This is a fairly short post, as a rogue bit of Javascript thoroughly hosed my computer today. However, I’m linking to some nice, meaty posts, so savor them at your leisure and we’ll be back up to speed tomorrow.
The ComiPress folks have just unveiled a massive, ambitious project: Inside Scanlation, a comprehensive look at the world of scanlation, featuring interviews with scanlators and industry folks, a timeline, and all sorts of interesting information.
Meanwhile, over at Good Comics for Kids, we had a lively roundtable on the recent controversy over a copy of Dragon Ball in a school library. As several of our panelists are school and public librarians, they had a variety of different perspectives to add. Meanwhile, the Wicomico Public Library has pulled 24 volumes of the series off the shelves, due to concerns over the first volume (the series was toned down in later volumes), and library officials are trying to figure out where to shelve them. This is disconcerting. The initial concerns about the first volume came up because it was in an elementary school library—the book in question is rated 13+, so you can reasonably argue that it doesn’t belong there. A public library is a different matter. Furthermore, as J. Caleb Mozzocco points out, the Wicomico Public Library has a teen graphic novels section. That’s where the book should go, and it’s hard to believe the librarians don’t know that. It just goes to show, as librarian Robin Brenner says in the roundtable, that “Involving politicians in challenges never seems to make matters clearer, only more visible.”
On a more pleasant note, here’s a treat for Rumiko Takahashi fans: Viz has just put the first chapter of Mermaid Saga up on its Shonen Sunday website. (Via The Manga Critic.)
The denizens of Comics Village pick the best of the most recent crop of manga.
Reviews: The Manga Recon crowd make it look easy with their latest batch of Manga Minis.
Melinda Beasi on vol. 1 of The Battle of Genryu: Origin (Manga Bookshelf)
Snow Wildsmith on Black Sun (Manga Jouhou)
Laura on Boys Over Flowers (Heart of Manga)
Alex Hoffman on vol. 1 of Children of the Sea (Comics Village)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 1 of Fairy Idol Kanon (Manga Jouhou)
Connie on vol. 1 of Four-Eyed Prince (Manga Recon)
Melinda Beasi on vol. 18 of Nana (Manga Bookshelf)
Bill Sherman on vol. 1 of Ooku: The Inner Chambers (Blogcritics)
Sam on vol. 7 of Rozen Maiden (The Otaku’s Study)
What I find interesting is that, while Wicomico Public Library is having to figure out what to do about volumes of Dragon Ball, there are public libraries out there with volumes published by Yaoi Press in their holdings (found this out via WorldCat). Granted, there don’t seem to be many, but I haven’t heard about any kind of huge uproar. It’s interesting what gets people up in arms and what doesn’t. Then again, maybe it’s just that the right (or wrong?) people haven’t spotted those volumes yet.
When I first thought to check if any public libraries did have volumes published by Yaoi Press, I wasn’t expecting to see anything but academic libraries. At first, I thought maybe the Collection Managers at those few public libraries were very brave people, but, since it looked like only random volumes were held (I think one library had vol. 3 of a 4-vol. series, but nothing else), I’m wondering if maybe they were just inattentive.