I’ll be back later with more, but here are the highlights of recent news:
At Comics 212, Christopher Butcher talks to Viz veep Alvin Lu about the differences between the Japanese and American editions of Kazuo Umezu’s Cat-Eyed Boy. Chris adds plenty of his own analysis, plus lots of illustrations.
Canned Dogs breaks the news we have been waiting for: Rozen Maiden is coming back, starting in Issue 20 of Young Jump.
At Same Hat! Same Hat!, Ryan takes a profanely enthusiastic look at this week’s new comics.
On the Dark Horse message board, Philip Simon explains why vol. 4 of MPD-Psycho is shipping late: He had it pulled back and pulped because of a printing error.
The excellent Rumiko Takahashi fansite Rumic World has created a special page to update English-speaking readers on the 50th anniversary features of Japanese manga magazine Shounen Sunday. (Via ComiPress.)
Jason Thompson devotes his latest Manga Salad column to two manga versions of the Bible.
Anime Boston news: ANN notes the lines; go to the forum for more, including a possible reason why (The Pillows ate the budget!). Erica Friedman was there, and she files reports from day 1 and day 2. I wish I had had time to go to her panels!
Charts: ComiPress has the French manga best-seller list. MangaCast posts the Japanese Gamers light novel rankings and the Toroana doujin rankings.
News from Japan: ANN reports on five new manga series, some by well-known creators, being launched in Young Gangan over the next few weeks. ComiPress has word of a new bishoujo manga anthology from GB Shuppan and a new BL light novel series from Libre Shuppan and MediaWorks.
Reviews: Alibris sent John Jakala vol. 1 of Scary Book by mistake, but it turned out to be a happy accident. Ferdinand gives vol. 1 of Dragon Sister! a dishonorable mention at Prospero’s Manga. Johanna Draper Carlson reviews vol. 8 of Happy Mania and vol. 2 of High School Debut at Comics Worth Reading. The villagers have a fresh crop of manga reviews up at Manga Village: John Thomas on vol. 13 of Death Note, Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of The Crimson Spell, Lori Henderson on vol. 3 of Andromeda Stories, Dan Polley on vol. 4 of Miki Falls, Charles Tan on vol. 1 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, and Sabrina on vol. 1 of Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad. Back under the pleasure dome at Manga Xanadu, Lori Henderson checks out vol. 1 of King of Cards and vol. 1 of Eagle: The Making of an American President, which is particularly apropos in this election year.
