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Break out the bubbly?

April 9, 2010 by

Deb (About.Com) Aoki spotted this and posted it on Twitter: an article from CNN on that much-covered, yet-to-be-licensed wine manga, Kami no Shizuku. As is only natural, Deb’s sharp eyes focused on this particular snippet:

“According to the authors, the long-awaited English version will be out by the end of this year.”

(The emphasis is mine.)

Is our long wait over? Has the title had sufficient time to breathe, having been covered in virtually every major English-language venue? A search of the Amazon Canada site yielded no results, but I’m sure many folks are tirelessly seeking additional confirmation.

Filed under: License requests, Linkblogging 2 Comments

License request day: two from LaLa land

April 9, 2010 by

In his “Know Your Publishers” segment, Sean (A Case Suitable for Treatment) Gaffney describes Hakusensha as “the largest Japanese publisher that does not have a strong relationship with any one publisher over here, preferring to sell its shoujo (and occasional seinen) titles to whoever wants to license them the most.” This makes Hakusensha an extremely viable source of license requests, as does the fact that they publish really good shôjo in magazines like Hana to Yume (the source of series like Fruits Basket, Skip Beat!, and V.B. Rose) and LaLa (which gave us books like Jyu-Oh-Sei, Vampire Knight, and Venus in Love). (Hakusensha isn’t all shôjo; they’ve also given the world Detroit Metal City and Ôoku: The Inner Chambers.)

Recent conversations have alerted me to two titles from Hakusensha’s LaLa line that I’d love to see licensed, as they’re by creators who already have very appealing work available in English.

First up is Yoroshiku Master, written and illustrated by Sakura Tsukuba. Tsukuba is the creator of the very charming Land of the Blindfolded and the very funny Penguin Revolution, both from the LaLa line and published in English by CMX. Beyond Tsukuba’s credentials, Yoroshiku Master has the additional advantage of focusing on Japan’s endearingly fluid take on the Christmas holiday.

It’s about a young girl who is suddenly thrust into the role of Santa Claus, accompanied by a young boy who turns into a reindeer and calls the girl “Master.” It may be a little too soon after Snow-a-thon 2010 to start thinking about stories built around a winter holiday, but this series sounds too endearingly bizarre to wait. Plus, if someone starts working on the license now, perhaps we could have it in our hands by November when we’re in more of a mood for it. Click here to view some preview pages of the first volume.

Next is Faster than a Kiss, written and illustrated by Meca Tanaka. Tanaka, one of a tiny handful of male shôjo creators to be published in English, if not the only one to date, is responsible for Omukae Desu (another LaLa title from CMX) and Pearl Pink (a LaLa title from Tokyopop, just to mix it up a bit). I like the quirky sense of humor and low-key sentiment that Tanaka brings to his work.

Faster’s premise is a little worrying for those of us who have been burned before by “hot for teacher” subplots in our shôjo, but I’ve been reassured that Tanaka’s take isn’t icky in the slightest. The comic is about a pair of orphans who are shuttling from unwilling relative to unwilling relative. The sister contemplates dropping out of school to provide for her brother. When her teacher tries to dissuade her, she says she’ll stay in school if he marries her. She’s kidding, but he agrees, and the secret-relationship shenanigans commence. Click here to view some preview pages from the first volume.

Neither of these titles is likely to blaze new and innovative trails in the shôjo category, but both creators have a track record for charming work, and that’s good enough for me.

Filed under: License requests, Linkblogging 7 Comments

Speaking of give-aways

April 7, 2010 by

Kate (The Manga Critic) Dacey is giving away copies of the new softcover editions of Osamu Tezuka’s Ode to Kirihito (Vertical). All you have to do is name your favorite Tezuka character.

I know it’s not healthy.

Filed under: Contests and giveaways, Linkblogging, Vertical 3 Comments

Role-playing exercise

March 25, 2010 by

One theme that’s come up a lot in recent discussion of scanlations is that publishers need to do something to concoct a widespread alternative that provides similar access to the material but with the consent of creators and, one assumes, the potential to turn the portion of the scanlation audience that aren’t currently paying customers into buyers, at least to some degree. One potential obstacle to that that particularly interests me are the creators themselves. I’ve heard that there’s a fair amount of resistance to digital distribution among manga-ka, either because they conceived their comics to be read on paper or because they’re concerned about unlimited reproduction of digital versions of their work. (Who left this barn door open?)

Now, I’ve only heard about this reluctance from a few people, but they strike me as people who are in a position to know. Still, it’s anecdotal, and I recognize that. But, running with the premise that this resistance exists to varying degrees, I’d like to ask you to engage in a little role playing. What argument (preferably diplomatic) would you make to a manga-ka to convince them of the benefits of more timely, less immediately profitable, digital delivery of their work? The obvious one is that it’s already happening without their participation or consent, and they might as well control it to whatever degree possible, but I’d like to hear your thoughts on the subject.

Updated: Simon Jones of the possibly not-safe-for-work Icarus Publishing blog cuts to the chase and asks “Why should publishers pay for digital rights?”

Updated: Jake Forbes, manga author, adapter and aficionado, stops by MangaBlog and takes everybody to the woodshed.

Filed under: Digital delivery, Linkblogging, Wishful thinking 8 Comments

By and about

March 24, 2010 by

I contributed to a list at Flashlight Worthy Books that observes Women’s History Month by recommending some “Graphic Novels: About Women. By Women.” I think it’s a great selection, but Fumi Yoshinaga shows up twice, so that was pretty much a given. What are some of your favorite titles that didn’t make the cut?

Filed under: Awards and lists, Linkblogging 2 Comments

Adapt this now

March 23, 2010 by

Over at the BBC News web site, Stuart Nicolson looks at a totally fascinating bit of history that involves… well… see for yourself:

“Hundreds of children aged from four to 14, some of them armed with knives and sharpened sticks, were patrolling inside the historic graveyard.”

Adding to the fascination is the fact that the incident was used to clamp down on 1950s horror comics.

Someone needs to turn this story into a graphic novel at his or her earliest convenience. My initial recommendations would go to Rick Geary if we’re talking about a straight-up historical retelling or Ted Naifeh if you wanted to fold in some actual supernatural elements.

Update: Tom Spurgeon points to this piece at The Horrors of It All that offers evidence that the urban legend about the iron-toothed vampire may well have had its origins in comics after all.

Filed under: Decency flaps, Linkblogging, Media Leave a Comment

Upcoming 3/24/2010

March 23, 2010 by

Depending on your tastes, it’s a relatively lean week for comics arrivals, but there are still some appealing options.

NBM releases the third in a series of graphic novels created in collaboration with the Louvre in Paris. It’s On the Odd Hours by Eric Liberge, and the preview pages are quite striking. Johanna (Comics Worth Reading) Draper Carlson has posted a favorable early review. NBM is offering a bargain if you purchase On the Odd Hours along with Nicolas De Crécy’s gorgeous Glacial Period.

Those of us who’ve been itching to see some of Eisner Hall of Fame nominee Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s early, pulpy dramas will have our itch scratched when Drawn and Quarterly releases Black Blizzard. D&Q doesn’t seem to have a permalink for the book yet, but scroll down a bit on this page and you can see some preview pages.

I’m much more interested in Dark Horse’s omnibus editions of CLAMP’s Cardcaptor Sakura, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that the first volume of the manga super-group’s Chobits is due on Wednesday. It’s about a struggling nerd who finds a computer shaped like a beautiful girl. It was originally licensed for English publication by Tokyopop until original publisher Kodansha withdrew its titles from Tokyopop and handed the relevant CLAMP titles over to Dark Horse, perhaps as a consolation prize for the fact that Kodansha yanked Akira and Ghost in the Shell from Dark Horse to sort-of launch its own comics-in-translation imprint. Next week on All My Licenses…

Speaking of properties that used to call Tokyopop home, Image releases the sixth issue of Brandon Graham’s King City. I’m not going to bother trying to link to this one, but I’ve been enjoying this series very much in pamphlet form, and the individual packages are very handsome things.

Viz has only one book to offer, and I bought it a couple of weeks ago at a bookstore. It’s the third omnibus edition of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece, collecting volumes seven, eight and nine. I’m of the opinion that all of Oda’s gifts as a creator really, truly come together in the ninth volume, but I’ll get into that in more detail at a later date, possibly Sunday, since that’s the day I seem to devote to my pitiful One Piece geek-outs. We now enter an unfortunate fallow period before the release of new volumes and the fourth omnibus. I may have to pick up the tenth, eleventh and twelfth volumes individually, though I may maintain my resolve to stick with the cheaper omnibuses.

Filed under: ComicList, Dark Horse, Drawn & Quarterly, Image, Linkblogging, NBM, Viz 1 Comment

And the losers are…

March 19, 2010 by

I’ve already fished through this year’s nominees for the Manga Taisho Award, and, like any sensible person, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the winner will be licensed by some generous publisher. But looking at the results, I found my sympathies extending to the losers. Surely it’s an honor just to be nominated, and there’s no shame in losing an award like this, but to have your exact ranking revealed? That’s… kind of harsh. So I thought I’d see what I could dig up about the bottom rung of Taisho candidates.

Kazuhiko Shimamoto’s Aoi Honoo launched in Shogakukan’s defunct Weekly Young Sunday, then moved to Monthly Shonen Sunday. It’s about a young man who dreams of becoming a manga-ka. I have to admit that portraits of the feckless youth of struggling artists are not always for me, unless those portraits are contained in Chica Umino’s Honey and Clover (Viz). Still, there must have been a good reason to nominate it, right?

Eriko Mishima’s Koukou Kyuji Zawa-san is being serialized in Shogakukan’s Big Comic Spirits and is about a girl who loves baseball, though I get the impression that it’s more for guys who like looking at girls who love baseball. Can anyone clarify this impression for me? (Speaking of manga about baseball, there was a flurry of excitement about this news from Viz.)

Mitsurou Kubo’s Moteki is being serialized in Kodansha’s Evening. It’s about a 28-year-old who, after a lifetime of indifference from the opposite sex, suddenly becomes popular and determines to date all comers. I can’t tell you how many times that’s happened to late-twenty-somethings of my acquaintance.

Akiko Higashimura’s Kuragehime is being serialized in Kodansha’s Kiss. It’s about a woman who moves to Tokyo to become a manga-ka and moves into a house full of hardcore fujoshi. It’s being adapted into an animated series.

Okay, so I’m not left in a fever of anticipation for any of the above to be licensed, and my initial wish list is still intact. But just because I’m always interested in this kind of thing, I thought I’d run a poll to see which Manga Taisho nominees interest you the most. (Yes, I know that Viz has Bakuman.)

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

Free to a good home: Bunny Drop

March 18, 2010 by

You’ve probably already noticed this, but I can be a little scattered. This quality can result in me winding up with more than one copy of the same comic. For instance, in a burst of josei boosterism, I grabbed a copy of Yumi Unita’s Bunny Drop (Yen Press) over the weekend, completely forgetting that I’d pre-ordered it through the comic shop. But you can profit from my absent-mindedness, as I’m giving away the unread extra.

You know what I think of the book, but a second opinion is always useful, so here’s Deb (About.Com) Aoki’s take:

“Bunny Drop could have been saccharine or silly – but instead, Unita gives readers a heartfelt, thoughtful and endearing slice-of-life story that will ring true for anyone who has ever loved or cared for a child.”

The last time I did one of these giveaways, I focused on fictional moms. This time around, we’ll concentrate on the father figures.

To enter, simply send me an email at DavidPWelsh at Yahoo dot Com that mentions your favorite comics father or father figure. Now, “favorite” need not necessarily mean “nice.” If there’s a perfectly dreadful father, grandfather, or male guardian that warms the cockles of your heart, he’s fair game. And by “comics,” I’m not limiting you to narrative comics from Japan. If the dad is drawn, he’s eligible, so that includes comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, and so on, from whatever country or time period you choose. If you already have a copy of Bunny Drop but still want to sing the praises of a compelling comics father figure, please feel free to do so in the comments.

Deadline for entries will be at 12 noon Eastern Standard Time Sunday, March 21, 2010. You must be 18 years of age or older to enter.

Filed under: Contests and giveaways, Linkblogging, Yen Press 9 Comments

And the winners are…

March 17, 2010 by

Over at The Comics Journal, Shaenon K. Garrity notes that Fumi Yoshinaga’s Ôoku: The Inner Chambers (Viz) is the first comic to win the Tiptree Award. Here’s a bit about the award itself:

“In February of 1991 at WisCon (the world’s only feminist-oriented science fiction convention), award-winning SF author Pat Murphy announced the creation of the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, an annual literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender.”

And here’s a bit of the inimitable Garrity’s reaction:

“Frankly, it blows my mind that the comics industry is producing work even worth consideration for this award. My expectations for the comics industry in the field of expanding or exploring our understanding of gender are not high. But, on reflection, there are a lot of interesting comics that explore gender and sexuality–maybe fewer specifically in the genre of science fiction, but the stuff is out there. It just doesn’t always get much attention.”

Anime News Network notes that Mari Yamazaki’s Thermae Romae (Enterbrain) has won the Manga Taisho Award:

“The gag manga deals with the two cultures in the world ‘that have loved baths the most: the Japanese and the Romans!’ The manga has been running Enterbrain’s Monthly Comic Beam magazine since 2008, and the first compiled book volume shipped in November.”

I repeat that I’m totally obsessed with Comic Beam. The more comics licensed from that magazine, the better.

Filed under: Awards and lists, Linkblogging 2 Comments
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