Kate Dacey, Gia Manry, and David Welsh look at this week’s new releases.
At PWCW, Kai-Ming Cha talks to Matt Thorn about the new line of manga from Fantagraphics, which Thorn will be editing and “curating.” Also, Ada Price talks to comics retailers about sales in the past year; they observe that manga buyers seem to be getting older, and that series like (wait for it) Akira are selling well. It looks like Naoki Urasawa and Osamu Tezuka titles are strong sellers as well. Of course, that’s partly a reflection of the comics-shop demographic; one of the things that surprised me in Brian Hibbs’s BookScan analysis this year was the complete absence of any Viz Signature titles on the BookScan top 750 sellers. Maybe everyone was buying them at their LCS.
At The Beat, Heidi has a preview of the Twilight graphic novel. At Anime Vice, Gia Manry summarizes a raging moe-vs-Twilight discussion on Twitter, and the conversation continues in the comments thread. Meanwhile, the grownups at USA Today take a look at the challenges of making a graphic novel of a popular property. (Last link via the Icarus blog.) And Lissa Pattillo turns in the first review at Kuriousity.
Snow Wildsmith spots some signs of life at DramaQueen, which has updated their forum and apparently has a new book, The Summit, which is at the printer’s right now! Developing…
Beth Wagner looks at some early Japanese sequential art at Myth and Manga.
Leave it to Lori Henderson to find some manga that tie in with St. Patrick’s Day.
News from Japan: ANN reports that manga sales are down in Japan by 6.6%, the largest year-to-year decrease since folks started keeping track. This year’s Manga Taisho award goes to Thermae Romae, a gag manga about public baths, apparently.
David Brothers discusses suspended expectations in One Piece at 4thletter!
Reviews: Carlo Santos takes on Black Butler, Lucky Star, and a handful of other manga in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN.
Deb Aoki on vol. 1 of Arata: The Legend (About.com)
Rob on vol. 3 of Basara (Panel Patter)
Bill Sherman on Blood Honey (Blogcritics)
Sam Kusek on vol. 1 of Bokurano: Ours (Manga Recon)
Tiamat’s Disciple on L’Etoile Solitaire (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 10 of Gakuen Alice (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Billy Aguiar on Haru Hana: The Complete Collection (Prospero’s Manga)
Emily on Hitsuji ga Ippiki (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 1 of In the Walnut (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Kristin on vols. 1 and 2 of Ouran High School Host Club (Comic Attack)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Reversible (The Comic Book Bin)
David Welsh on Ristorante Paradiso (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Julie on vol. 2 of Sumomomo, Momomo (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Taimashin: The Red Spider Exorcist (Kuriousity)
Susan S. on vol. 3 of Very! Very! Sweet (Manga Jouhou)
Rob on vol. 2 of Yotsuba&! (Panel Patter)
