MangaBlog

After a two-week hiatus, our latest podcast is up at the MangaCast. I’m leading off this week with a little philosophical discussion of Japanese versus global manga. Then Jack takes it away and fills in the week’s news in his own inimitable style. Here are links for the stories we discuss:

Otakon
Discussion at Love Manga
Con reports at Anime News Network

Del Rey in the UK
Tanoshimi website
Discussion at MangaBlog
(with links to other posts)

Viz takes the train

Manga style

Help wanted
Translation jobs at Seven Seas
Tina Anderson’s sample submission package
Call for manga art

Tokyopop website interview

Manga overtake floppies

Global manga gets more global

Musical chairs
Editorial shuffle at Tokyopop
More from Rivkah
New marketing director at Del Rey

Manga opens up a cold case file

Along came a spider…

Star Trek: No sweat

Incoming…
Return to Labyrinth
Omukae Desu
Mitsukazu Mihara’s The Embalmer
Drifting Classroom

Love Manga checks the USA Today Booklist and finds that Naruto, Kingdom Hearts, and Tsubasa have all slipped off the list, but Bleach makes its first appearance, at number 146.

Rumiko Takahashi fan site Rumic World reports that Takahashi-sensei will resume writing One Pound Gospel with a five-part story that will end the series. No permalink, but scroll down to August 3 for the item. (Via Otaku News.)

The Broccoli Books blog has some updates on the progress of their books and lets slip that they’re planning a Juvenile Orion illustration book. Also, they have licensed a new title and are working on several more; hints are sprinkled liberally about.

ComiPress is upgrading the Manga Magazine Guide and they are looking for feedback on what readers want to see.

ICv2 has a bit more info on the new DMP title Flower of Life

At the Translation Dojo, translator William Flanagan explains how manga in the U.S. evolved into unflipped tankoubon rather than flipped floppies.

Christopher Butcher adds his two cents to the yaoi conversation and has a good take on Jason Thompson’s LiveJournal post that started the whole thing:

At any rate, aside from the feeling amongst the hardcore fan community that the question “Why do women like yaoi?” is the new “BIF! BAM! POW! Comics aren’t just for kids!”, I thought the post was a perfectly livejournally-take on a new experience; equal parts enthusiasm, emotion, and critical thinking.

Thank you, Chris! Jason’s post may have been limited in scope, but it certainly got everyone talking. Chris adds to the conversation by excerpting an interview with yaoi manga-ka Kazuma Kodaka in which she addresses the questions of gay vs. yaoi comics and the behavior of fans.

(Both the above were found via Precocious Curmudgeon, who has really been on a roll lately.)

EMMA preview! Warning: PDF file. But it looks good. It’s due out in September, which means we can start looking for it in bookstores pretty soon.

Love Manga questions the authenticity of a site that claims to publish manga as webcomics and pay huge royalties. What has really grabbed David and everyone else is the “about us” page of the site, which claims to expose “manga’s seedy underbelly” by explaining how U.S. manga publishers have corrupted scanlation groups. If I’m following this right, the publishers have secretly licensed Japanese manga, which they pay the scanlators to scanlate, thus creating demand. Meanwhile the manga-ka gets a pittance for his or her work. The commenters on Love Manga are skeptical, and so is Heidi at The Beat.

Speaking of manga-kas starving in a garret, commenters at The Engine are batting around this ComiPress article about the low pay for manga artists. The Newsarama blog weighs in as well.

Amid the chaos that is the new Tokyopop website, there are a few bloggers doing some very good writing. One in particular, ChunHyang72, has emerged from the masses of “Don’t post stolen art!” and “I’m so bored…. LOL XD” as a smart and perceptive blogger, and her guide to good blogs is an excellent starting point for exploring the TokyoSpace. Check it out and pop it!

The Star Trek manga will have three variant covers. Yawn. We’re not going to fall for that one, are we? Not at ten bucks a volume!

PW Comics Week has a longish interview (for them) with Jae-Hwan Kim, the artist of Warcraft. Kim drew manwha in Korea but now works directly for Tokyopop, and he notes some interesting contrasts:

PWCW: Did you have to make adjustments to your work regarding depictions of violence? What about acclimating yourself to a different schedule than in Korea?

JHK: Korean editors are very detailed in the beginning. They talk to me before I start working and review my work in the beginning. American editors keep reviewing my work so if they don’t like one part, they’ll ask me to redo it. They’re more involved. If the drawing is too violent, it can be censored. But only the Korean editors do that. I’ve never had my work censored by American editors.

PWCW also has an Otakon wrapup that includes some more information on DMP’s new over-18 yaoi imprint 801:

801 Media titles will be available only at online retailers, independent bookstores and comics shops. “You won’t find [801 Media books] in Borders or Barnes & Noble,” said Rachel Livingston of DMP’s PR department. Livingston explained that while 801 Media is working with distributors, the books will not have a wide level of distribution because of their explicit content. She added that fans will be able to special order the books through Walden or retail chain stores.

I also like the fact that the Kinokuniya booth was only selling Japanese-language books because “Our competitors are selling the books in English already.”

Over at MangaCast, Ed has an interview with CMX licensing manager Asako Suzuki.

Time magazine discovers manga, and aside from missing the fact that boys read manga too, they do OK. Most of the article focuses on the business side, with a digression into the global vs. Japanese discussion.

Love Manga has the press release on the new Star Trek manga.

I’m a day late with this, but Manga Monday at comics-and-more reviewed two new books from Viz, vol. 1 of Saikano and vol. 4 of Monster.

Broccoli Books has posted a new webcomic on its site, a sample of Leave it to Piyoko.

Rivkah has put up part two of her series on panels and pacing.

Last week I snarked on a post by a computer guru named Dave Taylor because he mentioned “big eyes” in an explanation of manga (and because the question he was answering was really naive). Dave read my post and sent me a really nice e-mail asking if I could give a better explanation. This was far more effective than flaming me, because of course I felt like a worm for being snarky about such a nice guy. Anyway, I answered his e-mail and not only did he post my reply on his site, he also fixed me up with a WordPress guru who had some good advice about dealing with comment spam, so it all ended well. Feel free to check out my answer and add your own comments. I’m adding him to the blogroll, under “Good Reads,” because he has a lot of info about blogs and also he actually explained what this “hoodia” stuff is that shows up in a lot of my spam.

At Crocodile Caucus, Lyle contributes the most literary post yet to the ongoing discussion of yaoi and formula fiction. At Love Manga, David Taylor has the business angle covered with a discussion of yaoi and the direct market. David also has the latest license announcements from DramaQueen.

MangaCast posts interviews with Yoshihiro Tatsumi, manga-ka of The Push Man, and character designer Yoshitaka Amano. Also, Jack Tse reviews Air Gear. I haven’t heard it yet, but that’s gotta be fun.

In his Flipped column, David Welsh treats us to a smorgasboard of reviews as he whittles down the stack.

Greenapple2004, who is an editor at Tokyopop, writes in her LiveJournal about her trip to Tokyo and the release schedule of Saiyuki Reload. Check it out for her description of the Japanese publishers, especially the Kodansha behemoth. (via Telophase.)

With volume 2 of Steady Beat tucked away, Rivkah’s back in action with an article about pacing and layout in manga.

Some manga snippets from Japan, courtesy of ComiPress: The editor-in-chief of Shoujo Comic was fired for embezzlement; two Japanese universities are establishing manga departments (but see the translator’s cautionary comment); and a new Negima manga will start in Comic Bom Bom in October.

Christopher Butcher has a rave review of the latest issue of The Comics Journal. If you haven’t already read it, check out their interview with Dallas Middaugh. Commenting on Dirk Deppey’s interview with Diana Schutz of Dark Horse, Chris has a warning for publishers in general:

It’s very difficult to grow the market when the publishers cannot keep the most popular and acclaimed books in their catalogue in print. I’ll be writing more about this in the next week or so. I hate to get all Stephen Colbert on this, but Tokyopop and DMP: You’re on notice.

Also, people can’t buy the books if they’re not in bookstores, which is going to become a problem as the manga catalog expands. Is it worthwhile for a store to keep all 28 volumes of Rurouni Kenshin in stock? It looks like Tokyopop’s online exclusives may be a stab at addressing this problem, but I’d still rather buy things in a store than order them online, especially if there is no discount involved. (Give me 20 percent off and free shipping, and we’ll talk.)