Manga anthology folds

Posted on November 26, 2009 by Brigid Alverson

Happy Thanksgiving to all my U.S. readers! (And everyone else as well—what the heck.)

Objecting to the lack of manga in the New York Times’ graphic novels gift guide, Erica Friedman has rallied the troops to post their own manga gift guides. Mine will be up later this weekend, and Erica has a comprehensive list of participants at Okazu. Want to participate but don’t have a blog? David Welsh will host your selections at Precocious Curmudgeon. David’s picks are already up, and I’ll post a full list tomorrow.

Big news, but be warned the site is NSFW: The adult manga anthology Comic AG, published by Icarus Comics, is folding. Publisher Simon Jones says the magazine is breaking even, and that in a way it is a victim of its own success, having established a market that is now better served by trades. Obviously, it faced a different set of challenges than Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat, and the post is well worth reading if you’re not at work or around little kids.

The Wall Street Journal is taunting us with articles about manga and manhwa that are hidden behind a pay wall. I have never put a penny in Rupert Murdoch’s pocket, and I’m not going to start now, but Heidi has a brief summary at The Beat.

And here’s something interesting, from Graphic Novel Reporter: The independent booksellers’ graphic novel best-seller list for the past quarter. What I like about this list is that it tosses all graphic novels, manga and otherwise, together so we can see how they sell relative to each other. Also, it’s an interesting list and much more eclectic than the AV Club’s.

Even veteran translaters like Alethea and Athena Nibley get stumped once in a while; their latest column deals with how they deal with slang and other difficult terms.

Johanna Draper Carlson speculates about why Moyasimon was delayed.

Same Hat has an update on the AX anthology and some cool Yuichi Yokoyama (Travel) murals from Nike’s Harajuku shop.

Deb Aoki traveled to Japan with a distinguished circle of artists that included Becky Cloonan, Dan Hess, Dee Dupuy, Lanny Liu, Leisl Adams, Myung Hee Kim, Queenie Chan, and Svetlana Chmakova to sell their doujinshi at Comitia. She chronicles day 1 and day 2 of the trip at About.com.

Here’s a handy feature: Lissa Pattillo is posting searchable release schedules at Kuriousity.

News from Japan: ANN reports that josei favorite Erica Sakurazawa has just embarked on a new manga series, and they also post the latest comics rankings. And Canned Dogs posts pictures of shojo manga artist Shinjou Mayu’s studio.

Reviews: Settle back and enjoy Carlo Santos’ unfiltered comments on recent manga in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN.

Julie on vol. 8 of Alive (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 9 of The Antique Gift Shop (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Assistant Denki Keika (Okazu)
Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 1 of Beast Master (Manga Life)
Kris on vol. 2 of Clan of the Nakagamis (Manic About Manga)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 3 of Dororo (Kuriousity)
Julie on vol. 2 of Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Penny Kenny on vol. 4 of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Manga Life)
Connie on Merry Family Plan (Manga Recon)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Moyasimon (Comics Worth Reading)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of Moyasimon (Comics-and-More)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 3 of The Name of the Flower (Comics Worth Reading)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vols. 1 and 2 of Ooku: The Inner Chambers (Comics Worth Reading)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 3 of Otomen (Kuriousity)
Julie on vol. 7 of Parasyte (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Barb Lien-Cooper on vol. 6 of Real (Manga Life)
Snow Wildsmith on vols. 1 and 2 of Sugarholic (Good Comics for Kids)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 4 of You’re So Cool (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)

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Manga deemed insignificant by The Onion

Posted on November 25, 2009 by Brigid Alverson

David Welsh beats us all to the end-of-the-year story with his summary of everything he is grateful for (manga-wise) in 2009.

Kate Dacey, David Welsh, and Brad Rice take a look at this week’s new magna, and the Comics Village crew picks the best of last week’s releases.

At PWCW, Kai-Ming Cha talks to Yen Press honcho Kurt Hassler about his plans for manga adaptations, the place of Yen Plus magazine, and more. Also: Steve Bunche interviews Helen McCarthy about her new book, The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga. And their comics reviews include a short take on GoGo Monster (scroll down).

At Robot 6, Sean T. Collins looks at the Onion A.V. Clubs list of the Best Comics of the 00s and takes them severely to task for completely ignoring manga:

I’ll be the first to apologize if a separate, all-manga list is forthcoming. But as it stands now, the lack of a single Japanese comic on a best-of list for a decade during which such comics reached unprecedented popularity in the North American market — and during which an equally unprecedented number of acclaimed titles from nearly every time period and genre have finally seen the light of English translation and publication — is utterly egregious.

At the original post, a staffer defends the omission on about page 4 of the comments (there doesn’t seem to be a way to link to individual comments) on the grounds that he doesn’t know enough about manga. That seems rather dismissive; you can’t write about “comics” and just ignore a huge swath of the market. Either learn or hire someone. David Welsh takes steps to remedy this at Precocious Curmudgeon, where he nominates his top manga for the decade and invites others to join in.

Also at Robot 6: It’s not manga, but if you’re looking for something new to read over the long weekend, check out the webcomics buffet in my latest Unbound column.

The Yaoi Review follows its discussion of yaoi for beginners with an even more interesting question: Which yaoi manga should beginners avoid?

In Danielle Leigh’s latest recommendation post, she picks three manga based on the keywords “giant robots, adventure, and optimism.” Now there’s a challenge!

Helen McCarthy uses the British Museum as a springboard for her discussion of the work of Professor Munakata creator Yukinobu Hoshino, who actually wrote a manga about the museum, which in turn has devoted an exhibit to the manga. It all sounds very cool.

Here’s an interesting bit of dialogue-by-blog: Daniella Orihuela-Gruber posts about why she doesn’t like manhwa some aspects of manhwa at her blog, All About Comics. Tari (troisroyaumes) responds by pointing out that (1) manhwa is a medium in its own right, not an imitation of manga, and (2) the manhwa being translated is not representative of the medium as a whole in Korea. Then Danielle responds, and to her credit, I really don’t think she should apologize. I think her critique is actually pretty good, if it’s understood as a critique of translated manhwa—a lot of the stories are shallow, and anyway, there’s never any need to apologize in matters of taste. (Found via Melinda Beasi on Twitter.)

Holiday giveaway time: Melinda Beasi is giving away three boys’ love manga from Digital at Manga Bookshelf. And don’t forget that we are giving away five complete sets of the manhwa trilogy The Color of Earth at Good Comics for Kids.

Reviews

Kris on vol. 1 of Close the Last Door (Manic About Manga)
Emily on Daite Daite Daite Darling (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Lori Henderson on vols. 5-7 of Goong (Comics Village)
Kris on vol. 1 of Hey, Class President! (Manic About Manga)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 1 of Honey and Clover (Fujoshi Librarian)
Alexander Hoffman on vols. 1-2 of Magic Touch (Comics Village)
Edward Zacharias on vol. 44 of Naruto (Animanga Nation)
Gia Manry on vol. 1 of Night Head Genesis (Anime Vice)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of Oh! My Brother (Prospero’s Manga)
Connie on vol. 8 of Wild Ones (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 14 of xxxHolic (Slightly Biased Manga)
Michael C. Lorah on vol. 2 of Yokaiden (Blog@Newsarama)
D.M. Evans on vol. 6 of Zombie-Loan (Manga Jouhou)

Posted in Mangablog | 4 Comments

Live chat with Nina Matsumoto

Posted on November 24, 2009 by Brigid Alverson

I’m dashing off to work right now, so I won’t have today’s news up until later, but I did want to alert you to the fact that Yokaiden creator Nina Matsumoto is having a live chat today at 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Suvudu.com. All the details are below the cut.

CHAT LIVE WITH EISNER AWARD WINNER NINA MATSUMOTO TOMORROW ON SUVUDU.COM

Who: Nina Matsumoto, Eisner Award-Winning author of the original English-language manga, Yokaiden.
What: Live chat online
When: Tuesday, November 24 at 3 PM EST
Where: Suvudu.com

Nina first made a splash into the manga scene with a single image she called “Simpsonzu”—an illustration of the entire Simpsons cast, drawn in a manga style. The image caught the attention and imagination of the comics blogosphere—as well as the attention of Bongo Comics. Impressed with Nina’s work, they offered her a position as a penciler for comic book series such as The Simpsons and Futurama.

Matsumoto’s work was recognized at Comic-Con International at San Diego in July 2009, when she won an Eisner Award for best short story for her contribution to The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Terror #14, “Murder He Wrote.” The story, created along with Ian Boothby and Andrew Pepoy, was a Simpsons parody inspired by the popular thriller manga, Death Note.

On Suvudu.com Matsumoto will discuss the her work as an artist and the story behind her acclaimed original English-language manga, Yokaiden. The second volume of Yokaiden, published by Del Rey Manga, an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group, will be released on Tuesday, November 24.

http://www.suvudu.com/author-chat/nina-matsumoto

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Deep thoughts for Monday morning

Posted on November 23, 2009 by Brigid Alverson

CaseClosed1At Good Comics for Kids, Robin Brenner looks at circulation statistics for the graphic novels in her library’s collection and draws some surprising conclusions—including the fact that Case Closed circulates more than Twilight. Also, Lori Henderson checks out this week’s kid-friendly comics and manga.

Also at Good Comics for Kids, we are giving away five sets of Kim Dong Hwa’s lovely manhwa trilogy, The Color of Earth, The Color of Water, and The Color of Heaven. Go, click, enter!

Once again, Lori Henderson rounds up the week’s manga news in handy digest form at Manga Xanadu.

Japan Focus has an interesting essay about two manga creators, Kōno Fumiyo (Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms) and Nishio Yuka (A Summer’s Afterimage: Nagasaki – August 9), both of whom take the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and their aftermath as their subject matter. Among other things, the essay deals with the problem of writing about atomic bomb survivors (hibakusha) when the writers themselves did not live through the bombings.

The Mainichi Daily News interviews translator Simona Stanzani—in a butler cafe.

pic_dhc_01Gina Biggs originally developed Red String as an entry in Tokyopop’s Rising Stars of Manga contest; now it’s a long-running webcomic with four volumes in print. She tells Wolfen Moondaughter all about it at Sequential Tart.

The latest New York Times graphic books best-seller list is up, and Vampire Knight tops the list.

David Welsh’s latest license request is a good one: the yokai series GeGeGe no Kitaro.

Jake Forbes posts the cover art for the fourth volume of Return to Labyrinth, which will wrap up the series, at Gobblin.net.

Tokopop’s next webinar, scheduled for November 30, will feature Stu Levy talking about the past, present, and future of the company.

Manga Jouhou is looking for reviewers.

News from Japan: Evan Miller reports in from Comitia, and he has photos. Ristorante Paradiso creator Natsume Ono has a new series in the works, while Hisachi Ichii is taking a break from Nono-chan while he recovers from an unspecified illness.

Reviews: The Manga Recon team starts the week with a fresh set of Manga Minis. Other reviews of note:

Lori Henderson on vol. 2 of 07-Ghost (Manga Xanadu)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 5 of 20th Century Boys (Comics Worth Reading)
Diana Dang on vol. 1 of Akira (Stop, Drop, and Read!)
Connie on vol. 4 of Arm of Kannon (Slightly Biased Manga)
Jason Yadao on Bat-Manga and vol. 1 of X-Men: Misfits (Honolulu Star-Bulletin)
Connie on vol. 8 of Black Jack (Slightly Biased Manga)
Gia on Brave Story (light novel) (Anime Vice)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Butterflies, Flowers (Kuriousity)
CATPARADISE_2David Welsh on vol. 2 of Cat Paradise and vol. 4 of V.B. Rose (Precocious Curmudgeon)
Theron Martin on vol. 15 of Claymore (ANN)
Erica Friedman on vol. 1 of Dragon Sister (Okazu)
Danielle Leigh on Exotic and Delicious Fate (Comics Should Be Good!)
Emily on Himegimi to Sanbiki no Kemono (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 17 of Hikaru no Go (Comics Worth Reading)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vols. 1-3 of Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit (Comics Worth Reading)
Tangognat on Liberty Liberty! (Tangognat)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Love*Com (Kuriousity)
Julie on vol. 1 of Nabari no Ou (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Melinda Beasi on vol. 1 of Oh! My Brother (Manga Bookshelf)
Zaki Zakaria on Oishinbo: Fish and Sushi (The Star of Malaysia)
Erin Finnegan and Sam Kusek on vols. 5 and 6 of Oishinbo (Manga Recon)
Julie on vol. 7 of Parasyte (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 6 of Pluto (Comics Worth Reading)
Connie on vol. 13 of Reborn (Slightly Biased Manga)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 1 of Spice & Wolf (light novel) (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Bill Sherman on This Ugly Yet Beautiful World (Blogcritics)
Melinda Beasi on The Way to Heaven (Manga Bookshelf)
Connie on vol. 7 of Wild Ones (Slightly Biased Manga)

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Review: Yokaiden, vol. 2

Posted on November 21, 2009 by Brigid Alverson

9780345503299Yokaiden, vol. 2
By Nina Matsumoto
Rated T, ages 13+
Del Rey, $10.99

The second volume of Nina Matsumoto’s is as imaginative as the first, but it lacks a bit of the sparkle.

Volume 1 introduced Hamachi, a nine-year-old boy who is obsessed with yokai, spirits and monsters of Japanese folklore. When his grandmother, his sole caretaker, is killed by a yokai, Hamachi ventures into the yokai realm to seek revenge.

It’s a pretty classic setup that is enlivened by Matsumoto’s colorful renderings of a huge variety of yokai. However, in the first volume, as she notes in her afterword, she focuses on the more grotesque creatures, while in this one she brings in more human-like yokai, and she also sends Hamachi on a very classic fairy-tale quest. Honestly, I think the yokai in the first volume were more interesting.

Still, she puts some pretty good spins on the traditional tales. In order to find the lizard-like kappa who murdered his grandmother, Hamachi visits the nine-tailed fox spirit, one of the most powerful yokai. Matsumoto imagines her as a massively obese, three-eyed, rather feline fox who is obsessed with human culture: She lives in a mockup of a human home, eats human food, and even has her servants wear human masks. The fox takes a liking to Hamachi and wants to keep him as a pet, but when he insists on staying on mission, she reluctantly agrees to tell him where the kappa is. But first, he must retrieve three treasures that have been stolen from her.

The treasures aren’t stolen, of course; they are simply things the fox wants, and it’s Hamachi who will be doing the stealing. Accompanied by his yokai helpers, a lantern and an umbrella that have come to life after lying around for 100 years, he heads out to perform what should be impossible tasks: stealing a sword from a tengu, a mirror from a slit-mouthed woman, and a necklace from the gods. Each quest brings its own danger, but thanks to his friends’ intervention and a bit of dumb luck, Hamachi manages to get the elusive objects and come out alive. Meanwhile, a human yokai hunter is tracking him, but the hunter is slowed down when the yokai trick him out of his sword and he has to win it back by gambling with them.

Once Hamachi completes his three tasks, the fox yokai reneges on her promise and announces that she is going to keep Hamachi after all. The story ends on a cliff-hanger as the mysterious yokai-hunter bursts in, sword in hand.

Almost all of the interest in this book comes from the varied array of yokai and other creatures that Matsumoto brings to life. She doesn’t just stick with the classical definitions but gives them personalities of their own. Despite their outlandishness, the yokai are convincing as characters, and that makes the story tick. Hamachi usually plays straight man to their quirks, although he does have a sense of humor and a reckless quality all his own. If there is a problem in this book, it is his lack of emotional depth. He was not terribly broken up by the death of his grandmother (who admittedly is portrayed as a mean old woman), and he doesn’t seem to be terribly driven in his quest to avenge her death. It’s more like an excuse for a lark in yokai-land than a burning desire that cannot be quenched. In one chapter, he tells his yokai friends about his parents and how they died, and while the story is charming, it is played a bit too much for laughs. This would have been a good time to show Hamachi’s serious side, but instead he not only shows no sadness, he comes off as a bit dumb when his parents return as ghosts and a villager passes off their unusual appearance as tuberculosis.

I have to admit that I rolled my eyes a bit when the fox spirit announced her three quests—that’s a motif that was done to death by the Middle Ages—but Matsumoto mixes things up a bit and gets Hamachi through each one of them fairly quickly. In fact, the story is quite episodic—one adventure per chapter—which makes it easy to put down and pick up again.

Matsumoto’s art is worth a special mention here, as she does something quite difficult and makes it look easy. Rendering supernatural creatures is tough, because you don’t have real-life models, yet she manages to make an umbrella, a one-legged lizard, and an angel-like tengu all come to life in convincing ways. Not only that, she keeps all the art at the same level. Often Japanese manga artists will put a very cartoony character next to a realistic one, a juxtaposition that I find jarring. Matsumoto’s characters are all consistent—human or yokai, they all look like they belong in the same world. She seamlessly blends disparate parts together, too, giving a woman a convincing bird’s foot, for instance. And she avoids the temptation to make them look too close to classical Japanese representations—they are not overly complicated, nor do they appear to be frozen on the page. Instead they are loosely drawn and very animated, so much so that they look like they could hop off the page.

By the end of this volume, Hamachi is no closer to his goal (in fact, he barely mentions it), but we have been introduced to and entertained by a wide array of yokai, and that is the true charm of this series.

ETA: Almost forgot, I reviewed vol. 1 for Graphic Novel Reporter.

(This review is based on a review copy supplied by the publisher.)

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Love, terror, Jaws

Posted on November 20, 2009 by Brigid Alverson

lullabies_from_hell_cover_artOliver Ho puts the spotlight on horror masters Kazuo Umezu and Hideshi Hino at Pop Matters.

The Yaoi Review asks readers to recommend yaoi for first-timers, and the comments section is bulging with suggestions.

There’s more reader reaction at Japanator, where Danica Davidson asks the internet what it thinks of manga omnibuses.

David Welsh is irritated that the New York Times completely ignores manga in their gift guide to graphic novels, so he’s going to do his own guide on Thanksgiving—and he invites other fans to do the same, whether they have blogs or not.

Patrick Macias shares more of the gekiga version of Jaws at his blog.

Danielle Leigh has more customized manga recommendations at Comics Should Be Good!

Helen McCarthy reports on the opening of the Tezuka show at the Smithsonian.

Wendy Pini has a new website for The Masque of the Red Death.

Amazon lists writer Jason Yadao as a manga; the question is, what kind of a manga is he?

News from Japan: The manga series known as Sex Pistols in Japan and Love Pistols over here is returning to Magazine Be-Boy.

honeyhunt3Reviews: The Manga Recon team gets in touch with their girly side in the latest edition of On the Shojo Beat. EvilOmar is back in action at About Heroes with another round of brief manga reviews.

Megan M. on vol. 10 of Angel Diary (Manga Bookshelf)
Jennifer Dunbar on vols. 1 and 2 of Apothecarius Argentum (A word is a unit of language)
D.M. Evans on vol 2 of B.Ichi (Manga Jouhou)
Deb Aoki on vol. 1 of Deka Kyoshi (About.com)
Ken Haley on vol. 1 of Jormungand (Manga Recon)
Cynthia on vol. 1 of Kurashina Sensei’s Passion (Boys Next Door)
Lissa Pattillo on Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (Kuriousity)
Cynthia on Liberty Liberty (Boys Next Door)
Sadie Mattox on vol. 1 of Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu (Extremely Graphic)
John Thomas on vol. 1 of Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture (Comics Village)
Lori Henderson on vol. 2 of Rin-ne (Manga Xanadu)
Julie on vol. 3 of Wild Ones (Manga Maniac Cafe)

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