MangaBlog

Matt Blind of Comicsnob is the first to put out the list of this week’s new manga. With his picks, of course.

ChunHyang72 offers another great Tokyopop Round-Up and winds it up with some love for Black Sun Silver Moon. I think this says it all:

After reading so many series with attractive young priests who spend more time flirting and blowing stuff up than, say, giving communiion, I’m beginning to think I joined the wrong Catholic Church!

Yaoi Press is offering a new format: comic books. According to ICv2, it will start in October with a bimonthly series, Yaoi Candy, with a cover price of $3.95, and a one-shot, Offered to a Demon, for $4.95. (This last one is about a pagan priest, so no confusion there. Unless you’re a pagan.) YP announced at NYCC that they would be putting their comics online at Netcomics as well.

As I mentioned a few days ago, the Same Hat bloggers have printed a minicomic of their scanlations and are selling it for two bucks. Simon Jones wonders if that crosses a line; check out the discussion in the comments section.

ANN has a flurry of manga news: two new manga and light novel magazines are starting up in Japan; a new book will discuss Hokusai as a manga artist; and a sales push in Japan will target fujoshi. Also: The New York Public Library is offering a Manga 101 class on May 24.

Deutsche Mangaka learns that The Dreaming and Bizenghast will be released in German.

At the MangaCast, Ed has more on Summit of the Gods and the rest of the Fanfare/Ponent Mon lineup.

Johanna Draper Carlson marked two milestones last weekend: It was the eighth year of the website Comics Worth Reading and the third year of the blog. And she almost missed it because she was to busy reading comics!

Reviews: At Comics Worth Reading, Johanna reviews vols. 1-3 of Genju no Seiza, a series that finally seems to be getting the audience it deserves. And at Comics Unlimited, she leads off her reviews with a look at vol. 1 of Divalicious. Matt Brady pens lengthy reviews, with scans, of Ode to Kirihito and vol. 2 of The Drifting Classroom. Chris Mautner reviews Death Note. At the Mangamaniaccafe, Julie checks out vol. 16 of Red River. Dave Ferraro reviews vol. 1 of Fushigi Yugi: The Mysterious Play at Comics-and-more. At Anime on DVD, Julie Rosato reviews the one-shot Hero Heel. Active Anime’s Holly Ellingwood turns her sights on vol. 4 of Enchanter and vol. 4 of ROD Read or Dream. At ANN, Theron Martin reviews vol. 1 of Millennium Snow, Carlo Santos (Pata) checks out vol. 3 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, and Briana Lawrence reads vol. 1 of After School Nightmare. Comicsnob Matt Blind looks over vol. 1 of Shugo Chara. At Okazu, Erica Friedman reviews vol. 6 of Hayate x Blade. Fanfare/Ponent Mon titles are popping up all over: Sarah Morean reviews The Building Opposite for The Daily Cross Hatch, and Derik Badman checks out vol. 3 of The Times of Botchan. (Both found via Journalista.) And at the Toon Zone, the singly-named James discovers vol. 1 of To Terra.

In case you missed the most recent Print magazine, David Welsh’s article on manhwa is online, having been picked up by Business Week. I’m not sure how that particular synergy works, but it’s all good.

Comipress translates an article that takes a glum look at Japanese manga magazines and another about a series going on hiatus because the artist is going blind. But there’s also a bit of good news: two new series in Weekly Shonen Jump and a new shoujo manga magazine aimed at males. Go figure.

Manga is huge in France, but apparently that’s not sitting too well with French presidential candidate Segoline Royale, who has complained that manga is too violent and pornographic. The famously otaku Japanese foreign minister, Taro Aso, countered by saying “I think she should read a little bit more.” David Welsh and Chloe give their takes on the topic.

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin has a nice article about Scott Yoshinaga and Audra Furuichi, the creative team behind the uber-cute webcomic Nemu-Nemu.

Manganews translates an article about whether copyright should be handled differently for doujinshi and other derivative works.

In a move that I certainly didn’t see coming, the Catholic Church in England is using a manga-style comic to encourage vocations. The comics will tell the stories of five real people who chose the religious life.

Reviews: Continuing the religious theme, Mecha Mecha Media’s John Thomas reviews vol. 1 of Puri Puri. At Active Anime, Christopher Seaman reviews vol. 10 of Neon Genesis Evangelion and Holly Ellingwood checks out vol. 2 of Flower of Life. At the MangaCast, Erin F reviews vol. 1 of the light novel Twelve Kingdoms and Mangamaniac Julie reads vol. 2 of E’S. Back at the cafe, she posts a revew of vol. 10 of Gals! Evelyn Shih reviews vol. 1 of The Dark Goodbye and vol. 1 of King City for the North Jersey Media Group. At Okazu, Erica Friedman checks out vol. 2 of Ninin Ga Shinobuden. And Comics Worth Reading’s Johanna Draper Carlson has updated her manga reviews page.

Anime Boston was great! I wasn’t sure if it was worth going, as I don’t watch much anime, but there was enough of a manga and webcomic presence there to make it more than worthwhile. I didn’t go to any panels but I did get some good interviews, had lunch with Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier, and got to hang out with Robin Brenner, Erin F, and some crazy webcomickers. Watch for writeups shortly.

Meanwhile, the news marches on.

Vertical is launching a new shoujo manga line in 2008. Editorial Director Ioannis Mentzas seems to realize he’s swimming upstream here: “It’s nearly impossible to get good licenses now, but we’ll do it.” Vertical has done well over the past year by publishing classic manga, and they will contine to do so under the Vertical name.

Vertical will publish about 30 books in 2007 and expects to eventually publish around 60 books a year once the new imprint is fully operational. Most of the increase will be manga.

Ryan and Evan from Same Hat were at APE this weekend, and they’ve done a little alternative publishing of their own: They have compiled all their scanlations into a single volume, which they are making available through the blog.

Blog@Newsarama links to a Japanese-American magazine’s special issue on manga.

David Welsh has no complaints about the Eisners, but he wonders if there should be a Hall of Fame for individual works.

LJ’er Sparklyfanta discusses feminism and CLAMP, with special attention to the ickiness of Chobits. (Via When Fangirls Attack.)

Deutsche Mangaka has the latest news from German publishers.

If you’re going to be in London in May, the Daiwa House is hosting a manga workshop led by Rising Stars of Manga winners Paul Duffield, John Aggs, Sonia Leong, and Emma Viceli. Artist Eric Wight (My Dead Girlfriend) will also be there, and it all seems to be affiliated somehow with Tokyopop. (Via Otaku News.)

It’s somewhat OT, but I found this article on Japanese school lunches utterly fascinating.

Job board: Newtype USA is looking for a translator. It’s in-house, and they’re located in Houston, Texas.

Reviews: Ed Chavez has an audio review of vol. 3 of Category: Freaks and vol. 1 of JUNK at the MangaCast. At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood reviews the yaoi one-shot Fake Fur and Davey C. Jones checks out vol. 2 of Gacha Gacha The Next Revolution. At the Mangamaniaccafe, Julie is reading vol. 2 of Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~, vol. 2 of Utopia’s Avenger, and vol. 10 of The Devil Does Exist. Precocious Curmudgeon David Welsh likes vol. 2 of Train + Train more than he liked vol. 1. Connie knocks down the stack a bit at Slightly Biased Manga, with reviews of vols. 17 and 18 of Dragon Ball, vol. 8 of Sorcerer Hunters, vol. 6 of Dragon Head, and Solfege. At the Star of Malaysia, Cheeky Monkey reviews vol. 1 of La Corda d’Oro, Kitty Sensei checks out vol. 1 of Flower of Life, and Kadzuki reviews The Kouga Ninja Scrolls, the novel that was the basis for Basilisk. And at The Comic Book Bin, Leroy Douresseaux reads the latest issue of Shojo Beat.

Hey, East Coast readers: I’ll be at Anime Boston this afternoon and most of tomorrow, so if you want to get together, drop me an e-mail at the address on your right. Or just keep an eye out for someone who looks like this. I may or may not be accompanied by cosplaying teenagers. (Here’s some background from a local paper.)

OK, on to the day’s news.

For a tiny company with a small catalogue, Fanfare/Ponent Mon made an impressive showing in the Eisners, with two nominations, and yesterday they quietly added a new title to their “In the Making” page: The Summit of the Gods (Kamigami No Itadaki), by Jiro Taniguchi and Baku Yumemakura. According to editor Stephen Robson, “It is a beautiful recant in five massive volumes of what challenges man. The focus is Mount Everest and the book opens with Mallory’s quote ‘Because it’s there!'” The book won an Excellence Award at the 5th Japan Media Festival, and there are raves and a cover image on their site. It looks like it first appeared in Business JUMP. Oh, and it is available already in French under the title “Le Sommet des Dieux”; click on “Resumes” to see covers of all five volumes. Of course, F/PM may go with different designs.

In other news, ChunHyang72 rounds up all you need to know in her latest Manga Minute.

Same Hat! takes a sneak peek at Mirai Chounaikai, the newest manga by Cromartie High School creator Eiji Nonaka.

Shaenon Garrity has a new edition of the Overlooked Manga Festival up, and this week it’s about the manga equivalent of a big box of Pocky: Sugar Sugar Rune.

At the French blog du9, Xavier Guilbert takes a look at the alternative manga magazine Ax.

If you’re in Austin, not Boston, check out the Manga Melee at Austin Books, featuring creators Paul Benjamin, Lea Hernandez, Rivkah, and Tony Salvaggio. (Via Blog@Newsarama.)

Manganews translates a Japanese article on the funeral of Raoh, a character from Fists of the North Star.

PopCultureShock has a preview up of vol. 1 of Gunsmith Cats Burst, which is due out next week.

At the MangaCast, Ed has the PR on the latest series from DRMaster, Premature Priest,which, amazingly, is not yaoi.

ComiPress has more on those homeless people who live in manga cafes.

And via ComiPress: A wine-oriented manga is getting credit for spurring the popularity of wine in South Korea, which sounds a little fishy to me.

Wired magazine discovers 2-chan.

Reviews: At the MangaCast, Mangamaniac Julie checks out the latest issue of Shojo Beat. At Prospero’s Manga, Miranda checks out vol. 1 of King City and Ferdinand reviews vol. 1 of The Devil Does Exist. Erica Friedman of Okazu enjoys vol. 1 of Red Garden. At Active Anime, Scott Campbell reviews vol. 2 of Kamiyadori and Holly Ellingwood takes an advance look at vol. 14 of Hunter x Hunter. The Basugakuhatsu Anime Blog checks out vol. 1 of The Recipe for Gertrude, vol. 2 of Aoi House,and vol. 2 of E’S. At the Comic Book Bin, Leroy Duresseaux reviews vol. 1 of Tactics. Jessica Severs checks out vol. 1 of The Dark Goodbye and vol. 1 of Divalicious for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Comicsnob’s Matt Blind publishes a flurry of brief reviews in two posts.

What if they announced a set of awards nominations and nobody complained?

This seems to be the year. Even the mainstream comics folks seem to be pleased, and the manga community is delighted, especially because the Eisner people created a special category just for us. Shaenon Garrity explains why this is important:

voters will no longer be placed in the schizophrenic position of trying to choose between, say, Osamu Tezuka and Joann Sfar. (Obviously, if Tezuka and Sfar have to fight, they should have one three-page slugfest, then realize a common goal and team up against Michael Turner.)

Also three of the books nominated in that category were featured in her Overlooked Manga Festival, which sort of begs the question of whether they can be regarded as “overlooked” any more.

Meanwhile, Journalista‘s Dirk Deppey shows off the silver-tongued fluency that helped him win his nomination:

Waking up to the news this afternoon, my first reaction was, “The fuck…?” Hours have since passed, and I’m not sure I can improve upon that one.

Tokyopop editor Tim “Beedlejuice” Beedle is understandably delighted to learn that Becky Cloonan’s East Coast Rising, which he edited, got a nomination.

Yaoi Suki points out that nominee Antique Bakery has a scratch-n-sniff feature. I had forgotten about that.

At Precocious Curmudgeon, commenter Huff points out that Walking Man came out a couple of years ago and questions whether After School Nightmare merits its nomination. David responds “It’s a surprisingly complex, thought-provoking work,” and I agree.

At The Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon modestly posts his own nomination without comment but inexplicably links it to a video of Schooly D’s “I Don’t Like Rock’n’Roll.”

Oh, wait, did I say nobody was complaining? At Irresponsible Pictures, Pata makes some sports analogy that I don’t get (my brain doesn’t process sports) but concludes that adding a Japanese manga category is fair. But then:

What isn’t fair is this year’s choice of nominees. I can think of at least 5 series that outrank the Oldboy manga, and at least 10 that would be better picks than the schlock-horror of After School Nightmare. Unless by “Best U.S. Edition” they mean who wrote the best English script and uses the best paper and ink and does the best cultural notes, in which case I would like to know why Del Rey got shut out.

Thanks for breaking the monotony! Actually, Matt Brady has a few complaints as well in his detailed commentary. He questions whether Abandon the Old in Tokyo and Ode to Kirihito merit “archival collection” nominations, given that both are flipped. But regarding the manga nominations, he confesses he hasn’t read them (a refreshing admission!) and adds

I could complain about the absence of my favorite series (Death Note, Nana), but there’s so much manga out there, it’s easy to miss large swathes of good stuff.