There’s a truly ludicrous quantity of good manga arriving at comic shops this week, so just be warned. The second volume of Eden from Dark Horse, the fourth volumes of Genshiken and Nodame Cantabile and the second of Love Roma from Del Rey, and You Higuri’s Gorgeous Carat from Blu are among the offerings. At least now I know who to thank for this kind of ridiculous product dump. Hugs, Diamond! (Seriously, it’s not that I don’t appreciate the opportunity to read entertaining manga. I’d just prefer that it didn’t all show up at once.)
Speaking of entertaining reading, David Taylor takes a very thoughtful look at the recent Tokyopop layoffs and the swirl of conversation they’ve triggered. After quoting some coverage from ICv2, David notes:
“…but even they have to add the caveat at the end of the report that this isn’t anything to do with OEL and that the entire OEL scene plays only a very small part in the whole scheme that is Tokyopop (and by the way this is the second time in a Tokyopop report that they have used that paragraph), to me just draws more emphasis to the fact that OEL is a big possibility behind this. It’s like someone telling you to stand in a corner and not think about orange penguins, and that will be all you think about!”
I’m still looking for response or follow-up to Heidi MacDonald’s report of rumors about orders to stop work on projects in the OEL line.
Entirely unrelated to that whole brouhaha, I interview Jake Forbes in this week’s Flipped. Once again, a charming and intelligent comics professional was suckered into doing all the heavy lifting while I lobbed nonsensical questions at him. Come for the insight. Stay for the amphibian poetry.
Edited to add: I knew I was forgetting something. Yay! I was wrong! As Johanna Draper Carlson and Greg McElhatton note, there is more Kindaichi Case Files coming from Tokyopop, due in April.
Edited again to add: Rich Johnston has a rumor round-up on the Tokyopop situation in this week’s Lying in the Gutters.