Deb Aoki lists the 17 manga that made the Great Graphic Novels for Teens list, and she is now taking nominations for her own best-of-the-year polls.
Lori Henderson has the list of this week’s all ages comics and manga at Good Comics for Kids. Sean Gaffney looks ahead to next week’s new manga at A Case Suitable for Treatment. The resident bloggers at Manga Bookshelf discuss their picks of the week with guest Michelle Smith.
Yen Press has launched its iPad app, and I bought a volume of manga to check it out at Robot 6. Verdict: Spiffy but pricey. Kate Dacey calls it “a promising start” at The Manga Critic, and Chris Beveridge kicks the tires as well at Mania.com. The app includes no Japanese or Korean titles at present, and the books are priced at $8.99 per volume (less than the list price, but in some cases more than what the print book would cost at Amazon). On the plus side, it’s a nice looking app that gives you generous free samples and some nice extras, and since the app itself is free, it’s worth a look if you have an iPad.
The latest Manga Moveable Feast is under way, and host Anna kicks it off with a brief intro at Manga Report. David Welsh reviews the first three volumes at The Manga Curmudgeon, while Michelle Smith takes on volumes 4 and 5 at Soliloquy in Blue.
Rob McMonigal continues his year of posts on Rumiko Takahashi with a close look at vol. 1 of InuYasha at Panel Patter.
Lori Henderson suggests some good reading for a snow day at Manga Xanadu.
At The Manga Critic, Kate Dacey looks at some attempts to define a manga canon and adds a few suggestions of her own. Kate also looks at an early attempt at publishing “prestige manga,” Hotel Harbour View.
David Welsh’s license request: More by Bunny Drop creator Yumi Unita, please!
At Manga Therapy, Tony Yao discusses how Yotsuba presents the positive aspects of ADHD.
Jason Thompson takes a look at Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.
AstroNerdBoy is pleased that the Nibley Twins are re-translating the first three volumes of Negima! for Kodansha’s omnibus edition, but he notes that they took a 40% pay cut compared to what Del Rey used to pay. are being paid less because they were only hired to adapt the book, not translate it. (Thanks for pointing out the clarification, Sean!) The twins themselves weigh in at Manga Life on how long it takes them to finish a book.
At Neojaponisme, Matthew Penney takes a look at the Japanese manga scene in 2010 and finds a lot of strong titles. (Via The Manga Critic.)
Erica Friedman is reading a lot of magazines lately: She samples the delights of the Japanese manga magazine Comic Beam at MangaCast, and she checks out the new magazine Girls Jump and the relaunched Comic Yuri Hime Rebirth (formerly Comic Yuri Hime) at Okazu. Erica also posts all the yuri news that’s fit to print in the latest edition of Yuri Network News.
Ash Brown offers some quick tips for shopping at Borders.
Tokyopop has signed on with Diamond Book Distributors to handle distribution of its books, which means, if I’m reading the press release right, that their agreement with HarperCollins is ending. There was a lot of activity when Tokyopop first joined hands with HC, such as graphic novels based on the popular pre-teen Warriors novels (the ones about the cats) and Ellen Schreiber’s Vampire Kisses, but there doesn’t seem to have been much new from that corner lately. Tokyopop president and COO John Parker is decamping for Diamond, where he will be vice president of business development.
News from Japan: Every now and then we hear about a virulently anti-Korean manga; the latest is K-Pop Boom Lies, which libels several Korean girl groups, calling them out by name. Koreans are up in arms, and the agent for one of the girl groups is threatening “strong countermeasures.” The medical manga Iryū – Team Medical Dragon is coming to an end. The nominees for the 4th Manga Taisho awards have been announced; it doesn’t look like any of the 13 nominees has been licensed for sale in the U.S. A new Pokemon manga is in the works; it will run in Shonen Sunday beginning this spring. And ANN has the latest Japanese comics rankings.
Reviews: Omar posts a new batch of quick manga reviews at About Heroes. Ash Brown looks at a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga.
Alex Hoffman on vols. 8 and 9 of 20th Century Boys (Comics Village)
Connie on vol. 12 of 20th Century Boys (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Afterschool Charisma (The Comic Book Bin)
Charles Webb on Ayako (Manga Life)
Adam Stephanides on vol. 5 of Billy Bat (Completely Futile)
Connie on vol. 10 of Blade of the Immortal (Slightly Biased Manga)
Snow Wildsmith on vols. 1 and 2 of Bunny Drop (Good Comics for Kids)
Brett Newhall on vol. 1 of Cardcaptor Sakura (Otaku, no Video)
Kristin on vol. 4 of Children of the Sea (Comic Attack)
Shannon Fay on vol. 14 of Crimson Hero (Kuriousity)
Connie on vol. 1 of Cross Game (Slightly Biased Manga)
Anna on vol. 3 of Dengeki Daisy (Manga Report)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 3 of Dorohedoro (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 34 of Eyeshield 21 (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 22 of Hikaru no Go (Comics Worth Reading)
Emily Kazanecki on vol. 4 of Jack Frost (Manga Life)
Connie on vol. 7 of Kimi ni Todoke (Slightly Biased Manga)
Rob McMonigal on Korea as Viewed by 12 Creators (Panel Patter)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1 and 2 of Millennium Snow (Manga Xanadu)
Connie on Missing Road (Slightly Biased Manga)
Ken Haley on episodes 1 and 2 of Mizuki (Sequential Ink)
Lissa Pattillo on My Bad (ANN)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 3 of Nightschool (Panel Patter)
Michelle Smith on vols. 32-45 of One Piece (Soliloquy in Blue)
Connie on vol. 7 of Otomen (Slightly Biased Manga)
Anna on vol. 1 of The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko (Manga Report)
David Welsh on vol. 1 of The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Connie on Sense & Sexuality (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin on vol. 13 of Slam Dunk and Mistress Fortune (Comic Attack)
Casey Brienza on vol. 4 of Soul Eater (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 5 of Twin Spica (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Katherine Farmar on vols. 1 and 2 of Vampire’s Portrait (Comics Village)
I believe the Twins noted that the reason for the pay cut was due to their only being hired to re-adapt, which pays less than a full translation. They ended up re-translating most of it on their own dime anyway. So it’s not as if Kodansha suddenly pays a lot less or anything.
Thanks, Sean! I should have read the original blog post before making that comment. I have made a correction to reflect that.
I do believe that one of the Taishou nominees, A Bride’s Story by Kaoru Mori, has been licensed by Yen Press. It is set for a late May publication date.