David Welsh looks over today’s comics list and finds a lot to love. And thanks to David for reminding me that the last volume of Hot Gimmick is out, and Mely has a wrapup.
Bless me, father, for I have sinned: Tina Anderson explains the appeal of the cosmetic clergy genre, which for some reason non-Japanese publishers are not rushing to embrace, although Tina’s own CC manga will be out soon. Images are SFW, but this isn’t a permalink so you may have to hunt a bit if you’re coming to this post late.
The Japan Times discovers scanlators and fansubbers. Nice lede on this story, about scanlators putting manga in the microwave to soften the glue in the binding. I didn’t know that!
The Toronto Star goes to the Shojo Manga exhibit and kind of gets it. But just kind of. The reference to the popularity of Sailor Moon makes it seem dated, and nobody told the author that the characters in manga are indeed supposed to be Japanese. (Paging Matt Thorn!) But he’s right about this:
Decades will have to pass before we’ll be allowed to see a little boy-on-boy action with Archie and Jughead in the Archie comics.
Archie/Jughead slash? Ow! My brain hurts just trying to picture it. (Tina, don’t even think of it!)
Takeshi Obata, artist of Death Note and Hikaru no Go, was arrested in Tokyo for possession of a knife. Obata says he left the knife, which sports a 3 1/2-inch blade, in his glove compartment after a camping trip.
Slightly off topic, but a possible treat for our Bay Area readers: Yohan, a Japanese publisher that already owns Stone Bridge Press, has bought Cody’s bookstore.
After just one chapter, Lyle is hooked on Beauty Pop. Cinescape gives Gerard et Jacques a good review. And Emily looks at a student-teacher manga, Sekai wa Bokura no Tameni (The World is For Us)
So what else is new: A week after volume 11 of Naruto hits an all-time high on the USA Today Booklist, Viz gets around to putting out a press release. ICv2 adds that Bookscan is showing that the volume sold 10,000 copies in the first two weeks. Which prompts this question over at The Hurting:
So what the hell is this Naruto crap that all the kids are into?
Of course a post like this is all about the comments:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles without the mutant turtles.
and my favorite so far:
You’ll never understand, Dad! This is my life, and if I want to dress up like an Orange Julius ninja then I will!
The Toronto Star piece did make me appreciate Telophase’s historical overview all the more. And it made me want to start nagging Vertical to put together a big, glamorous version of “Rose of Versailles.”
I absolutely don’t understand why “Rose of Versailles” is not availble in English. (Or is it? I’ve never seen it.) I would think that Shoujo Manga show would be a good launching pad for a Vertical or Fanfare to produce a couple of nice, overpriced editions of classic manga.
Archie/Jughead slash? Ow! My brain hurts just trying to picture it. (Tina, don’t even think of it!)
I’m no slasher, or Aimai-junkie; but I’ve seen worst from that faction of male on male fans. I’m still reeling from my exposure to the Marvin the Martian club from Yaoi Gallery.
Great! Two unsavory mental pictures in one day! Thanks, Tina!
We stick our books in the microwave, too. :-) What’s good enough for the scanlators is good enough for the pros! (especially since one of the fellows photographed in the article sits at the desk next to mine…)
Is it the guy in the top photo? Lucky you!
One of my first jobs was editing law textbooks, and I will never forget the day I was handed two books and a razor blade and told to cut out all the pages (so we could mark revisions that the printer would then put in by hand). Even though I knew I was making the book better, and even though it was a supremely boring book, it was still hard to chop it up! Now I know why I can never be a scanlator (well, that and the fact that I don’t speak Japanese).
A microwave is effective, but it does cause the pages to curl.
With an iron, this doesn’t happen.
For thin books, a blow dryer is just as good.
What’s kind of cool is that if you used those methods…you can actually rebind the book. Same can’t be said about the x-acto way.
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I used to use a heat gun to remove binding, which is just like a blow dryer, but less air and more direct heat. Another plus is that there’s no risk of moisture damage as with most irons.
Wait a minute… I really shouldn’t be talking about this…
Is any shoujo fan scanlating “Ouke no Monshou”? Now THAT’s a mega-popular old-school shoujo! Even I have secretly read a few volumes under the threat of being discovered by my sister. I guess I can tell her now that nowdays gaijin men have the right to read shoujo openly! Nah, I don’t think I’ll tell her about this new phenomenom… she’ll either die laughing or accuse me of lying .
Those comic blogs are so full of hating. Reading them just angers me. Just make me glad that I’ve quit all the Marvel/DC stuff. Don’t want to make myself an ancient ignoramus.
You use a cheap iron that you don’t put water in. ^_-
As for a heat gun… that might work, but that isn’t nearly as common an item to have. You’re also way more likely to burn yourself…or set something on fire…especially any plastic close to your work area.
You can actually find heat guns at most hardware stores (admittedly not the first place people think of going to for scan making needs.) Most have analog dials for controlling the amount of heat… but oh yes, there’s serious potential for one’s debinding experience to become quite painful if careless… >_
I thank the heavens every day that our licensor sends us digital files, so I don’t have to eviscerate a book ever again.
(oops, illegal character.)
“Archie/Jughead slash? Ow! My brain hurts just trying to picture it.”
You’re right. Let’s start slow, maybe with some Bugs and Daffy. (^_^)