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The dark underbelly of Riverdale

April 24, 2010 by

Archie Comics were the first ones I ever remember reading, along with Harvey titles like Casper and Richie Rich. I can’t say with certainty that the presence of a gay character among the Riverdale populace would have enhanced my enjoyment when I was five, but the prospect delights me as a 42-year-old. I haven’t read an Archie comic in ages, even the wedding issues, but I’ll certainly pick up this one. (If you want to save energy and see the full spectrum of reactions to stories like this, please visit this comments thread at The Beat. You know what you’ll find, so I won’t waste time summarizing.)

I already like Kevin a lot for his ability to zero in on the core question of the sexual dynamics of Riverdale:

Don’t dwell on it, Kevin.

That preview page reminds me of an old Archie story I must have read in some station wagon back in the 1970s, though I can’t precisely remember when, or even which Archie comic featured it. In it, Veronica has been heaping abuse on Jughead, because that’s one of the things she does, and everyone accepts it as normal.

Jughead, however, privately conceives a revenge scheme. When no one else is around but Veronica, he slips into this predatory lothario mode that would have Reggie taking notes. He insists to Veronica that they’re meant to be together and that she knows it’s inevitable. She freaks out, as would anyone who rightly believed that Jughead could never muster amorous intent towards anything that didn’t come off of the grill at the Chok’lit Shoppe. No one believes her when she swears that Jughead is creepily wooing her, and she snaps by the end of the story as Jughead watches with malicious but concealed glee.

Has anyone else ever read this story? Does it actually exist, or has my memory started actually constructing twisted fan fiction?

Update: This story is described in Jughead’s Wikipedia entry, so I’m not crazy.

Filed under: Archie, Linkblogging 4 Comments

For your further consideration

April 22, 2010 by

Harvey Award nominations are due tomorrow, and as Heidi (The Beat) MacDonald notes, “Only WE can save the Harveys.” Last year’s nominees in the Best American Edition of Foreign Material were slightly better than those of the year before, though they’d almost have to be. I doubt that my whining had anything to do with that, but I will toss out a few suggestions, just in case someone is staring at an uncompleted ballot.

First of all, I think any of the titles listed here would be fine nominees. Here are a few more:

And since I’m on the subject of awards, I should note that online voting is underway for the Eisners. I predicted at least one winner last year, and let’s see if I can repeat the feat by suggesting you cast your vote for…

Beyond being very entertaining and informative, this was a really ambitious project on Viz’s part, to offer a taste of a massive, commercially counter-intuitive series, and I would love to see them get some bling for their efforts. But I’m always curious as to which way the winds are blowing, so here’s a poll on the subject of Best U.S. Edition of International Material-Asia:

Updated: Aaron Costain suggested a second poll, asking which title should win, and I admit I forgot the distinction. So here you go:

Feel free to mention another, un-nominated title in the comments.

Filed under: Awards and lists, Linkblogging, Polls 8 Comments

Yen Plus goes digital

April 21, 2010 by

Yen Press just dropped a bomb on Twitter, with a pointer to the publisher’s weblog:

“As the magazine industry changes and old models are eclipsed by new, so, too, must YEN PLUS change, and it is with that in mind that I can announce officially that the July 2010 issue of YEN PLUS will be its last in print.

“Now before you despair too much, take a deep breath and focus on those last two words: ‘in print.’ Yes, the print magazine will be no more, but YEN PLUS will live on as an online manga anthology! As such, it will have the ability to reach more readers than ever before while giving those same readers an option to peruse manga (and maybe some light novels?) legitimately online.”

More details are to come, obviously, but it’s certainly an interesting development. In my opinion, the more digital anthologies, the better.

Update: Gia (Anime Vice) Manry gets some more details from Yen Press co-founder Kurt Hassler.

Filed under: Anthologies, Digital delivery, Linkblogging, Yen Press 5 Comments

Upcoming 4/21/2010

April 20, 2010 by

This is one of those weeks where all of the ComicList heavy lifting is done by Viz Signature, whose offerings include two titles that would make any Wednesday an exciting one all by themselves.

It seems like it’s been ages since we got a volume of Fumi Yoshinaga’s Ôoku: The Inner Chambers, but the wait is over. (Well, the wait is over for those of who you aren’t subject to that weird one-week delay that Diamond sometimes inflicts on Viz fans in the northeastern United States.) Ôoku recently won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award “for science fiction and fantasy that expands our understanding of gender.”

I simply do not understand why more people aren’t reading and raving about Takehiko Inoue’s glorious drama about wheelchair basketball players, Real. It’s beautifully drawn and brilliantly written, and while I know that’s never a guarantor of commercial success, it would be nice if this title got some of the level of buzz it richly deserves. The eighth volume is due Wednesday. And if you want to double your Inoue pleasure, you can pick up the seventh VizBig collection of Vagabond. I’m so behind on that one. Oh, god, I’m part of the problem, aren’t I?

I love it when I can be lazy and pull a “What she said,” and I do that a lot with Kate (The Manga Critic) Dacey. I share her sentiments about Seimu Yoshizaki’s Kingyo Used Books, which debuts this week but has been running on Viz’s SigIKKI site since its launch. Take it away, Ms. Dacey:

“The series’ episodic structure cuts both ways, see-sawing between being a fun exercise in formula — which manga will feature prominently in this story? who will be drawn into the store? — and a frustratingly obvious collection of beats culminating in a character’s decision to make a change in her life.”

What looks good to you?

Filed under: ComicList, Linkblogging, Viz 7 Comments

Two super-heroes walk into a bar…

April 18, 2010 by

… and The New York Times takes pictures of them making out. I have to say that I find this story awesome, mostly because I’m kind of mean-spirited and am imagining the resulting nerd panic in some quarters. But it’s also a nice fusion of different cultural elements of the sometimes fraught intersection of gay fandom and the Marvel/DC output. George Gene Gustines covers a lot of familiar territory, but he also gathers some great quotes:

“Growing up in the ’80s, I guess I didn’t even think gay super-heroes or supporting characters were a possibility,” Dan Avery, 37, an editor of Next, a guide to gay night life in New York City, wrote in an e-mail message. “I do remember feeling like I had two secrets I had to keep: being gay and being a comic-book fan. I’m not sure which I was more afraid of people discovering.” These days, Mr. Avery is a member of a group of gay men who meet regularly to discuss the latest comics.

And it’s probably the only current piece of mainstream media coverage of super-heroes that doesn’t quote Mark Millar, so that should be reason enough for you to click through.

Filed under: Linkblogging, Media 4 Comments

I am merely an anecdote

April 17, 2010 by

ICv2 reports “A Second bad Year in a Row for Manga,” noting a 20% drop in sales. This doesn’t reflect my personal experience, but we all know how irrelevant that is. Since it’s Saturday and I don’t want to start it off on too gloomy a note, I’ll quote the article’s marginally positive paragraph:

“In European markets where manga boomed before it hit it big here in the States, there was a post-boom drop-off, but sales then stabilized at a substantial level. Manga continues to dominate sales of graphic novels (in units) in bookstores.”

The report notes that “manga is now facing its own crisis created by the availability of free unlicensed scanlations on the Web,” and a Japanese publisher has spoken publicly on the subject. Over at Anime Vice, GodLen finds a message from Weekly Shonen Jump (Shueisha) to its readers:

“The unjust internet copies are deeply hurting the manga culture, mangakas’ rights, and even mangakas’ souls.”

Hardcore. It probably won’t have any impact, but… hardcore.

Update: ICv2 has rather drastically altered the portion of the report that covered scanlations:

“While comic retailers tell ICv2 that they believe scanlations (translations of scanned manga, which appear on the Web within days of their publication in Japan) are hurting their sales, the evidence is not conclusive. Scanlations were around through the growth of the manga market as well as its decline, and some feel that they actually increase the market for manga collections by creating greater exposure for new properties. While it may be true that more manga buyers are telling retailers that they’re reading online rather than buying, that may be due to economic conditions (they’re buying fewer titles over-all), or to the lack of a major hit that stimulates buying.”

Filed under: Linkblogging, Sales 10 Comments

Pirate booty

April 16, 2010 by

Over at Robot 6, Kevin Melrose notes that Eiichiro Oda’s splendid One Piece (Viz) has finally sailed into the waters of The New York Times Graphic Book Best Sellers list. I don’t really have anything to add, but I wanted to link to the story because it makes me happy.

Filed under: Linkblogging, Sales, Viz 2 Comments

Star search

April 15, 2010 by

We’ll wrap up Press Release Thursday with some information on Kou Yaginuma’s lovely Twin Spica (Vertical), which I reviewed here. I always appreciate it when a publisher shares a substantial online preview of their upcoming titles (heck, or stuff that they’ve already got in print, because everything is new to somebody), and the chapter Vertical chose is a haunting and lovely prequel to the main action of the series.

Countdown to Twin Spica‘s Launch Begins

Twin Spica, the thoughtful manga by renowned comic artist Kou Yaginuma, is getting ready for liftoff later this spring, and Vertical, Inc. wants readers to join in on the countdown to launch as we unveil one of the stories that helped start it all nearly a decade ago. Starting today manga readers can preview Yaginuma’s 30-page-long short story Asumi at Vertical’s official Twin Spica webpage.

Published originally in 2000, the Asumi short reveals many secrets of the world of Twin Spica. Shedding light on the bitter sweet past of Twin Spica‘s main character Asumi Kamogawa, with a focus on a younger version of the titular character, Asumi takes readers back to when our heroine first met her guardian astronaut.

Asumi supporters can then countdown the days to the Twin Spica launch as Volume 1 of the English edition of this heart-warming manga series will go on sale worldwide on May 4th. Endorsed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA, Japan’s version of NASA), the sixteen-volume manga series has spun off animated and live-action TV series each broadcasted by NHK (the Japanese PBS), here’s what critics have to say about Twin Spica:

“With art that would make Studio Ghibli proud, this story moved and impressed me. A+” —About Heroes

“[Yaginuma]’s work fuses Twin Spica with both a sense of childhood nostalgia as well as encouragement to venture beyond. Replace ‘space exploration’ with the goal of your choosing and you have the recipe for an inspiring parable of progress… It’s refreshingly divergent from the majority of the manga on shelves at the moment.” —Otaku USA

“Kou Yaginuma has created a fascinating alternate future for Japan, where tragedy becomes the foundation of both the protagonist’s story and her country’s entry into the space race… Asumi’s single-minded dedication to her childhood dream is admirable. As soon as I finished this book, I found myself already longing to read more.” —i ♥ manga!

Filed under: Linkblogging, Press releases, Vertical Leave a Comment

Neaud in translation

April 15, 2010 by

And we almost immediately take a break from Press Release Thursday for a license request update! You may remember me carping for someone to publish an English translation of Fabrice Neaud’s Journal. In the comments, Travis McGee pointed to a script translation he had done of Neaud’s work, which drew the interest of Neaud’s publisher, Ego Comme X, and not in a cease-and-desist kind of way.

The make a long story slightly less long, McGee and Ego have worked together to create and share an English-language version of Neaud’s “Émile” on the Ego Comme X web site:

“Who will finally publish one of Neaud’s astonishing works in English ?… English readers, contact your favorite editors, make them read this English version of Émile !”

Yeah, who will finally publish one of Neaud’s astonishing works in English? Huh? HUH?

Update: At The Comics Reporter, Bart Beaty makes the case for Neaud.

Filed under: License requests, Linkblogging, Previews 4 Comments

Ono, oh, no

April 12, 2010 by

Congratulations to Sean (Kleefeld on Comics) Kleefeld for winning two books by Natsume Ono!

“As for one person’s output that I’ve seen at both ends of the spectrum, I’m going to call out Bruce Jones. He’s not especially a favorite author of mine, but I do generally like his work overall. I was especially taken with Somerset Holmes (from Pacific Comics) back in the day, and I believe that was the first time I had encountered his work. It’s been more than a few years since I’ve gone back to see if it still holds up, but most of his work since then has been good.

“That said, his Captain America: What Price Glory? was a train wreck of a comic. I had high hopes between his writing and Steve Rude’s art, but it turned out to be just a mess. I went so far as to email editor Andrew Lis directly to list out all the problems I had with it. He was kind enough to respond and said, in effect, ‘Yeah, we weren’t too happy with how that turned out either.'”

As so many of us do, Sam (Manga Recon) Kusek turned to manga for his mixed emotions:

“My example of two works from the same creative type that are quite different for me, are Hiro Mashima’s Fairy Tail and Rave Master. Rave Master was one of the first series that I first started reading and while it started off in a really interesting way, the story got really convulted as time went on.

“Fairy Tail is a series that has the same interesting and fun elements that Rave Master had at its start, but has found a way to keep that interest going for a long while. It also represents Mashima’s progression as a story writer and overall artist.”

Alain Mendez turned to classic science fiction:

“I think my big divide on a creator in their works is Isaac Asimov. I love the Robot series with the Caves of Steel being one of my favorite books. On the other hand despite being critically acclaimed I found the Foundation Series completely boring and unengaging.”

All the world is a stage for Alex Brown, but not all of it is worth being in the audience:

“The play I loved: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard. Also a wonderful movie. Clever, funny, and thought provoking all at once. Plus it totally plays with Hamlet which is wonderful.

“The plays that disappointed me: anything else. To my mind he’s never hit the heights of r&grd (heh) despite further cleverness.

“Oh I just thought of another one: Don Delilo. The book White Noise by him is terrific, a great deconstruction of life in the modern age. But everything else he’s written is too clever by half, it’s lost its soul.”

Lorena (i heart manga) Nava Ruggero sometimes finds Weezer to be… a little asthmatic:

“Another great contest! In terms of conflicting reactions, I’d have to say my favorite band, Weezer, has done this to me a number of times. Their blue album was the first CD I ever bought (I had only bought tapes up to that time) and it blew my mind with its happy-go-lucky music and, at times, dark lyrics. I was also blown away by their sophomore album Pinkerton. Sadly, they’ve since produced other albums whose names (or corresponding colors) aren’t worth mentioning. And just when I thought their latest album Raditude might bring me back to high school, I was disappointed again by an album with too many ‘lows’ and not enough ‘highs.’ Oh well!”

Sheli Hay applies game logic to the idea of mixed results:

“Any author that I love that has a huge body of work could fall into this category. There is always that one book/story/production that you treasure more than the others. But I think the series that has me forever on a hook is Final Fantasy. There are few stories that I love more than FFVII. A lot of comic authors dissappoint and delight like Ono, but FFVII is so unique in that is traps you for hours of your life. Not the hour is takes to take in a manga, or the couple hours it takes to digest a novel, but literally days of your life.

“And when those days are so flippin’ great? Of course you want more. But here is where Squaresoft/Squareenix has done me wrong. No game that they have produced has been good as FFVII. So they, more than anyone else, has me on the precarious edge of a wholly devoted/never what to speak to them again relationship.”

Lori (Good Comics for Kids, Manga Xanadu) Henderson faces the Watase conundrum:

“The first shojo series I read was Ceres Celestial Legend by Yuu Watase, and I loved it. Good characters and drama, touches of horror and a bit of a sappy ending. I was thrilled when Absolute Boyfriend was announced and hoped for another great series. I was seriously disappointed. It started out okay, and just went downhill from there.”

Matthew J. (Warren Peace Sings the Blues) Brady is sometimes driven to reach for the remote:

“I’ll go with Aaron Sorkin, whose Sports Night was a show that I really liked, being just the right age to learn to appreciate well-written dialogue. I never watched much of The West Wing, so I can’t comment on his creative evolution there, but Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was such a disappointment, especially since it started out so promisingly, but immediately sank to tiresome plots, ridiculous contrivances and misunderstandings, and almost self-parodic dialogue, before being mercifully cancelled. It seems that Sorkin’s career still has yet to recover.”

Rij knows that sometimes it’s not the money, just the time that you’d like back:

“Iain M. Banks, with or without the middle initial is an author who’s capable of producing books I fall in love with on the first page. Unfortunately he’s just as capable of producing works that make me want to throw up and books that I just want to forget ever wasting time on. I love Consider Phlebas, The Bridge, Crow Road and many more. The Wasp Factory is not a bad book, really, I just never want to touch it again as it is the only book I’ve read in 30+ years that has made me nauseous. It’s been years and I still remember the scene in vivid detail. Song of Stone on the other hand was just bad. Uninspired, gratuitous with both sex and violence, boring and even the compulsory twist near the ending left me more annoyed at it’s stupidity than in any way surprised. I’m just glad that I didn’t waste any money on that, wasting time was bad enough.”

Matthew (365 zines a year) Murray ponders the obscure:

“One Night @ the Call Centre was a novel (written in English, published in India) by Chetan Bhagat. I found it in a guest house in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and despite the back cover mentioning ‘god’ I picked it up (when you sit on buses all the time while travelling you read a lot of books), read it, and rally enjoyed it! It wasn’t religious, and it gave me an incredibly interesting look into modern Indian culture that I really had no idea about.”

“So when I found Bhagat’s first book Five Point Someone I was really excited! Except it wasn’t as good at all, and in fact I can now barely remember anything about it. I think it was just a typical ‘students at university book’.”

Thanks to everyone who entered!

Filed under: Contests and giveaways, Linkblogging 1 Comment
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