Zut!

The pictures tell the story in this report on sales of French comics: one of Naruto, two of the French (actually, Swiss) character Titeuf. That’s a good snapshot of the market; about one in three (34.5%) of the comics sold in France are manga, up from 30% the year before. (“Not much better,” sniffs the report, but that seems like a respectable increase to me.) Interestingly, if I’m reading this right, the number of books sold has held steady but the market is down a bit because manga are cheaper than BDs. And one reason for manga’s dominance, the report points out, is that Naruto, for instance, comes out six times a year, whereas it has been two years since the last issue of Titeuf. BDs are slower. And an interesting cultural point: BDs do better in December, because with their higher-quality format (full color, large size, and either a hard or a heavy paper cover) and correspondingly higher price, people think of them as gift books. Which may also be why they don’t do well during the rest of the year. (Via Journalista.)

But don’t count them out yet: remember, Publisher’s Weekly’s pick for the best manga of 2006, The Building Opposite, is French.

The motley crew at MangaCast picks the best of this week’s comics and links to some new previews.

Amish Otaku sounds like a contradiction in terms, but it’s actually a new web ‘zine published in the heart of Amish Country, central Pennsylvania. There are no ads for farm tools or recipes for shoo-fly pie, just lots of reviews of manga, games, and anime, although I believe using frames is the internet equivalent of a horse and buggy.

Has Death Note jumped the shark? No way, says Lyle.

Crossroad is the first of Go!Comi’s inaugural series to reach the end of its run, and the publisher is inviting fans to send in fanart for the last volume.

At Shuchaku East, Chloe gets weird looks at the bookstore for breaking out of her assigned niche.

Who’s who: They’re rearranging the chairs a bit at Viz, where three people were recently promoted: Gonzalo Ferreyra from Director of Sales for Home Video to VP Sales, Publishing and Home Video; Moneka Hewlett from Director of Consumer Marketing for the magazine division to Director of Sales, Publishing; and Brian Ige from Sales Manager to Director of Sales, Home Video.

At Mangamaniaccafe, Julie is unimpressed with vol. 2 of Peach Girl Active Anime’s Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 1 of Death Trance and vol. 2 of Rin! AoD covers several ongoing series in its Small Bodied Manga Reviews. At Yet Another Comics Blog, Dave Carter posts some brief reviews of global manga.