Lori Henderson has the list of this week’s all-ages comics and manga at Good Comics for Kids.
Sean Gaffney looks forward to the week’s new manga at A Case Suitable for Treatment.
At Robot 6, I questioned a comment by Sean Michael Wilson, editor of the alt-manga anthology AX, that North American women seemed to be put off by the sexual and scatological content in that book. A lively discussion followed in the comments, and Kate Dacey added her own thoughts at The Manga Critic. Ten points to Kate for stating the case so succinctly:
As one of those North American ladies who gave mixed marks to AX (it made both my Best Manga of 2010 list and my 2010 Manga Hall of Shame), let me assure male readers that it wasn’t the presence of sex or poop that turned me off of stories like “Arizona Sizzler” and “Black Sushi Party Piece” — it was the strong whiff of pointlessness.
Jason Thompson takes a long look at Mushishi in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.
Rob McMonigal is going to spend the year spotlighting the prolific manga-ka Rumiko Takahashi, and he explains why he chose her in his kickoff post at Panel Patter.
Oh, and I was very honored to be the subject of one of Tom Spurgeon’s holiday interviews at The Comics Reporter this weekend. He asked me a series of essay questions about the comics world as a whole and various subsets of it; check out the interview and let me know what you think.
News from Japan: xxxHolic is coming to an end this spring, with the final volume, vol. 19, due out in Japan in March.
Reviews: Johanna Draper Carlson relaxes with some escapist manga at Comics Worth Reading. David Welsh writes about two manga by Fumi Yoshinaga at The Manga Curmudgeon.
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Death Note (Black Edition) (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of Dengeki Daisy (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 8 of Emma (Panel Patter)
Tiger Holland on vol. 1 of Fruits Basket (Girls Love Graphic Novels)
Chris Beveridge on vol. 1 of Highschool of the Dead (Mania.com)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 3 of Jormungand (Panel Patter)
Brenda Grigson on vol. 2 of Library Wars: Love and War (Animanga Nation)
Ash Brown on vol. 2 of Ooku: The Inner Chambers (Experiments in Manga)
A Library Girl on vol. 1 of Princess Princess (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Carlo Santos on vol. 8 of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (ANN)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Vanilla (I Reads You)