Special thanks to Jon at Mae Mai for the terrific and informative links about manga and other international comics. I’m particularly taken with matt-thorn.com. Thorn’s introduction is enough to set my mouse a-clicking:
“I’m Matt Thorn, a cultural anthropologist who studies, teaches and writes about comics and other forms of popular culture. I live and work in Japan, where I’m an Associate Professor in the School of Cartoon & Comic Art at Kyoto Seika University. I also professionally translated Japanese comics, known as manga, from 1990 to 1999.”
I learned a lot from Thorn’s article on what shojo manga is and is not, and I’ve already filled out his questionnaire on how people read manga. This one goes right in the sidebar, as I’ll be visiting often.