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Upcoming 1/2/2009

January 2, 2009 by

A few items from this week’s ComicList:

Most of the post-New Year’s love comes from Del Rey. There’s the second volume of Akira Hiramoto’s Me and the Devil Blues, an odd but successful blend of Faust and Behind the Music that extrapolates wildly on the murky biography of Robert Johnson. Then there’s the seventh volume of Ai Morinaga’s very funny My Heavenly Hockey Club, sports shôjo happily divorced of anything resembling athleticism or romance.

But I feel like pointing a spotlight at the fourth volume of Ryotaro Iwanaga’s Pumpkin Scissors, because I think it’s a fine series that deserves a larger audience. It follows a quirky but good-hearted military group focused on relief and recovery, society’s and their own. The art is a little shaky and the script could be a bit more fluid, but the characters are great, particularly ass-kicking noblewoman Alice Malvin. She’s carrying the family’s military tradition in a thankless, never-ending job, and she’s doing it with a winning blend of idealism and pragmatism.

I have a soft-spot for You Higuri, she of the tawdry, boys’-love flavored costume dramas, so I’m naturally inclined to give her new series, Crown (Go! Comi) a look. It looks like a contemporary take on her usual interests – slightly-too-close siblings and hunky bodyguards.

Filed under: ComicList, Del Rey, Go! Comi 1 Comment

Upcoming 12/17/2008

December 16, 2008 by

No publisher is as capable of making me go all Team Comix as Fanfare/Ponent Mon. If they’ve got a new release, it’s bound to be my pick of the week. If they’ve released anything in a calendar year, it’s bound to be somewhere on my theoretical list of the year’s best. (I say theoretical because I’m deeply ambivalent about my ability to concoct a list without over-compensating for my personal biases and anxieties about looking… well… dumb.)

So this week I will urge you all to at least take a look at Jiro Taniguchi’s The Quest for the Missing Girl, which fuses Taniguchi’s facility with evoking sense of place and his fondness for detective pulp in some very effective ways. I reviewed it over at The Comics Reporter.

And speaking of Fanfare/Ponent Mon and year-end round-ups, Hideo Azuma’s Disappearance Diary (which I reviewed here) has deservedly been popping up on several, including this one at Manga Recon. I point to this one in particular because it’s one of my favorites. I love the format, and I think it allows for a very natural eclecticism of tastes. It’s a great example of the kind of thing a good group blog can do really well.

Here’s this week’s ComicList, by the way.

Filed under: Awards and lists, ComicList, Fanfare/Ponent Mon, Linkblogging 1 Comment

Upcoming 12/4/2008

December 3, 2008 by

Just a couple of highlights from this week’s ComicList:

I thought Faith Erin Hicks showed a lot of promise with Zombies Calling (SLG), so I’ll definitely give her follow-up, The War at Ellsmere (SLG), a close look.

NBM gives you a third chance to purchase Nicolas DeCrécy’s Glacial Period, a graphic novel created under the sponsorship of the Louvre. DeCrécy takes a fanciful, futuristic look at the institution through the eyes of a team of archeologists who are trying to excavate the cultural repository, now buried under show and ice. It’s great fun. I reviewed it here.

Filed under: ComicList, NBM, Slave Labor Graphics Leave a Comment

Debuting this week: Yōkaiden

November 26, 2008 by

Nina Matsumoto’s Yōkaiden (Del Rey) has a lot of things working in its favor, but the one that really sells it for me is its wry authorial voice. The peppering of sly, smart humor elevates what might otherwise be a fairly generic folklore tour.

Yōkai are spirits that range from benign to mischievous to deadly, and Hamachi is crazy for all of them. The orphaned boy wants to learn and teach about the spirits and prove to suspicious humans that everyone can get along. The people of his village think he’s kind of simple, and they’re kind of right. When Hamachi’s surly grandmother dies, apparently at the hand of a yōkai, Hamachi sets off for their dimension to find out the truth.

Since Hamachi is so well-informed about and enamored with yōkai, Matsumoto has no trouble introducing the various types either in the narrative or in end-of-chapter pages from Hamachi’s journal or in the form of excerpts from “Inukai Mizuki’s Field Guide to Yōkai.” (Mizuki is Hamachi’s inspiration and predecessor in human-yōkai diplomacy.)

Applying a consistently light-hearted tone, Matsumoto presents varied encounters between Hamachi and the objects of his obsession. He saves one from a trap, avoids having the skin of his feet removed by another, protects a surly, talking lantern from bullying, and so on. The individual episodes are fine, but it’s Matsumoto’s wit that really carries things along.

Hamachi is never smarter than he should be, and Matsumoto is able to maneuver him in and out of trouble with imaginative little flourishes. She gives the yōkai amusingly distinct personalities, peppers the dialogue with tart anachronisms (from schadenfreude to Kelsey Grammer), and is game for the occasional, amusing digression. (When the villagers learn of grandma’s fate and Hamachi’s quest, they engage in a discussion of just what kind of irony the situation embodies.)

Matsumoto has a solid visual sense as well. Her character designs, human and yōkai, are varied and charming, and her storytelling and layouts are clear and energetic.

(This review is based on a complimentary copy provided by the publisher.)

Now, here are some other highlights from this week’s ComicList:

  • The Umbrella Academy: Dallas #1 (Dark Horse)
  • Mushishi Vol. 6 (Del Rey)
  • Tezuka’s Black Jack Vol. 2 TPB (Vertical)
  • Honey and Clover Vol. 4 (Viz – Shojo Beat)
    • Filed under: ComicList, Dark Horse, Debuting this week, Del Rey, Vertical, Viz 4 Comments

    Upcoming, updates, upbraiding

    November 19, 2008 by

    I’m going to be lazy in my assessment of this week’s ComicList and just point you to stalwarts like Jog, Matthew J. Brady, and Chris Mautner and Kevin Melrose. I will just note that the soft-cover version of the second volume of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack (Vertical) seems to be due in comic shops.

    And with that lazy segue out of the way, I’ll move into a quick update on my Black Jack Preventative Medicine Giveaway, which is bustling right along. I’ve gotten some great entries so far, and I can’t wait to post people’s thoughts on how to make the comics industry healthier. Even with under a dozen entries so far, people are covering a lot of ground from a number of different perspectives.

    Thanks to everyone who’s linked to the contest. Well… almost everyone. I continue to be shocked by the number of sites and individuals who swipe content from hard-working bloggers like Brigid Alverson and post it as their own. Seriously, that just sucks. If you’re trying to generate content for your site, do it the old fashioned way and just write it, if you’re capable of such complex thinking. Cutting and pasting isn’t writing, and doing so without any kind of attribution is plain old plagiarism.

    Filed under: Awards and lists, ComicList, Linkblogging 7 Comments

    Upcoming 11/12/2008

    November 12, 2008 by

    For the last couple of months, I’ve tended to avoid the Wednesday experience. It’s not due to any waning in enthusiasm for new comics so much as an unwillingness to deal with the irritating traffic and limited parking a trip to the local comic shop entails.

    But if anything could get me to face the inexplicable gridlock that’s become a signature of the downtown driving experience, it would be the second volume of Matthew Loux’s Salt Water Taffy: A Climb Up Mt. Barnabus (Oni). The first installment was easily one of the most charming books I’ve read all year, and I’m eager to get my hands on part two.

    Tokyopop provides the ongoing crack for the week, with new volumes of Natsuki Takaya’s Fruits Basket and Ai Morinaga’s Your and My Secret available for my reading pleasure.

    Filed under: ComicList, Oni, Tokyopop 1 Comment

    Upcoming 10/29/2008

    October 28, 2008 by

    This week’s ComicList offers a happy hodgepodge of choices, from cross-cultural curiosities to comic strips to creepy classics. (It also allows for a lot of alliteration.)

    First and foremost is the fourth volume of Adam Warren’s razor-sharp but still endearing super-hero and fan-service parody, Empowered (Dark Horse). Rarely is the enduring fortitude of the human spirit celebrated with such enthusiastic bad taste.

    I can rarely resist a travelogue comic, and Enrico Casarosa’s The Venice Chronicles (AdHouse) looks like an extremely pretty one.

    A new volume of Hitoshi Iwaaki’s old-school horror manga, Parasyte (Del Rey) is always a welcome arrival, and the fifth installment shows up Wednesday.

    As much as I enjoy Vertical’s manga releases, I’ve missed the design genius of Chip Kidd. I can kind of get over it thanks to the arrival of Kidd’s Bat-Manga! (Pantheon).

    While I strongly suspect The Venice Chronicles will be much more to my narrative-friendly tastes, I’m sure there will be much to admire in Yuichi Yokoyama’s Travel (PictureBox).

    I’ve heard nothing but raves about the anime adaptation of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and I keep meaning to put it in the queue, but I’m just not that much of an anime geek. And besides, I tend to like to read the manga first. (Except in the case of Inu Yasha, because that series is like 75 volumes long, so I’ll stick with the animated version for now.) But thanks to Yen Press for launching the series this week. Yen is also delivering the second volume of Satoko Kiyuduki’s four-panel fairy tale, Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro. I really enjoyed the first volume, so this is another welcome arrival.

    Filed under: AdHouse, ComicList, Dark Horse, Del Rey, Pantheon, PictureBox, Yen Press 6 Comments

    Upcoming 10/22/2008

    October 22, 2008 by

    I’m in an easily confused state, so I’ll just note that the stuff on this week’s ComicList looks an awful lot like stuff that was on it the last couple of weeks. So click on the ComicList category and marvel at my prescience, or something.

    I’m going to confine myself to a “pick of the week,” and that pick would be Asano Inio’s Solanin, arriving courtesy of Viz. I thought it looked promising when I first thought it was shipping, and I’ve actually read it in the intervening weeks thanks to a preview copy from the publisher. I don’t want to go into too much detail and rob myself of column fodder for next week, but I really liked Jog’s blurb about the book:

    “Actually, it sounds just like Seiichi Hayashi’s 1970-71 lingering youths landmark Red Colored Elegy (in English this year from Drawn and Quarterly), although I’m sure this latter work is 7,000% more straightforward and contemporary mainstream-palatable. And Asano could certainly go places with it.”

    If there was a highly conceptual costume partly, Solanin would kind of be like what you would get if Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad went dressed as Red Colored Elegy, had a little too much to drink and started getting sort of Method-actor about it all. That’s intended as a compliment. There are lots of stories about aimless 20-somethings in all kinds of media, but I would argue that there are only a handful of really good ones, and I think Solanin makes the cut.

    Filed under: ComicList, Viz 3 Comments

    Upcoming 10/15/2008 Part Two

    October 15, 2008 by

    Returning to the ComicList, there are a few new volumes of ongoing series I wanted to point out:

    First is the second volume of Rei Hiroe’s Black Lagoon (Viz), which I point out not really because I recommend it but because I finally got around to reading the first volume. It’s one of those books that depend on the reader finding the characters more engaging than the reader finds their vocation repellent, and I found myself just about even in terms of reaction. It focuses on a ragtag group of pirates sailing around on the titular PT boat, abetting corporate espionage and gang wars. They’re studiously neutral about the morality of their actions, though that doesn’t mean you have to be. While their “nothing personal, just earning a paycheck” attitude has its amusing moments, some of the aforementioned actions stretch things to the snapping point. (Selling a kid into slavery springs to mind, even if they did treat him to a soda.) On the bright side, the fan service, both weapon- and hot-chick-based, stays on the cheerfully cheesy side of the equation, and if you like watching a woman in a pair of Daisy Dukes and a tube top lock and load, it will probably be money well spent.

    Fortunately, Viz offers a couple of action titles that are more to my taste. There’s Hiromu Arakawa’s perennial hit Fullmetal Alchemist, now up to its 17th volume and still improbably fresh and entertaining. And Naoki Urasawa’s Monster reaches the same milestone, which also happens to be its penultimate volume. It’s quite thrilling to watch Urasawa weave all of his threads together as the climax approaches.

    In a more shamelessly sentimental vein is the eighth volume of Kitchen Princess (Del Rey), by Natsumi Ando and Miyuki Kobayashi. It promises a “High Tea cook-off,” which further makes me wish that American school systems were more imaginative in their competitive events, because I could have lettered in that, I swear to you.

    Filed under: ComicList, Del Rey, Viz 3 Comments

    Upcoming 10/15/2008

    October 14, 2008 by

    This week’s ComicList has me wondering if there’s a comics equivalent of the movie industry’s Oscar Bait Season. Maybe a Ten Best List Season? Because there are a lot of potentially intriguing books coming out tomorrow.

    Rutu Mordan’s Exit Wounds (Drawn & Quarterly) was easily one of the most warmly received books of 2007. I thought that book was really solid, though I wasn’t transported by it to the degree that a lot of other readers were. Anyway, Mordan’s follow-up, Jamilti and Other Stories, arrives tomorrow via D&Q.

    I like Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods a lot, but I tend to be generally fond of reconfigured fairy tales. (Though oddly enough, the very idea of a musical version of Gregory Maguire’s Wicked makes me cringe, Kristin Chenoweth or no Kristin Chenoweth.) So I’m inclined to take a look at There’s a Wolf at the Door (First Second) written by Zoey Alley and beautifully illustrated by R.W. Alley. You know all those wolves in popular fairy tales? This book posits that all those stories happened to the same wolf.

    NBM has become one of those publishers where I’m automatically inclined to pay attention to their releases, what with Rick Geary’s books and Glacial Period and Run, Bong-Gu, Run! This week’s eye-catcher is Dirk Schwieger’s Moresukine, which is based on Schwieger’s blog. “Assignment: Pod Hotel” is probably enough to get me to track it down, because the prospect of sleeping in a tube triggers all of my claustrophobic nightmares.

    I was e-mailing back and forth with an editor at Viz about something entirely unrelated, and he made a point of talking up Asano Inio’s Solanin. It features a recent college graduate who “struggles with the feeling that she’s just not cut out to be a part of the real world.” (I hate to break it to her, but that feeling doesn’t go away with time.) A done-in-one josei series in a big fat package? Why yes, thank you, I’d love one.

    Filed under: ComicList, Drawn & Quarterly, First Second, NBM, Viz 2 Comments
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