I’m back from a long Comic-Con induced hiatus—first I went to the show, then I had to write up all my experiences for people who, you know, pay me to do that. Here’s my roundup of manga news at MTV Geek.
My roommate at Comic-Con was Deb Aoki, formerly of About.com, who has struck out on her own with a much more user-friendly blog, mangacomicsmanga.com. As the name suggests, it’s about one-third comics and two-thirds manga. I got to watch Deb in action all through the long weekend, so I can tell you from an insider’s perspective that she has a lot of great content planned. Two stories to check out right now: Doraemon is finally going to be licensed in English—as a digital comic—and her writeup of the Best and Worst Manga panel at San Diego (audio here).
Lori Henderson rounds up all the manga news from SDCC in her latest Manga Dome podcast at Manga Xanadu. Sean Gaffney rounds up the new license announcements, with commentary.
Daniella Orihuela-Gruber spells out five reasons why this year’s Anime Expo was good for manga, starting with the fact that there was so much manga there.
Seven Seas has announced four more Alice in the Country of… licenses; it will now be releasing one Alice book a month.
The Manga Bookshelf team discusses their Pick of the Week. Also at Manga Bookshelf, Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith discuss Off*Beat, soon to be serialized in Chromatic Press’s Sparkler Monthly, and the other things they have been reading lately in their Off the Shelf column.
Johanna Draper Carlson takes a closer look at Kodansha’s new digital program.
Erica Friedman brings us up to date on the world of yuri with the latest edition of Yuri Network News.
Having just read Jiro Matsumoto’s Velveteen and Mandala, Sarah Horrocks decides to write about another book of his, Jyoshikohei.
At Comics Should Be Good, Connie C. looks at three manga by Suehiro Maruo.
News from Japan: Naoki Urasawa has drawn his first monster manga, a one-shot titled Kaijū Ōkoku, for Big Comic; the issue will be out on August 10. 07-Ghost will come to an end in the October issue of Comic Zero Sum. Also in the pages of Comic Zero Sum, Kazuya Minekura will slow down the schedule for Saiyuki Reload Blast and Wild Adapter due to health problems. Attack on Titan continues to be a runaway success: Kodansha’s first printing for the 11th volume was 1.85 million; there are 20 million copies of the first ten volumes in print. The artist for the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic manga has been announced: It’s Akira Himegawa, a two-person team best known for drawing Legend of Zelda manga. The final volume of Gantz will be released in January 2014.
Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf team kicks off the week with a new set of Bookshelf Briefs.
Shannon Fay on Beautiful Creatures (Kuriousity)
Matthew Alexander on vols. 1 and 2 of Black God (The Fandom Post)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 2 of BTOOOM! (Comics Worth Reading)
Justin on chapter 40 of Cross Manage (Organization ASG)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 9 of A Devil and Her Love Song (The Comic Book Bin)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Doubt (Comics Worth Reading)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 5 of GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class (Comics Worth Reading)
Josh Begley on vol. 4 of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (The Fandom Post)
Tony Yao on Gin Tama (Manga Therapy)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Happy Marriage?! (Comics Worth Reading)
Anna N. on vol. 1 of Happy Marriage?! (Manga Report)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 17 of La Corda D’Oro (ANN)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 9 of Naruto (Blogcritics)
TSOTE on vol. 10 of Q.E.D. (Three Steps Over Japan)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Sleeping Moon (ANN)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 15 of Soul Eater (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 5 of Strobe Edge (The Comic Book Bin)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 16 of Toriko (ANN)
Ken H. on vol. 7 of Vampire Hunter D (Comics Should Be Good)