Koulikov, and Jennifer Fu. Ed Sizemore has posted his con report at Comics Worth Reading (part 1, part 2)

Reviews

Alexander Hoffman on The Color of Earth, The Color of Water, and The Color of Heaven (Manga Widget)
Kristin on vol. 21 of Hikaru no Go (Comic Attack)
Erica Friedman on vol. 5 of Octave (Okazu)
Tom Spurgeon on the October issue of Shonen Jump (The Comics Reporter)
Victoria Martin on solanin (Manga Life)

Jason Thompson devotes his entire House of 1000 Manga column this week to manga about Jesus.

Gottsu-Iiyan posts the last part of his translation of the conversation between Eiichiro Oda (One Piece) and Takehiko Inoue (Vagabond, Slam Dunk).

Kate Dacey, Sean Gaffney, and David Welsh look at this week’s new manga, and Melinda Beasi makes her Pick of the Week.

Attention Kodansha! If you’re wondering what North American fans would like to see you license, check out this open thread at The Manga Curmudgeon. That is all.

Erica Friedman introduces us to Feel Young magazine at MangaCast; you may never have heard of it, but I’ll bet you have read something from its contributors.

According to Deb Aoki, Ultimo manga-ka Stan Lee is going to team up with Yoshiki to create a “motion manga.”

NYCC/NYAF news is still trickling in. Lissa Pattillo has the lowdown on the Dark Horse panel at Kuriousity, and Deb Aoki ably sums up the Yen Press panel. Casey (a.k.a. Kethylia) lists her higlights and lowlights of the event. And here are some “General Impressions” from the Reverse Thieves. At Manga Therapy, Tony Yao notes that NYAF was a minor part of the whole show and wonders if its days are numbered.

Lit Crit of the day: Alex Hoffman considers the metafiction of solanin, comparing it to J.M. Coetzee’s Slow Man.

‘Tis the season: Lori Henderson updates her list of Halloween manga at Manga Xanadu, and she looks at some series that feature tricks (rather than treats). At Kuriousity, Shannon Fay counts down to Halloween with 13 supernatural manga, including Sugar Sugar Rune and D.Gray-Man.

Ryan posts some videos of Shintaro Kago working on his latest manga at Same Hat.

Alex Woolfson has some preview pages of Your Brother’s Keeper up at Yaoi 911.

Daniella Orihuela-Gruber asks her readers where they find their anime-manga community, and she also bemoans the impecunious life of a freelance editor.

Erin Finnegan is compling a holiday gift guide and she needs your help. Yes, you!

News from Japan: Manga-ka Shintaro Miyawaki has died. A new manga magazine, Monthly Comic Zenon, will be launching soon with many of the creators who once graced the pages of Comic Bunch. And ANN has the latest Japanese comics rankings.

Reviews: Carlo Santos rounds up some recent manga in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Michelle Smith and Melinda Beasi discuss some recent releases in their latest Off the Shelf column at Manga Bookshelf.

Julie Opipari on vol. 5 of 13th Boy (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Kate Dacey on The 14th Dalai Lama: A Manga Biography (The Manga Critic)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 11 of 20th Century Boys (The Comic Book Bin)
Greg McElhatton on vol. 1 of 7 Billion Needles (Read About Comics)
Carl Kimlinger on vols. 15-17 of Air Gear (omnibus edition) (ANN)
Connie on vol. 2 of Bakuman (Slightly Biased Manga)
Michelle Smith on vol. 2 of Bakuman (Soliloquy in Blue)
A Library Girl on vol. 1 of Black Butler (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Eduardo Zacarias on vol. 9 of Black Lagoon (Animanga Nation)
Michelle Smith on vol. 3 of Chi’s Sweet Home (Soliloquy in Blue)
Tangognat on Cowa! (Tangognat)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Cross Game (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Cross Game (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Tangognat on vol. 6 of Detroit Metal City (Tangognat)
Carlo Santos on vol. 2 of Dorohedoro (ANN)
Emily on A Drunken Dream and Other Stories (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Connie on vol. 1 of Evil’s Return (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1 and 2 of Hellsing (Manga Xanadu)
Connie on vol. 21 of Hikaru No Go (Slightly Biased Manga)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of House of Five Leaves (Comics-and-More)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of House of Five Leaves (ANN)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 17 of Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs (Comics Worth Reading)
Kristin on vol. 2 of In the Walnut (Comic Attack)
Animemiz on I.O.N. (Anime Diet)
Erica Friedman on vol. 4 of Jormungand (Okazu)
Kelakagandy on vols. 4 and 5 of Kimi ni Todoke (kelakagandy’s ramblings)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 6 of Maid-Sama! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Brian Ruh on Manga: Masters of the Art (ANN)
Leroy Douresseaux on Odd Is on Our Side (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 55 of One Piece (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vols. 3-5 of Orange Planet (omnibus edition) (The Comic Book Bin)
Ken Haley on vol. 1 of Otodama: Voice from the Dead (Sequential Ink)
Charles Webb on vol. 2 of Peepo Choo (Manga Life)
Michelle Smith on vols. 1-3 of Planetes (Soliloquy in Blue)
Erica Friedman on Princess Princess (Okazu)
Erica Friedman on vol. 1 of Renai Joshika (Okazu)
Tangognat on vols. 5 and 6 of Shinobi Life (Tangognat)
Zack Davisson on vol. 6 of Shinobi Life (Japan Reviewed)
Alexander Hoffman on solanin (Comics Village)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 3 of Stepping on Roses (ANN)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of The Story of Saiunkoku (Soliloquy in Blue)
Caddy C. on vol. 3 of Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (A Feminist Otaku)
Ken Haley on vol. 5 of Vampire Hunter D (Sequential Ink)

Hey all, I’m back from NYCC/NYAF—sorry about the hiatus, but the con was busier than I expected. I had so many commitments that I didn’t make it to either of the manga publishers’ panels, but fortunately a good portion of the manga blogosphere was there, and they got you covered.

The fact that there were only two manga publisher panels gave me a bit of pause. Neither Viz nor Tokyopop showed up at the Javits Center, and the smaller yaoi publisher Digital was also absent. Kodansha, which is taking its licenses back from Del Rey, did not offer a panel, although the panel was not pulled at the last minute, as some people thought.

At the ICv2 conference before the show, Milton Griepp delivered a white paper that was sort of a progress report on the industry so far. His figures show manga sales down for the third year in a row, with sales down 20% in the first half of the year and 50% over the past three years. That article I just linked to is well worth reading in full, by the way, because the white paper offers a lot of food for thought.

Vertical announced two new manga series to its lineup, Osamu Tezuka’s The Book of Human Insects (Ningen Konchuki) and Usumaru Furuya’s No Longer Human (Ningen Shikaku). Deb Aoki and Lissa Pattillo were there and provide exhaustive coverage.

The big news at the Yen Press panel is that they are rolling out their own digital manga system. No new Japanese licenses were announced, but artist Svetlana Chmakova will wind up her work on Nightschool in order to draw an adaptation of James Patterson’s Witch & Wizard, and Yen also plans to adapt Gail Carriger’s young adult novels into manga form. Lissa Pattillo has coverage at Kuriousity.

Dark Horse also announced two manga, Bloodline Battlefront (Kekkai Sensen), by Trigun creator Yasuhiro Nightow, and Drifters by Hellsing creator Kohta Hirano, as well as the novel Shinjuku, Book 2—Azul, with illustrations by Vampire Hunter D artist Yoshitaka Amano. Deb Aoki was there, and so was I.

Other reporting:

Kai-Ming Cha’s roundup for PWCW
Deb Aoki’s photo gallery
Kate Dacey’s con report: Day 1, Days 2 and 3
Sean Gaffney’s con report: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3
Erica Friedman posts the recommended reading list from the panel “Gay for You? Yaoi and Yuri Manga for GBLTQ Readers,” which was one of the highlights of the show
Melinda Beasi on manhwa at NYCC
Lissa Pattillo shows off her swag
Deb Aoki on the special superhero doujinshi created for the show.