Manga titles accounted for half of BookScan’s list of the top 20 graphic novels of February (bookstore sales): Four volumes of Tokyo Ghoul (vol. 5 was the number one seller), three volumes of One-Punch Man, the Naruto novel and the series sequel, Naruto: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring, and vol. 8 of Monster Musume. [ICv2]
Last week was Manga Week at the retailer website ICv2, and they had a ton of interesting content. Here’s the list:
“A Lot of People Are Paying Attention to Us Right Now”: New Trends in Manga
ICv2 Interview: Todd MacFarlane on His Anime/Manga Line [of toys]
2016 Yaoi Titles from SuBLime
Interview with the Dark Horse Manga Brain Trust, Part 1
Interview with the Dark Horse Manga Brain Trust, Part 2
Top 10 Manga Franchises—Fall 2015
Retailer Brian Hibbs has released his annual analysis of the previous year’s BookScan charts, and it looks like 2015 was a great year for manga. His article is lengthy but fascinating reading if you’re interested in the fine points of the graphic novel market, but if you’re not, here’s one fact that kind of sums it up: In terms of dollar sales, Viz was the number two publisher of graphic novels in bookstores. Hibbs links to the actual spreadsheet of the top 750 graphic novels, in case you want to look it over for yourself. [Comic Book Resources]
Lori Henderson finds some free manga on the Kindle. [Manga Xanadu]
Chuya Koyama talks about Space Brothers. [Kodansha Comics]
Lone Wolf and Cub creator Kazuo Koike has done an Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Reddit! His answers to many of the questions are kind of vague, but he does say he thinks Samurai Executioner is his best work, and he is working on a new manga—that will be published as a motion comic. [Reddit]
Massive editor Graham Kolbeins talks gay manga. [Girls Like Comics]
Arina Tanemura releases the details of her new manga, to be titled Akuma ni Chic×Hack. [Anime News Network]
Tite Kubo has come down with something, so Bleach will skip a week. [Anime News Network]
There’s a lot going on in the world of yuri, and Erica Friedman rounds it up for us in the latest edition of Yuri Network News. Also, Erica will be participating in an alt-manga symposium at Baruch College in New York on April 7—check it out if you’re in town! [Okazu]
You may have heard of Kazuto Tatsuta before—he’s the guy who got a job as part of the cleanup crew in the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear reactor, which was damaged during the 2011 earthquake, and made a manga about it, Ichiefu. (You can read the first chapter in English here.) With the fifth anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami coming up, Tatsuta talks about his manga and the problems it revealed. [Japan Times]
In case you needed another excuse to read Yotsuba&!, here’s an article explaining why it’s a good choice for learning Japanese. [Japan Info]
If you read French, check out this interview with Minetaro Mochizuki, creator of Chiisakobé. [Nostroblog]
Reviews: At Manga Xanadu, Lori Henderson takes a look at Kimetsu no Yaiba, the new series that has just started running in Shonen Jump.
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 8 of Assassination Classroom (The Comic Book Bin)
L.B. Bryant on vol. 1 of Behind the Scenes (ICv2)
Gregory Smith on vol. 3 of Chaika the Coffin Princess (The Fandom Post)
Erica Friedman on the March 2016 issue of Comic Yuri Hime (Okazu)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 13 of Deadman Wonderland (WatchPlayRead)
Matt Brady on Junji Ito’s Fragments of Horror (Warren Peace Sings the Blues)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 77 of One Piece (The Comic Book Bin)
Gregory Smith on vol. 1 of Princess Knight (The Fandom Post)
Gregory Smith on The Secret Sakura Shares (The Fandom Post)
Justin on vol. 1 of Taboo Tattoo (The OASG)
Kory Cerjak on vol. 2 of Tokyo ESP (The Fandom Post)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 5 of Tokyo Ghoul (WatchPlayRead)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 5 of Tokyo Ghoul (The Comic Book Bin)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 3 of Ultraman (WatchPlayRead)