MangaBlog

At PWCW, Kai-Ming Cha interviews Aimee Steinberger about Japan Ai: A Tall Girl’s Adventure in Japan, and Laurel Maury sums up the ICv2 Anime and Technology panel.

The last volume of The Dreaming is out, and creator Queenie Chan takes a moment to look back. Also: She’s got a secret. Go to the post to find a link—I’m not going to give it away here!

Speaking of looking back, ’tis the season to compile best-of lists. At PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog, Katherine, Erin, and Ken present their picks for the best—and worst—manga and books of 2007.

At the MangaCast, the team checks out this week’s new manga, Ed Chavez posts covers and his thoughts on Yen Press’s new titles, and Jack Tse podcasts his thoughts on This Week in Manga.

There’s gold in them thar otaku: ANN reports that sales of anime, manga, plastic figurines with removable panties, etc. in Japan totaled 187 billion yen ($1.651 billion) in 2007. It’s worth a peek at their chart, if only to see that doujinshi accounted for 14.9% of the market. Stateside, Kethylia goes to Borders and photographs a happy scene: Shelves of manga, stretching as far as the eye can see.

GTO creator Tohru Fujisawa has a new manga series, Animal Joe.

Reviews: Connie checks out vol. 15 of Fullmetal Alchemist, vol. 12 of Astro Boy, Silky Whip Extreme, vol. 2 of Iron Wok Jan, vols. 6 and 7 of Land of Silver Rain, and vol. 7 of 3×3 Eyes. At the Sunny Side Up Anime Blog, huamulan03 posts a lengthy synopsis and review of the shoujo manga M to N no Shouzou (Portrait of M & N). David Welsh makes some quick comments on vol. 1 of Psycho Busters and vol. 1 of High School Debut at Precocious Curmudgeon. Miranda reviews vol. 1 of Orfina and Ferdinand checks out vol. 1 of Teru Teru x Shonen at Prospero’s Manga. Michelle checks out vol. 20 of Basara at Soliloquy in Blue. Johanna Draper Carlson enjoys the Azumanga Daioh omnibus at Comics Worth Reading. At Active Anime, Scott Campbell checks out vol. 1 of The Outcast, Holly Ellingwood checks out vol. 2 of Hoshin Engi, and Sandra Scholes enjoys Honey Senior, Darling Junior. and EvilOmar posts a heap of short reviews at About Heroes, and at Anime on DVD, the staff contributes their Small Bodied Manga Reviews.

I still have some notes to write up from NYAF, but before it all fades, I wanted to round up all the links I could find from folks who were at the show.

One of the pleasures of freelancing for PWCW is getting to hang out a bit with Heidi MacDonald. At The Beat, she posts her first impressions, an overview, and some cool photos.

Also, the hard-working circle of PWCW freelancers posted a roundup of the big stories and brief reports on a number of panels.

Deb Aoki of About.com’s manga section was not only dedicated but also friendly, rescuing me in one panel by sharing her power cord when my battery was about to die. She covered the festival extensively and posted this cool photo gallery.

Krista at Animetique posted coverage of activities on the floor and the panels.

Casey, who blogs as Kethylia, posts detailed notes of her impressions.

Okazu’s Erica Friedman shares her overall impressions plus some tidbits of gossip she picked up on the floor. (Possible new license?)

JP Meyer gave NYAF an “incomplete.”

Wendy Pini, who was there with the Go!Comi crew, wrote about her experiences, and she included photos!

Dallas Middaugh and Tricia Narwani of Del Rey had a number of short posts and photos at the Del Rey blog.

Edward Liu of Toon Zone has a coverage from an anime point of view and photos of cosplayers.

At PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog, Katherine Dacey-Tsuei put it all in perspective with a post on the five most important stories from NYAF.

ANN posted video reports on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

And here’s coverage of the various panels:

ICv2 Conference

This professionals-only conference kicked off the festival, and it gave us plenty to talk about over the next few days. The Beat had an overview, as did ICv2 themselves.

ICv2 White Paper on Anime and Manga
ANN (Mikhail Koulikov)
Erin F. (notes and audio)

Marketing to the Otaku Generation
ANN (Mikhail Kulikov)
Erin F. (notes and audio)
Laura Hudson on Al Kahn’s comments and the marketing panel

Girls: The Other Half of the Otaku Generation
<a href="http://www.popcultureshock.com/icv2-nyaf-girls/43026/Erin F. (notes and audio)

Technology and the Otaku
Erin F. (notes and audio)
PWCW (Laurel Maury)

Other panels:

Central Park Media
ANN (Mikhail Koulikov)
Giapet

Del Rey
ANN (Mikhail Koulikov)
Deb Aoki

Mangacast (Ed Chavez)
Giapet
ICv2
MangaBlog

Del Rey/Marvel Panel
Deb Aoki
The Beat
Giapet
ICv2
Newsarama
PWCW (Heidi MacDonald)
Official press release

Drama Queen
Giapet

Go!Comi
ANN (Mikhail Koulikov)
Deb Aoki
MangaBlog

Tokyopop
ANN (Mikhail Koulikov)
Giapet
ICv2

Udon
ANN (Mikhail Koulikov)
ICv2
Official press release

Vertical
ANN (Mikhail Koulikov)
Deb Aoki
Giapet

Viz
ANN (Mikhail Koulikov)
Deb Aoki
Giapet

Yen Press
ANN (Mikhail Koulikov)
Deb Aoki
Giapet
ICv2
MangaBlog

State of the Manga Industry
ANN (Mikhail Koulikov)

Comix Talk, the webcomics megasite, has their year in review roundtable up. I am one of the participants, and I have to say it was awesome being in a virtual conversation with such an eminent group—Tom Spurgeon, Heidi MacDonald, Dirk Deppey, Derik Badman, Gary Tyrrell, Reinder Dijkhuis, and JT Shea and Scott Gallatin. It’s long, so grab a grande latte and sit back for a great read.

In this week’s Flipped column, David Welsh goes all Shaenon Garrity on us and asks various mangaphiles (including yours truly) to name their favorite underrated manga.

ICv2 has the news about the six new Go!Comi titles announced at NYAF.

Two series left hanging after the demise of Monthly Shonen Jump and Comic BonBon in Japan are now being published online.

Heisei Democracy (possibly NSFW) has a guide to Comiket. (Via Simon Jones (definitely NSFW)).

Journalistic oddity of the day: A French artist offers his opinion on manga to an Indian newspaper:

“Manga has some real graphic qualities. I have myself been inspired by some techniques of Manga earlier. But Manga has got its limitations. Because, the stories that they say through Manga are not as good as the comics’ graphic quality,” notes [Francois] Dermaut.

Manga Life is looking for reviewers. No pay, but you may get comp copies.

The Spanish publisher Norma Editorial is holding a manga competition.

Reviews: At Manga Life, Dan Polley reviews vol. 1 of Yagyu Ninja Scrolls vol. 3 of Togari, and vol. 9 of Genshiken, and Lori Henderson checks out vol. 4 of The Gentlemen’s Alliance +. Scott Campbell checks out Dead Already, Davey C. Jones takes a look at vol. 7 of Bleach, and Holly Ellingwood reviews the fifth Fullmetal Alchemist novel, The Ties that Bind, and the yaoi one-shot Dash! at Active Anime. Ariadne Roberts reviews vol. 1 of King of Thorn at Anime on DVD. Bibliophile Stalker Charles Tan thinks pink with his review of vol. 5 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. Julie checks out vol. 6 of Emma at the Manga Maniac Cafe.

New this week: Japan Ai: A Tall Girl’s Adventures in Japan is a sketch diary, not a manga, but it’s incredibly appealing and would make an excellent gift. Below is Go!Comi’s press release on the book. I definitely suggest you check out their site, which has lots of art from the book (and as a special bonus, when you click the Japan Ai link, the whole site turns pink).

Go! Comi Releases Aimee Major Steinberger’s Japan Ai, Along With Unique Web Content

Los Angeles, 12/17/07
Go! Comi today announced the official release of “Japan Ai: A tall girl’s adventures in Japan,” a manga journal of an otaku trip to Japan by animator Aimee Major Steinberger (“The Simpsons,” “Futurama”). Packed with hundreds of color and black-and-white drawings, the book records Steinberger’s trip through the various worlds of Japanese pop culture: anime, manga, maid cafes, cosplay, all-female Takarazuka reviews, ball-jointed dolls, as well as traditional culture such as hot springs resorts and ancient shrines and temples.

Adding to the uniqueness of this release is the large amount of supplemental online content. Fans who visit the “Japan Ai” section of the Go! Comi website will find an “Omake” (bonus) area containing over 60 pages of drawings not included in the book, as well as dozens of photographs of the actual places, people and events depicted in the book.

Explains Go! Comi Creative Director Audry Taylor: “Aimee’s drawing style is so appealing that cutting the book down to a manageable length was incredibly painful. When we were done we realized that we had 60 pages of cut drawings – nearly a third of the book’s length. We thought, why not make all this material available by putting it online? It’s sort of like the bonus material on a DVD. We’ve got deleted scenes, plus behind the scenes making-of photos. To my knowledge, it’s the first time something like this has been attempted in the field of graphic novels.”

The supplemental material can be viewed in the “Japan Ai” section at www.gocomi.com.

Most of Saturday’s post got wiped out by a WordPress glitch that comes along every now and then and chops off a post, then turns off the comments—anyone know why that happens, or how to prevent it? So I’m re-posting as much as I can remember, along with the latest news.

First, here’s a TV listing: Jason Thompson talks about manga in Anime: Drawing a Revolution, to be shown at 9 p.m. (ET) tonight on the Starz network. And in case you miss that, Tom Spurgeon has a lengthy interview with him at The Comics Reporter.

The November sales figures are out from Diamond, and David Welsh posts the list of top-selling manga, which is topped by Fruits Basket for a change.

Comicsnob posts the top-selling graphic novels online, plus a watch list and holiday guide (part 1, part 2).

At Shuchaku East, Chloe has some holiday suggestions as well.

Katherine Dacey-Tsuei looks at the week in manga in her Weekly Recon at PopCultureShock, including reviews of some upcoming books in my review stack, Gakuen Alice and Japan Ai: A Tall Girl’s Adventures in Japan.

MangaCast has the latest on new titles from CMX, Aurora, and LuvLuv, Aurora’s Teen Love imprint.

The faculty and students of Kyoto Seika University created a manga to memorialize murdered student Daisaku Chiba—and perhaps catch his killer. The manga is now available online; it’s all in Japanese, but click on the link in the middle, below the phone numbers to take a look. (Via ANN.)

ANN also has more details on the demise of Japan’s first free manga magazine, Comic Gumbo, which cost parent company Digima the equivalent of $2 million before it folded.

And one more: Japanese manga magazine Bessatsu Margaret has announced it will carry a manga adaptation of Alex Shearer’s children’s novel Bootleg, about children who make clandestine chocolate in a country where candy is verboten.

Erica Friedman starts out to review Comic Yuri Hime Wildrose at Okazu and detours into an interesting discussion of attitudes towards lesbianism in yuri.

The latest novelist to go the manga route is Diana Gabaldon, who is writing a manga side story to her Outlander series. Hoang Nguyen will be the artist.

The German blog Manly Manga and More lists Tokyopop’s new licenses in Germany and takes a look at Carlsen’s January releases.

Reviews: Julie checks out vol. 1 of The Guin Saga Manga and vol. 8 of Tail of the Moon at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Michelle gives vol. 10 of xxxHolic an A+ at Sololoquy in Blue. At Anime on DVD, Ben Leary checks out Project D.O.A., Greg Hackmann reviews vol. 1 of Uzumaki, and Ed Chavez reads vol. 1 of Dorothy of Oz. Coeli has an overview of vols. 1-5 of Basilisk at Poopsies! At MangaCast, Eva reviews Shinjuku Shark, and Mangamaniac reviews Love Bus Stop. Ferdinand reviews vol. 1 of My Dearest Devil Princess at Prospero’s Manga, and his alter-ego Billy Aguiar checks out vol. 1 of Style School at CBGXtra. Connie is on a roll at Slightly Biased Manga, with reviews of Monokuro Kinderbook, vol. 5 of Click, vol. 1 of Moon Child, vol. 6 of 3×3 Eyes, vol. 3 of Princess Princess, vol. 14 of Tsubasa, vol. 6 of Loveless, vol. 6 of Sugar Sugar Rune, vol. 1 of Iron Wok Jan, and vol. 5 of Bird Kiss. Tiamat’s Disciple reviews the light novel vol. 1 of The Twelve Kingdoms. At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood checks out vol. 6 of Oh My Goddess (second edition) and vol. 6 of Enchanter. Hillel Wright reviews Fred Schodt’s The Astro Boy Essays for Japan Today. Andrew Wheeler writes at length about vols. 1 and 2 of Miki Falls at ComicMix.

It’s time for another Overlooked Manga Festival! This week, Shaenon Garrity takes a look at Bambi and Her Pink Gun.

ICv2 lists upcoming manga series from CMX, including Two Flowers for the Dragon, The Flat Earth Exchange, Steel Fist Riku, and Emma creator Kaoru Mori’s one-shot, Shirley.