The Manga Curmudgeon

Spending too much on comics, then talking too much about them

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Something for almost everyone

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Time for the weekly stroll through the ComicList. It’s a big ‘un.

Dark Horse rolls out the seventh volume of Hiroki Endo’s Eden: It’s an Endless World! It’s an intriguing and solidly executed series, but I’m starting to wonder how long we’re going to spend with the gangsters and prostitutes. It makes a certain amount of sense that the drug and sex trades would survive near-apocalypse relatively unscathed, but I’d rather the focus turned back on things that have changed.

I can say with little fear of contradiction that there will probably be no prostitutes and that any gangsters who do appear will be unlikely to be the type to mutilate in the third issue of Jeff Smith’s Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil. The presence of either mutilating gangsters or sex workers would indicate a rather drastic change in the thus-far delightful series.

It seems inevitable that episodic series will lose some of their charm as ongoing subplots start to take prominence, but I’m not finding that to be the case with Meca Tanaka’s Omukae Desu (CMX). I’ve already read a preview proof of the fourth volume, which comes out this week, and the evolving romantic entanglements are balanced nicely with the restless ghosts who keep the cast gainfully employed.

Del Rey is moving an unusually high volume of manga this week. You already know what I think of the first volumes of Hitoshi Iwaaki’s Parasyte and Yasunori Mitsunaga’s Princess Resurrection, and I’d also recommend the ninth volume of Tomoko Ninomiya’s charming musical josei, Nodame Cantabile, and the second volume of Yuki Urushibara’s moody, quirky supernatural series, Mushishi. Yes, I like Del Rey’s manga catalog a lot. Why do you ask?

I found an awful lot to like in James Vining’s First in Space, which arrives this week from Oni. It’s a fact-based portrayal of Ham, the chimpanzee who paved the way for human space exploration in the U.S.

Sure, Kindaichi Case Files (Tokyopop), by Kanari Yozaburo and Satoh Fumiya, is formulaic, but it comes out so infrequently that it does really matter to me. The fifteenth volume promises another cleverly constructed, gruesome, locked-room murderer solved by a smart-mouthed young sleuth.

Being a sucker for cute dogs and having seen some of the early reviews, there’s little chance that I’ll be able to resist Christian Slade’s Korgi (Top Shelf).

For other takes on tomorrow’s arrivals, check out this run-down by Chris Mautner and Kevin Melrose at Blog@Newsarama and the extremely-generous-with-free-comics Dave Carter’s assessment.

From the Eisner-nominated creator of…

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This is turning out to be one of those weeks where I wishfully assume more days have already elapsed than actually have. I currently seem to be telling myself it’s Thursday, and the disappointing realization that it isn’t is mitigated by the fact that a ton of great comics are coming out on Wednesday. In fact, it’s sort of an Eisner Nominee Showcase New Comic Book Day!

The sixth issue of the second volume of Linda Medley’s wonderful revisionist fairy tale, Castle Waiting, arrives courtesy of Fantagraphics. (The collection of the first volume of Castle Waiting has been nominated for Best Graphic Album – Reprint and earned a nod for Adam Grano for Best Publication Design.)

Joann Sfar, writer of The Professor’s Daughter (due out in paperback and hardcover from First Second) was nominated in the Best Writer/Artist category for his work on Vampire Loves and Klezmer. Artist Emmanuel Guibert didn’t get a nod this year, but give him time. John Jakala has reviewed The Professor’s Daughter at Sporadic Sequential, confirming my suspicions that I’ll enjoy it very much.

Joining Sfar on the Best Writer/Artist slate is Renée French for her unsettling yet strangely uplifting The Ticking (Top Shelf). The book also earned a spot in the Best Graphic Album – New category, and Jordan Crane was recognized with a Best Publication Design nod. So, yes, The Ticking is superb, which raises my hopes very high for French’s Micrographica, also from Top Shelf. (Reading Tom Spurgeon’s review didn’t hurt either.)

Vertical’s lovely productions of classic manga have been a regular presence in the Eisner nominations, and I wouldn’t be surprised if their release of Keiko Takemiya’s To Terra… made its presence known next year. The second volume of To Terra… shows up in comic shops this week.

When Setona Mizushiro’s After School Nightmare (Go! Comi) earned a nomination for Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Japan, some of the reaction was “After What Who?” Consider the arrival of the third volume of this creepy, psychologically nuanced shôjo thriller incentive to find out just why it deserves the nod. Sure, plenty of manga series focus on extracurricular activities, but Mizushiro’s take is disturbing and unique.

But really, a book doesn’t need an award nomination to be worth picking up, does it? This is my way of saying that I’m stupid-happy over the imminent arrival of a new volume of Sakura Tsukuba’s Penguin Revolution (CMX). So far, this romantic comedy has leaned heavily on the “com” and largely neglected the “rom,” which is partly due to the fact that the heroine is far too focused on professional concerns to consider the possibility that the world of teen idol management could pose romantic complications, on top of all of the secrecy and backstabbing. Things shift a bit towards the “rom” side in the third volume, but the book is still an awful lot of fluffy fun.

Coming up

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Some highlights from this week’s ComicList:

If zombies were the new pirates, and princesses were the new zombies, are vampires the new princesses? Or do vampires have sufficient cultural currency that they’re exempt from the fad cycle? I have no idea, but CMX is headed to the blood bank with the release of Chika Shiomi’s Canon, the tale of a heroic teen bloodsucker looking to avenge her entire high-school class. I think it gets off to a solid start.

Readers who loved Fumi Yoshinaga’s Antique Bakery (DMP) might want to take a look at The Flower of Life (Juné). Once again, Yoshinaga looks at a satisfying array of interpersonal relationships with warmth, intelligence, humor and her trademark quirkiness. The second volume ships Wednesday. I reviewed the first volume here.

I mention the comic-shop arrival of Avril Lavigne’s Make 5 Wishes (Del Rey) only because it came up in this conversation at Comics Worth Reading, and I can use it as an opportunity to mention Nicolas De Crécy’s superb Glacial Period (NBM) again. I generally agree that sell-out announcements aren’t really news, but I’m going to side with commenter Joe Williams in this instance:

“The fact that NBM will sell out of a 4000 print run for a foreign release where the author, as far as I know, has yet to be published in America and a book that deals with a French cultural institution is pretty impressive in my book.”

Mine, too.

Speaking of shouting from the rooftops (or any available setting, really), it’s time for the fifth volume of Kazuo Umezu’s The Drifting Classroom (Viz Signature). As always, things get worse for the stranded elementary school students. You wouldn’t think it would be possible, but they do.

I will rename it "The Month of David"

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Each June, comics publishers seem to join forces to drive me to poverty. Based on the latest Previews catalog, 2007 will be no exception. At least the weather will be warm.

The manga arrival of the month would have to be Masashi Tanaka’s Gon, in a new edition from CMX. Wordless, gorgeously illustrated stories about a tiny dinosaur who defends “the friendly and furry from the mean and hungry.” Sorry, Avril. (Pages 96 to 98.)

I’ve enjoyed a lot of comics either written or written and drawn by Andi Watson (Little Star, Love Fights, Paris, Princess at Midnight), so I’ll definitely give Clubbing (Minx) a look. It’s been illustrated by Josh Howard of Dead @ 17 fame. (Pages 113 to 115.)

In a couple of cases, well-written solicitation text was enough to interest me in books even though I knew nothing about them or their creators. First up in this category is Jamie Tanner’s Aviary from AdHouse Books, which promises “a world of mysterious corporations, foul-mouthed robots, drunken ghosts, amputee comedians, wealthy simian pornographers, and canine scientists.” Why not? (Page 215.)

I really liked the first volume of Kye Young Chon’s DVD (DramaQueen), about a dumped, possibly delusional young woman and the two slackers who give her renewed purpose (or at least are weird enough to distract her from despair). And now DramaQueen is offering the first four volumes. When they go Diamond, they don’t mess around. (Page 292.)

A new arrival from Fanfare/Ponent Mon is always worth a look. This month it’s Tokyo Is My Garden by Frédéric Boilet and Benoît Peeters. “With the collaboration of Jiro Taniguchi” is an effective extra inducement. (Page 295.)

The other Spring First Second release I’m eagerly anticipating (in addition to The Professor’s Daughter, recently given five stars by Tangognat) is Eddie Campbell’s The Black Diamond Detective Agency. Many gorgeous preview pages are available at First Second’s web site. (Page 300.)

Not everyone likes to buy even great books in hardcover, so kindly publishers almost inevitably offer soft-cover version eventually. Houghton Mifflin will roll out a paperback version of Alison Bechdel’s justly acclaimed Fun Home in June. (Page 312.)

I know nothing about Byun Byung Jun’s Run, Bong-Gu, Run! (NBM), but the preview pages at the publisher’s web site look absolutely exquisite. I may not like painted comics as a general rule, but I’m a sucker for watercolors. (Page 328.)

It’s been out for ages, but I’ve made a personal vow to mention Bryan Lee O’Malley’s wonderful debut graphic novel, Lost at Sea, at every opportunity, because I love it. Oni is releasing a new edition. Even if you aren’t eagerly anticipating a new volume of Scott Pilgrim, give it a look. (Page 329.)

Not being much of a webcomic reader, I didn’t check out the Young Bottoms in Love portal very often, but I liked what I saw when I did. Now Poison Press is releasing a print collection for geezers like me who don’t want to squint at a computer screen. Lots of talent, 328 color pages, $22. I can’t complain. (Page 335.)

As with Aviary, the solicitation text for David Yurkovich’s Death by Chocolate: Redux (Top Shelf) sells me. If anyone honestly thought I’d be able to resist “a series of bizarre, food-inspired crimes” investigated by “an unlikely hero comprised of organic chocolate,” they just don’t know me very well. (Page 364.)

Gon, baby, Gon

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I usually try and do a run-down of what catches my eye in the latest issue of Diamond’s Previews, and I’ll get to that at some point, but I’ve been stopped cold by the preview pages of Masashi Tanaka’s Gon (CMX). That is some crazy gorgeous illustration going on, even beyond the pure pleasure of seeing a tiny dinosaur riding on the back of a vicious lion as it hunts a wildebeest.

I’m sure CMX will make some preview pages available on-line, because they’d be crazy not to. Here’s some background on Gon’s U.S. publishing history that ICv2 ran about a month ago. At the Casterman site, there are preview pages from each of the eight volumes they’ve published. Last Gasp has some of the Casterman editions available at its on-line store.

Prepare yourselves to be sick of me obsessing over Gon.

Manga chic

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Manga Month may still be down the road a ways, but it seems like it’s Boutique Week on the ComicList, with welcome arrivals from smaller publishers.

Take the pick of the week, Fumiyo Kouno’s Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms from Last Gasp. The U.S. publisher of Keiji Nakazawa’s legendary Barefoot Gen offers another perspective at Japan after the atomic bomb, and I’ve heard nothing but enthusiastic responses from people who’ve read it in scanlation or Japanese.

Fresh on the heels of MangaBlog’s interview with Stephen Robson, Fanfare/Ponent Mon releases the third volume of Times of Botchan, scripted by Natsuo Sekikawa and conceived and drawn by the superb Jiro (The Walking Man) Taniguchi, and re-offers Yukiko’s Spinach, written by Frédéric Boilet and drawn by the fabulous Kan (Kinderbook) Takahama.

Gullywasher offers Danica Novgorodoff’s Isotope Award-winning mini-comic, A Late Freeze, which I really enjoyed.

Okay, CMX is an arm of DC, so it’s not really boutique-y, but Kaoru Mori’s Emma feels boutique-y, and I’m holding on to this theme with my fingernails. The third volume ships on Wednesday, and it’s lovely.

And Blu offers Hirotaka Kisaragi’s Innocent Bird, which I bought over the weekend because it seemed like it would be enthusiastically tawdry but turned out to be sort of interesting and thoughtful instead. I liked it, but I can’t say I’m not a little bit disappointed by the smut shortage. Stupid plastic wrap.

Express, rush hour and local

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A while back, I took a look at the competing manga versions of the Densha Otoko story. Having read the final volumes of the Viz and CMX variations, I thought I would follow up.

My initial impression stands. Of the three (Del Rey released a one-volume shôjo version), Hidenori Hara’s take, published by Viz, is the clear winner. It’s the most subdued of the three, and it’s also the most sincere. Hara seems to stand back and let the charm of the characters and the sweetness of their growing rapport do most of the work. The title otaku’s confidence builds gradually but credibly, and Hara takes the time to give depth of character to the object of Train Man’s affection, the lovely “Hermess.” She’s not just pretty and kind; she seems like an actual person, one with enough layers to carry infatuation beyond the “love at first sight” point.

Wataru Watanabe, creator of the CMX version, opts for what I’ll call the “explosive nosebleed” approach to the story. Train Man is constantly on the verge of panic; he’s a garden-variety shônen spastic who just can’t believe this is happening to him. I couldn’t really believe it either, honestly, unless his Hermess is the most intuitive and tolerant of women. (I find romances that rely on excessive intuition or tolerance of one of the parties involved a little hard to swallow.)

There are two other essential problems with Watanabe’s approach, as I see it. The first is the visual aesthetic, which is aggressively cute. Train Man and Hermess both look about fourteen, which ends up undermining any emotional weight the story has. And since the story verges on saccharine to begin with, extra dollops of adorability result in an oversell. It ends up looking like a fantasy instead of a contemporary fable.

The second is Watanabe’s decision to beef up the role of the message-board denizens who help Train Man cope with his insecurities and woo Hermess. This results in a lot of superfluous subplots that distract from what should be a simple story of unlikely people coming together. The impulse to give Train Man’s cheering section layers and happy endings of their own is generous, but it clutters things up.

It’s not a story that can withstand a lot of flourishes or extra baggage. Hara keeps it streamlined, so Viz wins.

The lingering question is whether three concurrent, licensed versions of a pleasant modern romance were absolutely necessary. From an artistic standpoint, I don’t think so. It’s a sweet urban myth about people being nice to strangers, which seems portable enough in times when people are casting about to find the next permutation of “community.”

From a marketing standpoint, I think the simultaneous releases made sense, because it pre-packages a phenomenon for an audience that isn’t already sold on the story’s benign merits. It capitalizes on the story itself and its origins, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the curiosity factor didn’t drive readers who might otherwise have been relatively disinterested to sample multiple versions. It worked for me.

(Comments are based on complimentary copies provided by CMX and Viz.)

Quick comic comments: Thirds

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After reading the third volume of Yû Watase’s Absolute Boyfriend (Viz – Shojo Beat), I think I’m done with this series. The love triangle that drives the story fails to make me care about any of the potential outcomes, mostly because Watase hasn’t convinced me that Night is an actual character. I’m not all that interested in the characters that aren’t custom-made love robots either. Even fluffy romantic comedies need some emotional suspense.

There’s also something creepy about supporting characters trying to stage the heroine’s first sexual experience for commercial purposes.

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On the other hand, Meca Tanaka’s Omukae Desu (CMX) invests pleasant, episodic diversion with some very appealing romantic tension with its third volume. Without sacrificing any of the appeal of the ghost-of-the-chapter structure of the stories, Tanaka is gradually adding more layers to the characterizations of her core cast.

I liked the book’s quartet of afterlife travel agents to begin with, so it’s very rewarding to see more shadings emerge. It gives their interactions more purpose and weight. The extra effort is also spilling over into the guest ghosts; the unfinished business that’s keeping them tethered to their old lives is more affecting because it’s more resonant for the people trying to help them move on.

Tanaka’s illustrations are becoming progressively more polished as the series moves along as well. I liked the loose, scratchy quality of the early chapters, and there’s still some of that in evidence, but it’s used more specifically for comic effect. It creates nice visual balance.

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And back on the subject of omake, both Tanaka and Watase cover the usual territory – overwork, side projects, and fan appreciation. The difference is that Tanaka seems to take a light, self-deprecating approach while Watase… Seriously, what’s going on with Watase? Sometimes they sound like messages from a political prisoner smuggled out of a manga sweatshop by an international aid agency.

Grab bag

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Stop it, manga! I haven’t received my tax refund yet! And you, western comics publishers… you’re not helping! At all!

Tons of the stuff that was due out last week is actually arriving this week, along with a bunch of other stuff that I want. It’s going to be a bloodbath.

The first culprit is Dark Horse, which unleashes new volumes of Eden: It’s an Endless World!, Mail, and The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, any one of which could vie for “pick of the week” status. I’m also very curious about the first volume of Red String by Gina Biggs, the first volume of a collection of a shôjo-influenced webcomic.

I can’t remember the last time I was really excited by the prospect of a monthly from DC, but I’m really looking forward to Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil. My interest in the character probably peaked with the live-action Saturday-morning show that ran when I was about eight (and even then I preferred Isis), but it’s Jeff Smith doing a comic that doesn’t apparently require consumption of an anti-depressant to get through it. It sounds like exactly the kind of friendly-to-a-wider-audience treatment of an iconic character that some bloggers have been wanting.

And Dark Horse doesn’t own the helping-the-dead manga category this week. CMX has a new volume of Omukae Desu.

I remember reviewing the first two volumes of Category: Freaks (DrMaster) about a year ago, and the third volume is just coming out now? I’ll have to put it on the “check it out when time and disposable income permit” list.

Escape from “Special” by Miss Lasko-Gross (Fantagraphics) will also go on that list. It sounds intriguing, and who can resist exuberant, demographically sensitive solicitation text like this: “Miss Lasko-Gross, who has the sensibility of a love child of Linda Barry and David B. midwifed by Judy Blume, has created a graphic novel that should appeal not only to the growing readers of graphic novels, but to teens grappling with similar unresolved questions.” Not me, that’s for sure.

Oni releases the second issue of the very appealing Maintenance, a workplace comedy about custodians at a mad-scientist think tank.

Viz delivers the Shojo Beat titles that were initially scheduled for release last week, along with the final volume of Train Man: Densha Otoko, my favorite of the competing manga adaptations of the story.

Afterwords

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I generally don’t evaluate manga based on the quality of the extras available, because they vary so much from publisher to publisher and book to book. Sometimes those sidebar messages from manga-ka are fun, and sometimes you get Yû Watase providing a release schedule of anime, soundtracks, art books, and other products based on her manga. (Short version: “It’s all awesome!”)

I know those sidebars aren’t really intended to be deeply informative or uniquely insightful. They’re around to fill the spaces in the tankoubon where the ads ran in the magazines, and possibly to generate a little rooting value by having the manga-ka speak directly (or “directly”) to the audience.

The content is generally pretty repetitive. They’re working really hard, and they’re sorry they’re behind on their fan mail. This volume isn’t as good as they’d have liked, but they’re trying, and reader support keeps them going. They wish they had a kitty. That sort of thing.

Sometimes the manga-ka will slide a little insight into the mix. I remember the bits from Ultra Maniac amounting to what was essentially Wataru Yoshizumi’s very polite take-down of the process of adapting the manga into an anime. (“Well, it really doesn’t bear much resemblance to the comic I’ve created, and I don’t really understand the choices you’ve made, but thanks for the extra income!”)

Ai Yazawa’s back-up strips are always a pleasure. I love her repertory-company approach in the “Junko’s Place” strips in Nana, with the cast sort of hanging out and bickering over their comparative popularity levels. The strip in Paradise Kiss where the characters break into Yazawa’s apartment and steal her clothing is a particular favorite.

I also like Minoru Toyoda’s little mini-summaries in volumes of Love Roma where he talks a bit about his creative process – what made him want to tell a particular story, or what effect he was trying to achieve with an individual chapter. And I’m crazy about the continuing struggles of the S.C.D., an alliance of one-appearance characters who are scheming for greater visibility.

But for me, the undisputed ruler of creator talkback is Emma’s Kaoru Mori. Wikipedia informs me that Mori is “famous for her unflattering self-portraits” as much as she is for her incredible storytelling, and I can believe it. While I love the serenity and emotional detail of the manga, I’m totally enamored of the fanatical enthusiasm Mori portrays in those after-chats. (Mely provides an example at Coffee and Ink.) CMX kindly sent me a galley of the third volume of Emma, and Mori’s remarks begin with the disclosure that the chief editor of Beam described her as “a ‘weird woman.’”

Well, duh. That’s the fun of it for me. While the release of watching Mori run rampant isn’t necessary to enjoy the story that precedes these bits, it’s still great fun. I could read a book that consisted of nothing but Mori’s after-chats.