The December 2005 edition of Previews has landed with a shuddering thud, so it must be time to trawl through for first editions of the manga kind.
Dark Horse may have given the axe to Super Manga Blast, but it’s got plenty for the manga reader. Most notable is Crying Freeman (by Kazuo Koike and Ryoichi Ikegami, $14.95). Not quite in time for Valentine’s Day are Harlequin Pink: Idol Dreams (by Charlotte Lamb and Toko Hanabusa, $9.95) and Harlequin Violet: Holding on to Alex (by Margaret Way and Misao Hoshiai, $9.95). Nowhere near in time for Halloween are Ju-On: Video Side (by Miki Rinno, $9.95), Octopus Girl (by Toru Yamazaki, $12.95), and School Zone (by Kanako Inuki, $12.95), but horror fans should be in heaven.
Del Rey offers School Rumble (by Jim Kobayashi, $10.95), and the cover art looks adorable.
Digital Manga provides the oddity of the month with How to “Read” Manga: Gloom Party (by Yoshio Kawashima, $14.95). It features the “little dirty secrets in the manga of the early 90s. And all the perverse, male chauvinistic stuff Japan won’t admit today.” I am intrigued.
Ice Kunion releases Real Lies (by Si-Young Lee, $10.95), a collection of stand-alone stories set in alternate realities.
Marvel (you heard me) walks the manga-influenced road with I ♥ Marvel: Marvel AI (by C.B. Cebulski, Kei Kobayashi, and Tomoko Tamiguchi, $2.99) and New Mangaverse (by C.B. Cebulski and Tommy Ohtsuka, $2.99). Because I’m a sucker for the Vision and the Scarlet Witch (pre-… um… lots of people) and something less of a sucker for Medusa, I’m all over the former.
Okay, it’s cheating, but it’s my blog, damn it. Oni re-releases Bryan Lee O’Malley’s sublime Lost at Sea ($11.95). If you haven’t read this yet, what in the name of all that’s good and decent are you waiting for?
Tokyopop exhausts me once again, so it’s time to bust out the bullets:
- The Abandoned, by Ross Campbell, $9.99
- Battle Club, by Yuji Shiozaki, $9.99
- Gatcha Gatcha, by Yutaka Tachibana, $9.99
- Last Fantasy, by Yong-Wan Kwon, $9.99
- Made in Heaven: Kazemichi, by Ami Sakurai and Yukari Yashiki, $9.99
- Never Give Up, by Hiromu Mutou, $9.99
- Someday’s Dreamers, by Norie Yoshizuki, $9.99
- Gravitation novel, by Maki Murakami, $7.99
Viz has two debuts: Black Cat (by Kentaro Yabuki, $7.99) and Godchild (by Kaori Yuki, $8.99). As an aside, Godchild is the YuYu Hakusho of Shojo Beat, in my opinion. And by that, I mean that it’s agony.
Did I miss anything?