Gia has the hot news tip of the day: an editor from the Japanese publisher Libre says that plans are under way to release the Finder series in English. Click the link for backstory plus some speculation.
The MangaCast team and David Welsh list their picks from this week’s bountiful new manga selection.
Vol. 29 of Naruto debuts at number 54 on this week’s USA Today best-seller list, and vol. 28 rebounds to number 139.
Is there a manga equivalent of comfort food? In this week’s Manga Before Flowers column, Danielle Leigh lists the manga she doesn’t mind reading even when she has a headache.
We don’t link to Stars and Stripes too often, but this story is interesting from several angles: The U.S. Navy is creating a manga about the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, which will be deployed in Okinawa beginning this summer. It’s propaganda, of course, but they hired Japanese artists and the art does look decent; they also came up with a manga-ish story, and the book is written in kanji. The initial print run is 30,000, and they estimate the book will cost $3 per copy. And if it takes off, they might even make it a series.
Reviews: Matthew J. Brady finds vol. 2 of High School Debut just a bit too girly for his tastes at Warren Peace Sings the Blues. Tangognat finds vol. 1 of Foxy Lady amusing but nothing special, but she wishes there were more than one volume of The Legend of Chun Hyang. At Comics Village, Sabrina reviews vol. 4 of Kurohime. Deb Aoki reviews vols. 1 and 2 of Honey and Clover at About.com. Julie finds some things to like about vol. 4 of I Hate You More Than Anyone at the Manga Maniac Cafe. It’s time to start some new series at Active Anime, where Holly Ellingwood reads vol. 1 of Toto! The Wonderful Adventure and vol. 1 of The Record of a Fallen Vampire, and Scott Campbell checks out vol. 1 of EV and vol. 1 of Switch. Rob Vollmar takes a look at DMP’s deluxe Speed Racer: Mach Go Go Go box set at Comics Worth Reading. At Kuri-ousity, Lissa Pattillo reads vol. 6 of Absolute Boyfriend. A.E. Sparrow enjoys vol. 1 of J-Pop Idol at IGN. Connie reads Real Love and vol. 23 of GetBackers at Slightly Biased Manga. At PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog, Ken Haley reviews vol. 1 of Dororo, which he admits is his first Tezuka manga.
That wouldn’t be the first manga created by the U.S. military! The Navy has a little chibi mascot to explain our boats docked in Japan… and it has for years. In Frederick Schodt’s book Manga! Manga! he talks about the army creating propaganda manga drawn by Japanese artists. It’s a really interesting section!
Woops, I should’ve mentioned World War 2 specifically.