Contracts, creepwatch, and cool scans

We e-mailed John O’Donnell of CPM for comment on their issues with Libre and got the same terse reply as everyone else: “We do not comment publicly on licensor issues.” Jordan Marks of Yaoi Suki did a little better and learned that O’Donnell is in Japan right now, and the marketing director’s assistant didn’t even know what was going on. Simon Jones (NSFW as always) offers some thoughts.

Booklist watch: Vol. 12 of Naruto drops from 25 to 30 on this week’s USA Today Booklist, and vol. 12 of Fullmetal Alchemist debuts at number 130.

Yesterday was New Comics Day, and the MangaCast crew picks the best of this week’s slim list.

At Yaoi Suki, Jordan Marks comments on an article about yaoi and child pornography.

Same Hat has some awesome scans you won’t see anywhere else: While in New York, they plundered the bookstore Book-Off, and now they are showing off their spoils, including Osamu Tezuka’s version of Crime and Punishment and some oldies but goodies by Yoshida Sensha.

At No-Sword, Matt looks at the weirdness that is Comic Charge, the latest men’s manga magazine. (Via Journalista, who got it from Postmodern Barney.)

The Manga Creep… it’s everywhere! At least, everywhere that David Welsh looks.

Here’s a manga documentary on the South Bank Show. (Via Manga Talk.)

Yaoi Press has some recent news, including a link to their first TV spot.

The Japanese publisher Gentosha has announced plans to release manga online in seven languages and distribute print manga worldwide in six languages. The articles on this are very brief and it’s not clear how exactly the manga is being released; they do note that Tokyopop has Gentosha’s latest title, Graviation EX, which was released simultaneously in the U.S. and Japan.

Reviews: At the BasuGasuBakuhatsu Anime Blog, Hung checks out vol. 1 of Lunar Legend Tsukihime and vol. 1 of the light novel Boogiepop Returns VS Imaginator. It’s a slow day at Active Anime today, where Holly Ellingwood only reviews two books, vol. 5 of Our Kingdom and vol. 3 of Punch. At the Mangamaniaccafe, Julie enjoys vol. 1 of Pearl Pink, a manga my teenage daughter liked better than I did. Connie of Slightly Biased Manga reads volumes 5, 6, and 7 of Bride of Deimos. Leroy Douresseaux reviews vol. 1 of Wild Adaptor for the Comic Book Bin.