Comic-Con International 2009 is over, and many people have provided engaging coverage of the event’s panels, products, and people. To find the best round-up of manga-related links, you need only visit Brigid Alverson’s MangaBlog (as always). You might want to start here and here. The number of license announcements seems lean to me, but there are some eye-catchers.
Of greatest interest to me is Usumaru Furuya’s 51 Ways to Save Her, which was snatched up by CMX. Furuya’s Palepoli strips from Viz’s out-of-print Secret Comics Japan still amaze me, so I’m thrilled to see more of his work headed for English release. 51 Ways was originally published by Shinchosa. It’s a disaster drama, but I suspect that anything by Furuya will defy simple categorization.
The other highlight from CMX’s roll-out is Sato Fujisawa’s Nyankoi!, a Flex Comix property. I know next to nothing about it except for the fact that it’s got an awesome premise for a cat-lover: a guy who’s allergic to felines falls in love with a girl who dotes on them and must do 100 good deeds for cats or face the wrath of the local cat-god.
On the Viz front, there are two new Shonen Jump titles, one by the creative team behind Death Note. Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata reunited for Bakuman, about two students who dream of becoming successful manga-ka. Here’s the Wikipedia entry, and here’s Shueisha’s entry for the book.
Providing nightmares for vegans and animal rights activists is one possible side effect of Toriko by Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro, about a guy who hunts down rare beasts for finicky chefs. Okay, so I won’t be finding any useful recipes from this one, but cooking manga is cooking manga. Here’s the Wikipedia entry, and here’s Shueisha’s page.
I’m not sure if this was announced first at the convention or if I just missed it when mentioned elsewhere, but I’m also looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of Helen McCarthy’s The Art of Osamu Tezuka from Abrams ComicArts. By the way, I take total credit for Tezuka’s Eisner win, as I spent weeks passive-aggressively suggesting people vote for Tezuka’s Dororo.
