Lots of people have posted really interesting pieces lately. I wish I could say I was one of them, but at least I can point in their direction.
Paul (Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics) Gravett contributes an appreciation of Tove (Moomin) Jansson, also reprinting a heartfelt introduction to a 1957 collection of Jansson’s comic strips from novelist Margery Allingham:
“On the Moomins themselves I find myself uncharacteristically reticent. Their appeal is so personal and so intricate that I feel chatter about them is like gossip in public about friends.”
At About.com, Deb Aoki conducts a lovely interview with Keiko (To Terra…, Andromeda Stories) Takemiya, covering her early days as a manga-ka and her views on how the industry has changed since she and her pioneering peers were turning everything on its head:
“Manga has become too much of a big business, which perhaps means that artists get pushed out into the public eye before they’ve achieved artistic maturity.”
Chloe (Shuchaku East) Ferguson launches a new column at ComiPress with a look at cover design and manga packaging:
“Part marketing compass, part demographic indicator; how manga is packaged can often tell you more than any press release ever will.”
Jason (Manga: The Complete Guide) Thompson launches a new column at Comixology with a look at manga of an historical bent.
And happily, The Overlooked Manga Festival hasn’t gone on hiatus just yet. Shaenon K. Garrity offers up The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Dark Horse) for your consideration, and offers the following pearl of all-purpose wisdom:
“I’m not the kind of reader who’s impressed by gimmicky characters. I get enough of that in webcomics, where people are constantly pushing me to read some unfunny thing that ‘you HAVE to love, because one of the characters is an ANGRY ZUCCHINI who works as a HITMAN and likes PLAYSTATION, and isn’t that ORIGINAL and BRILLIANT?’ No, it’s not original and brilliant. A regular old human being with an interesting, well-written personality would be original and brilliant. Wacky gimmicks are easy.”