I’m posting a day late because I played hookey yesterday with my friend Dee and visited Hub Comics, the new comics store in Union Square, Somerville. I usually avoid comics shops, having had the same bad experiences plenty of other people had, but I’m happy to say that Hub Comics is a store for the rest of us, with a decent selection of manga, superhero stuff, and indy graphic novels—the comics that I’m always hearing about on the blogs but never see in chain bookstores. There were no posters of scantily clad women, and the only attitude on display was “friendly.” They have a prominent selection of all-ages comics near the door, with seats so the kids can actually sit and read. So I will be back, and if you live in the Boston area, I suggest you stop in and check it out. Then, as Dee and I did, you can repair to Bloc 11 on the next block for a cup of coffee and an indescribably good sandwich. UPDATE: Pictures here, for the curious.
In other news…
Shaenon Garrity wraps up the Overlooked Manga Festival with a second round of reader recommendations and a handy list of permalinks to all the OMFs.
Tokyopop interviews Tachibana Higuchi, the creator of Gakuen Alice.
JaPRESS has part 2 of their interview with Aimee Major Steinberger. Part 1 is here. (Via Patrick Macias.)
Tom Baker interviews Keiko Tobe about her manga about autism, With the Light, for The Star of Malaysia. Also at The Star: A reminder that the deadline for the Second International Manga Award is Feb. 29.
ComiPress translates an interview with Takehiko Inoue about his visit to New York’s Kinokuniya bookstore.
The Daily Yomiuri investigates why girls love boys-love manga for the umpteenth time.
There’s bad news and good news from Iris Print: They did not get the minimum number of pre-orders on their two upcoming books, but there has been enough retailer interest that they are going forward with Queer Magic anyway. As for the other title, Home on the Range, writer CB Potts explains why she chose to end her contract with Iris but leaves the door open to future ventures.
At the Icarus Comics blog (NSFW), Simon Jones offers two more reasons why translated manga doesn’t always fit quite right on the page.
Erin Finnegan lists manga she wants to read and manga whose titles crack her up.
Erica Friedman has the latest international yuri news at Okazu, including the fact that Yuricon will have a booth at Anime Boston.
Artist wanted: Jason Thompson is looking for a “manga-influenced artist” to collaborate with him on one or more graphic novels.
Tokyopop has several contests going on right now: The Rising Stars of Prose is looking for original short stories based on The Dreaming, there’s a Draw a Sumo contest linked to the upcoming Sumo Wrestling tournament in LA (and they have a downloadable Sumo booklet to go with it), and the What’s Your Alice contest for readers of Gakuen Alice.
Japanese serialization update: A new manga, based on a Disney game, will start up in the April issue of Kodansha’s Nakayoshi magazine, and Peach-Pit fans will get a double does of Shugo Chara! in the same issue.
Reviews: At Every Day Is Like Wednesday, Caleb reads some manga: vol. 1 of King of Thorn and vol. 1 of Kitchen Princess. Billy Aguiar reviews vol. 1 of Shin Megami Tensei KAHN for CBGXtra. Graeme Flory checks out vol. 2 of Spiral and vol. 1 of Sundome at Grame’s Fantasy Book Review. At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 1 of the novel Ai No Kusabi—The Space Between, and Sandra Scholes reads vol. 1 of Demon Flowers. Michelle awards vol. 15 of Fruits Basket an A at Soliloquy in Blue. Ed Chavez has an audio review up of vol. 1 of Gunsmith Cats Burst and vol. 11 of Hikaru No Go at MangaCast. The Manga Recon trio post mini-reviews of notable manga, and Ken Haley posts a maxi-review of NOiSE. Dan Grendell briefly reviews recent manga he liked at Comic Pants. EvilOmar spotlights Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle at About Heroes. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie gives her take on vols. 10 and 11 of Boys Be…, vols. 2 and 3 of Crossroad, vol. 2 of Walkin’ Butterfly, Voices of Love, vol. 5 of Ouran High School Host Club, and vol. 1 of Aria. Julie checks out vol. 1 of Orfina, Party, Be With You, and vol. 1 of Short Sunzen!
Glad to hear you found a comic shop you enjoyed. We could always use more good comic shops. =)
I don’t know if you’ve been to Comicopia in Kenmore Square, but I just discovered it a few weeks ago. It’s a cute little storefront with an impressive manga selection and a good selection of literary comics. No big discounts, though the day I went it, the store was running a promotion on “two manga we love”: Eden: It’s an Endless World and Dragon Head.
Thanks for the link! :) ‘Spiral’ looks like something I could really get into, ‘Sundome’ was my first ever look at ‘Mature Manga’ and I have to say I wasn’t that impressed…
Hope you have a great weekend!
I live in Somerville near Union Square, and had known but forgotten that Hub was supposed to be opening soon, so after I read this, I went down to have a look. I was impressed with the selection, and more than that, the merchandising—dividing up titles into categories like horror, fantasy, slice-of-life, and non-fiction helped draw my attention to both new and older books in a way that the common by-publisher-and alphabetical-by-title arrangement never has done. (Identifying books by publisher is extraordinarily geeky. I take great pride in being able rattle off publisher, author and date for most books in my own library, but I wouldn’t try to sell ’em that way, especially not if I was trying to attract new customers.) The only piece of art I noticed on the wall was a framed, vintage newspaper comic, which I really liked—to me, that indicates a promising breadth of interest on the part of the owner, or at least good taste in decoration.
The fellow staffing the store when I was there was very friendly. He offered me help when I came in, left me alone when I said I wanted to look around, encouraged me to order anything I wanted that I didn’t see, and when I came over with a stack of manga, made a point of letting me know that the store will be getting in a lot more manga, and that they’d be happy to hear any recommendations I might have for new titles.
I’ll definitely go back, and drag friends along with me.
Wow, that Tokyopop prose contest doesn’t sound like a very good deal when you look at the official rules. Buy submitting, you grant “unlimited but non-exclusive right to publish, use, adapt, edit, and/or modify your entry in any way, including in commerce, and in any and all media worldwide including without limitation the Internet and in TOKYOPOP’s business activities including, but not limited to, TOKYOPOP’s Pop Fiction Sampler book(s), marketing and publishing, WITHOUT LIMITATION AND WITHOUT COMPENSATION;” (emphasis mine). And that’s not limited to when you win. Theoretically they could make a blockbuster movie out of your non-winning submission, make a billion dollars, and not pay you a single red cent.