Archives for January 2011

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)

At PWCW, Kai-Ming Cha reviews the year in manga news and lists her picks for 2010.

Kristin takes a look at the manga in the January Previews at Comic Attack.

Daniella Orihuela-Gruber posts her manga- and blog-related resolutions for 2011 at All About Manga.

The latest edition of David Welsh’s seinen alphabet is brought to you by the letter W.

News from Korea: Hana Lee posts the winners of the Reader Awards at Manhwa Bookshelf.

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

Snow Wildsmith on vols. 1 and 2 of Alice the 101st (Good Comics for Kids)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 6 of Aria (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 8 of Blade of the Immortal (Slightly Biased Manga)
Michael C. Lorah on vol. 1 of Cross Game (Blog@Newsarama)
Shannon Fay on vol. 4 of Crown of Love (Kuriousity)
Lori Henderson on vol. 12 of Dr. Slump and vol. 5 of O-Parts Hunter (Manga Xanadu)
Julie Opipari on vol. 13 of Gantz (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Julie Opipari on Higurashi When They Cry: Beyond Midnight Arc, vol. 2 (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Erica Friedman on Kono Kutsu Shirimasenka? (Okazu)
Richard Bruton on Korea as Viewed by 12 Creators (Forbidden Planet)
Connie on Mistress Fortune (Slightly Biased Manga)
Alex Hoffman on vols. 1-3 of Peepo Choo (Manga Widget)
Lori Henderson on the January issue of Shonen Jump (Manga Xanadu)
Julie Opipari on vol. 31 of Vagabond (Mania.com)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 16 of xxxHolic (The Comic Book Bin)
Lori Henderson on vols. 5 and 6 of With the Light (Comics Village)

Deb Aoki peers into her crystal ball to find the most noteworthy new manga of the coming year.

David Welsh looks at this week’s new manga and lets the readers vote on which of three uninspiring manga he should choose from the latest Previews. And the newly enlarged Manga Bookshelf crowd make their picks of the week.

Melinda Beasi brings us up to date on all things Korean in her latest Manhwa Monday post at Manga Bookshelf.

Skip the marketing surveys: David Hampton explains how he chooses and reads manga at All About Manga, and it’s an interesting and witty read—be sure to check out his chart showing the manga consumption of different types of readers.

What do manga creator Queenie Chan (The Dreaming, Odd Thomas) and Wikileaks founder Julien Assange? Both made the Queensland, Australia, Courier-Mail’s list of people to watch out for in 2011.

Brent Newhall gives Toriko the full-on treatment in this video parodying manga analyses.

Viz has redesigned their website! Unfortunately, when I checked it this morning, virtually all the page links were broken. Lissa Pattillo noticed this too, and she critiques the design and workability of the new site at Kuriousity.

News from Japan: Ken Akamatsu says he is working with Google to develop a comics reader for his free manga website J-Comi; the reader would allow advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on the user’s location and interests.

Reviews: Ash Brown looks back at a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga.

Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Aion and vol. 1 of Itsuwaribito (The Manga Critic)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 6 of Happy Cafe (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Diana Dang on vol. 1 of Kamisama Kiss (Stop, Drop, and Read)
Bill Sherman on vol. 1 of Kamisama Kiss (Seattle PI)
Zack Davisson on vol. 2 of Neko Ramen (Manga Life)
Kristin on vol. 15 of Ouran High School Host Club and vol. 5 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (Comic Attack)
Connie on vol. 9 of Real (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Real Lies (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 13 of Slam Dunk (The Comic Book Bin)
Todd Douglass on vol. 13 of Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning (Anime Maki)
Emily on Tsuuugaku Densha (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Blog)

Good morning, and happy new year!

At Kuriousity, Lissa Pattillo lists her favorite manga of 2010—and the ones that didn’t thrill her so much. Melinda Beasi picks her favorites at Manga Bookshelf, and Kris posts her list at Manic About Manga.

Matt Blind posts the list of new manga due out this week, as well as last week’s releases, at Rocket Bomber, where he has also been catching up on his online sales charts for the past few months.

Tokyopop shared some cover art from an upcoming issue of Priest: Purgatory, which bridges the gap between the Priest manhwa and the movie, at Robot 6.

Manga Bookshelf is now three times as awesome, as Kate Dacey (The Manga Critic) and David Welsh (The Manga Curmudgeon) join Melinda Beasi on the same page. You can still find them both at their own blogs as well, where Kate extols Gun Blaze West as “the best manga you’re not reading.”

GAR GAR Stegosaurus has an interesting post on the failure of light novels to get any traction in the U.S.

Also, these are off topic, but at Robot 6 I posted my best graphic novels of the year list and did a survey of the year in digital comics, and at my personal blog, I wrote reminiscences of books that made me laugh and shiver in terror when I was a kid.

News from Japan: Full Metal Panic! manga-ka Shoji Gatoh has several new projects in the works, and Silent Möbius creator Kia Asamiya has a new manga, Himegami Gadget, running on the Flex Comic Next website.

Reviews: Michelle Smith takes a look at a healthy handful of sports manga at Soliloquy in Blue.

Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of AX: Alternative Manga (Comics Worth Reading)
Animemiz on vols. 1 and 2 of Bakuman (Anime Diet)
Alex Hoffman on vols. 1 and 2 of Bakuman (Comics Village)
Todd Douglass on vol. 7 of Bamboo Blade (Anime Maki)
Ai Kano on vol. 2 of Gente (Animanga Nation)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Hetalia: Axis Powers (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Hana Lee on vol. 2 of Joseon Female Detective Damo (Manga Bookshelf)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 11 of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Comics Worth Reading)
Anna on episode 1 of Mizuki (Manga Report)
Ash Brown on Oishinbo A La Carte (Japanese Cuisine) (Experiments in Manga)
Emily Kazanecki on vol. 4 of Rin-ne (Manga Life)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 11 of Vampire Knight (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Vanilla (I Reads You)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 11 of V.B. Rose (A Case Suitable for Treatment)