MangaBlog

Well, yesterday was exciting, with the Zuda.com news and the enormous frenzy of commenting and counter-commenting that followed. Now things have quieted down a bit and people seem to be turning to other things.

For one thing, Wednesday is almost upon us. At PopCultureShock, Katherine Dacey-Tsuei lists this week’s new manga and reviews a handful. At Comicsnob, Matt Blind posts a short list and waxes enthusiastic about vol. 4 of Flight.

David Welsh devotes this week’s Flipped column to bozu, obnoxious little squirts.

ICv2 has more on Del Rey’s two new titles, Yokazura Quartet and Minima.

Gravitation manga-ka Maki Murakami will be at Otakon, as a guest of Tokyopop. There’s an interesting note in the official announcement:

Please note that, like many manga-ka, Ms Murakami is extremely camera-shy. A condition of her visit is that there be no photographs taken of her while she’s at Otakon, so please respect her wishes in this regard.

I guess I haven’t been to enough cons to realize that.

At MangaCast, Ed posts part 2 of the big list of this month’s Japanese manga releases and links to previews of Kanna, Hellsing, and Tetragrammaton Labyrinth. And he has some advice for the organizers of next year’s Yaoi Jamboree.

At Icarus Comics (proudly NSFW!), Simon Jones weighs in on the seinen/josei/older readers issue and, in comments, Yamila Abraham of Yaoi Press clarifies one point about Yaoi Jamboree: Other publishers are welcome.

The Yaoi Review looks at some releases scheduled for July.

Reviews: Christopher Seaman gets busy at Active Anim, with reviews of vol. 6 of Kage Tora and vol. 13 of Tsubasa, while Holly Ellingwood checks out vol. 1 of Tanpenshu. Michael Aronson reviews vol. 3 of Tsubasa and vol. 2 of Hoshin Engi at Manga Life. Johanna reviews vol. 2 of Flower of Life at Comics Worth Reading. At the Manga Maniac Cafe, Julie has vol. 1 of Kon Kon Kokon propped up on the salt shakers. At the BasuGasuBakuhatsu Anime Blog, Hung checks out vol. 1 of Beck. Bookslut’s Shaun Manning takes a look at the manga versions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. At Yaoi Suki, Jen Parker reviews Othello (not the Shakespeare one).

I’m running a bit late this morning because I just finished blogging about Zuda.com, DC’s new webcomics site, for Digital Strips. It’s not manga, but definitely related. Check out the writeups at Publisher’s Weekly, ICv2, and the New York Times (registration required, but worth it).

At Comics212, Christopher Butcher weighs in on the market for “manga for grown-ups.”

ComiPress has an interesting article about plagiarism, with summaries of recent cases and side-by-side comparisons of the panels in question.

David Welsh wonders what’s up with Ice Kunion and checks out the latest CMX samplers.

Anime Online interviews Monthly Shonen Magazine editor Yohei Takami about his work on the manga Beck. (Via Blog@Newsarama, who got it from ComiPress.)

At Manga Maniac Cafe, Julie reports on the DrMaster and Broccoli panels at Anime Expo.

ANN reports (no permalink) that Del Rey announced two new titles at Anime Next: Yozakura Quartet, about four teenage catboy detectives, and Minima! by Machiko Sakurai.

ICv2 has more on the five new manga licenses Go!Comi announced at Anime Expo.

MangaCast has lots of news from Japan, including this week’s manga rankings, in which seinen and josei make a strong showing, and the first part of their big list of all the manga being published there this month.

Reviews: Johanna Draper Carlson checks out vol. 1 of Flower of Life at Comics Worth Reading. At Manga Life, Michael Aronson reviews vol. 8 of Monster and vol. 25 of Iron Wok Jan. Holly Ellingwood is on the yaoi beat at Active Anime, where she reviews vol. 8 of Kizuna: Bonds of Love. At Mecha Mecha Media, John Thomas reviews two manhwa that couldn’t be more different, vol. 1 of XS Hybrid and vol. 1 of Hanami-International Love Story. At MangaCast, Readilbert looks at Secret Base and Body Shock. Adam Stephanides reviews the Japanese title 51 Ways to Protect Your Girlfriend at Completely Futile. At Anime on DVD, Chris Beveridge takes a look at vol. 1 of Shiki Tsukai and Danielle Van Gorder checks out a light novel, vol. 1 of Chibi Vampire. It’s Manga Monday at Comics-and-More, where Dave Ferraro checks out vol. 2 of Tanpenshu and vols. 13 and 14 of Hana-Kimi.

Yaoi Press will be starting its own 18+ yaoi-themed convention in Arizona next year. Details after the cut.

Yaoi Press Starts Fan Convention

Phoenix, AZ, July 9, 2007 –Yaoi Press, the leading publisher of manga influenced yaoi graphic novels, announces Yaoi Jamboree, a new fan convention to run June 20-22nd in Phoenix Arizona.

“We were eager to see more bl themed conventions start up,” says Yaoi Press Publisher, Yamila Abraham. “The staff for two Phoenix area anime conventions approached us about starting one. Once we saw we had competent people to operate the show it was an easy decision for us.”

Yaoi Jamboree will be held at the Renaissance Phoenix Hotel, in Glendale, Arizona. The venue will provide a 36,000 sq. ft. exhibit hall, a ballroom, a theater, and multiple panel rooms.

Guests will include Japanese mangaka, as well as creators for Yaoi Press. Plans are underway for unique main events involving male actors from an area playhouse. Yaoi Press will publish an art book of attendee submissions to distribute at the show.

Attendees must be at least 18 years old, and first year turn-out is estimated at 2,000. “We will be aggressively promoting the show,” says Abraham. “Yaoi Jamboree will be advertised both by itself, and in conjunction with regular Yaoi Press advertisements. It will be publicized at many shows Yaoi Press attends.”

About Yaoi Press
Yaoi is a romantic genre that deals with stories about men in love with men for women readers. Yaoi Press borrowed their theme from Japan where it’s been hugely popular for several decades. Yaoi has gained a strong foothold in the United States.

Yaoi Press was founded in 2004, and has published twenty global yaoi manga graphic novels and one yaoi art book to date. Yaoi Press titles are distributed by Diamond Book Distributors.

For more information please visit www.yaoipress.com and www.yaoijamboree.com.

Here’s a little something to put on your iPod this weekend: The latest edition of the MangaBlogCast, with new titles, Anime Expo tidbits, and more. Links after the cut.

The envelope please…

News article about the International Manga award
Madeleine Rosca’s LJ
Hollow Fields webcomic

Dropped manga

David Welsh’s column on long-running series
John Jakala on manga that have jumped the shark

Re-Flex

Kokoro media on DC’s Flex investment
Mangaijin’s take

Rozen Maiden screeches to a halt

Peach-Pit apologizes for the abrupt ending

Ten-cent tour of Anime Expo

DMP
Go!Comi
CMX
Seven Seas
Aurora

Discussion of the week: Is there a future for seinen manga? A few days ago I linked to Kethylia’s comments about the tenuous status of Eden: It’s an Endless World, and seinen in general:

The overaged fanboys can lament the demise of Raijin Comics and the failure of DMP to follow through with the seinen side of their initial “mandate” all they want. It just doesn’t change anything. They might be the ones to protesteth loudest on the Internet, and they might be the ones in control of the manga industry, but they’re not the ones with the buying power. And if it’s not clear to you by now who IS the demographic with the buying power, I’ll spell it out for you—Girls and Women. Who do not, surprise surprise, flock to Blood and Breasts in satisfyingly large numbers.

At Precocious Curmudgeon, David Welsh picks up the thread and also points out that seinen titles like Eden are hard to find in chain bookstores. And over at Comics Worth Reading, Johanna agrees with Kethylia. Both posts continue into interesting discussions in comments. (FWIW, here’s my take: Seinen is a broad genre, and while I think the audience for the B&B titles is limited, there’s plenty of good stuff that will appeal to women as well as men. Although as someone pointed out at Comics Worth Reading, josei isn’t exactly tearing up the charts either.)

Simon Jones looks at an upcoming Seven Seas license and smells trouble.

Jason Thompson does a special guest appearance at Shaenon Garrity’s Overlooked Manga Festival.

Erin F shows you where to get manga and Pocky in New York City.

At Manga Life, Pantheon High artists Steven and Megumi Cummings explain, with sketches, how they put together the art package to pitch the book. It’s the latest entry in a series that I haven’t read but probably will.

Julie has a thorough report on the Anime Expo CMX panel at the Manga Maniac Cafe.

Reviews: At Active Anime, Christopher Seaman reads vol. 12 of The Wallflower and Holly Ellingwood checks out vol. 1 of Galaxy Angel II. Michael Aronson reviews vol. 2 of Tsubasa at Manga Life. At Prospero’s Manga, Miranda reviews vol. 1 of Le Chevalier d’Eon and Ferdinand checks out vol. 1 of War Angels. At Anime on DVD, Ron Quezon takes a look at an older release, vol. 1 of Cipher.

ICv2’s latest guide has some good news for people who don’t have enough to read: There are 87 manga series debuting in September, October, and November. This is interesting:

In the manga market report covering the second quarter of 2007 ICv2 reports that, according to retailers and distributors, sales of yaoi manga are growing, but not as fast as the number of yaoi releases, which could indicate the possibility of a logjam in the marketplace this fall since 32 out of the 87 new series are yaoi properties.

So we may be close to finding an answer to the question “Can there be such a thing as too much yaoi?” And they post their top 10 manga properties for the second quarter of 2007:

1. Naruto
2. Fruits Basket
3. Death Note
4. Bleach
5. Fullmetal Alchemist
6. Kingdom Hearts
7. Pokemon
8. The Gentleman’s Alliance [sic]
9. Tsubasa
10. Negima

No surprises here, although it’s interesting that The Gentlemen’s Alliance + has made the top ten so quickly—the first volume came out last March.