MangaBlog

The Eisner Awards were presented last night at SDCC, and despite a number of nominations in a variety of categories, the only manga to win an award was in the Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Japan category, which was obviously all manga. That honor went to Taiyo Mastumoto’s Tekkonkinkreet, so congratulations to the folks at Viz for breaking the usual format and taking a risk on that title. While it was disappointing not to see any recognition for manga in other categories, the fact that both Japanese and global manga were nominated in a number of other categories is a good start, at least. For those who want to feel like they were there, Heidi MacDonald liveblogged the ceremony at The Beat.

Yesterday’s big manga news is that Viz will be publishing 20th Century Boys and Pluto, both by Monster creator Naoki Urasawa. Fans have been anticipating these series for a long time, but the word was that Urasawa wanted his work published in chronological order in the U.S. He must have changed his mind, because both series are set to debut in February 2009. Other new titles, according to ANN, are Dogs, by Shirow Miwa; Ikigami (Death Paper), by Motoro Mase; and a slew of VizKids titles: The Legend of Zelda (yes based on the game), BakeGyamon: Backwards Game, Dinosaur Hour, Leave it to PET, and Happy Happy Clover. Gia liveblogged the Viz panel, which included lots of info about upcoming books that are already on the schedule. Deb Aoki has Japanese cover images and more info on plots, and at Japanator, God Len has the 20th Century Boys trailer and lots of enthusiasm.

Viz also held a Shonen Jump panel, and Stan Lee dropped in to promote his comic Ultimo, which he is creating in collaboration with Japanese artist Hiroyuki Tatei. New titles include Wāq Wāq, Nora, and Tegami-bachi (Letter Bee). I like ANN’s description of that last one:

Tegami-bachi centers on a boy who has become a Letter Bee, a courier who delivers special messages between the different areas of a land in perpetual night, all while fending off armored insects.

Sounds like a winner! Once again, Gia liveblogs and gets lots of extra details.

There were no new announcements at the Broccoli panel, but Gia captures some interesting analysis of the manga market, as well as the company president’s comment that “one of their better-selling recent titles (My Dearest Devil Princess) was panned by reviewers.”

Timothy Callahan has nice coverage of Chip Kidd’s Bat-Manga presentation for Comic Book Resources.

Lori Henderson has the view from the floor, which is a very different perspective than the rest of the bloggers out there.

SDCC got under way for real yesterday, but so far the manga news is just trickling in. The PWCW folks file a first-day roundup that includes news of two new CMX titles: Genghis Kahn, an adaptation of the anime, and March on Earth, which sounds like it has tearjerker potential.

ANN has a concise writeup of the Del Rey Panel, and Gia has a more colorful take. The most interesting announcement was CLAMP in America, a history of, well, CLAMP’s influence in America, to be penned by Shaenon Garrity. Other titles included Soryuden (Legend of the Four Dragon Kings), a novel illustrated by CLAMP; Negima!? neo, the manga version of the anime that spun off from the Negima manga; Orange Planet, a shoujo title from the creator of Instant Teen: Just Add Nuts (a big pre-teen favorite in my house); and Yokai Doctor, which sounds like your health insurer’s next cost-cutting scheme. (Orange Planet cover from the ANN Encyclopedia entry.)

In other news, Bandai Entertainment announced that they have licensed Lucky Star.

Translator Satsuma has more pictures, and for the full immersion experience, check out Christopher Butcher’s Flickr set.

And in case you’re there but forgot to make any plans, Deb Aoki outlines today’s manga events, as well as how you can meet Fairy Tail manga-ka Hiro Mashima, at About.com.

I just got my review copies from Tokyopop, and this month’s batch seems to have a lot of thicker volumes than usual, with prices all over the map. Vol. 1 of Jyu-oh-sei ($14.99), vol. 1 of Jade of Bango ($12.99), Hee Jung Park’s one-shot Too Long ($9.99), and Samurai Champloo Complete ($14.99), all look like they are well over the standard manga length of about 200 pages. I’m pretty sure the August titles were already in production when Tokyopop announced their big split, so I’m not sure if this indicates any sort of trend, but it looks like this is a good month to pick up some bargains on summer reading.

Also, while there has been a lot of shakeout at the industry level, there does seem to be an awful lot of good manga out there this year. John Jakala lists his midyear favorites at Sporadic Sequential. I’m swamped in good stuff as well, with Dororo, Me and the Devil Blues, Disappearance Diary, and Martin and John all jostling for space on my night table at the moment. Also Yen Press is putting out some mighty tasty manhwa—watch for a review soon. Still to come: Yen’s Yen Plus anthology, which will include Svetlana Chmakova’s Night School, and Vertical’s new edition of Black Jack, which I got a preview of yesterday—apparently Ryan of Same Hat! got his as well. I’d love to put the rest of my life on hold and just read comics all summer. Sigh.

At Kuriousity, Lissa Pattillo notes that Blu has added some new titles to their list, which is a good sign.

News from Japan: Japanator’s Aoi is shocked—shocked!—to learn that Mainichi’s late, lamented Wai Wai column may have contained inaccuracies. The Daily Yomiuri looks at a private manga library in Tokyo. And the New York Times has news of a digital comics venture backed by Kadokowa, Kodansha, Shueisha, and Shogakukan that will bring manga to the Wii and maybe other consoles as well. (Hat tip: Jake Forbes.)

Reviews: If you’re puzzled as to why teenage girls love Vampire Knight, read Lianne Sentar’s review at Sleep Is For the Weak and be enlightened. Lianne articulates it perfectly. Johanna Draper Carlson reviews vol. 1 of Apothecarius Argentum at Comics Worth Reading. The Anime Pulse folks get their seinen on for a podcast discussion of Gantz and Eden: It’s an Endless World. Sam Kusek takes a look at vol. 1 of Suihelibe! at PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog. If you prefer short takes, EvilOmar has some Midweek Manga Reviews up at About Heroes. Tiamat’s Disciple checks out Go!Comi’s online game O-Play. Lissa Pattillo checks out vol. 8 of Saiyuki Reload at Kuriousity. Down at the Manga Maniac Cafe, Julie is reading vol. 1 of Silver Diamond. Sesho includes vol. 1 of Guardian Hearts in his latest podcast and posts a written review of vol. 2 of Negima. James Fleenor takes a look at vol. 2 of xxxHolic at Anime Sentinel. Emil checks out Katakoi no Tsuki at Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page. Katherine Farmar admits that BL isn’t always all that, but fortunately Junjo Romantica is.

First prize for the most overheated first sentence in a comics-related press release goes to whoever wrote this:

Global manga giants TOKYOPOP and GENTOSHA COMICS have entered into a worldwide partnership to advance the cause of the manga revolution.

Especially because it’s followed by this:

Under the terms of the alliance, TOKYOPOP will provide sublicensing agency services (outside of Asia, France, and Italy) for GENTOSHA COMICS’s world-class library of manga hits, including titles like Gravitation, Lament of the Lamb, and Arm of Kannon.

Huh? It sounds Tokyopop will be publishing some Gentosha titles (as it already has) and acting as their agent for others, which is nice but I don’t think will have people rioting in the streets. Oh, and there will be some action in the “digital, film, and merchandising spaces” as well. All this would be more convincing if there were some details, especially as I mainly know Gentosha from their online manga anthology, which has been defunct since 2006, and their April 2007 this announcement about their plans to publish manga online in seven different languages.

Seven Seas has been doing webcomics since their inception, but now they’re trying a different format: Veteran creators and manga adaptors Nunzio DeFillipis and Christina Weir are writing a new comic, The Ninja Diaries, which will run in the free L.A. paper Metromix Los Angeles, as well as on the Metromix site. I reviewed the first episode and commented on the interface over at Digital Strips.

Udon is also jumping onto the digital bandwagon with a weekly comics digest that will launch in August on Crunchyroll.

Vol. 30 of Naruto slips from number 50 to 45 on the USA Today best-seller list, and vol. 20 of Fruits Basket drops from 63 to 79.

OK, it’s official. Everyone is at San Diego except me. Me, I’m going to stay home and read some manga, as the review copies have been pouring in and it’s almost all good. But lots of folks are already there. Translator Satsuma has some early photos at One Potato Two, and Shizuki from Broccoli is blogging about her experiences. Random House has just started a new comics and sci-fi blog, Suvudu, so naturally they have pix of the Del Rey booth, and Dallas Middaugh even posts some videos. (Found via Blog@Newsarama.)

Lissa Pattillo visits the Halifax comics shop Strange Adventures.

Reviews: At Sleep Is For the Weak, NotHayama reviews Nana (I’m glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t love it unconditionally) and Bad Jew takes a look at Moonlight Mile, both the anime and the manga. and Scott VonSchilling sings the praises of With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child at the Anime Almanac. Michelle Smith enjoys vol. 1 of Silver Diamond at PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog. At Comics Worth Reading, Ed Sizemore reviews vol. 1 of Classical Medley and vol. 4 of Mushishi. Tiamat’s Disciple records thoughts and impressions on vols. 1-3 of Record of Lodoss War—The Grey Witch. Julie reads Del Rey’s homegrown shoujo manga, vol. 1 of Kasumi, at the Manga Maniac Cafe. James Fleenor reviews vol. 9 of D.Gray-Man at Anime Sentinel. Sesho’s podcast review of vol. 1 of Sand Chronicles gives that title two thumbs up. Connie reviews vol. 5 of Apothecarius Argentum and vol. 23 of Detective Conan at Slightly Biased Manga.

The Manga Recon team pick the best manga of the first half of 2008 at PopCultureShock. This is a good first stop if you’re looking for something new to read.

David Welsh looks at this week’s new comics, including some notable manga.

At the MangaCast, Ed Chavez posts audio of Viz media at Anime Expo and hints that big things are in store at SDCC.

And speaking of SDCC, John Thomas highlights some manga swag at Mecha Mecha Media and Jason Thompson lists his panels. David Welsh and Deb Aoki preview the attractions for manga fans.

At the Boys Next Door blog, The Babes ask whether their readers read reviews of BL books by reviewers who don’t specialize in BL. They get some interesting comments in reponse. At Tiamat’s Manga Reviews, Tiamat’s Disciple got some interesting comments on his earlier post on that topic and follows up with a discussion of rape in manga.

Over at Same Hat! Same Hat!, Ryan muses on the direction the site is taking and launches a new, interactive feature: The Same Hat Guide To Everything. Not too ambitious, is it?

Matt Blind takes a stab at ranking new releases and pre-orders at Rocket Bomber.

Yamila Abraham finds that Google is helping folks find Yaoi Press books.

Erica Friedman presents a profile of the typical Okazu reader and invites questions from readers at Okazu.

Congratulations to the folks at Sleep Is For the Weak on six years of blogging about manga and anime. The SIFTW team are some of the best writers on anime and manga out there, so go, read. Also, belated congrats to MangaCast, which has racked up 400 podcasts and over 2500 posts in three short years. Who knew there would be so much to say about manga?

Not manga but worth a peek: We’re giving away two limited-edition copies (with posters!) of the Steve Niles book The Lost Ones at Digital Strips. It’s a random drawing but to enter you have to suggest a webcomic. I would like to bring more web manga into the mix there, so drop in and suggest something if you like. Note that unlike at MangaBlog, I will write about scanlations at DS.

News from Japan: Sensual Phrase creator Mayu Shinjo will draw a one-shot manga for Jump Square, her first foray into a shonen magazine, ANN reports.

Reviews: The Sleep Is For the Weak team launch their anniversary celebration with reviews of Cowa! by NotHayama and The Gorgeous Life of Strawberry-chan by Lianne Sentar. Ferdinand reviews the new Robert Johnson manga, vol. 1 of Me and the Devil Blues, at Prospero’s Manga. Carlo Santos posts another Right Turn Only!! column at ANN, chock-full of excellent manga commentary on Gantz, Shirley, Vassalord, and more. Carlo also reviews vol. 3 of Fairy Tail, and Casey Brienza has qualified praise for vol. 23 of Berserk. Erica Friedman still can’t find the yuri in vol. 2 of Stray Little Devil. Dave Ferraro finds that vol. 1 of My Dead Girlfriend grew on him, at Comics-and-More. At Completely Futile, Adam Stephanides describes ero-guro manga-ka Shintaro Kago’s latest book, Ana, Moji, Ketsueki Nado Ga Arawareru Manga [Manga in Which Holes, Characters, Blood and so on Appear]. Ed Chavez has an audio review of Good-Bye up at the MangaCast. New at Manga Village: Dan Polley on vol. 1 of Kasumi, John Thomas on vol. 1 of Me and the Devil Blues, Charles Tan on vol. 5 of Puri Puri, and Lori Henderson on vol. 10 of Nana. Kiara reviews vol. 1 of Love Attack at Manga Jouhou. David Rasmussen reviews vol. 1 of Kingdom Hearts II and vol. 1 of Tokyo Boys and Girls and Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane checks out vol. 10 of Kaze Hikaru and vols. 1-3 of Demon Prince: Children of Gaia at Manga Life. Connie reviews an unusual find, Hotel Harbour View, as well as vol. 1 of Hotel Africa and vol. 4 of MPD-Psycho, at Slightly Biased Manga. Tiamat’s Disciple reviews vol. 1 of Angel/Dust, vol. 1 of Angel/Dust: Neo, and vol. 1 of Shirley at Tiamat’s Manga Reviews. Lissa Pattillo checks out vol. 2 of Voice or Noise and vol. 2 of Aoi House in Love at Kuriousity. Julie joins the long line of folks checking out vol. 1 of Gantz and also reviews vol. 2 of Seduction More Beautiful Than Love at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Crazy For You is Emily’s choice this week at Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page. Matthew Brady reads the August Shojo Beat at Warren Peace Sings the Blues.