The Manga Curmudgeon

Spending too much on comics, then talking too much about them

You are here: Home / Archives for Linkblogging

Steals, sales and solicitations

by

So the big story of the day is unquestionably the… what should I call it? … apparent difference of opinion between Central Park Media and Japanese boys’-love publisher Libre, uncovered by the watchful folks of MangaCast. MangaCast Master of Ceremonies Ed Chavez and Dirk Deppey are on the trail, and unless I miss my guess, Simon Jones will have interesting things to say on the subject sooner or later. (No pressure, though.) (Update: Ask and you shall receive, though as always, the blog is probably not safe for work.)

On a less controversial front, MangaBlog’s Brigid looks through the Diamond graphic novel bestsellers for February and pulls out the top ten manga placers. Further down the list, I’m delighted to see the second volume of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Dark Horse) crack the top 100.

At Sporadic Sequential, John Jakala digs up an interview with the gifted, under-licensed Usamaru Furuya on the intersection of art, commerce and editorial influence.

Moving back into the present, it’s a pretty solid week at ComicList, including the third volume of Diamond bestseller Kurosagi. (I love typing that!) Also from Dark Horse is It Rhymes With Lust, one of the earliest graphic novels. Written by Arnold Drake and Leslie Waller and drawn by Matt Baker, the book was printed in a fairly recent issue of The Comics Journal, and fans of sexy pulp and noir would be doing themselves a favor in picking it up. If you’ve ever thrilled to Joan Crawford or Barbara Stanwyck stringing small-town suckers along for their own merciless gain, you’ll probably enjoy Rust’s amoral antics as well.

It seems like each week brings another volume of the works of Fumi Yoshinaga to the shelves, and this is all to the good. This time around, it’s Solfege from Juné. For those unfamiliar with Yoshinaga who might wonder what all the love is about, check out these overviews at Yaoi Suki and Guns, Guys and Yaoi.

Seven Seas was kind enough to send me a complimentary copy of the second volume of Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl, though I would have bought it anyways, because this series is such a pleasant surprise – funny, thoughtful, romantic, and often surprising.

And if you’re wondering what next month’s best-selling manga title might be, Viz rolls out the 12th volume of Fullmetal Alchemist, which makes for one of those happy intersections of quality entertainment and commercial success.

Monday linkblogging

by

Is “classic” an alluring adjective, and does literary merit guarantee longevity? Those are some of the questions on Robin Brenner’s mind at No Flying, No Tights:

“Then there’s my other problem: I keep running up against what Mark Twain identified as a classic: A book which people praise and don’t read. Perhaps I’m being harsh, but there are a fair number of graphic novels out there that may well be extraordinarily well crafted — but can anyone read them?”

Time’s running out to enter TangognaT’s blog anniversary manga give-away. She’s added some extra incentives and wonders where the love is for some of the titles up for grabs.

Writing for the Patriot-News, Chris Mautner goes deep into geek territory, looking at Genshiken (Del Rey) and Welcome to the N.H.K. (Tokyopop). I love the former, and I’m on the fence about sampling the latter. I feel like I should, because portrayals of otaku culture can’t all be good-natured benevolence, can they?

At Read About Comics, Greg McElhatton has high praise for the first volume of Housui Yamazaki’s Mail, giving it the edge over the Yamazaki-drawn Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (both from Dark Horse). I’m partial to Kurosagi, but I’ve really enjoyed both of the volumes of Mail that have been released so far.

And as soon as I clicked “Send” on the e-mail with this week’s Flipped column attached, I browsed around the blogosphere and discovered that Jog had written about the same topic (that everyone should buy Fumiyo Kouno’s sublime Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms from Last Gasp), only much, much better. Ah, well.

Obsession resumes

by

I was reading Kate Culkin’s PWCW profile of the delightful Aya (Drawn & Quarterly), and I came to a screeching halt when I read this:

“The ALA has nominated the book as one of its 2008 Great Graphic Novels for Teens.”

What?! There’s a new round of nominations?! Why wasn’t I informed?! To the search engine!

Ahhhh, Young Adult Library Services Association… it’s been too long.

Anyway, it’s a nice first round of nominees with some personal favorites (After School Nightmare, Emma, Goong) and some books I’m looking forward to reading (The Plain Janes, The Tiny Tyrant).

Weekend reading

by

It was nice to have a weekend with plenty of time to plow through the pile of unread comics that had reached teetering heights and threatened to crush a cat should it tumble. (Okay, I didn’t improve the stack’s structural integrity or promote feline welfare by going out and buying more comics. Blame it on the convergence of a personal shopping day and sufficient intestinal fortitude to brave the mall.)

I’d read and really enjoyed the preview proof of Keiko Takemiya’s To Terra… (Vertical), and reading the entire first volume only confirmed my high opinion of it. Jog has a splendid critique of the book and articulates one element that will probably weigh heavily in the book’s success or failure with individual readers:

“But is it a good story? That might come down to whether the reader shares the author’s apparent feelings on what makes a story good. Much lip-service is paid to how Japanese comics tend to be more focused on character and journeys than American comics, which concentrate on events and destinations. To Terra… is the type of Japanese comic that embodies that old notion completely, far more so than something like, say, Death Note, which under the hood is nearly as plot-focused as Uncanny X-Men. And plot-focused readers may find this book to be nagging in its slow pace and its endless twirls of its favored themes, inching through what’s truthfully not a fresh premise.”

From my perspective, the moments of emotional evolution the characters experience do count as what you might call plot beats, so I found To Terra… to be a fairly brisk read. I do agree with JennyN that the book could really benefit from some text pieces on Takemiya and her pioneering peers in the Magnificent Forty-Niners, but I’m kind of greedy for that kind of stuff.

On the fluff front, I continue to be mindlessly entertained by Kiyoko Arai’s Beauty Pop (Viz – Shojo Beat), now in its third volume. In a world of manga protagonists who view achievement as essential to continued existence, Kiri’s bored indifference to competition and success is like a breath of fresh air.

On the “I agree” front, Greg McElhatton takes a look at the first four issues of Welcome to Tranquility (Wildstorm) and notices one weakness that threatens to undermine the book’s other strengths:

“The town itself as a setting stands out as being really fresh and different (despite the fact that towns of superpowered people have been done before) thanks to [writer Gail] Simone’s careful crafting of the social dynamic, but that same amount of care and meticulous creation doesn’t feel like it’s been extended to the actual cast of the book.”

I find that I’m forcibly pacing myself on reading the stories in Gilbert Hernandez’s Heartbreak Soup collection (Fantagraphics), just because I want to savor the individual chapters. The characters are great company, and I want to prolong the experience of getting to know them.

And in this week’s Flipped, I take the sad occasion of the conclusion of Love Roma (Del Rey) to look at the series that are still around to delight and amaze.

Random Friday thoughts

by

To show my age, I’m going to admit that reading the last volume of Minoru Toyoda’s Love Roma (Del Rey) gave me something of the same bittersweet feeling as watching the final episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

*

I’ve always been suspect of the argument that it’s easier to get forgiveness than permission. This anecdote from Matt Thorn seems to confirm my suspicions.

*

Brigid’s interview with Fanfare’s Stephen Robson is illuminating, but all I could end up thinking was that my copy of Kan Takahama’s Awabi damned well better show up at my comic shop. I’m a short-sighted, selfish bastard.

*

If kids don’t love comics, they’re sure wasting a lot of energy pretending otherwise.

*

I don’t think attention automatically confers prestige. Sometimes attention is just a convergence of novelty, nostalgia and good timing. Here’s the teaser caption for the local college newspaper’s story on this week’s big spandex news: “Marvel Comics kills off one of its oldest superheroes in a political statement.”

*

I was reassured by my trip to the comic shop this week. When I was checking out, the clerk mentioned that she liked Welcome to Tranquility (Wildstorm) but would like it better if more attention was paid to the elderly characters instead of their angst-ridden heirs and well-intentioned caregivers. I thought that might have been an age-specific complaint, but she’s roughly the same age as the comic’s twenty-something whiners. In fairness, she might get her fill of self-styled outsider poseurs, given that she works at a comics shop in a college town, and not need any of the fictional variety.

We agreed that the driving mystery is pretty nifty, though.

*

False economy story problem: Is it worth coping with the aggravation of the local shopping mall to make use of my personal shopping day at Waldenbooks? I hate to admit it, but the store does have a more varied (if smaller) selection of titles than the local Barnes & Noble. And does navigating a sea of ‘tweens burn enough calories to justify consumption of a jalapeño pretzel?

*

The ground squirrel that lives around our house came out of hibernation just in time for the season’s first real blizzard. That seems like a metaphor for something.

On the Rising

by

Brigid has the details on Tokyopop’s seventh Rising Stars of Manga Competition, and there are some aspects of this year’s event that really jumped out at me.

“Eight winners will share equal prizes, taking the top spot in one of eight different genre-based categories: Action, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Romance or Sci-Fi.”

This strikes me as a terrific idea. All of these genres require different skill sets and showcase talents in unique ways, and it seems like it will give Tokyopop a chance to compare apples to apples. (And even among apples, there’s still tremendous variety. Pink Ladies! Grannies Smith! Golden Delicious!) It still must have been kind of mind-bending to categorize them, What if somebody submits a comedy-fantasy-romance? Or a horror-sci-fi-mystery? Maybe they should add an “Uncategorizable Fusion” genre next year.

It’s pretty amazing that the competition has grown to the point that they have enough submissions to present eight different $1,000 awards, plus $500 for the People’s Choice. Twenty-four finalists are vying for the People’s Choice prize, and you can view them and vote here.

Now I just have to overcome my archaic resistance to reading comics online to sample the contestants’ work.

The shipping news

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.)

Quick manga links

by

At MangaBlog, Brigid chats with Yen Press guru Kurt Hassler about the imprint’s possible manga magazine and other schemes so crazy they just might work.

TangognaT is celebrating the fourth anniversary of her blog by giving away some awesome books.

The Beat points to T. Campbell’s sum-up of the webcomics panel at the New York Comic Con, with plenty of focus on Netcomics and its business model. The recently announced Netcomics/Yaoi Press partnership is one of the things that has (not safe for work) Simon Jones wondering if digital delivery’s time has finally come.

Boy, I categorized the hell out of this one, didn’t I? Fear my flagrant abuse of WordPress functionalities!

Elephantine

by

When people talk about comics, they can mean a lot of different things. They can be referring to super-heroes or manga or Art Spiegelman or Doonesbury or webcomics or any of a seemingly limitless list of niches or combinations of niches. Heck, talking about manga alone doesn’t guarantee any common frame of reference. They could be talking about any one or more of a number of patches within the landscape of that term.

So when I read that much–discussed item from the Mercury-News, I just assumed that it was missing some key modifiers. Insert “super-hero” before “comics” or “published by Marvel and DC” after, and it holds up a lot better.

Of course, mentally inserting those modifiers doesn’t guarantee you’ll buy the article’s central argument – that the audience for super-hero comics is graying and that the comics themselves are actively unfriendly to younger readers. The American Library Association didn’t have any trouble finding items from Marvel and DC’s catalogs to recommend to younger readers, and none of their recommendations bore the “Marvel Adventures” or “Johnny DC” stamp. Whether that suggests kids read up or that Marvel and DC’s comics themselves aren’t all that mature in spite of the trappings of some of their content is another debate entirely.

Whenever one of these discussions comes up, I’m always reminded of this parable, but especially so in this case because of J.K. Parkin at Blog@Newsarama. (Again, argument could ensue over the comparison. Who wants to be the snake-like tail or the leathery hide when you could be the big, floppy ears or the oh-so-useful trunk or the big, stompy feet?) It’s bound to rankle when someone purports to be talking about comics in general while maintaining a death grip on only one of its body parts, whether it’s this article’s conflations or a publisher blithely suggesting that no one has effectively targeted the young female demographic or what have you.

It doesn’t mean the average reader has to interest themselves in the whole elephant. But placing the parts in context is always nice, even if you aren’t trying to say anything about the whole.

(Edited to correct a misattribution in one of the links.)