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From the Eisner-nominated creator of…

April 24, 2007 by

This is turning out to be one of those weeks where I wishfully assume more days have already elapsed than actually have. I currently seem to be telling myself it’s Thursday, and the disappointing realization that it isn’t is mitigated by the fact that a ton of great comics are coming out on Wednesday. In fact, it’s sort of an Eisner Nominee Showcase New Comic Book Day!

The sixth issue of the second volume of Linda Medley’s wonderful revisionist fairy tale, Castle Waiting, arrives courtesy of Fantagraphics. (The collection of the first volume of Castle Waiting has been nominated for Best Graphic Album – Reprint and earned a nod for Adam Grano for Best Publication Design.)

Joann Sfar, writer of The Professor’s Daughter (due out in paperback and hardcover from First Second) was nominated in the Best Writer/Artist category for his work on Vampire Loves and Klezmer. Artist Emmanuel Guibert didn’t get a nod this year, but give him time. John Jakala has reviewed The Professor’s Daughter at Sporadic Sequential, confirming my suspicions that I’ll enjoy it very much.

Joining Sfar on the Best Writer/Artist slate is Renée French for her unsettling yet strangely uplifting The Ticking (Top Shelf). The book also earned a spot in the Best Graphic Album – New category, and Jordan Crane was recognized with a Best Publication Design nod. So, yes, The Ticking is superb, which raises my hopes very high for French’s Micrographica, also from Top Shelf. (Reading Tom Spurgeon’s review didn’t hurt either.)

Vertical’s lovely productions of classic manga have been a regular presence in the Eisner nominations, and I wouldn’t be surprised if their release of Keiko Takemiya’s To Terra… made its presence known next year. The second volume of To Terra… shows up in comic shops this week.

When Setona Mizushiro’s After School Nightmare (Go! Comi) earned a nomination for Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Japan, some of the reaction was “After What Who?” Consider the arrival of the third volume of this creepy, psychologically nuanced shôjo thriller incentive to find out just why it deserves the nod. Sure, plenty of manga series focus on extracurricular activities, but Mizushiro’s take is disturbing and unique.

But really, a book doesn’t need an award nomination to be worth picking up, does it? This is my way of saying that I’m stupid-happy over the imminent arrival of a new volume of Sakura Tsukuba’s Penguin Revolution (CMX). So far, this romantic comedy has leaned heavily on the “com” and largely neglected the “rom,” which is partly due to the fact that the heroine is far too focused on professional concerns to consider the possibility that the world of teen idol management could pose romantic complications, on top of all of the secrecy and backstabbing. Things shift a bit towards the “rom” side in the third volume, but the book is still an awful lot of fluffy fun.

Filed under: CMX, ComicList, Fantagraphics, First Second, Go! Comi, Top Shelf, Vertical 1 Comment

From the stack: Train + Train Vol. 2

April 21, 2007 by

Before I got the chance to review the first volume of Train + Train (Go! Comi), Katherine Dacey-Tsuei said pretty much everything I had planned to say, but better:

“On the plus side, the series boasts action-movie pacing and a rogue’s gallery of characters that includes a nun with a bright future in the WWE, a dead ringer for Disney’s Beast, and a badass heroine with a bottomless appetite. On the down side, the art is unremarkable; the character designs are as forgettable as the sparsely sketched settings, and the action sequences fall flat.”

The second volume is an improvement on the first, in the sense that the strong elements are reinforced while the weak ones at least don’t experience a decline.

Writer Hideyuki Kurata shares illuminating bits background on tough, adventuresome runaway Arena Pendleton. I often find that a creator’s urge to explain a character’s more belligerent aspects has the tendency to minimize them. That’s not the case here; Arena’s still endearingly take-no-prisoners in her approach, and having a better sense of how she came by her disposition actually functions to make it more appealing.

Subplot development takes some steady steps forward, which is welcome. Members of the supporting cast get some additional roundness, and Reiichi (Arena’s unwilling traveling companion) begins to display the rudiments of a spine.

Art by Tomomasa Takuma is still resolutely competent, though. I don’t quite understand how a story about an allegedly white-knuckle world tour can look so drab. The first destination on the Special Train’s educational odyssey is pitched as a sci-fi Las Vegas, but visual interest is confined to a few fairly generic establishing shots, followed by page after page of nearly nonexistent backgrounds. The story all but begs for gonzo illustrations, but Takuma’s approach is too restrained by half.

But I do like Arena a lot, and the rest of the Special Train gang is growing on me at a satisfying rate. I sincerely hope Takuma demonstrates more artistic energy in the future. As it is, I’d be tempted to just read the novel that inspired the manga and fill in the pictures with my imagination.

(This review is based on a complimentary copy provided by the publisher.)

Filed under: From the stack, Go! Comi 2 Comments

Mark your calendars

February 28, 2007 by

It’s Manga Month again in Diamond’s Previews, and while that’s not all the volume has to offer, there’s plenty of noteworthy new stuff from all over.

Del Rey debuts the first volume of Ai Morinaga’s My Heavenly Hockey Club. I keep hoping someone will pick up the rest of Your and My Secret, which vanished after one volume from ADV. Maybe this will provide a satisfying, substitute Morinaga fix. (Page 269.)

None of this month’s listings jump out at me, but it’s really nice to see Drama Queen’s offerings on the pages of Previews. (Page 288.)

The Comics Journal #284 (Fantagraphics) will include an interview with Gene (American Born Chinese) Yang, and interviews with Yang are always worth reading. (Page 292.)

:01 First Second unveils their spring season highlight (for me, at least): Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert’s The Professor’s Daughter, a Victorian romance between a young lady and a mummy. (Page 294.)

I know printing money actually involves specialized plates and paper with cloth fiber and patent-protected inks, but it seems like there could be a variation involving delicately handsome priests at war with an army of zombies. Go! Comi will find out (as will we all) when they release the first volume of Toma Maeda’s Black Sun, Silver Moon. (Page 298.)

Last Gasp promises “catfights, alien safari adventures, evil experiments, and a girl who dreams of becoming a pop idol singer” in its re-release of Junko Mizuno’s Pure Trance. Since its Mizuno, I’m sure that description doesn’t even begin to describe the adorable, revolting weirdness. (Page 313.)

Mike Carey’s work as a comics writer is hit and miss for me. I’ve loved some of it, and found other stories to be pretty tedious. One of my favorite examples is My Faith in Frankie (Vertigo), illustrated by Sonny Liew and Marc Hempel. So I’m inclined to give the creative team’s Re-Gifters (Minx) a try. (Page 109.)

Pantheon releases a soft-cover version of Joann Sfar’s sublime The Rabbi’s Cat. This was my first exposure to Sfar’s work, and I’ve loved it ever since. And in some cultures, the release of a soft-cover means a hard-cover volume of new material might be on the way, which would make me deliriously happy. (Page 324.)

The Tokyopop-HarperCollins collaboration bears fruit with the release of Meg Cabot’s Avalon High: Coronation Vol. 1: The Merlin Prophecy. The solicitation doesn’t include an illustrator credit, which is an unfortunate slip, and neither does the publisher’s web site. Maybe Cabot drew it herself? (Page 333.)

I’ve been hoping to see more work from Yuji Iwahara since CMX published Chikyu Misaki. Tokyopop comes through with Iwahara’s King of Thorn. (Page 335.)

Top Shelf offered some all-ages delights last month, which made me happy, and presents a new (I think?) volume of work from Renée (The Ticking) French. Micrographica is a collection of French’s online strip of the same name and offers “pure weirdness.” I don’t doubt it will deliver in a lovely, haunting way. (Page 352.)

Vertical rolls out another classic from Osamu Tezuka, Apollo’s Song, displaying the God of Manga’s “more literate and adult side.” For readers wanting something a little more contemporary, there’s Aranzi Aronzo’s Aranzi Machine Gun, featuring plush mascots on a tear. How can I choose? Why should I? (Page 355.)

I can’t read every series about people who see dead people. I just can’t. I wouldn’t have any money left for food. But Viz ignores my attempts at restraint by offering Chika Shiomi’s Yurarara in its Shojo Beat line. Shiomi is enjoying quite the day in the licensed sun, with Night of the Beasts (Go! Comi) and Canon (CMX) in circulation. (Page 372.)

And here’s an oddity, but an intriguing one: edu-manga from Singapore. YoungJin Singapore PTE LTD (you’ll forgive me if I hold off on adding a category) releases manga biographies of Einstein and Gandhi and adaptations of Little Women and Treasure Island. (Page 375.)

Filed under: Del Rey, DramaQueen, Fantagraphics, First Second, Go! Comi, Last Gasp, Minx, Pantheon, Previews, Tokyopop, Top Shelf, Vertical, Viz 6 Comments

Speculation

February 15, 2007 by

I got an intriguing press release from Go! Comi in the e-mailbox yesterday:

WENDY PINI TO APPEAR AT GO! COMI PANEL

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Legendary comic creator Wendy Pini (“ElfQuest”) will be appearing at manga publisher Go! Comi’s panel at New York Comic Con to announce a major new project, which she describes as “darkly exciting and adult oriented.” The panel will be held at 2:00 PM on Saturday, February 24th. Wendy will be joined by her husband, Richard Pini, for an autograph session at Go! Comi’s booth (#564) at 3:00 PM immediately after the panel.

In light of Go! Comi’s previous announcement that they’ll be conducting portfolio reviews at NYCC, it seems increasingly likely that someone’s thinking about branching out.

Filed under: Conventions, Go! Comi, Press releases 1 Comment

Shôjoverload

January 30, 2007 by

I thought Dark Horse was supposed to be continuing its crusade to make me love them this week with new volumes of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service and Mail, but it doesn’t look like that’s meant to be. I can wait, because the rest of the manga publishing industry is wooing me with a vengeance this week.

I’ve already read a preview of the second volume of Penguin Revolution (CMX) and found it as solidly funny and adorable as the first, so that’s a lock.

Del Rey delivers the eighth volume of Nodame Cantabile, which always manages to charm me in spite of what I realize is very little in the way of overarching narrative movement. Kitchen Princess offers the twin inducements of cute shôjo and culinary content, and I have very little resistance to either.

Didn’t Go! Comi just release the fifth volumes of their first four series? It feels like they did, but new installments of Cantarella and Tenshi Ja Nai!! are always welcome.

There’s been considerable enthusiasm over at Tokyopop for Wild Adapter, and while you’d expect a publisher to be enthusiastic about its books, this endorsement comes from Lillian Diaz-Przybyl. Books that Diaz-Przybyl really, really likes (like 12 Days and Shout Out Loud) tend to be books I really, really like.

I’m not quite up to volume 17 of Bleach (Viz) yet, so I’ll have to content myself with the fifth volume of Nana, which is more than adequate compensation.

And it’s not manga, but I found Marvel’s Defenders mini-series (by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire) to be really entertaining. I can’t seem to find a page on Marvel’s site for the Indefensible trade paperback, but here’s one for the first issue of the floppy version.

(Quick housekeeping question: Is it useful to throw these posts into the various publisher categories, or is it just kind of irritating to have a laundry list of categories at the top of them? I can’t decide.)

Filed under: CMX, ComicList, Del Rey, Go! Comi, Marvel, Tokyopop, Viz 5 Comments

Up against the wall

December 14, 2006 by

ICv2 posts the You Higuri poster for libraries I mentioned yesterday. As one might have expected, it’s gorgeous, and I love the tag line.

Carolyn makes some excellent suggestions for other manga possibilities. The bookish boys of Off*Beat would be particularly ideal. And I can’t believe I forgot to consider the incompetent invaders of Sgt. Frog.

Filed under: Comics in libraries, Go! Comi, ICv2 5 Comments

Lurking Borgia

December 13, 2006 by

It always makes me happy when a comics publisher pays attention to libraries, and it’s also nice to see the increasing interaction between creators from other parts of the world and their North American fans, whether it’s Joann Sfar’s book tour or Marley headed to the New York Comic-Con or what have you. So I got a kick out of Go! Comi’s announcement of their poster collaboration with the American Library Association and You Higuri’s participation.

And while this does look like it will be the first time a Japanese manga-ka will contribute an illustration to the poster series, there are already lots of nice comic-themed ones:

  • Batgirl
  • Emily the Strange
  • Megatokyo
  • Sandman
  • The Teen Titans (the Cartoon Network version)

    • I’m not given to decorating with posters, but it would make me really happy to walk into a library and see Scott Pilgrim, the Bones, Emma, and Owly exhorting people to read. (Okay, so Scott has never struck me as that much of a bibliophile. I can see him encouraging others to do so, though. Certainly Wallace and Ramona would.)

    Filed under: Comics in libraries, Go! Comi 3 Comments

    Conspicuous consumption

    December 12, 2006 by

    The past few weeks have obviously lulled me into a false sense of security, because a look at the ComicList for Wednesday… well… it’s like Manga DEF CON 5. Pawn some heirlooms, clear space on your shelves, do what you have to do.

    For simplicity’s sake, I’ll just go with a list of what I would like to buy, were money no object:

  • Anne Freaks Vol. 4, ADV
  • Mail Vol. 1, Dark Horse (written and drawn by Housui Yamazaki, artist on The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service)
  • Emma Vol. 2, CMX
  • After School Nightmare Vol. 2, Go! Comi (first volume recently reviewed by Brigid here)
  • Train + Train Vol. 1, Go! Comi
  • Fruits Basket Vol. 15, Tokyopop
  • Sgt. Frog Vol. 12, Tokyopop
  • Shout Out Loud Vol. 3, Blu
  • Beauty Pop Vol. 2, Viz – Shojo Beat
  • The Drifting Classroom Vol. 3, Viz – Signature

    • And that doesn’t even count series like Aishiteruze Baby, Bleach and Phoenix where I need to catch up on previous volumes. Other corners of the shipping list seem a bit more forgiving to me, but overall, it looks like employees of manga-friendly comic shops are going to be swamped this week.

    Oh, and until teen girls can be liberated from comics poverty when Minx comes riding over the hill, they’ll just have to settle for stuff like this.

    Filed under: Blu, CMX, ComicList, Dark Horse, Go! Comi, Graphix, Tokyopop, Viz 2 Comments

    Quality dark chocolate is also always a good choice

    December 1, 2006 by

    There’s a special feature in this month’s Previews: a Valentine’s Day Merchandise Checklist, compiling “a host of titles that are perfect to share with a loved one.” Okay, there’s more than a whisper of Team Comix to it, and some of the choices are a little odd, but many of them do provide extra exposure for some great books up at the front of the catalog, so I won’t complain.

    The one that makes me happiest is the inclusion of Rebecca Kraatz’s House of Sugar from Tulip Tree Press (p. 344). I guess when Diamond reconsiders a rejection, they go all the way. That’s a good thing, as I like this book a lot.

    ALC’s books (Yuri Monogatari 3 and 4 and Works, p. 208) make the cut. I thought the third YM book was kind of a mixed bag, but I do find the work of Rica Takashima hard to resist, and she brings her characters from the charming Rica ‘tte Kanji back in the fourth, so I might have to cave. Works, a collection of romantic shorts by Eriko Tadeno, sounds appealing as well.

    If you missed it the first time, Diamond humbly suggests you consider the one-volume edition of Jeff Smith’s Bone (Cartoon Books) as a Valentine’s Day gift. Heck, just keep it, because you have to love yourself before you can love anyone else.

    Moving on to the romantically unsanctioned, I’m taken with the premise of Keiko Yamada’s Go Go Heaven!! (CMX, p. 98). After her untimely death, an unhappy teen gets “49 days to relive her life and resolve unfinished business.” Sounds morbid, but fun!

    What’s this I see on the Featured Items page? A collection of the intriguing Elk’s Run from Villard Books (p. 347)? It started out self-published, got picked up by a publisher who went bust, and never got to finish its run as a mini-series, despite general critical acclaim. Now, Villard’s offering the whole shebang, and high time, I think.

    Juné lures me with the promise of more Fumi Yoshinaga in the form of The Moon and the Sandals (p. 264).

    Marguerite Abouet and Clément Ouberie’s Aya (Drawn & Quarterly, p. 270) offers intriguing subject matter (the everyday life of young women in the Ivory Coast) and an excellent pedigree (the 2006 Best New Album award from Angoulême).

    The Comics Journal devotes #281 to the best of 2006 (Fantagraphics, p. 275). I’m a sucker for lists.

    My favorite bit of solicitation text in the catalog is found in the blurb for Cantarella Vol. 6 (Go! Comi, p. 280). Young Chiaro “finds comfort and warmth within the confines of a monastery.” Oh, I’ll just bet he does.

    It’s nice to see a full-page ad for Viz’s Signature line, especially one that focuses on Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix. Given the well-deserved attention Vertical’s production of Ode to Kirihito has received, it’s smart, too.

    So what looks good to you?

    Filed under: ALC, CMX, DMP, Drawn & Quarterly, Fantagraphics, Go! Comi, Previews, TCJ, Tulip Tree Press, Viz Leave a Comment

    The suspense is killing me!

    November 30, 2006 by

    Well that was a pleasant surprise. I thought NBM was only shipping a new printing of Rick Geary’s The Borden Tragedy, but a copy of the paperback version of The Case of Madeleine Smith showed up in my reserves yesterday. New installments of A Treasury of Victorian Murder are always gratefully accepted.

    Speaking of the accused Glaswegian, she’s made her way onto the list of nominees for the American Library Association’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens. (Yes, I’m still obsessively tracking those. Thanks for asking.) Nominations are now closed with a projected drop date for the final list in mid-winter of 2007.

    It’s a little hard to tell what joined the list when, but accounting for my shaky memory, recent additions include:

    • Action Philosophers: Giant-Sized Thing #1 (Evil Twin)
    • American Born Chinese (First Second)
    • Brownsville (NBBComics Lit)
    • Chocalat (Ice Kunion)
    • Crossroad (Go! Comi)
    • Fables: 1,001 Nights of Snowfall (Vertigo)
    • Infinite Crisis (DC)
    • Inverloch (Seven Seas)
    • The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Dark Horse)
    • Livewires: Clockwork Thugs, Yo! (Marvel)
    • Pride of Baghdad (Vertigo)
    • Same Cell Organism (DMP)
    • To Dance: A Ballerina’s Graphic Novel (Simon and Schuster)
    • Young Avengers Vol. 2: Family Matters (Marvel)

    I hope the nomination list is still available after the final roster is chosen, because there are some great books on it. But barring some bizarre failure of decision-making, it’s hard to see how the final list could be anything but excellent.

    (Edited to note: If I missed anything new to the nominations, let me know, and I’ll add it to the list.)

    Filed under: ComicList, Comics in libraries, DC, DMP, Evil Twin, First Second, Go! Comi, IceKunion, Marvel, NBM, Seven Seas, Vertigo 3 Comments
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