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November 7, 2006 by

Another week, another opportunity to ponder the mysteries of the ComicList. Some weeks I get lucky, and Del Rey titles show up earlier than they do from Diamond (as with the excellent Genshiken vol. 7). Some weeks I’m left to writhe in jealousy as everyone else gets Love Roma vol. 4 before I do. MangaCast has a preview of Del Rey’s shôjo version of Train Man, which I believe is due in bookstores today, if not in comic shops tomorrow.

I’m curious about Project Romantic from AdHouse, but it wasn’t a book that I was confident in buying sight unseen. I’m sure I’ll get the chance when I hit Columbus for the holidays.

The concept for Hero Heel (Juné) tickles me, focusing on unexpected romance among actors in a super-hero TV show. Pick your favorite Heroes actors and play along!

Looking for something in a chic, josei, nouvelle manga style? Fanfare/Ponent Mon is releasing a new printing of Kan Takahama’s Kinderbook.

Mmmm… Greek food. Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey travel to the cradle of democracy for Action Philosophers #7: It’s All Greek To You.

Oni releases the second issue of Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt’s The Damned, a solid fusion of mob drama and supernatural weirdness.

I’m intrigued by 12 Days from Tokyopop, either in spite or because of its faintly nauseating premise. Here’s a preview from editor Lillian Diaz-Pryzbyl.

And of course, there’s always Death Note vol. 8 (Viz – Shonen Jump Advanced). MangaCast notes that the first volume of this series keeps popping up on Japanese best-seller lists.

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It seems that John Jakala is not alone. At Read About Comics, Greg McElhatton looks at the first two volumes of Drifting Classroom (Viz – Signature) and finds them really, really loud:

“With The Drifting Classroom two of its eleven volumes are now translated, and I can’t help but wonder if publishing the other nine books could somehow result in a worldwide shortage of exclamation points thanks to its relentless intensity.”

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And in this week’s Flipped, I take the really ill-advised step of reviewing Osamu Tezuka’s Ode to Kirihito (Vertical), in spite of the fact that tons of people have already done it really well. Here are some more successful examples:

Filed under: AdHouse, ComicList, Del Rey, Evil Twin, Fanfare/Ponent Mon, Flipped, Juné, Oni, Tokyopop, Vertical, Viz 3 Comments

Regional specialties

October 31, 2006 by

The Mature Graphic Novel section has not yet reached north-central West Virginia. I swung by Books-A-Million last night to see. It did look like there were fewer Juné and Blu titles than usual, so maybe they’ve been sorted out and it’s in the works. (The manager, who’s an acquaintance, wasn’t on hand to ask.)

One thing did strike me as I was browsing. It’s too bad Viz didn’t put out a Bleach box set in time for the holidays, like Tokyopop did with Kingdom Hearts. A conveniently bundled, nicely packaged chunk of the early volumes might entice the curious.

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I’m kind of baffled by the ComicList for the week. The list itself says the only Del Rey offering for the week is the second volume of Basilisk. Jog seems to think that the fourth volume of Love Roma is arriving. The e-mailer from the local comic shop suggests that the seventh volume of Genshiken will arrive. Should I focus on the happiness of new Genshiken, or wallow in the bitterness of delayed Love Roma gratification?

There does seem to be general consensus that this week will see the arrival of the second volumes of Off*Beat and The Dreaming and the fourteenth of The Kindaichi Case Files from Tokyopop. Okay, so maybe it would be nice if these suspenseful stories had dropped the day before Halloween instead of the day after. But it’s close enough.

Not to be outdone in the second volume category, Seven Seas releases the sophomore installment of Inverloch, a web-to-print fantasy story from Sarah Ellerton. I liked the first a lot.

It seems like it’s been weeks since a new volume of a post-apocalyptic survival manga showed up. Dark Horse leaps into the breach with the fifth volume of Eden: It’s an Endless World! For more science fiction, you could always check out June from Netcomics.

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There seems to be a mad flurry of manga reviews of late, and MangaBlog’s Brigid has been staying on top of them.

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So I’m glancing at the Taiyosha Top Ten over at MangaCast, and I can’t help but notice that Nodame Cantabile has really parked itself there. Volume 16 debuted at number one, with a special taking eighth place the same week. And it’s still in the top 10.

No particular point to that observation, aside from the fact that I like the book and its success makes me happy.

Filed under: Blu, Bookstores, ComicList, Dark Horse, Del Rey, Juné, Sales, Seven Seas, Tokyopop, Viz 6 Comments

Comics in the wee hours

October 24, 2006 by

My tendency to become distracted by supporting characters has cropped up in Monster (Viz – Signature). I don’t mind dogged Dr. Tenma, though I find him too perfect. (Even his flaws seem calculated to make you sigh, “Oh, that poor, decent man.”) But I find any sequence featuring Nina, the sister of a serial killer who’s determined to do the right thing regardless of the cost, absolutely riveting. Nina gets lots of play in the fifth volume, so I’m a very happy reader.

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Jog notes one of the things that makes Golgo 13 (Viz – Signature) so special: the extras.

“Only in the pages of Golgo 13 could you possibly run into anything like what’s in this volume’s File 13 bonus section: a short essay by Horibe Masashi, ‘founder of the Hakukotsu School of Japanese Martial Arts,’ devoted entirely to the physiology of being kicked in the nuts. Seriously; you’ll learn the science behind what exactly happens in the body during an assault on the family jewels, some fun facts about testicles in Japanese folklore, and even the secrets behind a legendary lost karate skill of temporary bollocks retraction.”

That’s right. A Viz book features a comprehensive look at racking.

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At Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson swings by the carry-out for a look at Project X – The Challengers – Seven Eleven – The Miraculous Success of Japan’s 7-Eleven Stores (Digital Manga Publishing).

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At Keromaru, Alex Scott offers more details on Books-A-Million’s Mature Graphic Novel section and gets confirmation from an employee at another B-A-M outlet.

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I’m glad to see that The Damned (Oni Press) is being received well. Mobsters and demons aren’t exactly my protagonists of choice, but I thought this book made interesting use of both. Jeff Lester at Savage Critics called it “surprisingly Good,” and Paul O’Brien at The X-Axis gave it an A-.

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After a couple of heavy weeks at the comics shop, this Wednesday is comparatively subdued. Despite a smaller number of titles of interest, the quality promises to be really, really high. I need to catch up with Josh Neufeld’s The Vagabonds (Alternative Comics), as I really enjoyed A Few Perfect Hours. Fantagraphics releases the second issue of the second volume of Linda Medley’s wonderful Castle Waiting.

But the undisputed pick of the week is Osamu Tezuka’s Ode to Kirohito (Vertical), 832 pages from the God of Manga for the ridiculously low price of $24.95. If you need more convincing, check out Jarred Pine’s review at Anime on DVD.

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I document the next step in Dark Horse’s continued (and successful) attempts to woo me in this week’s Flipped. First it was the thoughtful sci-fi of Eden: It’s an Endless World! Then it was the nostalgia-triggering charms of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. Now it’s indie-flavored Ohikkoshi.

What will they roll out next? New shôjo?

Filed under: Alternative, Bookstores, ComicList, Dark Horse, DMP, Fantagraphics, Linkblogging, Oni, Vertical, Viz 3 Comments

Mangalanche!

October 17, 2006 by

There’s an outrageous quantity of good manga coming out this week, and David Taylor has pulled the manga out for your convenience.

If I didn’t already own it, I would name Fanfare/Ponent Mon’s re-release of Jiro Taniguchi’s sublime Walking Man as manga pick of the week. I think I will anyways. (F/PM is another publisher who could play a mean game of “If you like…” Of course, I think every comic shop should have a spinner rack full of their books. Some of their work is on display in a recent article from Paul Gravett, along with other offerings in the still-too-narrow gekiga category.)

In non-manga offerings, I’m most excited about Dave Roman’s Agnes Quill: An Anthology of Mystery from Slave Labor Graphics.

Chris Butcher goes through this week’s releases, hitting the highlights and making an good point about a couple of current manga series:

“Better still, it’s a lot of fun to compare the 1970s suspense-horror of Drifting Classroom by Kazuo Umezu (essentially: Japan’s Stephen King) to Dragon Head, a more contemporary take on the sub-genre. Drifting Classroom leaves less to the imagination about the fate of the characters and what they face, but it also has the reactions of the characters ratchetted way above Dragon Head to achieve similar effects… You really oughtta be buying and reading both, I think.”

Jog’s rundown of the week’s comics is particularly manga-rich this week. Best line:

“Q-Ko-chan Vol. 2 (of 2): Another model of clarity from writer/artist Ueda Hajime draws to a close. It looks nice!”

What more is there to say?

Dave Ferraro is another Drifting Classroom fan (so am I), and he takes a look at volume 2 in the latest Manga Monday at Comics-and-More, also reviewing Dragon Head 4, Monster 5, and Shojo Beat’s Punch preview.

At MangaBlog, Brigid gives a qualified thumbs-up to the second volume of Boogiepop Doesn’t Laugh; I agree with her that more distinct character design would have helped with clarity. Rereading the first volume before delving into the second was almost essential.

MangaCast keeps the previews and reviews coming. Volume #255 features CMX’s Densha Otoko, Juné’s Close the Last Door, and the second volume of The Great Catsby from NETCOMICS. And MangaCaster Erin F. provides an audio version of the latest Manga Recon column from PopCultureShock. The eclectic collection of titles covered includes the first two volumes of Scott Pilgrim, DMP’s Robot anthology, Ultra Cute, and the excellent Dokebi Bride. Ah, globalism!

Dark Horse’s Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service did well in the Direct Market, and TangognaT thinks it deserves four stars (out of five).

And in this week’s Flipped, I think about the children… the murderous, emotionally disturbed children.

Filed under: ComicList, Dark Horse, Fanfare/Ponent Mon, Flipped, Linkblogging, Seven Seas, Viz 11 Comments

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October 11, 2006 by

Thumbs up to the ComicList. They now provide a full list of releases for the week, plus a manga-centric version. (Of course, David Taylor has been providing the latter for ages.) As the MangaCasters note, it’s a big Wednesday for manga.

NETCOMICS releases six books, including the third volume of the excellent Dokebi Bride. If you’re curious, you can enter Love Manga’s Manhwa Competition to try and win a copy, or you can visit the publisher’s site and sample the first chapter for free.

It’s not on the ComicList, but the aforementioned MangaCasters say Broccoli’s Yoki Koto Kiku gets wide release this week. Adorable, murderous triplets scheme to get their hands on the family fortune, and hatchets fly with alarming frequency. (If my shaky memory serves, you can fill out a Broccoli survey and receive a free dust-jacket for the book.)

Graphix releases the second installment of Raina Telgemeier’s excellent adaptations of The Baby-Sitters Club books with The Truth About Stacey.

Go! Comi offers two new titles this week. In Night of the Beasts, a mysterious, dark-haired figure introduces a good-hearted teen-aged brawler to a supernatural destiny. It’s ShôjoBleach! After School Nightmare is set in what has to be the worst sex-ed class ever.

CMX enters the great Train Man race with its version of Densha Otoko, the story that launched a thousand manga. That just leaves Del Rey’s, right?

Filed under: Broccoli, CMX, ComicList, Go! Comi, Graphix, Netcomics 1 Comment

Listing

October 4, 2006 by

Ah, the ComicList… some weeks are famine, others are feast. Guess which kind we have this week?

  • CMX releases the eagerly anticipated Emma, which I had reviewed in proof form a while back. The finished cover is quite lovely with an appealingly antique-y paper stock.
  • Pantheon brings the new Marjane Satrapi book, Chicken with Plums. The book made Entertainment Weekly’s Must List without any mention of it being a graphic novel.
  • Tokyopop offers the fourth volume of the little book that might, Dragon Head.
  • Viz has the fourth volume of Ai Yazawa’s Nana, which gets better with every installment. And it started really well.

Okay, that isn’t quite as burdensome as it seemed at first glance, but there’s still lots of nice stuff. The MangaCast of characters hit the highlights of the week’s manga releases. And folks like Jog and Daves Carter and Ferraro take the week’s shipping list out for a spin.

If you’re still looking for reasons to part with your hard-earned cash, there are lots of well-written reviews floating about the blogosphere:

  • Johanna Draper Carlson covers two of my favorite books (Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators and Girl Genius) in her latest column for Comics Unlimited.
  • Dirk Deppey thoughtfully examines the excellent American Born Chinese and continues his scanlation tour.
  • Lyle keeps watch on Shojo Beat previews with a look at Tail of the Moon.
  • Updated to add: Steven Grant reviews two Del Rey books, Ghost Hunt and Q-Ko-Chan, in the latest installment of Permanent Damage. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the first volume of Ghost Hunt, but it sounds like it may be worth another look.
Filed under: CMX, ComicList, Del Rey, Fanfare/Ponent Mon, Linkblogging, Pantheon, Tokyopop, Viz 1 Comment

More of the same

September 26, 2006 by

I know, I know… more linkblogging. What a surprise! Let’s start off with a round-up of manga reviews:

  • At PopCultureShock, Erin F. (of Manga Recon and MangaCast fame) takes a gander at Densha Otoko (Train Man) phenomenon, and Katherine Dacey-Tsuei reviews Omukae desu (CMX).
  • Back at the MangaCast mother ship, Jack Tse reviews Suzuka (Del Rey), D. Gray-man (Viz – Shonen Jump Advanced) and Q-Ko-Chan (Del Rey).
  • Updated to note: I missed a bunch, but Brigid didn’t, so go ye to MangaBlog.

At Crocodile Caucus, Lyle synthesizes much of the recent talk about manga anthologies and takes a look at comics anthologies past and present.

At Love Manga, David Taylor filters through the week’s ComicList for manga offerings. At the risk of repeating myself, god, finally.

Other Wednesday highlights include the concluding chapter of the first volume of Scott Chantler’s Northwest Passage (Oni Press), which I may have previously mentioned in passing. Or ad nauseum. And before I’ve even gotten around to reading Pyonyang: A Journey in North Korea, Drawn & Quarterly releases Guy Delisle’s Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China. A PDF preview of Shenzhen can be found here.

In truth, I’m still fixating over some of the books I bought over the weekend, particularly Dokebi Bride (NETCOMICS). I liked the first volume so much that I had to hit Amazon for the second.

On an unrelated note, I’m developing a horrible case of WordPress envy. I crave tags, but I worry that my web haplessness would lead to disaster if I tried to transition. Many others have survived the experience, so I’m sure I wouldn’t make too much of a muddle of it. We’ll see.

Filed under: CMX, ComicList, Drawn & Quarterly, Linkblogging, Netcomics, Oni, Viz 3 Comments

Consumerism

September 19, 2006 by

Oh, Marvel. When I said I wished you’d take lessons from manga publishers, I didn’t mean for you to adopt nipple phobia. (Images at the link might not be work safe.)

ICv2 has some interesting manga-related content today. Yaoi Press is putting the YA in yaoi, launching a line for the 13-and-over crowd. (Honestly, DMP and Blu already publish a bunch of titles that would suit early teens, or at least what grown-ups think they can handle, but I think this is the first time anyone’s specifically tried to market a line towards them.) And Viz responds to questions about edits in a recent volume of Fullmetal Alchemist.

Comic Book Resources has posted sales figures in the Direct Market for August. Would I be spoiling the surprise if I told you that Naruto topped the manga chart? Update: David Taylor crunches the numbers over at Love Manga.

Lyle loves Yakitate!! Japan. Pass it on.

John Jakala has some issues with Dark Horse’s scheduling problems.

Speaking of Dark Horse, there’s still no sign of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Serivce in this week’s comics, even though it was due out in August. While I’m sure Banya: The Explosive Delivery Man has its charms (and is Dark Horse’s first manhwa release), I will not be appeased by the fact that they did release a book with “delivery” in its title.

In happier new arrival news, Seven Seas delivers the first volume of Boogiepop Dual. Fanfare/Ponent Mon, while still leaving me wondering where my copy of The Building Opposite is, does offer Mariko Parade by Kan Takahama and Frédéric Boilet.

Update #2: The MangaCasters offer their picks of the week.

Filed under: ComicList, ICv2, Linkblogging, Marvel, Sales 7 Comments

Promotional items

September 12, 2006 by

It’s a big week for graphic novel debuts, as has been noted by Jog, Chris Butcher, and many others.

If I were to pick a “book of the week,” I’d probably chicken out and call it a draw between American Born Chinese and Klezmer, both lovely in very different ways. Lucky residents of the San Francisco area or those who just happen to be there Sept. 20 can meet Gene Yang, creator of American Born Chinese, at an event at the Isotope. (Readers who want to meet Joann Sfar will probably have to travel to France, but really, isn’t that just a fringe benefit? The extras those people put in their manga! C’est magnifique!)

Speaking of promotional activities, Go! Comi is sponsoring a Cantarella Poetry Contest. Only one manga has ever inspired me to verse, but that shouldn’t stop you.

In other manga promotion news, Chris Butcher notes a change in the Tokyopop on-line exclusive initiative. I think one would categorize this story as “developing.”

I’ve been really negligent in giving a nod to Manga Mondays at Comics-and-More, so let me correct that. This week, Dave Ferraro throws in a list of his favorite anime (Paranoia Agent is so creepy and cool) before wondering why publishing Naruto is like printing money.

Oh, and if you were wondering about the book that provided the premise for the most recent episode of the wacky, long-running sitcom, That Darn Diamond, Tulip Tree Press has extensive preview strips available of House of Sugar by Rebecca Kratz. It looks really intriguing.

Filed under: ComicList, Contests and giveaways, Linkblogging, Tulip Tree Press 6 Comments

Here, there, everywhere

September 7, 2006 by

What, new comics arrive a day later than usual, so everyone dumps good stuff at once? Thanks, publishers.

Boom! Studios has the third issue of the Hero Squared Ongoing. Dorian takes a look at the issue at Postmodern Barney.

Dark Horse rolls out the second volume of Junji Ito’s Tomie in the Museum of Terror series. This is good, creepy fun. It’s more episodic than Ito’s Uzumaki, but it’s got a great antagonist (protagonist?) in its title character.

Del Rey has the second volume of ES: Eternal Sabbath. It’s received the thumbs-up from both MangaCast and the Newsarama gang. As if the antics of a murderous, psychic junior high student weren’t enticement enough?

Good grief, how long has it been since Digital Manga released the third volume of IWGP? Ages, if memory serves, but the fourth shows up today. While I only vaguely remember what was happening, this arrival is a nice excuse to reread the earlier volumes.

Go! Comi offers fourth volumes of three of its inaugural series: Cantarella (Borgias!), Crossroad (orphans!), and Tenshi Ja Nai (no angels!).

Vertical has the third volume of the paperback version of their beautiful treatment of Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha, which is conveniently where I left off with the hardbacks because I’m cheap.

Over at Viz, Hot Gimmick concludes. (Take it away, Mely.) Fullmetal Alchemist hits volume nine. And the fifteenth volume of Bleach shows up just in time for the debut of the anime on Cartoon Network. (I might have to take advantage of that Borders sale John Jakala mentioned to catch up with Bleach, because it really is a lot of fun.)

If you’re contemplating future purchases, Jog has a fine review of Joann Sfar’s Klezmer (First Second), and Lyle of Crocodile Caucus makes Beauty Pop (Viz – Shojo Beat) sound difficult for me to resist.

Filed under: ComicList, Linkblogging 10 Comments
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