This week, Jack and I look at Aurora, Viz, and online manga. Links after the cut.
Viz vigor
PWCW interview with Alvin Lu
Christopher Butcher posts all you need to know about Taiyo Matsumoto
One for the ladies
ICv2 summaries of Aurora’s new titles
Conversation at The Engine
Conversation at Precocious Curmudgeon
Monthly Shonen Jump stories to continue in weekly version
New titles watch
Kobatu to run in Newtype USA
MangaCast has news of High School Debut
This seems to be an unusually good week for new manga. At Same Hat, Ryan and Evan are psyched about new volumes of Dragon Head and Death Note. David Welsh is envisioning an iron cage match between Tohru Honda, the brothers Elric, and Light Yagami. Taking a broader perspective, the MangaCast team runs the entire list and picks their favorites. At Comicsnob, Matt Blind has his own list and picks.
If that’s not enough, Comics Worth Reading’s Rob Vollmar recommends seven classic manga, and they’re not all the usual suspects, either.
Happily, I just got an e-mail from Tokyopop today saying that Borders is having a buy three, get one free sale on Tokyopop titles, so that will lessen the bite a bit.
Speaking of Tokyopop, they are previewing the first chapter of the German manga Gothic Sports on their website this week. (Via Deutsche Mangaka.) And the Rush blog has a brief preview of chapter 2 of Venom Fang.
PWCW has a seven-page preview of Warriors: The Lost Warrior, the first in their series of manga that spin off the popular Warriors kids’ novels. Also: A report on the publisher Japanime, whose 2007 lineup includes a manga gift book, a manga cookbook, and a new OEL title about sisters working in a maid cafe.
Becky Cloonan’s comments on the difficulties of the graphic novel format have sparked an interesting discussion at the Newsarama blog.
MangaCast has the scoop on Viz’s second-quarter releases and Svetlana Chmakova’s manga workshop.
ANN says that Weekly Shonen Jump is the most popular manga magazine among Japanese girls, but Chloe points out that there are cultural reasons for this, and it doesn’t mean the girls aren’t reading their shoujo.
ICv2 has more info on the newly announced Yen Press title, Into the Light…, including their opinion that it is “likely to be more of a succes d’estime than a best-seller.” At The Beat, Heidi MacDonald reflects on Chris Arrant’s recent interview with Yen principals Kurt Hassler and Rich Johnson and the evolution of the market.
Business Week discovers BL manga… because of the business opportunities, of course. Actually, this article on cell phone manga has an interesting take on why BL is so popular: Remember, it’s not as acceptable in Japan, so downloading it to a cell phone saves the shy fujoshi from having to actually face a sales clerk. But you gotta love this:
“Women and girls in their teens, 20s, and 30s like BL for their portrayals of innocent love,” says Toshiki Fujii, a manager in the cell-phone content division at Nagoya-based Media Do. “But now those who might have been coy about walking into a shop can find what they’re looking for online.”
Memo to possible investors: I don’t think it’s the “innocent love” they’re downloading. The cost is about 25 cents for a 10-page chapter, or $15 a month, and it added up to $20 million last year.
Go!Comi has renewed its contract with Diamond. Hey, if it ain’t broke…
Contests, contests, contests. For artists, Kodansha is holding an international manga competition and HP Singapore is holding a “Comidol” contest to find the best digital artist in the country, and For readers, there’s the first annual Manga Proficiency Test, and Public voting is now open for Kadokawa Shoten’s 2007 Light Novel Awards.
Same Hat has a glimpse at another Suehiro Maruo tattoo for your viewing pleasure.
Tokyopop editor Tim Beedle explains why Genju no Seiza is so awesome.
Reviews: Comics-and-more checks out vols. 2 and 3 of Alien Nine and vol. 5 of The Drifting Classroom. At Prospero’s Manga, Miranda gets no pleasure from with Pleasure Dome (“a bunch of well-dressed Ken dolls raping each other”) but Ferdinand enjoys vol. 1 of Chikyu Misaki. Tangognat has a new addiction after reading vol. 1 of Nodame Cantabile. At Mecha Mecha Media, John Thomas posts a scan of his latest column, which includes reviews of vol. 1 of To Terra, vol. 1 of E’S, The Two Faces of Tomorrow, and vol. 1 of Train + Train. Active Anime’s Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 28 of Inu Yasha and vol. 13 of Hana-Kimi, and Christopher Seaman checks out vol. 3 of Crying Freeman. At Manga Life, Dan Polley reviews vol. 1 of East Coast Rising and Michael Aronson takes on the classic Ode to Kirihito. At the Mangamaniaccafe, Julie gives vol. 1 of Midori Days a C+, which is better than I would have rated it. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie reads vol. 4 of Dokebi Bride, Poison Cherry Drive, vol. 18 of Bleach, vol. 2 of Swan, and vol. 13 of Eyeshield 21. Ed Chavez finishes up a popular series with his review of vol. 4 of Antique Bakery at Anime on DVD, Jarred Pine starts a new one with vol. 1 of Wild Adaptor, and the whole staff chimes in for some Small-Bodied Manga Reviews.
Shaenon Garrity has another Overlooked Manga Festival up, and this week she goes all classy with a peek at Fanfare/Ponent Mon’s Doing Time.
And here are some really cool 4-koma cartoons. I like the maid/shark one the best, because it sort of made sense. (Via Journalista.)
I’m a little late with this, but ChunHyang72 posted a new Manga Minute on Friday and she’s dug up some really cool stuff, including New Yorker cartoons for your cell phone.
At Newsarama, Chris Arrant interviews Kurt Hassler and Rich Johnson about Yen Press and their plans for the future.
Robots Never Sleep goes shopping.
The Newtype USA blog has a little more info on their new CLAMP title, Kobato.
Deutsche Mangaka has a brief excerpt of an interview with Anike Hage.
Tomo Kimura has posted some notes on her translation of vol. 3 of Skip Beat.
The Avril Lavigne manga seems to be getting some press. I like this:
The rocker said she decided to step into comics after noticing the backpacks of her fans.
“I know that many of my fans read manga, and I’m really excited to be involved in creating stories I know they will enjoy,” she said.
So just think, your Inu Yasha messenger bag could have been the spark that got this whole thing started!
More likely she read an article like this, about how the kids are reading the manga—and making their own. At the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Jason Yadao takes an advance peek at the book, Make 5 Wishes.
Meanwhile, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs hires Detective Conan to explain what exactly it is they do.
Looks like the Bristol (UK) Comics Expo will have an eclectic manga lineup.
For the purists out there, the revised edition of vol. 1 of Air Gear, with the original text restored (no, not the Japanese, just some dialogue that was changed) goes on sale on May 4. Look for the words “Revised Edition” on the back cover.
Before we launch into the reviews, congratulations to Ferdinand and Miranda at Prospero’s Manga on their first blogiversary. If you haven’t checked them out, go take a look. Their reviews are pithy and to the point, and I always get a chuckle out of their little capsule summaries.
Reviews: At PopCultureShock, Katherine Dacey-Tsuei reviews vol. 3 of Genju no Seiza and vol. 1 of tactics. Active Anime’s Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 16 of Fruits Basket and vol. 4 of Battle Club. Danielle Van Gorder reviews vol. 1 of Saver for Anime on DVD. At the Mangamaniaccafe, Julie checks out vol. 4 of The Recipe for Gertrude, vol. 7 of Claymore, and vol. 2 of Shaman Warrior. Erica Friedman reviews vol. 1 of Cutie Honey a Go Go, which not only hasn’t made it into English but never even made it to volume 2—and she thinks that’s a shame. In this week’s Flipped column, David Welsh reviews vol. 1’s of Black Sun Silver Moon and Shakugan no Shana. Connie of Slightly Biased Manga has been busy, with reviews up of vols. 1, 2, and 3 of Cain Saga, vol. 24 of Oh My Goddess, vol. 6 of Reiko the Zombie Shop, vol. 1 of Click, and vol. 3 of Dokebi Bride. At The Star of Malaysia, Kitty Sensei checks out vol. 1 of Your and My Secret.
ComiPress translates an analysis of cover price versus page count for Japanese manga magazines that concludes that even though the price has gone up, the price per page has stayed the same.
Also from ComiPress: a math textbook is rejected for having too much manga.
Working with the idea that students tend to “avoid subjects related to math and science,” Keirinkan made the textbook through the process of trial and error, but according to an editor, “MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) decided that manga just isn’t suitable as the main content of a schoolbook.”
Meanwhile, Japan’s oldest book, The Kojiki, has been given the manga treatment, and had some of the sex and violence removed in the process.
At MangaCast, Ed takes a look at the many faces of maids in manga (including a yanki maid manga) and Readilbert discusses drawing styles, using scans of some very different types of manga.
PopCultureShock’s Erin F does her own take on the overlooked manga festival with a comprehensive review of the sadly neglected Club 9.
Same Hat! Same Hat!! checks out the German manga scene, with lots of pictures and informative links.
Manganews reports on an Ontario (thanks, Jen!) bookstore closing and another Japanese manga publisher going belly-up. Simon Jones has more on the publisher’s financial woes.
At Comics 212, Christopher Butcher looks ahead to new books arriving this week, including new volumes of Death Note, Dragon Head, Fruits Basket, and Fullmetal Alchemist.
As it’s a bumper week for good manga, this might be a good time to try ordering it cheaply online. John Jakala is checking out a new source.
Jordan Marks of Yaoi Suki is at Sakuracon, picking up tidbits about the new Boysenberry titles and new titles from Yaoi Press.
Reviews: Robots Never Sleep takes an advance look at the award-winning Disappearance Diary, which Fanfare/Ponent Mon will be bringing out in English later this year. At MangaCast, Ed has an audio review of two Broccoli titles, Galaxy Angel II and Murder Princess, Mangamaniac checks out vol. 1 of Millennium Snow, and Readilbert reads Complex and Lovely Complex. Active Anime’s Holly Ellingwood checks out vol. 1 of Avril Lavigne’s Make 5 Wishes, vol. 3 of R.O.D. Read or Dream, vol. 5 of Kamui, and vol. 3 of Tail of the Moon. Matthew Alexander reviews vol. 1 of Archlord for Anime on DVD.
Here’s a quick non-manga plug: We have been enjoying the first season of Jonathan Creek, which has finally made it onto American DVD (we got it from Netflix). If you haven’t seen it, it’s a British mystery series about a magician’s technician who solves impossible mysteries—corpse in a locked room sort of things. It’s weird and witty and well worth a watch.
Okay, back to the manga. In today’s edition of The Comics Reporter, Bart Beaty checks out Non Non Ba, which won a top prize at Angouleme, and finds it surprisingly boring.
I’ve been so busy the last two days that I completely forgot to check the USA Today Booklist. Fortunately, Dirk Deppey remembered, and he reports that vol. 13 of Naruto slid to number 79 and vol. 18 of Bleach debuts at number 129.
Kotaku takes a slightly NSFW peek at Blue Dragon.
At Newsarama, Chris Arrant interviews Brandon Graham about King City.
Congratulations to David Welsh, who has just been promoted to Manga Editor at Comic World News, home to his weekly Flipped column.
If you’re going to be in Lausanne this weekend, check out Polymanga! Closer to home, Seattle is hosting Sakura-Con this weekend.
How old is the oldest otaku? At Comicsnob, Matt Blind continues his history of fandom, and Matt Thorn chimes in with some interesting comments on Tezuka’s anime.
Purity Brown takes a look at three shounen-ai series worth reading.
Reviews: The Pittsburgh Tribune’s Jessica Severs enjoys vol. 1 of King City. At Mecha Mecha Media, John Thomas gives thumbs up to vol. 2 of Shaman Warrior. Anime Jump’s Chad Clayton reviews vols. 1 and 2 of Stellvia. Slightly Biased Connie checks out vol. 3 of Starry Night, the manwha novella collection, and volumes 10, 11, and 12 of Eyeshield 21. At TokyoSpace, Andre reviews vol. 1 of Tactics. Manganews posts a handful of new reviews: anitra on vol. 1 of Dokebi Bride, Floating_Sakura on vol. 2 of The Dreaming, Kiara on vol. 7 of High School Girls, and Ishaan on vol. 1 of JUNK – Record of the Last Hero. At the MangaCast, manga maniac Julie checks out vols. 1 and 2 of Naruto Collector magazine, and back at the cafe she reviews vol. 1 of Omukae Desu. Miranda of Prospero’s Manga checks out vol. 1 of The Dark Goodbye, and Ferdinand updates us on vols. 2 and 3 of Aishiteruze Baby. The Hipster Dad reviews vol. 1 of To Terra. (Via Journalista—good catch!) Also found first by Dirk: Pol Rua reviews vol. 1 of King City for Comics Should be Good. And at Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 2 of Someday’s Dreamers: Spellbound and vol. 12 of Hana-Kimi.
Divalicious, vol. 1
Writer: T Campbell
Artist: Amy Mebberson
Rated T for Teen (13+)
Tokyopop, $9.99
I’ll admit right up front that the whole idea of Divalicious made me roll my eyes when I first heard of it. It looked like a fluffy tale of a dumb-blonde singer, the sort of thing I’m trying to avoid when I tell the kids to turn off VH1.
Well, I stand corrected. Divalicious is a fast-paced, lighthearted satire of the entertainment industry with a surprisingly complex story that unfolds like a music video, with quick cuts and over-the-top humor that made me laugh out loud in places. It deftly skewers the stock characters of the genre—the slick manager, the bad-guy rapper—and even takes on Christian rock and reality TV. Plus there’s a real plot.
Writer T Campbell’s script moves fast—a bit too fast in places. At the beginning of the book I felt like I was jumping in in the middle of a story, as a whole slew of characters popped up without proper introductions.
So as a service to the first-time reader, here’s the setup: Tina Young is a 17-year-old singer who is wildly successful but still somewhat jealous of her competition (and former co-star), Bit Fencer. Tina’s manager, Shaquille, nurses a hopeless crush on her while efficiently taking care of all her business matters. In the first chapter, Tina briefly reunites with her old band, which includes do-gooder Evan, weight-conscious Paula, and someone called Bert who is always in a chemical haze. And in the second chapter she hooks up with rapper Chaddy G, whose bark is definitely worse than his bite.
The book rockets forward in a series of short episodes, each of which builds on the other to form a coherent story that really comes together in the last chapter. At that point, all the scenes that looked like non sequiturs suddenly make sense.
You might expect the blonde, bubbly Tina to be deep as a dish, but Campbell and Mebberson have given her unexpected depth. One minute she’s fighting hunger by bringing a plate of cookies to Africa, but the next she is providing calculated advice to her rapper boyfriend: “Now, you got a podcast comin’ up… You want to insult a major religion. But not too major. Buddhists are good ‘cause they’re real forgiving.”
In fact, all the characters have a bit more depth to them than I initially expected. Campbell and Mebberson have taken the standard stereotypes and given each a twist. Chaddy G is as shrewd as Tina, but he can’t intimidate a small-town shopkeeper. Shaquille is the stereotypical slick manager, but he’s a sloppy drunk. And as Bit Fencer slowly comes into focus—along with the shadowy agency that’s representing her—you start to realize that this isn’t Pizzazz on Parade, it’s a story with a real plot.
Mebberson’s energetic artwork is a good match to Campbell’s fast-paced script. She makes full use of all the cartoon conventions to add emphasis in all the right places, and she keeps Tina recognizable and consistent despite drastic shifts in mood from panel to panel.
Divalicious has a knowing tone but a good heart. It’s not a sequential-art version of US magazine; it has a solid plot, and I found on the second reading that I was picking up on things that made more sense once I knew where the plot was going. Yeah, that’s right, I read it twice. It’s that good.
(This review is based on a complimentary copy supplied by the publisher.)
