Upcoming 10/19/2011

Looking at the Manga Bookshelf Pick of the Week, you’d expect a bounty of new arrivals in your average comic shop. Looking at the Diamond-driven ComicList, it’s somewhat less exciting.

Never fear, though! Vertical leaps into the breach with the 16th volume of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack. It’s hard to believe that there will be only one more book in this series, isn’t it? As much as I enjoy Tezuka’s crazy, grown-up opuses, it’s always a treat to see him in mainstream entertainer mode, because even those comics are refreshingly weird. Here’s hoping that Vertical will find another example of Tezuka aiming for the mainstream and still packing his stories with insane, often disturbing grace notes. (Hi, Pinoko! I’ll miss you!)

What looks good to you?

 

Upcoming 10/12/2011

It’s a kind of weird ComicList this week, and I’m pressed for time, so I’ll just pick three things that either sound awesome or intrigue me in some way:

Cross Game Vol. 5, by Mitsuru Adachi, Viz Media: Digital delivery offered Melinda Beasi an entry point to this great baseball theory, so I think the Manga Bookshelf is now a full-fledged Cross Game Borg. Which is only appropriate, since the series is great.

Black Metal Vol. 2, by Chuck BB and Rick Spears, Oni Press: Man, it has been ages since the first book in this series came out, but I really liked it. Fans of Detroit Metal City and possibly Thor might have fun with it, too.

Veronica Presents: Kevin Keller Issue 3, by Dan Parent, Archie Comics: The insidious gay infiltration of Riverdale continues. Even more alarming, I realize that Archie apparently publishes variant covers. When did that start? Anyway, this is sure to offer more likable stories about nice kids.

What looks good to you?

 

 

Cry me a river

I have a review of a beautifully sad comic in the queue, and it got me wondering. What are some of your favorite tear-jerking comics? Which ones push your sad button in the right way?

 

Upcoming 10/5/2011

It’s a huge week of eagerly anticipated arrivals on the ComicList, so let’s get right to it!

Drawn & Quarterly releases the collection of Kate Beaton’s super-smart, super-funny Hark! A Vagrant strips. I’ve read some of these online, mostly in the context of someone linking to individual strips and rightly noting how super smart and super funny they are, but I’ve resisted reading all of them, because I wanted to hold the book in my hands and enjoy all of these comics in dead-tree form.

NBM delivers Takashi Murakami’s Stargazing Dog, which is about a down-on-his-luck guy who gets through tough times with the help of his loyal canine companion. Early word on this is that it’s lovely but will probably make me cry buckets, so I’ve stocked up on handkerchiefs. Here’s a preview.

If you missed it in hardcover (as I did), Emblem Editions gives you a paperback opportunity to enjoy Scott Chantler’s Two Generals, which portrays World War II through the eyes of average soldiers. Chantler is a marvelous cartoonist, as evidenced by his Northwest Passage from Oni Press, so I’m really excited about this one.

Osamu Tezuka’s The Book of Human Insects (Vertical) reaches comic shops. I reviewed the book last week; it’s excellent, particularly for fans of Tezuka’s unique brand of noir.

Viz is also dumping a ton of new titles on the market, many of which were discussed in the current Manga Bookshelf Pick of the Week and Bookshelf Briefs. Of the series I’ve not yet personally mentioned, I would highlight the fourth volume of Kazue Kato’s increasingly excellent Blue Exorcist and the ninth volume of Yuki Midorikawa’s always lovely Natsume’s Book of Friends. I’m also led to believe, by a reliable source, that Toshiaki Iwashiro’s Psyren becomes a lot better than the first volume would suggest, which is certainly possible; most of the first volume of Blue Exorcist was flat-out awful, and that’s become one of my favorite shônen titles.

But enough about my incipient poverty; what looks good to you?

 

Thanks, but no thanks

For this weekend’s random question, what have you read recently that just wasn’t for you, for whatever reason?

For me, I’d have to pick Jiro Matsumoto’s Velveteen & Mandala, though it feels like blasphemy to say that I didn’t enjoy a book from Vertical. Matsumoto is clearly very talented, but this particular brand of comic is just… not for me.

How about you?

 

Upcoming 9/28/2011

Before we delve into the current ComicList, I just have to reinforce my Midtown Comics Pick of the Week: Osamu Tezuka’s Book of Human Insects (Vertical) is amazingly good pulp. Of course, I’m rather fixated on two belated arrivals to comic shops.

When one uses a variety of retail streams to acquire their comics, one can lose all sense of the orderly progression of time. One can also feel like the very last person on earth to get his hands on fabulous, classic shôjo. This is my way of leading up to saying that I will finally, finally be able to purchase my pre-ordered copies of Naoko Takeuchi’s Sailor Moon and its prequel, Codename Sailor V, both from Kodansha. With these and Dark Horse’s re-release of CLAMP’s Cardcaptor Sakura, I feel like all of my magical-girl manga needs are being gloriously met. (Not punctually met, but gloriously.)

I still shouldn’t allow all of this delightful sparkle to distract myself from Viz’s contributions to the week’s bounty. There’s the 26th volume of Hiromu Arakawa’s Fullmetal Alchemist, possibly my favorite shônen fantasy-adventure ever, and the fourth volume of Natsume Ono’s House of Five Leaves, certainly among my very favorite character-driven seinen series.

What looks good to you?

 

Upcoming 9/21/2011

Have you checked out the Manga Bookshelf Pick of the Week? Then we’re ready for a perusal of this week’s ComicList!

For me, the clear leader, at least in the Diamond-verse, is the fourth volume of Yumi Unita’s Bunny Drop (Yen Press). In this volume, single father Daikichi deals with the quirks of another member of his large family as he continues to learn to be a good parent to Rin, his late grandfather’s young daughter. It’s heartfelt and funny, and I highly recommend you try it if you haven’t already.

And I really must catch up on Yuu Watase’s very likeable shônen adventure, Arata: The Legend (Viz), though I’m nowhere near ready for the seventh volume, which arrives Wednesday. Fortunately, I can catch up via Viz’s iPad app. Now I can have menacing physical stacks of books and too many virtual ones in the queue.

For succinct assessments of some recent releases, check out the latest round of Bookshelf Briefs from the Battle Robot.

 

Random weekend question: snapshot

What comic, regardless of nation of origin or format, did you just finish reading? How was it? And what are you reading now or planning to start reading?

For me, the book I most recently finished was the first volume of Mardock Scramble (Kodansha Comics). I liked it much more than I expected I would. I’m about to try and chisel my way into Craig Thompson’s Habibi (Pantheon). Wish me luck, and send booze.

 

Upcoming 9/14/2011

You already know what I’d pick if I lived within shopping distance of Midtown Comics, but what if I was entirely dependent on the kindness of Diamond for my weekly comic fix? (Which I am!) Let’s take a look at the ComicList.

Leave it to Vertical to fill the relative void, even if it only takes the form of one book. But that one book is the ninth volume of Kou Yaginuma’s Twin Spica, so it does a lot of void filling.

The eighth volume was customarily enjoyable. As Yaginuma follows his group of young, would-be astronauts, he’s starting to fold some romantic elements into the narrative. There’s something very heartening about seeing Asumi confronted with the notion that there are some potentially wonderful things on Earth in addition to the promised wonders of the stars. Things we learn about brash, bossy Kei go a long way to soften that character’s rather stereotypical edges, which is a welcome development. Overall, this volume creates some additional spokes to the core cast’s shared dream, and they give added depth to that core dream by making it more complex and conflicted.

An interesting side effect of this shift in the content is how it reframes the relative success of Yaginuma’s illustrations. I very much enjoy the vulnerability he gives to his character designs, but that very vulnerability plays against their increasing emotional maturity. It’s not exactly a troubling counterpoint, but it does trigger a weirdly parental response to the notion of Asumi in love: “She’s too young for romance! She’ll always be too young!” I’m not sure if the counterpoint is entirely intentional, and I’m not sure if it will ultimately but successful, but it’s definitely an interestingly discordant note in a generally coherent presentation.

In other shopping choices, Viz offers the 58th volume of Eiichiro Oda’s Once Piece, which I covered in this week’s Bookshelf Briefs, along with the fourth volume of Kaori Yuki’s Grand Guignol Orchestra (also Viz) and the 13th volume of Hiroki Endo’s Eden: It’s an Endless World! (Dark Horse).

 

Random weekend question: versatility

I’m reading some Osamu Tezuka manga at the moment, and I’m looking forward to reading some upcoming work of his, and it got me wondering. Who are some of the manga-ka you consider most versatile? Who tell a wide range of stories using different styles, and tell and use them well?