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Upcoming 9/24/2008

September 24, 2008 by

So the big question posed by this week’s ComicList is, “Will there be another ‘Category 5 S**tstorm’ over this year’s Best American Comics collection from Houghton Mifflin?” It’s hard to say, though I find it difficult to believe that most people didn’t get that sort of thing out of their systems last year. And 2008 editor Lynda Barry and series editors Jessica Abel and Matt Madden did at least try to include a Batman comic in the mix, even if DC couldn’t accommodate them.

But why dwell? It’s an interesting week otherwise, with Del Rey launching the intriguing-sounding Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney, from CAPCOM.

I enjoyed the first volume of Takako Shigematsu’s Ultimate Venus (Go! Comi), maybe not quite as much as Shigematsu’s Tenshi Ja Nai!!, but that set a pretty high bar for nasty shôjo comedy. Still, I’m looking forward to the second installment.

And while I’m hopelessly behind on any kind of reading, it’s hard to imagine a world where one couldn’t safely recommend manga by Osamu Tezuka. Vertical once again obliges the audience for such comics with the first volume of Black Jack, featuring hyperactive medical madness. (I will admit to wishing I could see what Chip Kidd would have done with the cover design, but it’s also hard to imagine a book that wouldn’t look better if Kidd designed it.)

Filed under: ComicList, Del Rey, Go! Comi, Houghton Mifflin, Vertical 4 Comments

Upcoming 8/4/2008

September 4, 2008 by

Looking at the current ComicList, it’s an overwhelming week of new releases with quality titles from just about everyone pitched for just about every demographic. If I had to pick just one title to recommend, I couldn’t. I couldn’t even pick just one Viz title to recommend. I even find myself resorting to the bulleted list, so abundant is the quality on offer.

  • Crayon Shinchan Vol. 4, by Yoshito Usui (CMX)
  • Dororo Vol. 3, by Osamu Tezuka (Vertical)
  • High School Debut Vol. 5, by Kazune Kawahara (Viz)
  • Honey and Clover Vol. 3, by Chica Umino (Viz)
  • The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Vol. 7, by Eiji Otsuka and Housui Yamazaki (Dark Horse)
  • Mushishi Vol. 5, by Yuki Urushibara (Del Rey)
  • Nana Vol. 12, by Ai Yazawa (Viz)
  • Sand Chronicles Vol. 3, by Hinako Ashihara (Viz)
  • Slam Dunk Vol. 1, by Takehiko Inoue (Viz)

    • So, we’ve got low comedy, high adventure, coming-of-age angst, imaginative horror, lore and legend, and interpersonal drama. And that’s just in Dororo. (I kid, I kid. No I don’t, but you know what I mean.)

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

    Upcoming 8/20/2008

    August 19, 2008 by

    An intriguing new arrival and a couple of old favorites are the highlights of this week’s ComicList, at least for me:

    Del Rey breaks into new territory with the debut of Faust, an anthology of manga-inspired fiction. CLAMP and Takeshi Obata provide illustrations for two of the stories. Perhaps you may have heard of them.

    There are only three volumes left of Setona Mizushiro’s After School Nightmare (Go! Comi), and I’m going to miss it terribly when it’s done. The eighth installment of awesomely Freudian teen angst arrives Wednesday, promising “a mountain of new problems.” The thing about this series is that, when blurbs use words and phrases like “heartache” or “the breaking point” or “shocking,” it isn’t hyperbole. Mizushiro delivers.

    There are only three (thanks, James!) volumes left of Naoki Urasawa’s Monster (Viz Signature), so I have a little more time to gird myself for the inevitable grief. It took a while for this series to work its way into my heart. The early going, dominated by saintly fugitive Dr. Tenma, was at times laughably simplistic in its moral framework. Over time, though, and as the supporting cast has emerged and evolved, it’s become a tense must-read for me, and I’ve even reached the point where the ensemble is more interesting to me because of the ways Tenma has influenced them. (I still think he’s a goody-goody stick, though.)

    Filed under: ComicList, Del Rey, Go! Comi, Viz 7 Comments

    Upcoming 8/6/2008

    August 5, 2008 by

    Some highlights from this week’s ComicList:

    The one and only time I ever put on a pair of roller blades, a bee flew up my shirt. While nothing so dramatic resulted from previous encounters with ice or roller skates, I realized long ago that any attempt to increase locomotion via enhanced footwear would result only in comic relief for onlookers. It also led me to suspect that my center of gravity is actually located in another person’s body. That said, I’m still swayed by early praise for Hisaya Nakajo’s Sugar Princess: Skating to Win (Viz). Theoretically, figure-skating manga should have the gayest supporting cast ever, but I suspect I will be disappointed on this front.

    In other princess news, this time involving actual sugar, Del Rey releases the seventh volume of Kitchen Princess by Natsumi Ando and Miyuki Kobayashi. This series was as blandly unsatisfying as a Hostess Donette in the early going, but it’s gradually turned into wonderfully melodramatic shôjo crack over time. Plus, you get recipes in every volume.

    As I’ve mentioned, I’m thrilled that Yen Press is carving out a mini-niche of four-panel comics. I thought Ume Aoki’s Sunshine Sketch was just okay; I’d probably have enjoyed it more in smaller doses, as it was originally published. On the other hand, I can’t wait for the second volume of Satoko Kiyuduki’s Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro. This week marks the arrival of S.S. ASTRO: Asashio Sogo Teachers’ Room by Negi Banno, which sounds like a lot of fun. The harried employees of Japan’s school systems are among my favorite supporting characters in manga, so I’m looking forward to seeing them get the spotlight.

    Filed under: ComicList, Del Rey, Viz, Yen Press 3 Comments

    Upcoming 7/30/2008

    July 29, 2008 by

    Hey, why didn’t anyone tell me it was Weird Manga Week? At least that’s what it seems like after a quick glance at tomorrow’s ComicList.

    Fortunately, this week’s Flipped at The Comics Reporter looks at the strangeness that is Akira Hiramoto’s Me and the Devil Blues (Del Rey). Weird enough for any week, you say? But wait! There’s more!

    Del Rey also delivers the fourth volume of Hitoshi Iwaaki’s Parasyte, for that tried-and-true, old-school manga weirdness.

    And you can pretty much guess that anything released by Last Gasp is going to be at least a little bit unusual, and it will probably also be pretty great. At least that’s my theory about Yusaku Hanakuma’s Tokyo Zombies. And the title is apparently entirely accurate. And Ryan Sands, of Same Hat! Same Hat! fame translated it, and his credentials in the area of weird manga are absolutely impeccable.

    Filed under: ComicList, Del Rey, Flipped, Last Gasp 2 Comments

    Upcoming 7/23/2008

    July 22, 2008 by

    In honor of Entertainment Weekly’s recent redesign, I’m going to start putting random phrases in boldfaced type. Okay, no, I’m not. Well, maybe just this once.

    Now, on to this week’s ComicList:

    Yen Press releases the first issue of its anthology, Yen Plus, featuring licensed work from Japan and Korea and original series from the likes of James Patterson and Svetlana Chmakova. (How often do you get to type phrases like that? Maybe I should bold it.) Is anyone else frightened by Pig Bride as a title? Outside of VH1’s slate of reality shows, how can a series live up to that name?

    The thing about Rick Geary’s Treasury of Victorian Murder series (NBM) is that I’ll mention every book in the series every time it shows up on a shipping list, because Geary is just that good. This week’s re-release is the paperback version of The Murder of Abraham Lincoln, which I reviewed here.

    Del Rey rolls out two new series this week. First up is Kasumi, written by Surt Lim and drawn by Hirofumi Sugimoto. It’s about a girl who can turn invisible, and Leroy Douresseaux liked a lot. Deb Aoki interviewed the creators for About.Com.

    The other debut, Kujubiki Unbalance, created by Kio Shimoku and Koume Keito, is about as meta as it gets. Those who read Shimoku’s wonderful Genshiken will recognize the series as the oft-referenced touchstone property of a bunch of the characters in that book. (If you can’t be counted among those who read Genshiken, you might want to correct that.)

    Last but not least is the second volume of Yuko Osada’s fun travel adventure, Toto. Sure, it’s got plucky ‘tweens with big dreams, but it also has an adorable, weaponized dog.

    Filed under: ComicList, Del Rey, NBM, Yen Press 2 Comments

    Upcoming 7/2/2008

    July 1, 2008 by

    If it doesn’t stop raining soon, I’m going to have to lease my back yard out for pasture. I will be reducing my dependence on fossil fuels and supporting sustainable production, and I will give all of the cows names and compost their manure.

    And now, on to this week’s ComicList. You know what’s weird? I’m excited about a Marvel comic, and I am going to buy it, if the local shop orders any shelf copies. That comic would be Patsy Walker: Hellcat #1, written by Kathryn Immonen and drawn and inked by David LaFuente Garcia. Hellcat is one of those characters that I’ve always loved in spite of the fact that she’s been ill-used for the vast majority of her costumed career. So basically my attachment to the character is pure, masochistic sentiment, but Matthew Brady says it’s got “a fun, jaunty tone,” and it’s just so nice to see Hellcat claw her way out of the refrigerator and into a solo series that I feel strangely obligated to support the book.

    Hm… it’s shaping up to be Women I Really Like Week, now that I delve deeper into Wednesday’s releases. I very much loved Kaoru Mori’s elegant, heartfelt Emma, so I can’t wait to read Mori’s Shirley (both books from CMX), which leaves the Victorians behind to explore the world of Edwardian maids. The uniforms may show more ankle, but I’m betting the meticulous angst will be just as plentiful.

    It had its pleasures, but I didn’t enjoy the first volume of Gabrielle Bell’s Lucky (Drawn and Quarterly) as much as I did When I’m Old and Other Stories (Alternative Comics), but I’m sure I’ll pick up the second installment at some point.

    I haven’t really thought too carefully about exactly which Tokyopop titles survive the coming purge, but I do know that I hope that Mari Ohazaki’s Suppli comes out on the other side. I don’t think any of us need to worry about Natsuki Takaya’s Fruits Basket, which is as heartbreaking as it is popular.

    Viz keeps the estrogen flowing with new volumes of Ai Yazawa’s Nana and Kazune Kawahara’s High School Debut. You all know how I feel about Yazawa’s work by this point, so let me just say how much I love High School Debut. I’m not going to say it’s as good as Hinako Ashihara’s Sand Chronicles, but it shares a lot of that book’s positive qualities: great characters, nicely developed relationships, carefully observed emotional moments, and very attractive art.

    And now, for the token shônen book of the week. Okay, that’s not really fair, because it would be a meritorious entry on any Wednesday, even when the comics industry wasn’t trying to drown me in tears. Like just about everyone else, I enjoyed the first two volumes of Hiro Mashima’s Fairy Tail (released simultaneously by Del Rey), about a whacked-out guild of magicians. The third installment arrives Wednesday.

    Filed under: CMX, ComicList, Del Rey, Drawn & Quarterly, Marvel, Tokyopop, Viz 5 Comments

    Upcoming 6/25/2008

    June 24, 2008 by

    Some of the highlights from this week’s ComicList:

    Sometimes a quantity and quality of hype make me abandon my normal standards. The latest example of this phenomenon is Oku Hiroya’s Gantz (Dark Horse), which promises much higher levels of gratuitous violence than I can usually tolerate. But it sounds cool.

    Del Rey offers lots of goodies this week, but I’ll single out the third volume of Ryotaro Iwanaga’s excellent Pumpkin Scissors for special attention. It’s about a squadron of soldiers working on post-war recovery, and it’s a really successful blend of adventure, suspense, and comedy. Fans of Fullmetal Alchemist would do particularly well to give it a look.

    Fresh manga from Osamu Tezuka is such a gimme for makers of lists of this sort, because it’s always, always worth a look. This week, it’s the second volume of freaked-out shônen quest Dororo (Vertical) about a guy trying to get his body parts back.

    And before I forget, I wanted to point to a couple of reviews with which I agree entirely. At Manga Recon, Kate Dacey looks at Fuyumi Soryo’s smart and satisfying ES: Eternal Sabbath. In a recent Right Turn Only column, Carlo Santos asks this important question: “Why is [Kitchen Princess] not as popular as Full Moon or Fruits Basket? The level of drama is just as good, and this heartbreaking A- [sixth] volume proves it.”

    Filed under: ComicList, Dark Horse, Del Rey, Linkblogging, Vertical 4 Comments

    Head and shoulders

    June 2, 2008 by

    It’s hard for me not to like a comic about invasive parasites that take over humans and turn their heads into shape-shifting weapons so they can eat uninfected humans. Throw in a parasite that doesn’t quite live up to its potential and ends up trapped in the hand of a high-school student, and my resistance weakens even further.

    Okay, so the art in Hitoshi Iwaaki’s Parasyte (Del Rey) isn’t all it could be. So the high-school girls look to be around 40 years old. So there are more mullets than might be strictly necessary. Even those minor pitfalls give the series an early-1990s charm that ends up working in its favor.

    I always prefer science fiction or fantasy with a healthy dose of character development, and Iwaaki is extremely conscientious on this front. Beyond the human-eating peril the parasites present, there are interpersonal tensions that develop as a result of the extreme circumstances. While the third volume features a great deal of gore, Iwaaki doesn’t neglect smaller moments, even sweetly surreal ones.

    The third volume offers weirdness to spare, and it’s delightful. The concluding chapter looks at the response of media, government and law enforcement to the emerging crisis, and it’s one of the funniest things I’ve read in months. And it’s intentionally funny, no less, which makes for a nice change of pace in an otherwise tense narrative.

    (Based on a complimentary copy provided by the publisher.)

    Filed under: Del Rey, From the stack 6 Comments

    Upcoming 5/29/2008

    May 29, 2008 by

    Some highlights from this week’s ComicList:

    It’s a good week for fans of Ai Morinaga, with the fifth volume of My Heavenly Hockey Club coming from Del Rey and the first volume of The Gorgeous Life of Strawberry Chan arriving via Media Blasters. I’m a fan of Ai Morinaga, so it’s a good week for me. (In fairness, I don’t really know anything about Gorgeous Life other than that it’s by Morinaga, but that’s good enough for me. Seriously, Media Blaster’s web site bugged the crap out of me after about two seconds, so I stopped digging.)

    She can even make dumb, old jokes work for me. In the fourth volume of My Heavenly Hockey Club, she even pulls off the “dimwits put on glasses before undertaking a studious endeavor” and pulls it off. I swear I giggled.

    Other than those, it’s a light week for me, which is fine, as I’ve hoarded a stack of comics to take with me on vacation. Packing will be like a game of Tetris.

    Filed under: ComicList, Del Rey 1 Comment
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