MangaBlog

I have to be at the polls at 6:15, so this will be very terse:

ICv2 has an interview with Rich Johnson about Hachette’s new graphic novel imprint, Yen Press. Johnson and Kurt Hassler will share the duties of director of publishing.

David Welsh has some good commentary on this week’s Comics List, and in his Flipped column he reviews Ode to Kirihito.

Pata links to YouTube videos of Patrick Macias being otaku about otaku.

Papo de Budega interviews Vampire Hunter D manga-ka Yoshitako Amano. (Via ANN.

And finally, don’t forget to VOTE today. I’m working today as a warden at my polling place, so I was reading the manual last night, and it was very clear: We can’t turn people away. In fact, we must work very hard to make sure that every eligible voter votes. If you recently registered or if you haven’t voted in a while, bring some ID with your current address (a utility bill is fine in most states). If you’re challenged, insist on your right to vote. If you’re not sure about something, go to Can I Vote? which will link you with your state’s website so you can check ID requirements and polling places. Or go to the League of Women Voters website (men can use it too!) and click on Vote411, then click your state. And then go pull that lever, fill in that bubble, stomp that chad, or touch that screen!

In addition to my regular MangaBlog duties, I have just joined the group blog Digital Strips, where I’ll be covering web manga (and anything else interesting that crosses my browser). My first post is up, alerting readers to Tokyopop’s Dramaconathon. Look for new stuff every few days, and feel free to send me your recommendations as well.

ICv2 has more on Kurt Hassler’s move from Borders buyer to co-director of Yen Press, a new Hachette imprint focusing on graphic novels. There is a bit of sniping from an anonymous source (something that as a reporter, I would never allow into a story) and a much nicer quote from Kuo-Yu Liang of Diamond. At Precocious Curmudgeon, David Welsh rounds up the commentary from the blogosphere.

At Tokyopop, ChunHyang72 has another Tokyopop roundup, highlighting entries on Off*Beat, josei manga, and light novels, among others.

Deutsche Mangaka translates an interview with Mary Hildebrandt and David Boller, co-creators of Evergrey.

At Irresponsible Pictures, Pata checks out some Japanese fanart.

At Pop Culture Shock, Erin F. reviews Project X: 7-11. Yaoi 911 reviews Your Honest Deceit. At Anime on DVD, reviewer Sakura Eries likes the Viz version of Densha Otoko (Train Man) the best.

There’s a new edition of Manga Curry no Maki up at MangaCast. This one features Ed and Jack talking about Yaoi-Con, Densha Otoko, and the importance of small publishers.

At The Beat, Heidi MacDonald gives some perspective to the question of classifying manga by gender:

it seems that in a system that at least RECOGNIZES girls’ and women’s comics, they are allowed to exist. Here in the US, “girls’ comics” exist only as a hazy category in a few publishers fantasies. Which isn’t to say that girls don’t read comics, because they do, but each and every new female reader is still treated as something of a miracle of parthenogenesis — “Watson, come quickly! She’s reading SANDMAN! How could this have happened? It’s incredible!”

While we’re no fans of gender or any other kind of segregation, it does often create a safer place for material out of the “mainstream” — safely labeled as being cooty girlie stuff, it is no threat to the prevailing culture, even if everyone is free to read it — privately.

Meanwhile, at Icarus Comics, Simon Jones is tired of pundits obsessing about why women like yaoi.

Reporters grill attendees for an answer like an angry schoolmaster corraling unruly children at the end of recess, refusing to see the phenomenon as a matter of taste, desperately looking for signs of sinister witchcraft that aren’t there to make sense of something they simply cannot accept at face value.

Time to cut the “psychobabble,” he says, and treat yaoi like every other genre.

ComiPress reports on another store that sells complete sets of old manga.

Reviews: At Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page, Emily thoroughly enjoys Kaichou wa Maid-sama (Class President is a Maid!). Julie Gray of the Comic Book Bin reviews Q-Ko-Chan. Manga Punk’s David Doub finds some things to like about Ode to Kirihito but thinks Tezuka could have done better. At MangaNews, Floating_Sakura is disappointed by Tezuka’s Metropolis, partly because the master himself had to rush the ending. If you’re pressed for time, Jarred at the MangaCast reviews eight books in 30 minutes (and he doesn’t sound particularly rushed). For those who like a more leisurely podcast, Jack Tse looks at an unlikely trio: Eternal Sabbath, Ichigo Marshmallow, and Welcome to the NHK. And the reviewers at The Star of Malaysia get busy with reviews of Boogiepop Dual: Losers’ Circus, The Push Man, Tail of the Moon, and a fistful of other books.

Active Anime interviews manga-ka Makoto Tateno, creator of Yellow.

At A Distant Soil, Colleen Doran gives a creator’s perspective on that yaoi article everyone has been talking about:

Why, once I was threatened with being sent to jail for pornography because Rieken and D’mer held hands and cuddled. I had a book seized in the legendary Friendly Franks Raid. And now all anybody wants is for me to draw pictures of guys bonking.

You pervy fans, you.

Meanwhile, Fandom_Wank turns up a yaoi debate at a CLAMP LJ community. Best quote:

Why discuss the sexual behaviour of ink?

(Via When Fangirls Attack.)

And at Icarus Comics, Simon Jones, no stranger to the sexual behavior of ink, slinks away from my challenge to explain why yaoi manga does better than hentai manga but does have an explanation for the paucity of yaoi in the anime arena:

not only is there less yaoi anime made, there is less anime made for girls after a certain age, period. Think of all the anime adapted from boy’s manga, compared to girl’s. For whatever reason, girls either seem to outgrow anime faster than boys, or anime producers place a lower priority on adapting material from traditionally girl’s and women’s genres. And I will follow this up with yet another observation that may cause some outrage with elite anime fans… anime is *still* considered to be kid’s stuff by most people in Japan.

(Link is NSFW, unless exposed nipples are OK in your workplace.)

At Tokyopop, Stephanie “Telophase” Folse devotes her latest column to the newly released Mangaka America. Her verdict: Great tutorials, great art, interviews could be more in-depth, but well worth picking up. Elsewhere on the site, Coral Peterson writes about ghosts in Japanese folklore and offers advice on writing your own manga.

The Broccoli blog notes Kurt Hassler’s contributions to their corner of the industry—he was “a big part” of Juvenile Orion‘s release—and reports that Disgaea hit number 19 on the charts. And there’s a hint that some fan activism might be in order:

Now I wish there was a petition for a English release of the Disgaea manga anthologies. (hint, hint. I could really use the numbers to get the proposal through corporate)

The Nashville City Paper reviews Abandon the Old in Tokyo.

Kurt Hassler, who recently topped ICv2’s list of the ten most powerful people in manga, is off to greener pastures: He will be one of the directors of Yen Press, a new graphic novel group formed by Hachette Media, according to Publishers Weekly.

Yen Press will focus on publishing licensed manga, Hassler’s speciality, but will also publish a wide variety of comics works. Young said the list will include original manga, original American comics and graphic novels, webcomics, licensed adaptations and children’s works.

At The Beat, Heidi points out that this is big news not only for graphic novel publishers but also for shoppers:

Although Hassler is credited with being one of the major architects of the graphic novel boom via his canny decisions and passionate advocacy for manga at Borders, he was also a hardline gatekeeper on what material Borders would carry. Any change in the buying patterns there could have huge ripples at the chain and publishers.

As someone who drives out of her way to shop at Borders, I have to say that’s right. Kurt is going to be a tough act to follow. More on this as it develops.