Remembering Toren Smith

We lost one of the pioneers of the manga industry last week when Toren Smith passed away at the too-young age of 52. Smith was the founder of Studio Proteus and one of the first manga entrepreneurs in the U.S. Here’s a roundup of remembrances and obituaries from around the internet:

Jonathan Clements, Toren Smith, 1960-2013: Remembering one of the prime movers of modern manga (Manga UK)
Mike Toole, Mr. Smith Goes to Osaka (ANN)
Mike Hansen, Toren Smith (All Day Comics)
Chris Warner, A Tribute to Toren Smith (Dark Horse)
Ryan Sands, Toren Smith RIP (1960-2013) (awesome cover gallery) (Same Hat!)
Scott Green, Manga Translator Toren Smith Passes Away (Crunchyroll)
Andy Khouri, Pioneering Manga Translator Toren Smith Passes Away at 52 (Comics Alliance)
James Hudnall, Toren and I: 1987 (photos) (James Hudnall)
Toren’s Barnes & Noble author page

I’m playing a bit of catch-up with the news, after a busy week and an unexpectedly heavy snowstorm. (The bad part: I had to go to work on my day off. The cool part: I rode to work in a snowplow.) Here’s a quick roundup, and I’ll have more tomorrow.

The Manga Bookshelf team discuss their Pick of the Week in print manga and look over this week’s new releases in print and the latest batch at JManga. I made my picks from the past week’s new releases at MTV Geek, and Lissa Pattillo does the same in her On the Shelf column at Otaku USA.

Erica Friedman has the latest episode of Yuri Network News for us at Okazu.

Reviews

Johanna Draper Carlson on Beautiful Creatures: The Manga (Comics Worth Reading)
John Rose on vol. 12 of Black Butler (The Fandom Post)
Rebecca Silverman on Danza (ANN)
Sakura Eries on vol. 11 of Dengeki Daisy (The Fandom Post)
Rebecca Silverman on vols. 5 and 6 of A Devil and Her Love Song (ANN)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 8 of Dorohedoro (The Fandom Post)
Josh Begley on Emerald and Other Stories (The Fandom Post)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Girl Friends: The Complete Collection (Okazu)
Rebecca Silverman on Good-Bye Geist (ANN)
Michael Buntag on vol. 8 of Honey and Clover (NonSensical Words)
Rebecca Silverman on vols. 2 and 3 of Jiu Jiu (ANN)
Rebecca Silverman on Kaoru Mori: Anything and Something (ANN)
Steve Bennett on The Misfortune of Kyon and Koizumi (ICv2)
Carlo Santos on vol. 12 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (ANN)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 9 of Omamori Himari (The Fandom Post)
Nicholas Smith on chapter 701 of One Piece (Kaleo)
Sakura Eries on vol. 9 of Oresama Teacher (The Fandom Post)
Chris Beveridge on vol. 13 of Pandora Hearts (The Fandom Post)
Erica Friedman on vol. 9 of Pure Yuri Anthology, Hirari (Okazu)
Carlo Santos on vol. 8 of Psyren (ANN)
Mark Thomas on vol. 8 of Raiders (The Fandom Post)
Josh Begley on vol. 3 of Tale of the Waning Moon (The Fandom Post)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 3 of Until Death Do Us Part (The Fandom Post)

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