MangaBlog

News is breaking out all over. In this week’s PWCW, I talked to Chris Oarr about what’s going on at ADV Manga, which he says is still a going concern, and I interviewed Queenie Chan about In Odd We Trust, her new graphic novel based on Dean Koontz’s Odd Thomas novels (and co-written with Koontz).

John Jakala reacts to the ADV piece at Sporadic Sequential.

Newsarama has part one of a lengthy three-part survey of Tokyopop’s global manga creators, in which they talk about their experiences with the company and their hopes for the future.

The MangaCast team go through the New Manga Release List and pick out their favorites.

Japanator’s Dick McVengeance reports on the translation panel at AnimeNEXT, which was hosted by translator Mari Marimoto, who always has something interesting to say.

Tom Good writes about BEA for the Lincoln Heights Literary Society, and his account includes a report on a panel on Sex in Graphic Novels.

News from Japan: ComiPress translates an analysis of the readership of Ichijinsha manga magazines. It seems that they have one shonen magazine that attracts mostly female readers and another that attracts mostly males. ANN reports that Hana-Kimi creator Hisaya Najako will draw a Hana-Kimi one-shot for the July Hana to Yume magazine.

Reviews: Carlo Santos delivers a sharp jab to Kamichama Karin Chu but finds other manga he likes better in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Also at ANN, Theron Martin finds vol. 1 of Cy-Believers more entertaining than it really should be, which pretty much sums up my reaction as well, and Casey Brienza enjoys vol. 4 of Mushishi. Trevor finds some social commentary in vol. 1 of Lupin III at With Scissors. Lori Henderson’s daughter Krissy gives her impressions of the kid-friendly vol. 1 of Kat and Mouse at Manga Xanadu. Michelle enjoys vol. 1 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service at Soliloquy in Blue. Ed Sizemore reads vol. 1 of Alive: The Final Evolution at Comics Worth Reading. Lissa Pattillo checks out Miyuki-Chan in Wonderland at Kuriousity. Oyceter is reading the Chinese translation of vols. 1-3 of Ooku, by Fumi Yoshinaga. Scott VonSchilling calls Maid Machinegun “one of the best light novels available in English right now” at The Anime Almanac. Sesho posts brief reviews of vols. 2 and 3 of Gunslinger Girl. Julie checks out vol. 3 of The Palette of 12 Secret Colors at the Manga Maniac Cafe.

German blogger Martin Kretschmer, keeper of the excellent TZG2.0, alerted me that Tokyopop Germany honcho Joachim Kaps has posted on a German message board about the future of Tokyopop titles over there. Here’s the original:

Uns steht für Deutschland völlig frei, welche Projekte wir als Buch herausgeben. Es kann insofern dazu kommen, dass Bände, die in den USA nur online erscheinen, in Deutschland als Buch kommen. So möchten wir zum Beispiel den dritten Band von Steady Beat gerne als Buch machen, wenn das Material vorliegt.

and Martin’s translation:

We in Germany are free to decide which projects we publish. It is therefore possible that books that are released online in the USA will be published as actual books in Germany. For instance, we would love to publish a third STEADY BEAT book once the material is available.

We’ll be keeping an eye on them to see if they keep any of the dropped series.

Kate Dacey lists this week’s new manga, and describes her top picks in haiku form, in the latest Weekly Recon. Also at PopCultureShock, Ken Haley has composed a definitive guide to Shirow Masamune. At Japanator, God Len posts a haiku-free version of this week’s new releases. (Image is vol. 12 of xxxHolic, one of this week’s crop.)

Johanna Draper Carlson writes about josei manga at Comics Worth Reading.

In his latest Flipped column, David Welsh celebrates the work of Kazuo Umezu (The Drifting Classroom, Cat-Eyed Boy). Back home at Precocious Curmudgeon, he asks readers for some BL suggestions and gets a heaping helping of replies.

A new direction for Viz? This guy is going to be editing speculative fiction, translated from the Japanese, for them. (Hat tip: Charles Tan.)

Everyone’s talking about Felipe Smith, what with his new manga for Morning 2 magazine in Japan. In his latest comiXology column, manga maven Jason Thompson counts the ways that he loves Felipe’s previous series, MBQ.

John Thomas talks to the Right Stuf folks about his work as a translator for the latest Anime Today podcast.

Here’s a perfect match: Junko Mizuno will be designing a My Little Pony for charity. Patrick Macias celebrates with a sample of her most recent work. (Image swiped from Patrick’s blog.)

Yaoi Jamboree organizer Yamila Abraham checks in with her impressions of YJam.

Lissa Pattillo starts a multipart look at manga publishers with her impressions of Tokyopop and Viz at Kuri-ousity.

At the Manga Talk LJ community, Cerusee asks about mystery manga and gets lots of suggestions in comments.

Are you ready for the Takehiko Inoue wave? John Jakala is, and he’s getting it all at a discount.

Rolling tsundere: Canned Dogs has some scans from Mozuya-san gyakujou suru, a manga about a girl afflicted with a tsundere personality disorder. Nice art.

Oyceter is reading manhua by Nan Gongyuu, and it’s worth an extra click to see her lovely art.

Same Hat brings home the crack, and then some, with a new chapter of Dance! Kremlin Palace! and a gallery of new Kazuo Umezu photos. On a more serious note, Ryan shows off an early edition of Barefoot Gen, which he believes is the first translated manga published in America.

More crack: Transformers yaoi. No, really. It’s NSFW if you work in the robotics industry, I suppose. (Via The Yaoi Review.)

If you’re going to be in Melbourne, Australia, tomorrow, check out Queenie Chan’s appearance at the local Borders. Also, Queenie reports that Tokyopop will be announcing the winners of the The Dreaming fanfic contest by the end of the week.

News from Japan: At MangaCast, Ed Chavez presents the weekly manga ratings from Taiyosha and signs on to the Felipe Smith fan club.

Reviews: Chris Mautner reads two Hee Jung Park manhwa, vol. 1 of Fever and vol. 1 of Hotel Africa, and is not impressed. Katherine Dacey writes a review of a full series, vols. 1-8 of ES: Eternal Sabbath, and gives it an A at PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog. John Jakala looks at vol. 1 of Crayon Shinchan from the perspective of a parent. Lianne Sentar checks out an unlicensed Fumi Yoshinaga manga, What Did You Eat Yesterday?, at Sleep Is For The Weak. Greg McElhatton reads Abandon the Old in Tokyo at Read About Comics. At Manga Xanadu, Lori Henderson reads an out-of-print classic, vol. 2 of Eagle: The Making of an Asian-American President. Connie reviews vol. 1 of Classical Medley, vol. 7 of Click, vol. 2 of X-Day, vol. 3 of Presents, vol. 3 of Walkin’ Butterfly, and vol. 1 of Girl Who Runs Through Time. Lissa Pattillo checks out vol. 2 of Invisible Boy at Manga Jouhou and Man’s Best Friend and vol. 1 of Genju no Seiza at Kuri-ousity. Ferdinand is not too impressed with In Odd We Trust at Prospero’s Manga. At About.com, Deb Aoki pans both In Odd We Trust and vol. 1 of Nephilim. Erica Friedman reads another unlicensed yuri title, vol. 2 of Sasamekikoto, at Okazu. Ed Chavez gets his seinen on with an audio review of vol. 1 of Cat Eyed Boy and vol. 2 of Sundome at MangaCast. Dave Ferraro, on the other hand, devotes Manga Monday to yaoi with his review of vol. 1 of Little Butterfly at Comics-and-More. At Soliloquy in Blue, Michelle is up to vol. 3 of 7SEEDS. Ed Sizemore reviews vols. 1 and 2 of Yozakura Quartet at Comics Worth Reading. Julie reads vol. 7 of Love Com and vol. 22 of Red River at the Manga Maniac Cafe.

Jason Yadao and Wilma Jandoc look at the variety of educational manga available in English in their latest column for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Con reports: Linda of the Lincoln Heights Literary Society reports on Yaoi Jamboree: day 1, day 2, day 3. Digital Manga announced some new titles: Doki Doki, Color, Living for Tomorrow, Fevered Kiss, Midnight Blue, and Brilliant Blue. Gia was at Anime Next and liveblogged the Del Rey and Media Blasters panels. The Del Rey folks talked about how to submit work for their global manga line, and the Media Blasters folks said they would be doing more yaoi and moving into yuri as well. Erica Friedman has a yuri-focused recap, including what may be a new announcement, that Media Blasters will publish the yuri title Maka Maka. JP Meyer (day 1, day 2) and Hinano (Friday, Saturday) didn’t have as good a time.

The folks at the Lincoln Heights Literary Society also had some questions for Audry Taylor of Go!Comi.

OT but funny: Here’s some imaginary fandom wank from Wired’s Alt Text blog: What if the D&D crowd started critiquing cookbooks? (Via Dave Ex Machina.)

UPDATE: Felipe Smith posts about his new comic for Kodansha. (See my previous post for more.)

I don’t read Japanese, but I believe this is the cover of the July issue of Kodansha’s Morning 2 magazine, featuring the art of American creator Felipe Smith. Here is a little more. Both are somewhat NSFW. The editor-in-chief of Morning 2, Eiijiro Shimada, has been an enthusiastic supporter of global manga in Japan. (Hat tip: Rah Love.)

Update: Takeshi Miyazawa has a peek inside.