Chris Butcher shares some interesting information on the decision to hold off on publishing Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys:
“[Urasawa] felt that his art had developed so much between the end of Monster and the beginning of 2CB that it would be something of a disservice to his work to have them not be released in chronological order.”
I can certainly understand that. One of the pleasures of longtime comic reading is watching a creator’s style evolve over time.
It makes me wonder if Viz shouldn’t have done the same thing with Miki Aihara’s work. Held up against Hot Gimmick (published earlier in the U.S. though still in serialization in Japan, I think), Aihara’s earlier Tokyo Boys and Girls looks a bit weak. (It might not have been such a great idea to have both books come out on the same day.)
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“If zombies are the new pirates who were the new ninjas, what comes next?” wonders Johanna Draper Carlson. “And can it come quickly, please?”
After a quick, muttered, “Testify, sister,” I started wondering about the question. It’s unlikely that it will actually happen, but I’d love it if the next wave put librarians in the spotlight. Sure, there have been librarians in notable supporting roles, and some fine adventures have begun in libraries, but I still think the profession is underrepresented.
And think how many different kinds of stories can take place in libraries! Mystery, romance, science fiction, comedy, fantasy… and, if my memories of college are correct, yaoi.
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At Love Manga, Immelda Alty gives a wonderful summary of her and David Taylor’s trip to Anime Expo. Pata also hits the highlights at Irresponsible Pictures.
Edited yet again to note: Jake Forbes has some very nice post-AX interviews with various publisher reps and the aforementioned Mr. Taylor at The Pulse.)
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They’re training a new clerk at one of the comic shops in town, and she won me over immediately. First, she was eating carrot cake when I came in to the store. Second, she shares my love of Sgt. Frog.
There was another factor giving her the edge. The clerk at the other shop in town tried to convince me that House of M 3 was “really cool,” in part because it built on story elements from Avengers: Disassembled. No cake. No gero-gero. Just Bendis.
And that, in a nutshell, is the difference between the two shops in town.
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Edited to wonder: Did Dead Boy Detectives ship anywhere else? It didn’t seem to make it to my humble mountain village this week.