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Upcoming 3/4/2009

March 3, 2009 by

A quick look at this week’s ComicList:

Okay, now it’s confirmed… the arrival of the second volume of Lewis Trondheim’s Little Nothings: The Prisoner Syndrome (NBM). I should really take that “Release not confirmed by Diamond” note seriously, shouldn’t I? Anyway, the first volume was a delight, leading me to strongly suspect that the second volume will be one too.

Viz makes up for a couple of weeks of relative silence by crushing us all under the massive weight of its releases.

  • Gin Tama Vol. 11, written and illustrated by Hideaki Sorachi: I really need to catch up with this series. It’s very funny.
  • High School Debut Vol. 8, written and illustrated by Kazune Kawahara: I maintain that this is only the second-best adolescent romance series in the Shojo Beat line, but when the best is Sand Chronicles, there’s no shame in that.
  • Honey and Clover Vol. 5, written and illustrated by Chica Umino: Even if there was a lot of competition among college-set romantic comedies, this one would still be the best. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to see more comics vying for the title.
  • Nana Vol. 15, written and illustrated by Ai Yazawa: From high school to college to early adulthood, Shojo Beat has your developmentally appropriate appetite for angst covered.

    • Viz has a lot more to offer, including four volumes of Naruto, which should sew up the BookScan and USA Today rankings rather neatly for the month. Assuming you give any weight to those sorts of things, of course.

    Updated to correct an omission: In the comments, James Moar reminded me that my eyes scanned right past the first volume of Koji Kumeta’s Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei, due from Del Rey. This was dumb of me, because I’ve very much enjoyed what I’ve read of the book. It’s a very offbeat comedy about a suicidal teacher and his students, who are odd enough to drive sensitive persons to drastic measures, if they weren’t already so inclined. Give it a look.

    Filed under: ComicList, Del Rey, NBM, Viz 3 Comments

    Stuff wisely

    February 18, 2009 by

    So the Harvey Awards nomination process is underway, and creative types can make a bid to recognize their favorite peers and works in a wide variety of categories. You may remember me keening and gnashing my teeth over some of last year’s nominations.

    For a change of pace, I thought I’d go the Force Works/Extreme Justice proactive route this year. Instead of recoiling in horror at the prospect of ever seeing the phrase “Harvey Award winner Witchblade Manga,” I’ve decided to take a stab at prevention. Toward that end, here are some books from 2008 that you might consider for the Best American Edition of Foreign Material category:

  • Aya of Yop City, written by Marguerite Abouet and illustrated by Clément Oubrerie, published by Drawn & Quarterly
  • Disappearance Diary, written and illustrated by Hideo Azuma, published by Fanfare/Ponent Mon
  • Dororo, written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka, published by Vertical
  • Fluffy, written and illustrated by Simone Lia, published by Dark Horse
  • Little Nothings: The Curse of the Umbrella, written and illustrated by Lewis Trondheim, published by NBM
  • Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip – Book Three, written and illustrated by Jansson, published by Drawn & Quarterly
  • Real, written and illustrated by Takehiko Inou, published by Viz
  • Seduce Me after the Show, written and illustrated by est em, published by Deux Press
  • Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro, written and illustrated by Satoko Kiyuduki, published by Yen Press
  • solanin, written and illustrated by , published by Viz

    • There. Ten perfectly respectable potential nominations for your consideration. (And everyone should feel free to contribute their own suggestions in the comments.) I should also note that several of these books are also eligible for other awards.

    Filed under: Awards and lists, Dark Horse, Deux, Drawn & Quarterly, Fanfare/Ponent Mon, NBM, Vertical, Viz, Yen Press 1 Comment

    Upcoming 2/11/2009

    February 10, 2009 by

    A quick look at this week’s ComicList:

    A panel from Lewis Trondheim's blog-comic, <i>Little Nothings</i>

    A panel from Lewis Trondheim's blog-comic, Little Nothings

    All due respect to the other fine items shipping on Wednesday, but the clear pick of the week is the second print collection of Lewis Trondheim’s excellent, observational blog-comic, Little Nothings, this one called “The Prisoner Syndrome.” The first collection was a real treat, one of the most entertaining books of 2008.

    Here’s some good timing. DrMaster is releasing a set of two volumes of Yuki Fujisawa’s Metro Survive right on the heels of their inclusion on the 2009 Great Graphic Novels for Teens list. It sounds like just the thing for people who enjoyed Minetaro Mochizuki’s tense survival drama Dragon Head (Tokyopop), which was everyone, right? Or at least everyone who read it?

    Linda Medley’s gently fractured fairy tale Castle Waiting (Fantagraphics) is one of the few pamphlet comics I still buy. It’s a real charmer, though I always suspect I’d do better to buy it all in a big collected chunk. That’s probably because I was introduced to the series that way. If you haven’t had the pleasure, I strongly recommend you track down the hardcover collection of the first volume of stories.

    I need to get on the stick and catch up with Park SoHee’s charming royal soap opera Goong (Yen Press), as I seem to be about a volume behind. The fourth shows up on Wednesday.

    Filed under: ComicList, Drmaster, Fantagraphics, NBM, Yen Press 2 Comments

    While it lasts

    February 9, 2009 by

    Before the direct market collapses and Diamond’s Previews catalog slims down to the rough thickness of two issues of Entertainment Weekly, let’s take a look and see what the February 2009 edition has to offer, shall we?

    Dark Horse offers the fifth volume of Adam Warren’s smutty, hilarious, and heartwarming Empowered. This is truly appalling fan service repurposed for good. I don’t know how to explain or justify that statement, but trust me, the book is terrific. (Page 38, FEB09 0052)

    Cherish the “Offered Again” listings while you can. They allow me to rectify the error of not ordering Faith Erin Hicks’ warmly received The War at Ellsmere (Amaze Ink/Slave Labor Graphics). (Page 198, FEB09 4023)

    One of the most anticipated graphic novels of the year is due to arrive from Drawn & Quarterly. It’s Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s A Drifting Life, a massive (840 pages) autobiography from the founding father of alternative manga. (Page 263, FEB09 4254)

    First Second offers Dong Hwa Kim’s coming-of-age romance, The Color of Earth, which looks really lovely. (Page 270, FEB09 4289)

    It’s a good month for manhwa, as NBM delivers Mijeong, a collection of short stories by Byun Byung-Jun, creator of the marvelous Run, Bong-Gu, Run! (Page 287, FEB09 4402)

    Viz offers another volume of culinary treasure Oishinbo, written by Tetsu Kariya and illustrated by Akira Hanasaki. This installment looks at ramen and dumplings. Mmm… dumplings. (Page 311, FEB09 4482)

    Filed under: Dark Horse, Drawn & Quarterly, First Second, NBM, Previews, Slave Labor Graphics, Viz 1 Comment

    Upcoming and incoming for 1/28/2009

    January 28, 2009 by

    A few quick links before we get to new arrivals from this week’s ComicList:

  • Deb Aoki posts results from the 2008 Best New Shonen readers’ poll at About.Com.
  • Johanna Draper Carlson shares a preview of Mijeong (NBM), another book from Byun Byung-Jun, the gifted creator of Run, Bong-Gu, Run!
  • GLAAD appreciates people who like us, who really, really like us.

    • Now, onto the Wednesday haul.

    Del Rey has three books that catch my eye: the fifth volume of Hiro Mashima’s fun, lively Fairy Tail, the second of Miwa Ueda’s twisted-sister drama Papillion, and the sixth of Hitoshi Iwaaki’s enduringly awesome Parasyte.

    HarperCollins delivers a second printing of Paul Gravett’s excellent Graphic Novels: Everything You Need to Know. It’s a terrific overview of a medium that’s tricky to summarize. Gravett pulled off a similar trick with his essential Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics.

    In a similar vein, Netcomics offers Manhwa 100: The New Era for Illustrated Comics, promising a compilation that represents the Korean comic book industry.

    Tokyopop’s big offering for the week is Benjamin’s full-color manhua Orange. Brigid Alverson shared a preview at MangaBlog, and Paul Gravett recently posted an interview with the creator conducted by Rebeca Fernandez. The other highlight from Tokyopop is the fourth volume of Ai Morinaga’s Your and My Secret, gender-bending comedy at its very best.

    Filed under: Awards and lists, ComicList, Del Rey, HarperCollins, Linkblogging, NBM, Netcomics, Tokyopop 3 Comments

    Upcoming 1/7/2009

    January 7, 2009 by

    The comics industry still seems to be getting back up to full speed after the holidays, but there are still a couple of very notable items on this week’s ComicList:

    First is the eighth volume of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Dark Horse), written by Eiji Otsuka and drawn by Housui Yamazaki. I don’t know what else I can say about this series, other than that it’s delightfully quirky and cheerfully morbid and you should all buy it.

    Second is the soft-cover version of Rick Geary’s The Lindbergh Child, from his Treasury of 20th Century Murder series (NBM). Do you remember when you were a kid in school and you wanted to do something cool with a reporter or project, and you thought it would be really fun and entertaining and educational, all at the same time? Geary’s crime histories always turn out like the cool project you envisioned (instead of the night-before reality).

    Filed under: ComicList, Dark Horse, NBM 1 Comment

    Upcoming 12/4/2008

    December 3, 2008 by

    Just a couple of highlights from this week’s ComicList:

    I thought Faith Erin Hicks showed a lot of promise with Zombies Calling (SLG), so I’ll definitely give her follow-up, The War at Ellsmere (SLG), a close look.

    NBM gives you a third chance to purchase Nicolas DeCrécy’s Glacial Period, a graphic novel created under the sponsorship of the Louvre. DeCrécy takes a fanciful, futuristic look at the institution through the eyes of a team of archeologists who are trying to excavate the cultural repository, now buried under show and ice. It’s great fun. I reviewed it here.

    Filed under: ComicList, NBM, Slave Labor Graphics Leave a Comment

    Upcoming 10/15/2008

    October 14, 2008 by

    This week’s ComicList has me wondering if there’s a comics equivalent of the movie industry’s Oscar Bait Season. Maybe a Ten Best List Season? Because there are a lot of potentially intriguing books coming out tomorrow.

    Rutu Mordan’s Exit Wounds (Drawn & Quarterly) was easily one of the most warmly received books of 2007. I thought that book was really solid, though I wasn’t transported by it to the degree that a lot of other readers were. Anyway, Mordan’s follow-up, Jamilti and Other Stories, arrives tomorrow via D&Q.

    I like Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods a lot, but I tend to be generally fond of reconfigured fairy tales. (Though oddly enough, the very idea of a musical version of Gregory Maguire’s Wicked makes me cringe, Kristin Chenoweth or no Kristin Chenoweth.) So I’m inclined to take a look at There’s a Wolf at the Door (First Second) written by Zoey Alley and beautifully illustrated by R.W. Alley. You know all those wolves in popular fairy tales? This book posits that all those stories happened to the same wolf.

    NBM has become one of those publishers where I’m automatically inclined to pay attention to their releases, what with Rick Geary’s books and Glacial Period and Run, Bong-Gu, Run! This week’s eye-catcher is Dirk Schwieger’s Moresukine, which is based on Schwieger’s blog. “Assignment: Pod Hotel” is probably enough to get me to track it down, because the prospect of sleeping in a tube triggers all of my claustrophobic nightmares.

    I was e-mailing back and forth with an editor at Viz about something entirely unrelated, and he made a point of talking up Asano Inio’s Solanin. It features a recent college graduate who “struggles with the feeling that she’s just not cut out to be a part of the real world.” (I hate to break it to her, but that feeling doesn’t go away with time.) A done-in-one josei series in a big fat package? Why yes, thank you, I’d love one.

    Filed under: ComicList, Drawn & Quarterly, First Second, NBM, Viz 2 Comments

    Upcoming 8/13/2008

    August 12, 2008 by

    You would think that the comics pick of the week would be a gimme. I mean, Fanfare/Ponent Mon is releasing Hideo Azuma’s Disappearance Diary. In fact, you generally only need to type “Fanfare/Ponent Mon is releasing…” to guarantee pick-of-the-week standing. And Disappearance Diary is an excellent, unusual comic book that’s absolutely well worth your time and money. (I reviewed the book here.) So it’s a lock, right? But…

    It’s also generally true that you can begin a pick-of-the-week sentence with “NBM is releasing a new installment of Rick Geary’s Treasury of…” and feel reasonably confident that you won’t be easily contradicted. So we also have Geary’s Treasury of 20th Century Murder: The Lindbergh Child to greedily anticipate. (Seriously, if you haven’t treated yourself to any of Geary’s Treasury of Victorian Murder books, you need to be nicer to yourself. Much, much nicer.)

    More often than not, you can begin a pick-of-the-week sentence with “New from First Second is…”, though not if that sentence finishes with “Life Sucks.” Eddie Campbell (collaborating with Dan Best) seems like a much safer bet, and I will certainly pick up a copy of The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard at some point.

    Okay, moving on from the pick-of-the-week face-off, we reach the eye-catching oddity. First of all, Viz seems to be publishing its own Gantz equivalent, with Rei Hiroe’s Black Lagoon. I admit that the price point ($12.95) was what first caught my eye, because it made me think they’d added something to the Signature imprint. But no, it’s a rated-“Mature” book about mercenaries with characters named things like “Revy Two Hand,” which triggers both my curiosity and my Not for Me Alarm.

    Lastly, a return to my comfort zone. I very much enjoyed the first volume of Uhm JungHyun’s Forest of the Gray City, originally from ICE Kunion. Yen Press has picked up the manhwa consortium’s catalog, and the second volume of Forest arrives Wednesday. It has a very josei feel to it, featuring a working woman who takes in a hunky male boarder to pay off some of her debts. It’s got lovely art and a smart, sexy vibe overall.

    Filed under: ComicList, Fanfare/Ponent Mon, First Second, NBM, Viz, Yen Press 5 Comments

    Upcoming 7/23/2008

    July 22, 2008 by

    In honor of Entertainment Weekly’s recent redesign, I’m going to start putting random phrases in boldfaced type. Okay, no, I’m not. Well, maybe just this once.

    Now, on to this week’s ComicList:

    Yen Press releases the first issue of its anthology, Yen Plus, featuring licensed work from Japan and Korea and original series from the likes of James Patterson and Svetlana Chmakova. (How often do you get to type phrases like that? Maybe I should bold it.) Is anyone else frightened by Pig Bride as a title? Outside of VH1’s slate of reality shows, how can a series live up to that name?

    The thing about Rick Geary’s Treasury of Victorian Murder series (NBM) is that I’ll mention every book in the series every time it shows up on a shipping list, because Geary is just that good. This week’s re-release is the paperback version of The Murder of Abraham Lincoln, which I reviewed here.

    Del Rey rolls out two new series this week. First up is Kasumi, written by Surt Lim and drawn by Hirofumi Sugimoto. It’s about a girl who can turn invisible, and Leroy Douresseaux liked a lot. Deb Aoki interviewed the creators for About.Com.

    The other debut, Kujubiki Unbalance, created by Kio Shimoku and Koume Keito, is about as meta as it gets. Those who read Shimoku’s wonderful Genshiken will recognize the series as the oft-referenced touchstone property of a bunch of the characters in that book. (If you can’t be counted among those who read Genshiken, you might want to correct that.)

    Last but not least is the second volume of Yuko Osada’s fun travel adventure, Toto. Sure, it’s got plucky ‘tweens with big dreams, but it also has an adorable, weaponized dog.

    Filed under: ComicList, Del Rey, NBM, Yen Press 2 Comments
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