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Upcoming 6/23/2010

June 22, 2010 by

The current ComicList might be described as the “Not Dead Yet Edition.”

Cherish these last few CMX releases while you can. This week sees the arrival of the 17th volume (of 19) of Musashi #9, the sixth volume (of seven) of Two Flowers for the Dragon, and the fourth volume (of five) of Venus Capriccio. So close, and yet so far. And the web site is gone, as has been noted previously. Screw you, DC.

Del Rey publishes more than one licensed comic this week, including one that it rescued from another publisher. They continue to wrap up Samurai Deeper Kyo with a collection of the 37th and 38th volumes, and we finally see the second volume of Moyasimon, plus the 11th volume of Fairy Tail.

Eight months after publishing the first volume, which had been in print for ages, Kodansha re-releases the second volume of Akira. They still don’t have a web site.

Filed under: CMX, ComicList, Del Rey, Kodansha Comics 2 Comments

Upcoming 6/16/2010

June 15, 2010 by

Time for a quick look at the current ComicList:

Fantagraphics reminds us that they’re more than just awesome, Matt Thorn-curated manga with Megan Kelso’s Artichoke Tales. Kelso’s previous big release is an excellent collection of short stories, The Squirrel Mother, also from Fantagraphics. This is Kelso’s first long-form effort, and I’m looking forward to seeing what she does with that length of narrative.

Viz has one of its Signature-heavy weeks with three enjoyable books:

  • The first volume of Kumiko Suekane’s I’m-not-sure-how-intentionally-hilarious tale of teen-aged clones of major historical figures, Afterschool Charisma
  • The third volume of Daisuke Igarashi’s environmental fable, Children of the Sea
  • The eighth ninth volume of Naoki Urasawa’s crazily entertaining 20th Century Boys.
    • Filed under: ComicList, Fantagraphics, Viz 3 Comments

    Upcoming 6/3/2010

    June 2, 2010 by

    It’s not a huge week for new comics, but there are plenty of potentially enjoyable arrivals on the ComicList.

    It’s a very good week for fans of Kathryn Immonen. She’s got a new mini-series at Marvel called Heralds, illustrated by Tonci Zonic, which features a group of super-heroines dealing with a threat posed by a not-quite-dead-yet female herald of Galactus. I liked her work on the Hellcat mini-series, and in spite of its awful covers and insulting marketing, I liked Zonic’s work on Marvel Divas, which featured a number of the same characters. I’m also looking forward to seeing Hellcat and Valkyrie fighting side by side, as they were mainstays of The Defenders back in the day. I have no idea why any of these women would attend a birthday party for Emma Frost, or why Cyclops would think they’d want to do so, but…

    Kathryn Immonen teams up with gifted illustrator Stuart Immonen for Moving Pictures (Top Shelf). The publisher describes it as “the story of the awkward and dangerous relationship between curator Ila Gardner and officer Rolf Hauptmann, as they are forced by circumstances to play out their private lives in a public power struggle. The narrative unfolds along two timelines which collide with the revelation of a terrible secret, an enigmatic decision that not many would make, and the realization that sometimes the only choice left is the refusal to choose.”

    Viz does its usual first-week flood with tons of shônen and shôjo. The two most interesting-sounding debuts are Library Wars: Love and War, story and art by Kiiro Yumi, original concept by Hiro Arikawa. It’s about militarized librarians protecting books and preventing censorship. You can find approving early reviews at Manga Worth Reading and The Manga Critic.

    On the shônen front, there’s Toriko, written and illustrated by Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro. It follows the titular “Gourmet Hunter,” who must “hunt down the ferocious ingredients that supply the world’s best restaurants.” I suppose this technically counts as food manga, so I feel obligated to read it. MangaBlog’s Brigid Alverson thinks it fulfills its aims admirably.

    Elsewhere in Viz’s listings is the final volume of Chica Umino’s lovely Honey and Clover and a bunch of new volumes of Eiichiro Oda’s excellent One Piece.

    Filed under: ComicList, Linkblogging, Marvel, Top Shelf, Viz 1 Comment

    Upcoming 5/26/2010

    May 25, 2010 by

    Before I get into this week’s ComicList, I wanted to do some linkblogging.

    There are two pieces celebrating the CMX catalog. Over at Mania, a quartet of writers compiles a list of “20 Must Have CMX Manga.” The Good Comics for Kids crew focuses on tween- and teen-friendly titles in “The GC4K Guide to CMX Manga.” Pieces like this are important, as DC has already dismantled its CMX web site, and all links to title information now go to a listing for the second issue of the Brightest Day mini-series. That strikes me as both telling and tastelessly ironic.

    Over at The Beat, Rich Johnson takes manga’s pulse in an interesting overview. Johnson was DC’s Vice President of Book Trade Sales Sales during the early days of CMX before helping launch Yen Press for Hachette. Over at Robot 6, Brigid (MangaBlog) Alverson examines some of Johnson’s points, finding cause for disagreement. I’m particularly smitten with this passage:

    “The graphic novel market boom of the early 2000s was due in part to the fact that publishers started serving the other half of the population. For a long time there were no comics for girls; then suddenly, there were, and the girls bought them. Dismissing their tastes as Rich does (or by complaining about comics being too pink and sparkly) ignores the fact that their money is just as good as any Dark Horse fan’s. Certainly, the opening of the manga market to more literary titles is a welcome development, as is the fact that many indy publishers are now embracing manga. That’s the kind of book I like to read. But the comics market is much bigger than me and my tastes. Girls like to read about schoolgirls with superpowers. You can tell them that’s stupid, or you can publish comics they like (keeping in mind that even genre fans can distinguish between a good comic and a bad one). One of those is a winning business strategy, and one isn’t.”

    In the comments, Melinda (Manga Bookshelf) Beasi helps demolish the initial argument about the declining demand for comics for girls and the underestimated relevance of piracy with some page-view figures from scan sites. Those two birds never stood a chance!

    Want some manga for grown-ups? Viz provides with the eighth volume of Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys, which is my favorite Urasawa title to be released in English so far. It feels like it should be able to save a category, you know?

    In the mood for something in the classic vein? Vertical offers the 11th volume of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack.

    Looking for a Japanese take on the comic strip? Tokyopop delivers the first volume of Kenji Sonishi’s Neko Ramen, about a cat who works in a noodle shop.

    Wondering if Del Rey is still licensing manga? Well, there’s the debut of Fairy Navigator Runa, written by Miyoko Ikeda and illustrated by Michiyo Kikuta. It originally ran in Kodansha’s Nakayoshi shôjo magazine and is about one of those pesky magical girls.

    I might not be finished with my Marvel spite purchases. After seeing some preview pages from the first issue of Secret Avengers, written by Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Mike Deodato, I have to say that the idea of the Black Widow and Valkyrie fighting side by side is very much to my theoretical taste, as I’ve always liked those two heroines a lot. I do think someone needs to get Deodato a subscription to Vogue as quickly as possible, as he’s been drawing the same “sexy evening dress” since before Heroes Reborn.

    Oh, and speaking of Marvel purchases, non-spite category, I entirely agree with this review of the second issue of Girl Comics, particularly for the nice things said about the contributions by Faith Erin Hicks and Colleen Coover. On the whole, I found the second issue to be much stronger than the first. I do totally hate the fact that the Scarlet Witch is painted as the villainess on the cover, but I’m sure that’s an inadvertent jab at my deep, deep bitterness on the subject.

    Filed under: CMX, ComicList, Del Rey, Linkblogging, Marvel, Tokyopop, Vertical, Viz 6 Comments

    Upcoming 5/19/2010

    May 18, 2010 by

    Time for a perfunctory look at this week’s ComicList. Bleak industry tidings aside, there’s still cause for enthusiasm and better inducement than ever to actually buy the stuff.

    DMP gets things off to a good start with the second volume of Itazura na Kiss, written and illustrated by Kaoru Tada. I was really charmed by the first volume of this series in spite of the fact that its dumb-girl-loves-prince-type dynamic has taken many a dark, gross turn in subsequent comics. It’s funny and charming, and it reminds me that I don’t really need to endorse the central potential couple to enjoy a romantic comedy.

    Beyond shock at the news and sympathy for those affected, I was particularly disappointed to hear that Eric Searleman was among those who lost their jobs in the recent layoffs at Viz. Aside from being an enthusiastic, helpful guy, Eric has worked very hard on Viz’s SigIKKI initiative, which lets readers sample ambitious, diverse comics for free. Two comics from that initiative debut in print this week.

    I’ve already written a bit about Hisae Iwaoka’s Saturn Apartments, so I’ll point you to Kate Dacey’s lovely review of the book:

    “Saturn Apartments is many things — a coming-of-age story, a set of character studies, a meditation on man’s place in the greater universe — but like all good space operas, its real purpose is to affirm the truth of T.S. Eliot’s words, ‘We shall not cease from exploration/And the end of all our exploring/Will be to arrive where we started/And know the place for the first time.’ Highly recommended.”

    The other SigIKKI debut is Shunju Aono’s I’ll Give It My All… Tomorrow, which I’ve also covered and also like, though for very different reasons. Sometimes your dreams don’t come true.

    Filed under: ComicList, DMP, Linkblogging, Viz 1 Comment

    Upcoming 5/12/2010

    May 11, 2010 by

    This week’s ComicList is pretty much dominated by Viz and Yen Press.

    Viz rolls out the first volume of Maoh: Juvenile Remix, written and illustrated by Megumi Osuka based on a novel by Kotaro Isaka. It’s one of the books that Viz is serializing on its Shonen Sunday site, so you can check it out for free. As we’ve discussed previously, any series that features community redevelopment strategies can’t be dismissed out of hand.

    This brings us to the fifth volume of Motoro Mase’s Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit, which features a government that promotes civic engagement through the vehicle of random murder of citizens. These volumes are always about 10 percent awesome (when Mase looks at the underlying structure of this government program), 45 percent pretty good (one of the two featured arcs), and 45 percent weirdly mawkish (the other featured arc), but I keep buying and reading them, for whatever that’s worth.

    If you prefer your urban renovation projects to feature serious ordinance, sometimes wielded by a talking bear, than I’m probably being redundant in recommending the second volume of first-person-shooter-in-comic-form Biomega, written and illustrated by Tsutomu Nihei. Because word of armed, talking bears spreads quickly, because the online manga community is engaged, and not just because of the nanotechnology that has been injected into our bloodstreams.

    That’s the Viz highlights, so let’s move on to Yen Press. I think the first volume of Black Butler, written and illustrated by Yana Toboso, has been on The New York Times Graphic Book Best Seller List since it was released, so it seems safe to assume that the second volume will join it starting Friday. I almost immediately lost patience with the series and its grab-bag of fandom-friendly bricks and mortar, but I don’t have to like every title that gets published. It’s easier on my wallet if I don’t.

    In terms of having its back catalog freshly printed, is anyone having a better year than CLAMP? Yen releases the first and second volumes of Kobato, which sounds like it covers very familiar CLAMP territory: “a magic bottle which must be filled with the suffering of wounded hearts that Kobato herself has healed.” That’s either for you or not. I suspect, in my case, it’s not, but I’m in the camp that admires the super-group for its illustrative skill and canny commercial sense but can generally take or leave its stories. I also suspect they each have vehicles that combine to form a massive battle robot manga-ka.

    Last but not least, Yen debuts My Girlfriend’s a Geek, written by PENTABU and illustrated by Rize Shinba. It’s about a lonely college student who starts dating a hard-core yaoi fangirl. The original novel, also by PENTABU, was blog-generated, I think. The comic adaptation ran in Enterbrain’s comic B\’s log, and no, I can’t explain the punctuation of that magazine title. I can say that there seems to be a high level of enthusiasm for this one, though I can’t quite figure out of it’s niche or will translate into charts-worthy numbers. I’d guess the latter.

    Filed under: ComicList, Viz, Yen Press 2 Comments

    Upcoming 5/5/2010

    May 4, 2010 by

    It’s time for our weekly look at the ComicList.

    Topping the list is the eighth volume of Hinako Ashihara’s Sand Chronicles (Viz). This installment marks the conclusion of the main story, which began with our heroine, Ann, as an 11-year-old moving to the countryside and ends with her as a 20-something working woman making tough life choices and evaluating the highs and lows of the years that have passed. That long-view approach to a character’s development would be reason enough to spark interest in Sand Chronicles, but it’s Ashihara’s sensitive approach to sometimes melodramatic material that really makes this series a treasure. I’m assuming that Viz will publish the ninth and tenth volumes, which apparently feature side stories about the supporting cast. I can’t wait to read them.

    Sensitivity is generally kept to a minimum in Koji Kumeta’s Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (Del Rey), when it isn’t actually called out as a target for mockery. That’s part of the charm. And really, everything is a target for mockery in this rapid-fire satire of contemporary culture, now up to its sixth volume.

    The eighth issue of Brandon Graham’s King City arrives courtesy of Image and Tokyopop. We’re into the previously unpublished material at this point, and it’s very enjoyable stuff. The twelfth issue will be the last, at least according to the solicitation in the new Previews.

    I can’t say enough good things about the first volume of Kou Yaginuma’s Twin Spica (Vertical), so I’ll point you to someone who says them better. That would be Kate (The Manga Critic) Dacey, who offers a lovely assessment of the volume here.

    Back with Viz, we have the debut of Flower in a Storm, written and illustrated by Shigeyoshi Takaka. It’s about a super-rich guy who falls in love with a super-athletic girl and tries to hound her into falling in love with him. She can hold her own, and he’s lovable in a stupid sort of way (as opposed to a princely, know-it-all way), so the dynamic isn’t as gross as it could be (and has been). I read a review copy courtesy of Viz, and it’s not bad. I’ll probably read the second volume, but it doesn’t seem like the kind of title that will reside forever in my shôjo-geek heart. This is in spite of the fact that it was originally published in Hakusensha’s LaLa and LaLa DX, which almost always generate titles I love.

    And it’s time for another tidal wave of One Piece (Viz), written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. We get volumes 44 through 48 and the omnibus collecting volumes 10 through 12. I plan on writing a full entry on the omnibus sometime in the next week, because I’m tragic that way, so I’ll just note that lots of important things happen in this omnibus. This being Oda, the milestones pass much more efficiently than they would in other shônen series so that he can fixate on what seems like a side story and turn it into an epic. I’ll also note about the series in general that it reminds me of a really good Avengers run. The cast is a great mix of heavy hitters and try hard-ers, each with their own moving, consequential back story, and they’re together because they want to be. Unlike even the best Avengers runs, the cast of One Piece actually helps people rather than just responding to attacks from people who hate them. (There’s plenty of that kind of material too.)

    Filed under: ComicList, Del Rey, Image, Linkblogging, Quick Comic Comments, Tokyopop, Vertical, Viz 1 Comment

    Upcoming 4/28/2010

    April 27, 2010 by

    It’s always handy when a theme emerges in the items that catch my eye from the current ComicList. And it’s nice that this week’s theme centers on great female protagonists.

    Okay, so it’s not so nice that there’s such a long wait between new issues of Stumptown (Oni Press), written by Greg Rucka, illustrated by Matthew Southworth, and colored by Rico Renzi. It’s about a hard-living Portland private investigator trying to figure out why the daughter of a casino owner disappeared, and trying to stay alive until she finds the answer. The third issue arrives Wednesday.

    If you like suspense but prefer your protagonists a little less seedy, I’d recommend the fourth volume of Fire Investigator Nanase (CMX), written by Izo Hashimoto and illustrated by Tomoshige Ichikawa. Nanase is a plucky arson investigator who shares a complex relationship with the Firebug, whose name says it all. It’s a fun procedural with likeable leads.

    Moving to the awesome shôjo front, we’ll start with the eighth volume of V.B. Rose (Tokyopop), written and illustrated by Banri Hidaka. Heroine Ageha is a budding handbag designer who goes to work for a bridal shop, then falls in love with the shop’s lead designer. Ageha is impulsive and talented, and Arisaka is bristly and businesslike. They have great chemistry, and the bridal-shop sparkle is undeniably eye-catching.

    There’s also the fourth volume of Kimi Ni Todoke (Viz), written and illustrated by Karuho Shiina. Good-hearted, socially inept Sawako continues her campaign to win friends and influence people after years of being dismissed and avoided as the class creepy girl. This time around, she throws down with a romantic rival, though it’s entirely likely that Sawako won’t realize that she’s throwing down.

    Those two titles alone make this one of the best shôjo Wednesdays imaginable. If a new volume of Itazura Na Kiss came out, I would burst into a cloud of sparkly chrysanthemum petals.

    Filed under: CMX, ComicList, Oni, Tokyopop, Viz 2 Comments

    Upcoming 4/21/2010

    April 20, 2010 by

    This is one of those weeks where all of the ComicList heavy lifting is done by Viz Signature, whose offerings include two titles that would make any Wednesday an exciting one all by themselves.

    It seems like it’s been ages since we got a volume of Fumi Yoshinaga’s Ôoku: The Inner Chambers, but the wait is over. (Well, the wait is over for those of who you aren’t subject to that weird one-week delay that Diamond sometimes inflicts on Viz fans in the northeastern United States.) Ôoku recently won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award “for science fiction and fantasy that expands our understanding of gender.”

    I simply do not understand why more people aren’t reading and raving about Takehiko Inoue’s glorious drama about wheelchair basketball players, Real. It’s beautifully drawn and brilliantly written, and while I know that’s never a guarantor of commercial success, it would be nice if this title got some of the level of buzz it richly deserves. The eighth volume is due Wednesday. And if you want to double your Inoue pleasure, you can pick up the seventh VizBig collection of Vagabond. I’m so behind on that one. Oh, god, I’m part of the problem, aren’t I?

    I love it when I can be lazy and pull a “What she said,” and I do that a lot with Kate (The Manga Critic) Dacey. I share her sentiments about Seimu Yoshizaki’s Kingyo Used Books, which debuts this week but has been running on Viz’s SigIKKI site since its launch. Take it away, Ms. Dacey:

    “The series’ episodic structure cuts both ways, see-sawing between being a fun exercise in formula — which manga will feature prominently in this story? who will be drawn into the store? — and a frustratingly obvious collection of beats culminating in a character’s decision to make a change in her life.”

    What looks good to you?

    Filed under: ComicList, Linkblogging, Viz 7 Comments

    Upcoming 4/14/2010

    April 13, 2010 by

    It’s time for another perusal of the week’s ComicList, which has a decidedly all-ages flair.

    Yes, I know that Kiyohiko Azuma’s Yotsuba&! was originally published in a magazine for adult men, Dengeki Daioh. I’d still display no reluctance in recommending the series, now up to its eighth volume, to children and their caregivers, as it’s adorable and hilarious. This time around, Azuma will bring fresh mirth and charm to those old manga standbys, the school and community festivals.

    On the home-grown front, there are two original graphic novels from Simon & Schuster’s Atheneum imprint for young adults. First, there’s a new collection of Jimmy Gownley’s terrific Amelia Rules! The Tweenage Guide to Not Being Unpopular is available in hardcover and paperback. I suspect this will be a nice comic-book follow up to the return of Glee. You can check out a preview trailer here.

    A new graphic novel from Hope Larson is always cause for celebration. This time around, Mercury (also available in hardcover and paperback) offers a multi-generational mystery set in a family estate in Nova Scotia. Simon & Schuster informs me that the book “weaves together history, romance, and a touch of her trademark magical realism in this remarkable graphic novel of how the past haunts a teenage girl’s present.” I can believe that with no difficulty.

    Ken Saito’s moody, moving The Name of the Flower (CMX) concludes with its fourth volume. I’ll be lazy and quote Kate (The Manga Critic) Dacey, who says that “Saito’s elegant, understated art is the perfect complement to this delicate drama, making good use of floral imagery to underscore the heroine’s emotional state. For my money, the best new shojo manga of 2009.” In case you’re curious, the series originally ran in Hakusensha’s LaLaDX. Hakusensha rules.

    And swinging back to Yen Press, we have the third volume of Svetlana Chmakova’s Nightschool: The Weirn Books, which I’ve enjoyed a whole lot. It’s a supernatural mystery about a powerful girl who must enroll in a school for magic-users and monsters to figure out why her sister disappeared. There are tons of subplots and a big cast of adversarial forces, but Chmakova handles them well and keeps things moving at an appealing clip without neglecting character development or humor.

    Filed under: Atheneum, CMX, ComicList, Yen Press 1 Comment
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