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Upcoming 6/17/2009

June 16, 2009 by

Before delving too deeply into this week’s ComicList, I wanted to mention how great the manga and graphic novel selection is at the Barnes & Noble in Easton Town Center near Columbus. They had shelf copies of Mijeong (NBM), full runs of series I don’t normally see at a chain bookstore, and all of the staples. Seriously, though, an NBM book at a mall store will force me to add that mall store to all future central Ohio itineraries. Oh, and there’s a Graeter’s Ice Cream stand mere steps away. In a perfect world, it would be a Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams stand, but I like Graeter’s well enough.

But what about specialty comic shops, you ask? What bounty awaits on Wednesday?

bride3Well, for starters, there’s the third volume of Mi-Kyung Yun’s Bride of the Water God (Dark Horse), which is so pretty that you can actually see volumes from space.

Del Rey offers the third volume of Papillon, which started as a psychologically nuanced sibling-rivalry drama, then turned into one of the more ridiculous Lifetime movies in the second volume. There is no possible way to speculate what might happen this time around, but I’ll just throw out the terms “sudden eating disorder” and “wildebeest stampede” to try and cover the bases.

Speaking again of NBM, Rick Geary is looking through the dirty laundry of another era again with a new Treasury of 20th Century Murder, Famous Players, which examines the death of silent-film director William Desmond Taylor.

And speaking of books with “20th Century” in the title, Viz offers the third volume of Naoki Urasawa’s excellent 20th Century Boys. (I already bought it at the aforementioned B&N.) I know we aren’t even halfway through the year, but let’s face it: with the two Urasawa books, Detroit Metal City, the soon-to-arrive Children of the Sea, and the due-this-fall Ôoku: The Inner Chamber, we might just have to hand 2009 to Viz, you know?

Filed under: ComicList, Dark Horse, Del Rey, NBM, Viz 1 Comment

Upcoming 6/10/2009

June 9, 2009 by

This week’s ComicList is on the lean side, but there are a couple of items that are worth scrutinizing.

colorofwaterOne is Kim Dong Hwa’s The Color of Water (First Second), the second part of his trilogy that began with The Color of Earth. I’ve read both in the form or preview copies provided by the publisher, but I’ve been a bit stymied when I’ve tried to sit down and actually write about them. They’re great-looking books; I very much admire the visual style. But I find the content a little off-putting, though I’m not sure I have the right to voice these particular objections.

The Color books compose a period piece that traces the sexual comic of age of a young girl in rural Korea. It’s an experience and a transition that the creator clearly reveres, but for me, it was an uncomfortable kind of reverence. It’s reverence with a degree of distance that seems to flatten and simplify the experience being rendered; the path from girl to woman is dewy and magical, uncomplicated and pristine, or at least that’s the impression the books left. I feel like it crosses the line between celebratory and condescending.

The crew at Good Comics for Kids participated in an illuminating roundtable on the first book, and I was relieved to see my concerns articulated in the discussion. There are also persuasive arguments in the book’s favor, but I’m still unconvinced that its merits overcome its underlying tone.

dmcI’m fairly sure my reaction to the week’s other big release, Kiminori Wakasugi’s Detroit Metal City (Viz), will be much less complicated. I will either be overcome with guilty love, or I’ll be grossed out. I’m reassured by Kate (The Manga Critic) Dacey’s assessment, though:

“I’d be the first to admit that DMC walks a fine line between clever and stupid with its raunchy lyrics and outrageous concert scenes, but it never wears out its welcome thanks to a great cast of characters.”

We’ll see.

Filed under: ComicList, First Second, Linkblogging, Viz 4 Comments

Upcoming 6/3/2009

June 2, 2009 by

A quick look at this week’s ComicList:

moomin4The pick of the week is the fourth volume of Drawn & Quarterly’s collection of Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip. Click here and scroll down a bit to see a preview, and if you’re able to resist the gentle satire and high adventure of these strips, then I don’t know what to tell you. Personally, I think Drawn & Quarterly deserves some kind of international peace prize for publishing these.

In my ongoing effort to expose myself to as many “tour guides of the recently deceased” manga as I possibly can, I believe I pre-ordered Ballad of a Shinigami (CMX), illustrated by Asuka Izumi and based on an original story by K-Ske Hasegawa. I believe the shinigami in question also has a talking bat; stories with talking bats constitute another “manga I must at least try” subset, though I have no idea exactly why.

Oh, Mijeong (NBM), why do you make me stalk you? I know I pre-ordered you, and the ComicList says you arrive Wednesday, but I can’t seem to access Diamond’s site to confirm. And you aren’t listed in the e-mail from my local comic shop, so I shouldn’t get my hopes up. I’m sure you’ll be worth the wait.

I’ve quite liked what I’ve read of Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl (Seven Seas), written by Satoru Akahori and illustrated by Yukimaru Katsura. It’s about a boy who’s transformed into a girl and ends up in a love triangle with two other girls, and I remember its sensitive moments outnumbering any cheesy fan-service by a fairly wide margin. So I’m glad that Seven Seas is releasing an omnibus version of the series.

The fifth volume of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack arrives courtesy of Vertical. That pretty much all that needs to be said, right?

Viz has an overwhelming volume of product on the way, much of it desirable, but in the interest of brevity, I’ll focus on just two: Chica Umino’s art-college romantic comedy Honey and Clover reaches its sixth volume, and Chika Shiomi’s Raretsu debuts. It’s a follow-up to Shiomi’s Yurara, which Kate Dacey re-reviews as part of her Chika Shiomi Appreciation Week.

Filed under: CMX, ComicList, Drawn & Quarterly, NBM, Seven Seas, Vertical, Viz 3 Comments

Upcoming 5/28/2009

May 28, 2009 by

flower4In my look at last week’s ComicList, I pointed to some of those “release not confirmed by Diamond” items that induce salivation, running the risk of being premature. Examples include the fourth volume of Fumi Yoshinaga’s Flower of Life (DMP) and the Ramen and Gyoza volume of Oishinbo (Viz – Signature). I didn’t make it to the comic shop last week, being in the unexpectedly moist American Southwest, but it seems that both of those books are actually arriving this week (confirmed by both this week’s ComicList and the new arrivals email from my local comic shop). So, apologies for being premature, but I encourage you to commence squeezing.

I’m a bit confused that the list includes the second volume of Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys (Viz – Signature), as I swear I bought it over a month ago in a bookstore. The third volume isn’t scheduled for release until June 18, but at least you can all mark your calendars, because the series is brilliant.

In terms of other new volumes of exciting series, there’s the seventh volume of Yuki Urushibara’s Mushishi (Del Rey). Mushishi is one of those series from Kodansha’s mine of great translated manga, Afternoon, and the series has earned her the Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival and the Kodansha Manga Award.

Filed under: ComicList, Del Rey, DMP, Viz 2 Comments

Upcoming 5/13/2009

May 12, 2009 by

What’s on deck with this week’s ComicList? Not The Lapis Lazuli Crown, as I misread, which actually comes out May 20, but CMX does offer the 14th volume of Kiyoko Ariyoshi’s classic ballet shôjo, Swan.

Brigid Alverson offered a preview review of the first volume of Sakae Esuno’s Future Diary (Tokyopop), and it sounds intriguing:

“Despite one cringe-inducing scene of violence toward the end, this is great escape reading, with plenty of action and an interestingly twisted premise.”

Fantagraphics offers a big hardcover collection starring one of my favorite characters from Gilbert Hernandez’s Palomar stories, Luba. Here’s a bit of the solicitation:

“These ‘America’ stories — over 100 of them, ranging from quick one-page blackout sketches to bona fide graphic novellas — were originally published in a number of different comics and reprinted in a trilogy of oversized paperbacks. Luba finally collects in one compact, affordable hardcover the entirety of these tales, showcasing Gilbert Hernandez’s wicked wit, great compassion, and uncanny understanding of how human beings love, squabble, and ultimately find a way to make it through this life.”

Filed under: CMX, ComicList, Fantagraphics, Tokyopop 1 Comment

Upcoming 5/6/2009

May 5, 2009 by

You know what’s dangerous about Twitter? Ardent comics fans can recommend more titles more quickly. The 140-character cap is no barrier to persuasiveness or enthusiasm. It’s turning my “Oh, I should read that sometime” list into a freaking tome. Fun, though. I bring this up because it’s time to look at this week’s ComicList.

fireinnanOne of the books that’s gotten a lot of tweets lately is CMX’s Fire Investigator Nanase, written by Izo Hashimoto and illustrated by Tomoshige Ichikawa. Kate Dacey describes it as being “like Silence of the Lambs, CSI, and Firefighter Daigo rolled into one!” That’s a very difficult recommendation to resist. The second volume comes out Wednesday, and I imagine I’ll be putting both on a book order shortly before that happens. Happy now, Twitter? Life was so much simpler when I could take my marching orders from blogs and NPR.

Lots of stuff is due out from Del Rey this week, and I’m surprising myself by pointing you towards the first volume of RAN’s Maid War Chronicle. It’s about a group of maids who receive magical weapons to help their bratty prince reclaim his kingdom, and it’s not nearly as fan-service gross as it could be. (Their skirts are long, so I guess it’s difficult to draw up them. That phrase didn’t come out quite right, but you know what I mean.) I mentioned it in Kate’s “What to Read Now” Roundtable.

What do you get when you combine the talents of two unquestionably fine comics creators? I’m not sure, but we’ll find out when we get a look at Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim’s The Eternal Smile from First Second.

Oh, and pretty much everything I pointed to on Viz’s list last week is actually coming out this week. Terms and conditions still apply, though I’ll add that I’ll be catching up on Yuki Obata’s We Were There at my earliest convenience. (The bookstore only had the first and fourth volumes the other day.)

Filed under: CMX, ComicList, Del Rey, First Second, Viz 1 Comment

Upcoming 4/29/2009

April 28, 2009 by

A quick look through this week’s ComicList:

parasyte7There’s a crazy amount of really excellent shôjo coming out this week, but more on that later. The comic I’m anticipating most eagerly would have to be the seventh volume of Hitoshi Iwaaki’s Parasyte from Del Rey. This is the penultimate installment of this science-fiction classic about a boy and the shape-shifting parasite that’s taken over his hand. The book has just gotten more engrossing as it’s progressed. There’s plenty of crazy metamorphosing action, solid and surprising character development, dollops of bizarre humor, and an increasingly suspenseful plot.

The list qualifies a bunch of Viz’s offerings with “release not confirmed by Diamond,” which generally means that you’re more likely to find them this week in a bookstore than a comic shop, I think. It’s probably just as well, as there’s quite a volume of crack, and it couldn’t hurt to divide your purchases up over a couple of weeks.

I’ve fallen a bit behind on Hideaki Sorachi’s very funny Gin Tama, but I’ve enjoyed every volume I’ve read. The series is up to its twelfth volume. I’m more up to date with Yumi Yotta and Takeshi Obata’s marvelous Hikaru no Go, which reaches volume fifteen this week.

Now, to the crushing deluge of truly awesome shôjo:

  • High School Debut volume 9: Charming and sharply observed relationship study.
  • Nana volume 16: Terrific soap opera about urban twenty-somethings.
  • Sand Chronicles volume 5: Heartbreaking but subdued drama about a girl coming of age.

    • Many people whose opinions I respect are also excited about the following: Kaze Hikaru volume 13, Love Com volume 12, Skip Beat volume 18, and We Were There volume 4. Of them, We Were There sounds most like it’s up my alley. I read a few chapters of Kaze Hikaru in Shojo Beat and found it baffling, but the depth of affection people have for the series may force me to take a longer look at it at some point.

    Filed under: ComicList, Del Rey, Viz 2 Comments

    Upcoming 4/22/2009

    April 22, 2009 by

    Not a huge quantity of new arrivals on this week’s ComicList, so I’ll pad things out with a poll.

  • Chocolate Surprise, by Lily Hoshino (Deux): I swear someone told me that Hoshino created the kind of yaoi that I like – character-driven and emotionally grounded. Am I remembering incorrectly?
  • 20th Century Boys vol. 2 by Naoki Urasawa (Viz): See below.
  • Real vol. 4, by Takehiko Inoue (Viz): Inoue’s tremendously good comic about wheelchair basketball continues.
  • Higurashi: When They Cry vol. 2, by Ryukishi07 and Karin Suzuragi (Yen Press): I read the first volume over the weekend, and I’m intrigued enough to see where it goes for at least another volume. I wish the characters were as involving as the creepy plot twists.

    • As you know, Viz is rolling out two series from Naoki (Monster) Urasawa at the same time, the aforementioned 20th Century Boys and Pluto. I like 20th Century Boys fine, but I suspect I’d like it a lot better if I weren’t reading it side by side with Pluto, which I think is superior. So I thought I’d throw out the question as to which book readers prefer.

    Filed under: ComicList, Deux, Polls, Viz, Yen Press 6 Comments

    Upcoming 4/15/2009

    April 14, 2009 by

    What evil lurks in this week’s ComicList? Probably plenty, but let’s cast our eyes toward the light. Unless the evil looks like it’s having a much better time.

    Wolverine: Prodigal Son Vol. 1 (Del Rey): Del Rey and Marvel’s mutant-manga hybrid debuts with this story of a teen-aged Logan entering the big, bad world after years in a secluded martial arts academy in the Canadian wilderness. If the unexamined life isn’t worth living, than our pointy-haired X-Man’s life has added value like you would not believe. Doesn’t he have an entire ongoing series just devoted to his origin? Now we have the adventures of Wolver-teen to fill in one of the few remaining gaps, at least in an “Elseworlds” kind of way. (And yes, I know that DC did the “Elseworlds” books. You know what I mean.)

    Written by Anthony Johnston and illustrated by Wilson Tortosa, it’s an interesting fusion of two tastes (Marvel super-heroes and shônen manga) that have not traditionally tasted great together. It’s Logan without any of the baggage that might render his ongoing comics impenetrable to people who just liked the character from the X-Men movies and the upcoming solo flick starring Hugh Jackman in a sleeveless undershirt.

    Excuse me… I need a moment.

    Sorry about that. Anyway, I think it’s got enough recognizable character trappings welded to the young-man-with-a-quest structure that works so well for so many manga series. Purists may howl, but are there even any Wolverine purists left? Don’t they blink out of existence every time a new origin story is published? I don’t know how these things work. Sleeveless-undershirt-Jackman aside, I’ve never been that interested in Wolverine.

    Here’s Eva Volin’s review for ICv2.

    Nightschool Vol. 1 (Yen Press): One of the clear lottery winners in Tokyopop’s global manga program was undoubtedly Svetlana (Dramacon) Chmakova, who demonstrated buckets of raw talent in her debut work. This is her follow-up work, which has been serialized in Yen Plus and now sees the publication of its first paperback collection.

    Filed under: ComicList, Del Rey, Yen Press 1 Comment

    Upcoming 3/25/2009

    March 24, 2009 by

    Have you ever had a trip planned and held off on bulking up an online book order because you thought, “Hey, there’s a great comic shop in (destination city), so surely I’ll be able to find (titles of books) there”? And then struck out completely? Or is that just me? Ah well. On to this week’s ComicList:

    While the name of the protagonists are a bit odd (“Diamond”? “Rock”? Seriously? I feel like composing an SAT question.), I like the sound of Momoko Tenzen’s Manhattan Love Story (Juné). It’s about grown-up gay men with jobs, and you know I can rarely resist such comics, when I can find them. The cover is really striking too.

    Drawn & Quarterly releases Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s massive biographical work, A Drifting Life, on Wednesday. It’s likely to be one of the books of the year, and certainly of the week.

    For some well-written, slightly old-fashioned shôjo, look no further than the fifth volume of Yuu Asami’s A.I. Revolution (Go! Comi). It’s kind of like Absolute Boyfriend, except it doesn’t make your skin crawl.

    Vertical continues to feed my sick fascination with creeply little Pinoko with the fourth volume of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack.

    And Viz slakes my thirst with the second volume of Oishinbo, the standard-bearer of culinary manga. This volume focuses on sake. In my experience, alcohol and journalists go together like peanut butter and chocolate, so this volume should be fun, even though I haven’t cared much for the sake I’ve tried.

    Filed under: ComicList, Drawn & Quarterly, Go! Comi, Juné, Vertical, Viz 2 Comments
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