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The shipping news

March 6, 2007 by

It promises to be another crowded Wednesday of comics arrivals.

The second issue of Jeff Smith’s Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil arrives from DC, as does the fifth issue of the second volume of Linda Medley’s Castle Waiting from Fantagraphics. Part of me feels like both of these would read better in collection, but that part is shouted down by the heftier portion that doesn’t want to wait.

I enjoyed reading the back and forth between comics retailer Alex Cox and Tom Spurgeon over at The Comics Reporter on the Shazam book’s appeal to young attendees of the New York Comic Con, and young readers in general, as it touches on a lot of questions that have been floating through my head. The first involved whether or not the per-issue cost of the series would be prohibitive for younger readers. The second centered on what quantity of casual readers made it into NYCC given the fact that tickets for some days sold out before the event began. (It’s probably incorrect, but I tend to place kids in the category of casual readers, in spite of how obsessed I was with comics from about age six and up. Maybe I just hope I was abnormal at that age and that other people have a healthier range of interests.)

Anyway, back to the ComicList.

The second-to-last volume of Chigusa Kawai’s subtle and surprising La Esperança ships via Juné. Maybe someone will hold hands with someone else in a non-platonic fashion this time around? It probably won’t matter to me if they don’t.

Viz has tons of stuff set to arrive. The battle of the stylists continues in the third volume of Beauty Pop. Suspense among obsessive sales figure watchers mounts as both vol. 10 of Death Note and vol. 13 of Naruto arrive on the same day. Which will emerge victorious in Diamond’s graphic novel sales for March? The first volume of The Gentlemen’s Alliance ┼ brings one of the weirdest casts I’ve ever seen in a shôjo manga set in a high school, which I find to be an unquestionably good thing.

Last and perhaps least from Viz is the fourth volume of Yakitate!! Japan. Don’t get me wrong. I like it in the way I like most quirky, young-men-with-a-dream shônen that has perhaps a bit more fan service than I like. But I’m starting to wonder if the bread-baking is making me overlook the fact that it’s… kind of average. (For those of you who’d like a shot at securing all four volumes in one easy shot, ChunHyang has thrown them all into an auction lot, along with some other tempting combinations.)

Filed under: ComicList, DC, Fantagraphics, Juné, Linkblogging, Viz 5 Comments

Understated, underrated

December 18, 2006 by

Every time a new volume of Chigusa Kawai’s La Esperança (Juné) arrives, I wonder why more people aren’t reading it and talking about it. It isn’t perfect by any means, but it has an abundance of really lovely moments.

Okay, so it doesn’t move at lightning speed. The pace is generally measured at its briskest. (It took five volumes for anyone to kiss.) Kawai has a tendency to milk her characters’ ambivalence, sometimes to excess. But the delicacy of her approach also allows for tremendous depth of character development, in spite of the accompanying impatience. Angelic Georges and bitter Robert have layers, and their initially simplistic, even stereotypical dynamic takes on additional detail with each discovery.

The book also has an extremely solid supporting cast. The leads aren’t isolated in their romantic angst. I love the scenes between Georges and his deceptively frail mother, and her more recent encounters with Robert have been filled with surprises and nuance. If there’s a better best friend in manga than Henri, I can’t think of him. His combination of protectiveness, impatience and support rings very true.

Maybe the pacing is less problematic than I think, because the careful unfolding of the story places more emphasis on its themes. It’s all about how people cope with pain and how they can unintentionally cause more by isolating themselves. Kawai finds ample modulations on her themes, making for ultimately rewarding reading.

Filed under: Juné 2 Comments

October numbers

November 19, 2006 by

Direct market sales figures for the month of October are up at Comic Book Resources and The Pulse. As with bookstores, Tokyopop’s Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories leads the manga pack, coming in at number 9 in graphic novels overall.

It’s a good month for Juné, with three manga titles and a novel making the manga top 10. They all lag behind Tokyopop’s Loveless in the BL stakes; the third volume came in second in manga and 22 in graphic novels. And while Juné’s books ranked higher, Blu’s books were nipping at their heels.

A total of 28 manga titles made the top 100 GN list. I’m particularly glad to see Dark Horse’s Ohikkoshi (reviewed here by Jog) crack the GN rankings, placing at roughly the same spot Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (reviewed here by Christopher Butcher) did in September.

On the much-discussed global front, the second volume of Svetlana Chmakova’s Dramacon leads the pack, hitting #25 in manga and #89 in GNs, Kingdom Hearts aside. The second volume of Sokora Refugees just missed the cut, hitting #30 on the manga list.

For me, the oddest question posed by the list is why did the fourteenth volume of Fruits Basket (Tokyopop) return to the list when it’s been on the shelves for months? It hit 17 in manga and 75 in graphic novels in October, and came in 32nd in GNs in August. I love the series, and I’m used to seeing earlier volumes crop up on these lists from time to time, but the resurgence of this chapter seems odd. Did Tokyopop ship it again?

Filed under: Blu, Dark Horse, Juné, Sales, Tokyopop Leave a Comment

You're always a day away

November 7, 2006 by

Another week, another opportunity to ponder the mysteries of the ComicList. Some weeks I get lucky, and Del Rey titles show up earlier than they do from Diamond (as with the excellent Genshiken vol. 7). Some weeks I’m left to writhe in jealousy as everyone else gets Love Roma vol. 4 before I do. MangaCast has a preview of Del Rey’s shôjo version of Train Man, which I believe is due in bookstores today, if not in comic shops tomorrow.

I’m curious about Project Romantic from AdHouse, but it wasn’t a book that I was confident in buying sight unseen. I’m sure I’ll get the chance when I hit Columbus for the holidays.

The concept for Hero Heel (Juné) tickles me, focusing on unexpected romance among actors in a super-hero TV show. Pick your favorite Heroes actors and play along!

Looking for something in a chic, josei, nouvelle manga style? Fanfare/Ponent Mon is releasing a new printing of Kan Takahama’s Kinderbook.

Mmmm… Greek food. Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey travel to the cradle of democracy for Action Philosophers #7: It’s All Greek To You.

Oni releases the second issue of Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt’s The Damned, a solid fusion of mob drama and supernatural weirdness.

I’m intrigued by 12 Days from Tokyopop, either in spite or because of its faintly nauseating premise. Here’s a preview from editor Lillian Diaz-Pryzbyl.

And of course, there’s always Death Note vol. 8 (Viz – Shonen Jump Advanced). MangaCast notes that the first volume of this series keeps popping up on Japanese best-seller lists.

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It seems that John Jakala is not alone. At Read About Comics, Greg McElhatton looks at the first two volumes of Drifting Classroom (Viz – Signature) and finds them really, really loud:

“With The Drifting Classroom two of its eleven volumes are now translated, and I can’t help but wonder if publishing the other nine books could somehow result in a worldwide shortage of exclamation points thanks to its relentless intensity.”

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And in this week’s Flipped, I take the really ill-advised step of reviewing Osamu Tezuka’s Ode to Kirihito (Vertical), in spite of the fact that tons of people have already done it really well. Here are some more successful examples:

Filed under: AdHouse, ComicList, Del Rey, Evil Twin, Fanfare/Ponent Mon, Flipped, Juné, Oni, Tokyopop, Vertical, Viz 3 Comments

Regional specialties

October 31, 2006 by

The Mature Graphic Novel section has not yet reached north-central West Virginia. I swung by Books-A-Million last night to see. It did look like there were fewer Juné and Blu titles than usual, so maybe they’ve been sorted out and it’s in the works. (The manager, who’s an acquaintance, wasn’t on hand to ask.)

One thing did strike me as I was browsing. It’s too bad Viz didn’t put out a Bleach box set in time for the holidays, like Tokyopop did with Kingdom Hearts. A conveniently bundled, nicely packaged chunk of the early volumes might entice the curious.

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I’m kind of baffled by the ComicList for the week. The list itself says the only Del Rey offering for the week is the second volume of Basilisk. Jog seems to think that the fourth volume of Love Roma is arriving. The e-mailer from the local comic shop suggests that the seventh volume of Genshiken will arrive. Should I focus on the happiness of new Genshiken, or wallow in the bitterness of delayed Love Roma gratification?

There does seem to be general consensus that this week will see the arrival of the second volumes of Off*Beat and The Dreaming and the fourteenth of The Kindaichi Case Files from Tokyopop. Okay, so maybe it would be nice if these suspenseful stories had dropped the day before Halloween instead of the day after. But it’s close enough.

Not to be outdone in the second volume category, Seven Seas releases the sophomore installment of Inverloch, a web-to-print fantasy story from Sarah Ellerton. I liked the first a lot.

It seems like it’s been weeks since a new volume of a post-apocalyptic survival manga showed up. Dark Horse leaps into the breach with the fifth volume of Eden: It’s an Endless World! For more science fiction, you could always check out June from Netcomics.

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There seems to be a mad flurry of manga reviews of late, and MangaBlog’s Brigid has been staying on top of them.

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So I’m glancing at the Taiyosha Top Ten over at MangaCast, and I can’t help but notice that Nodame Cantabile has really parked itself there. Volume 16 debuted at number one, with a special taking eighth place the same week. And it’s still in the top 10.

No particular point to that observation, aside from the fact that I like the book and its success makes me happy.

Filed under: Blu, Bookstores, ComicList, Dark Horse, Del Rey, Juné, Sales, Seven Seas, Tokyopop, Viz 6 Comments

From the stack: DMP boys

April 2, 2006 by

Every genre of graphic novel has its standard elements and tropes, but most at least try to transcend them and cook up something new and specific from familiar ingredients. When they don’t, you get something like Yukine Honami and Serubo Suzuki’s Sweet Revolution (Digital Manga Publishing).

It’s a generic bit of yaoi about two pretty boys from another dimension who decide to attend high school on Earth. Tatsuki is the seme, and Ohta is the uke. Not only is that all you need to know, it’s just about all there is to know.

Tatsuki is the prince of a mystical realm, and Ohta is a diffident and devoted spirit who handily recharges Tatsuki’s chi with sex. Classmate Kouhei doesn’t really care for Tatsuki, and who can blame him? Tatsuki is cold and entitled, and Kouhei sees his domineering behavior towards Ohta as abusive. It is, but the pair manages to convince Kouhei that it’s what they both want, and the potential triangle dissolves as Kouhei vanishes from the narrative.

This is just shy of the halfway point, so the story moves on to Tatsuki’s family troubles. Tatsuki’s royal father’s health is failing, and he wants his son to return home and marry so he can assume leadership of the kingdom. Tatsuki doesn’t want to, because he’s not prepared to give up Ohta, though he still isn’t very considerate of the sprite.

And then things are resolved. No, really. A friend of Tatsuki’s father points out that dad’s being a selfish hypocrite, and Tatsuki gets his way. The end.

The characters are dull, the premise is flimsy, and the art is attractive but unexceptional. It’s like soup without any seasoning.

Kyoki Negishi and Yuki Miyamoto’s Café Kichijouji de (DMP) isn’t much more ambitious, but it’s a lot more entertaining. It’s a fluffy workplace comedy about the wacky staff of the title eatery, and it doesn’t really have anything on its mind but entertaining the readers. It succeeds.

The cast is an appealing mix of personalities. There’s officious supervisor Kurihara, defensively boyish Ichinomiya, ladies’ man Okubo, and goofball Tokumi. Spooky Minagawa runs the kitchen, and owner Mitaka just tries to stay sane and keep his crew from driving him out of business.

They squabble, flirt with customers, and land themselves in a variety of absurd misadventures. That’s all, really, but it’s plenty, because Negishi and Miyamoto pile on plenty of quirky charm and keep things bustling along. It’s like a perfectly good sitcom that you might not specifically set out to watch, but you’re happy to catch it when you’re idly surfing channels.

All that said it’s a bit slight for $12.95. It would be an ideal library choice, a lucky swap, or an excellent selection for a “get one free” bookstore deal.

(The Café Kichijouji de review was based on a complimentary copy from DMP.)

Filed under: DMP, From the stack, Juné 4 Comments
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