MangaBlog

At MTV Geek, I take a look at the new est em manga that will start in Japan in July, and I speculate a bit about who will license it here (hint: It will run in IKKI magazine).

Jason Thompson looks at a favorite manga that CMX published back in the good old days, Two Flowers for the Dragon, in his latest House of 1000 Manga column for ANN.

Lori Henderson has the lineup of this week’s all-ages comics and manga at Good Comics for Kids.

ANN reports on some new manga listings that have shown up on Amazon, including Takashi Murakami’s Stargazing Dog, Yuichi Yokoyama’s Color Engineering, and a new volume of the global manga Vampire Kisses, based on Ellen Schreiber’s YA novels. Vampire Kisses was a Tokyopop series that was done under their co-publishing agreement with HarperCollins, and it has moved to the HarperCollins imprint Katherine Tegen Books. This raises the possibility that the Warriors manga, which were also produced under the joint agreement, might continue as well.

Molly McIsaac has more classic manga you should be reading at iFanboy.com.

This week’s license request from David Welsh is Taiyo Matsumoto’s Takemitsu Zamurai. Also, David has reached the letter R in his josei alphabet.

Convention news: Kimagure Orange Road creator Izumi Matsumoto and Megatokyo creator Fred Gallagher are both slated to be guests at Anime Expo this year; I wonder if this means Kimagure will finally be licensed here? At Welcome Datacomp, astrange translates some commentary from 2chan on FanimeCon; it’s an interesting look at U.S. fans by Japanese fans.

News from France: A Distant Neighborhood creator Jiro Taniguchi is going to be knighted in France; he will become a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters).

News from Japan: The shojo cooking manga Yumeiro Pâtissière will come to an end this week. The monthly comic magazine Ryū will go on hiatus in August to prepare for a December relaunch. A group of over 50 manga-ka are planning a doujinshi to be sold at summer Comiket to benefit the victims of the March 11 earthquake.

Reviews: Charles Solomon reviews Hiroshima: The Autobiography of Barefoot Gen, for the Los Angeles Times.

Lissa Pattillo on vol. 2 of Arisa (Kuriousity)
Kristin on vol. 4 of Bakuman and vol. 3 of Gente (Comic Attack)
Corinna Lawson’s son on vol. 1 of Bleach (omnibus edition) (GeekDad)
Julie Opipari on vol. 4 of Chi’s Sweet Home (Manga Maniac Cafe)
J. Caleb Mozzocco on Yuichi Yokoyama’s Garden (Blog@Newsarama)
TSOTE on vol. 8 of Geobreeders (Three Steps Over Japan)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 13 of Higurashi: When They Cry (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Steve Bennett on vol. 1 of Kekkaishi and vol. 1 of Naruto (omnibus editions) (ICv2)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 9 of Rasetsu (The Comic Book Bin)
Jocelyne Allen on Soil (Brain Vs. Book)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 1 of Toradora! (Good Comics for Kids)
Erica Friedman on Umesato the Third! (Okazu)

At MTV Geek, I check in with Viz and learn that they are not only publishing a two-volume film comic based on Studio Ghibli’s Arrietty the Borrower, they also have a picture book and an art book in the works.

David Welsh makes his pick of this week’s new releases, and it’s an easy choice. Sean Gaffney looks over next week’s new releases, which are a more bountiful offering.

Kate Dacey explains why you should read Rica ‘tte Kanji!?

Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith will host the next Manga Moveable Feast at Manga Bookshelf; the main course this month is Wild Adapter.

Blog news: Soliloquy in Blue has a new address, as Michelle Smith makes it official and joins the Manga Bookshelf family.

Events: If you are going to be in San Francisco this Saturday, check out the launch party for the second volume of Jason Thompson’s King of RPGs.

News from Japan: Say Hello to Black Jack creator Shuho Sato, who spends a lot of time thinking about what manga-ka earn, tweeted some statistics about compensation at various levels of sales. The top 100 manga-ka made an average of 70 million yen per year (about $860,000, according to ANN), but that is probably skewed by a few top earners like One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda. The June 25 issue of Hana to Yume will include a new chapter of Descendants of Darkness. And ANN has the latest Japanese comics rankings.

Reviews: Melinda Beasi, Kate Dacey, Michelle Smith, and David Welsh have a four-way conversation on manga in the Off the Shelf column at Manga Bookshelf.

Michelle Smith on vols. 3-6 of 13th Boy (Soliloquy in Blue)
Connie on vol. 15 of 20th Century Boys (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin on 7 Billion Needles (Comic Attack)
Julie Opipari on vol. 16 of Claymore (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Greg McElhatton on vol. 3 of Cross Game (Read About Comics)
Michelle Smith on vol. 2 of Kamisama Kiss (Soliloquy in Blue)
Anna on vols. 15-18 of Kaze Hikaru (Manga Report)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 5 of Library Wars: Love and War (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on Lychee Light Club (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 3 of My Girlfriend’s A Geek (Kuriousity)
Rob McMonigal on vols. 10 and 11 of Nana (Panel Patter)
Ai Kano on vol. 3 of Seiho Boys’ High School (Animanga Nation)
Bruce P on Tetsudou Shoujo Manga (Okazu)

At FanimeCon this weekend, Viz panelists announced that they would be publishing two film comics based on Studio Ghibli’s Arrietty the Borrower. The movie, which is loosely based on the British children’s novel The Borrowers, will be released in the UK this summer and in the U.S. next February; the books will debut in January 2012.

I took a look at this week’s new releases at MTV Geek.

Purists may blanch at the thought of manga being flipped to read left-to-right, but Ed Chavez revealed on Twitter yesterday that Usamaru Furuya, the creator of Lychee Light Club and Genkaku Picasso, has taken to drawing his manga twice, once in each orientation, in order to make it more attractive to potential overseas licensors.

Speaking of Ed Chavez, he is open to suggestions for manga that people would like to see Vertical license. Follow him on Twitter to see what books have been discussed already. The big publishers Vertical can license from include Kodansha, enterbrain, MediaFactory, Kadokawa, Hakusensha, and Akita Shoten.

Futuransky liveblogged the Ooku panel at Wiscon this past weekend. (Hat tip: Michelle Smith.) And coffeeandink took notes at the panel on Looking Beyond the Gender Binary in Anime and Manga (warning: Serious spoiler for After School Nightmare).

The folks at The Hooded Utilitarian are holding a poll to determine the best comics of all time. Manga readers, represent!

Del Rey confirms what Lissa Pattillo had suspected: The fanbook CLAMP in America has been cancelled.

Samurai Beat Radio interviewed Natusme Ono fans as they waited for her appearance at Kinokuniya bookstore in New York last month. (Via Manga Therapy.)

Life imitates art: Like a tortured soul coming back from the dead in one of their manga, Tokyopop lurched back to life long enough to send out a newsletter to its mailing list last week, but it wasn’t about their products—it was advertising another newsletter. I got one of these, so I know it’s true. And annoying.

New blog alert: At Brain vs. Book, Jocelyne Allen writes about lots of books, including lots of manga (in English and Japanese). And Kate Dacey has started a Manga Critic Tumblr to accompany her Manga Critic blog.

News from Japan: “Manga: An industry built on starving artists?” asks Matt Alt, rather provocatively, at CNN. Certainly the discrepancy between the top and the bottom is rather large. Rich Johnston remains unconvinced; at Bleeding Cool, he comments “I can think of a number of American comic book artists who would like to earn the average salary mentioned…” although that doesn’t really translate because the cost of living is considerably higher in Japan than the U.S. ANN lists the top-selling manga for the first half of the year by volume and by series.

Reviews: Ash Brown sums up a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga. Lori Henderson and Alex Hoffman discuss Bakuman in their latest He Said She Said column at Manga Village.

Steve Bennett on vol. 1 of Ai Ore (ICv2)
Alex Hoffman on vols. 1-3 of Bunny Drop (Manga Widget)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 3 of Grand Guignol Orchestra (The Comic Book Bin)
Jocelyne Allen on I Am a Hero (Brain vs. Book)
Michelle Smith on vol. 2 of Kamisama Kiss (Soliloquy in Blue)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 3 of Kamisama Kiss (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-Chan (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ken Haley on vol. 1 of Moon vs. Blood (Sequential Ink)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 1 of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Jennifer LeBlanc on No One Loves Me (The Yaoi Review)
Anna on vol. 2 of Sakura Hime and vol. 10 of Sand Chronicles (Manga Report)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vols. 1 and 2 of The Story of Saiunkoku (Comics Worth Reading)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Tenjho Tenge (omnibus edition) (Kuriousity)
Ed Sizemore on vol. 5 of Toriko (and the Viz iPhone app) (Comics Worth Reading)
Lori Henderson on vols. 9 and 11 of Zombie Loan (Manga Xanadu)

At their Fanimecon panel this past weekend, Viz reps announced that they will publish two “film books” based on Studio Ghibli’s Arrietty the Borrower (Karigurashi no Arrietty), which is based on the English children’s book The Borrowers.

Animate USA has released four new yaoi manga for the Kindle.

Derik Badman rounds up the last of the Manga Moveable Feast posts at The Panelists.

The Manga Village team picks the best of the past week’s new releases.

In their latest Let’s Get Visual post at Soliloquy in Blue, Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith explore the idea of mono no aware, a certain wistfulness brought on by the realization of the transience of life.

Erica Friedman brings us the latest Yuri Network News and then adds a late-breaking item about a new yuri title, Blue Friend, being licensed in Germany.

Here’s a fun bit of holiday reading: Queenie Chan’s online comic Sister Holmes: Detective Nun. Enjoy!

New blog alert: Vicki Pauli, whose Twitter handle is wikivic, is jotting down her thoughts on manga at Manga Bubbles. Vicki has a nice, clear style, and her reviews are well worth a look. Welcome to the world of manga blogging, Vicki!

News from Japan: Maki Murakami is resuming Gravitation EX after a two-year hiatus; it will be carried by Gentosha’s online magazine Web Spica.

Reviews

Kinukitty on Crimson Snow (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Carlo Santos on vol. 9 of Detroit Metal City (ANN)
Vicki Pauli on Emma (Manga Bubbles)
Connie on vol. 2 of Grand Guignol Orchestra (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin on vol. 2 of Gunslinger Girl (omnibus edition) (Comic Attack)
A Library Girl on vol. 1 of Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Connie on vol. 51 of One PIece (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on Practice Husband (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 6 of Sensual Phrase (Slightly Biased Manga)
Nicola on vol. 5 of Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee (Back to Books)
Connie on vol. 1 of Tenjho Tenge (omnibus edition) (Slightly Biased Manga)
Shaenon Garrity on vol. 1 of Wandering Son (The Comics Journal)
Kate Dacey on A Zoo in Winter (The Manga Critic)

Hey, everyone, sorry about the spotty posting the past few weeks. I’m up to my neck in my biggest project of the year, my city’s Memorial Day parade, which actually happens on Sunday. That and sundry other things have conspired against me. However, once the parade is over, normal posting will resume. In the meantime, here’s an oversized post with lots of good reading for the long weekend. Enjoy!

I put together a Sailor Moon primer at MTV Geek, for those who are wondering what the fuss is all about, and I also took a look at Tokyopop licenses that are likely to be rescued (OK, some are wishful thinking). No sooner had I done this, then two publishers picked up two licenses that I never would have guessed were in play: Vertical has acquired the license to the Great Teacher Onizuka prequel, Shonan Junai-gumi, and the sequel, Shonan 14 Days, and marketing director Ed Chavez held out the possibility that they may license the GTO series as well; and Cryptozoic put the World of Warcraft and StarCraft manga on its iPad app.

In other publishing news, DramaQueen has announced it will release Shushushu Sakurai’s one-shot BL manga Junk on June 1. ANN spots some new books on Amazon: Yakuza Cafe from Digital and The Innocent from Yen. And Digital Manga continues to live up to its name by expanding onto yet another platform, Google Books.

At Anime Vice, Tim Beedle talks about his time at Tokyopop, and how things changed over the years he was there. If you’re curious what went wrong there, this is a great place to start.

Shaenon Garrity steps in for Jason Thompson this week and explains why she loves Club 9 so much in the latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

Always a step ahead of the rest of us, Sean Gaffney looks at next week’s new manga releases and finds… none. Johanna Draper Carlson has some recommendations from this week’s batch, which should tide us over.

The Manga Moveable Feast continues with reviews and commentary on Mitsuri Adachi’s Cross Game; check out all the links at host blog The Panelists.

Melinda Beasi convenes the final session of the Breaking Down Banana Fish roundtable at Manga Bookshelf.

At Manga Xanadu, Lori Henderson bemoans the loss of Tokyopop’s Warriors manga, which were global manga based on Erin Hunter’s tween novels about clans of cats. I’m sure she’s not the only one, as Warriors was Tokyopop’s best-selling series last year by a healthy margin, and they had more volumes scheduled to come out; perhaps someone will rescue that license as well.

Manga Therapy continues its mental health month theme with a guest post by Ricky Alvarez on the Fruits Basket character Kyo Sohma.

License request: David Welsh would like to see some of Cross Game creator Misturi Adachi’s shoujo manga. Also, David reaches the letter Q in his Josei Alphabet.

Feeling lucky? Ash Brown is giving away a copy of Natsume Ono’s Gente.

Job Board: Digital Manga is has a few openings.

Blogging note: Manga expert Jason Thompson is abandoning his LJ and will now be writing and drawing at Mockman.com and kingofrpgs.com.

News from Japan: All sorts of creativity is being unleashed at the moment, and hopefully some of it will make its way over here. est em, the creator of Seduce Me After the Show and Red Blinds the Foolish, has begun a bullfighting manga titled Golondrina. Ai Yori Aoshi creator Kou Fumizuki has launched a new series, Itadaki! about a new student who joins a school’s mountain-climbing club. Shueisha has revealed the manga-ka who will have serials in their new Jump X magazine, and they include Nodame Cantabile creator Tomoko Ninomiya, who will start a new series. Tanbishugi has the official cover of the new CLAMP manga, Gate 7. Helen McCarthy shows off some pretty Rose of Versailles stamps from Japan Post. And since China won’t allow comics made by foreign artists into the country, Kadokawa got together with a Chinese publisher to do a homegrown comic adaptation of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Reviews: Omar whips up some brief reviews of recent manga at About Heroes. At All About Manga, Daniella Orihuela-Gruber gives quick impressions of some Tokyopop manga she picked up at their garage sale. Michelle Smith and Melinda Beasi discuss their latest reading in their Off the Shelf column at Manga Bookshelf.

Michelle Smith on vol. 6 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (Japanese edition) (Soliloquy in Blue)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 5 of Arata: The Legend (Kuriousity)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of A Bride’s Story (The Manga Critic)
Ed Sizemore on vol. 1 of A Bride’s Story (Comics Worth Reading)
Serdar Yegulalp on vol. 1 of A Bride’s Story (Genji Press)
Michelle Smith on vols. 1-4 of Full House (Soliloquy in Blue)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of Gente (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
TSOTE on vol. 7 of Geobreeders (Three Steps Over Japan)
Marcus Speer on Higurashi When They Cry: Demon Exposing Arc (Japanator)
Leroy Douresseaux on vols. 1-3 of Kekkaishi (omnibus edition) (The Comic Book Bin)
AstroNerdBoy on The Manga Guide to Relativity (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (The Comic Book Bin)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Negima! (I Reads You)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 29 of Negima! (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Jennifer LeBlanc on Open the Door to Your Heart (The Yaoi Review)
Clive Owen on vol. 3 of Rosario + Vampire, Season II (Animanga Nation)
Carlo Santos on vol. 3 of Saturn Apartments (ANN)
Bill Sherman on Scarlet (Blogcritics)
Kristin on vols. 5 and 6 of Seiho Boys’ High School (Comic Attack)

At About.com, Deb Aoki goes over some of the questions left by Tokyopop’s closing and asks her readers: Which Tokyopop series would you like to see rescued? Deb also has a look ahead to FanimeCon, which happens this weekend.

The Manga Bookshelf bloggers discuss their pick of the week, and they lean heavily toward Kaoru Mori’s A Bride’s Story. The Manga Village team looks at the past week’s new releases.

Manga Therapy posts a podcast of Natsume Ono’s appearance at Kinokuniya in New York earlier this month.

The Manga Moveable Feast continues with David Welsh’s list of ten things he loves about Cross Game. There’s a whole lot of writin’ going on, so be sure to check out the archive post at MMF host The Panelists.

News from Japan: Kadokawa is launching a new manga magazine that will start out with five anime-based series. Welcome datacomp has a trip report on Comiket 79.

Reviews: Carlo Santos brings us up to date with the latest manga in his Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Ash Brown summarizes a week’s worth of manga at Experiments in Manga. The Manga Bookshelf bloggers make quick work of a stack of manga in their latest Bookshelf Briefs column.

Anna on vol. 1 of A Bride’s Story (Manga Report)
Dave Ferraro on A Bride’s Story (Comics-and-More)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 12 of We Were There (The Comic Book Bin)