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Campus life

November 9, 2009 by

The imminent comic-shop arrival of Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture (which has been in bookstores for a few weeks now) inspired me to devote this week’s Flipped to some fine manga comedies set on college and university campuses. It also inspired me to run this poll as an alternative to actual content development.

Please feel free to mention any titles I missed, licensed or otherwise, in the comments. (I should explain that I excluded The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service from the column because I tend to categorize it with “helpers of the dead” manga instead of “campus comedy” manga.)

Filed under: Flipped, Polls 6 Comments

Boo

October 26, 2009 by

presentsscan

You have to love a candy-driven holiday, so this week’s Flipped has a Halloween theme. In short, I turned to a bunch of smart people to find out what their favorite scary and/or supernatural manga are. Not to give too much away, but you know what really scares people?

gyoscan2-1

I am so with them. What are your favorite frightening series? And what series do you find frightening that probably weren’t intended to give you the chills?

Filed under: Flipped 3 Comments

Just a little fluffy gigolo

October 19, 2009 by

lfgpscan2

This week’s Flipped takes a look at the latest translated example of Junko Mizuno’s jubilant, demented genius, Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu from Last Gasp. I want to know when Last Gasp is going to publish the other two volumes, and I want to know now. Really, who needs mind-altering substances when they’ve got Mizuno manga?

While I was writing the column, I came to the belated realization that Enterbrain’s Comic Beam is an absolute gold mine. Any magazine that acted as cradle to Pelu, Bambi and Her Pink Gun, Emma, and Astral Project is a magazine to be treasured. And while King of Thorn isn’t my favorite comic by Yuji Iwahara, Comic Beam at least had the good sense to serialize something by him.

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If you knew then what you know now…

October 12, 2009 by

adistantneighborhood1

This week’s Flipped looks at A Distant Neighborhood and considers the various sides of Jiro Taniguchi. (I bet he has more than five; that’s just based on his works that are available in English.)

As I suspected I would, I’ve wound up with an extra copy of the first volume of the book. I’m kind of like one of those animals that shouldn’t be allowed to free feed, at least on Fanfare/Ponent Mon titles. If I see one, I feel a panicky compulsion to buy it. So I picked it up at SPX strongly suspecting that I’d pre-ordered it through Diamond as well, which I had. (And let’s face it, pre-ordering through Diamond doesn’t always guarantee that you’ll get the book as a result.)

But my poor impulse control is your free manga. In this blog’s grand tradition of chintzy giveaways, I’m offering up the unread copy of the first volume of A Distant Neighborhood. All you need to do is fire me an email at DavidPWelsh at yahoo dot com that includes a year of your life you might revisit if you could do so with present knowledge intact. You don’t have to over-share; just a year will be fine.

I’ll arbitrarily set the deadline at midnight Friday, Oct. 16, 2009, and randomly draw the winner from the entries.

Filed under: Contests and giveaways, Fanfare/Ponent Mon, Flipped 8 Comments

Vertical holdings

October 5, 2009 by

twinspica1needlepeepochoo

This week’s Flipped consists basically of me asking Ed Chavez a few questions about Vertical’s new licenses and then getting out of his way. This is one of my favorite ways to assemble a column, partly because it’s easy, but mostly because Ed is such an enthusiastic, well-informed manga omnivore that the results are bound to be an order of magnitude more interesting than my usual blather. (Ed also makes really good use of the conversation on Twitter, so do follow him.)

I have to say that I really admire Vertical for this slate of licenses, just as I admire other publishers who try and expand the boundaries of translated manga. Just glancing through the current Previews, I saw strong-sounding new titles and ongoing series in this loosely defined category, and it made me happy. I also went to Barnes & Noble this weekend and I could have easily spent a lot of money on manga designed to appeal to a mature audience (and I did spend a fair amount on just that kind of manga).

Admittedly, I could have spent a lot more on manga aimed at kids and teens (a lot of which is terrifically entertaining), but meaty, mature work is out there, it’s gaining in retail presence (if slowly), and more is on the way. I mean, I can find these titles on the shelves of a chain bookstore in West Virginia. That’s got to mean something, right? So if you like these kinds of titles and want to see more of them, chat them up in whatever venues are available to you, and support them with your dollars.

Filed under: Flipped, Vertical 2 Comments

Leaps and bounds

September 21, 2009 by

swanscan2

You know, if you get the opportunity to spend a weekend settled down with a long run of manga volumes you know are really good, I really recommend it. This weekend was spent revisiting and catching up with Kyoko Ariyoshi’s Swan, which resulted in this week’s Flipped column. Such a great series.

Filed under: CMX, Flipped Leave a Comment

Wait, Erica is a grandmother?

September 14, 2009 by

Last week’s blessed arrival got me thinking of the subject of publisher-hopping, manga rescues, and the dark realm of licensing limbo. This week’s Flipped is a (by no means comprehensive) survey of the phenomena.

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Despair is in the details

September 6, 2009 by

glossary

Would I use a three-day weekend as an excuse to slack off on a new Flipped column? Well, of course I would, but I didn’t in this instance. In fact, it’s even a day early. If Joyce Aurino can do all of that homework translating and adapting Koji Kumeta’s Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (Del Rey), then the least I can do is say nice things about her work.

nice

Filed under: Del Rey, Flipped Leave a Comment

Twists and turns

August 31, 2009 by

First, there’s a new Flipped up over at The Comics Reporter. I worked really hard on it, and even I don’t even care any more, because, wow, what’s the opposite of a slow news day? Monday, Aug. 31, 2009, that’s what the opposite is.

Since Marvel and Disney are so 10:18 a.m., I’ll point you towards Brigid Alverson’s scoop that Kodansha is letting its licenses with Tokyopop lapse. I popped over to Wikipedia to see if there was any handy chart or graph that would allow me to compare original publisher and U.S. licensing agent, and voila. It’s incomplete and should probably be taken with whatever quantity of salt you usually apply to that particular resource, but it’s a start, and here are the titles I culled (with an updated pointer to Deb Aoki’s breakdown of which titles are unfinished):

A.I. Love You
Baby Birth
Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad
Blame!
Boys Be…
Cardcaptor Sakura (due for omnibus treatment from Dark Horse, I think)
Cherry Juice
Chobits (due for omnibus treatment from Dark Horse)
Clover (available in new omnibus from Dark Horse)
Confidential Confessions
Culdcept
Cyborg 009
Dead End
Deus Vitae
Dragon Head
Dragon Voice
Dream Saga
Et Cetera
FLCL
Flower of Eden (licensed but never published)
GetBackers
Girl Got Game
Great Teacher Onizuka
GTO: The Early Years
Harlem BeatRebound
Heat Guy J
Ice Blade
Initial D
Instant Teen: Just Add Nuts
Jing: King of Bandits
Kami Kaze
Kamichama Karin
Kedamono Damono
Kilala Princess
Kindaichi Case Files
Life
Love Hina
Magic Knight Rayearth
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi
Mars
Mink
Miracle Girls
Mobile Fighter G Gundam
Mobile Suit Gundam Side Story: The Blue Destiny
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
Parasyte (since published anew by Del Rey)
Peach Girl and spin-offs
Pixie Pop
Planetes
Le Portrait de Petite Cossette
Psychic Academy
Rave Master
Remote
RG Veda
Rose Hip Rose
Sailor Moon
Saint Tail
Sakura Taisen
Samurai Deeper Kyo (picked up by Del Rey)
Smuggler
Telepathic Wanderers
Tokyo Mew Mew and sequel
Tramps Like Us
Voices of a Distant Star
Warriors of Tao
Zodiac P.I.

Feel free to note any I missed in the comments, and I’ll update the list.

Filed under: Flipped, Linkblogging, Tokyopop 34 Comments

Prithee click

August 24, 2009 by

ooku3

This week’s Flipped is up, offering my view of Fumi Yoshinaga’s very eagerly anticipated and (in my opinion) not at all disappointing Ôoku: The Inner Chambers.

Filed under: Flipped 2 Comments
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