It’s a new month, so a new issue of Comic Foundry is up. Actually, they’re trying something new this month: adding new content in the middle of the month, which I think is a great idea. The newest crop of stories includes a brief intereview with Svetlana Chmakova, in which she reveals what she’s reading and watching when she’s not working on the next volume of Dramacon.
Anime Expo news: At MangaCast, Ed Chavez casts a critical eye on the LA Times article that revealed that Anime Expo is really all about the manga. He agrees with some parts of the articles but challenges others, including the assertions that manga sales have been increasing by 100% per year and that manga readers tend to be young girls.
Manga calling: The Japan Times reports that cell phones are becoming the electronic medium of choice for manga readers, overtaking computers and PDAs. Although more prose works are available, manga accounts for more than half of all e-book downloads. With prices going down and quality going up, the trend is expected to continue.
Remember the Japanese manga website 464.jp? A few months ago, the three proprietors were arrested for illegally scanning manga and posting them on the site, where they were offered to readers for a fee. Well, the site is going legit; according to ComiPress, the proprietors (it’s not clear who they are) are negotiating with manga publishers regarding copyrights and also allowing new manga artists to join the site.
ComiPress is really proving to be a valuable site to those of us who don’t read Japanese. They have just posted two translations of articles about Japanese creators: a transcript of a talk by Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure manga-ka Hirohiko Araki and an interview with the creators of Fate/stay night, which started as a doujin and is now an anime and PS2 game.
