February debuts

Here are the manga, manhwa, and global manga debuts from the latest Previews, covering titles shipping in February. Whenever possible, I’ve linked directly to title information. As always, if I’ve missed something, let me know.

ALC

Works, by Eriko Tadeno

CMX

The Time Guardian, written by Daimuro Kishi and illustrated by Tamao Ichinose
Go Go Heaven!!, by Keiko Yamada

Dark Horse

Appleseed Book 1: The Promethean Challenge, by Shirow Masamune

Del Rey

Mamotte Lollipop, by Michiyo Kikuta

Digital Manga Publishing/Juné

The Moon and the Sandals, by Fumi Yoshinaga
Wagamama Kitchen, by Kaori Monchi

Drmaster

Chinese Hero, by Wing Shing Ma

Icarus Publishing

Taboo District

Ice Kunion

You’re So Cool, by Young Hee Lee

Kitty Press

Thunderbolt Boys Excite

NBM

Unholy Kinship, by Naomi Nowak

Netcomics

In the Starlight, by Kyungok Kang

Tokyopop

Divalicious, written by T. Campbell and illustrated by Amy Mebberson
Kedamono Damono, by Haruka Fukushima
Metamo Kiss, by Sora Omote
The Twelve Kingdoms, by Fuyumi Ono

Tokyopop Blu

Innocent Bird by Hirotaka Kisaragi

Viz Shojo Beat

Backstage Prince, by Kanoko Sakurakoji
Gentlemen’s Alliance, by Arina Tanemura

Yaoi Press

Yaoi Volume 1: Anthology of Boy’s Love, by Izanaki, Wilson, and Studio Kosaru
Desire of the Gods, by Insanity Team

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Thumbs up to the ComicList. They now provide a full list of releases for the week, plus a manga-centric version. (Of course, David Taylor has been providing the latter for ages.) As the MangaCasters note, it’s a big Wednesday for manga.

NETCOMICS releases six books, including the third volume of the excellent Dokebi Bride. If you’re curious, you can enter Love Manga’s Manhwa Competition to try and win a copy, or you can visit the publisher’s site and sample the first chapter for free.

It’s not on the ComicList, but the aforementioned MangaCasters say Broccoli’s Yoki Koto Kiku gets wide release this week. Adorable, murderous triplets scheme to get their hands on the family fortune, and hatchets fly with alarming frequency. (If my shaky memory serves, you can fill out a Broccoli survey and receive a free dust-jacket for the book.)

Graphix releases the second installment of Raina Telgemeier’s excellent adaptations of The Baby-Sitters Club books with The Truth About Stacey.

Go! Comi offers two new titles this week. In Night of the Beasts, a mysterious, dark-haired figure introduces a good-hearted teen-aged brawler to a supernatural destiny. It’s ShôjoBleach! After School Nightmare is set in what has to be the worst sex-ed class ever.

CMX enters the great Train Man race with its version of Densha Otoko, the story that launched a thousand manga. That just leaves Del Rey’s, right?

Love manhwa

David Taylor at Love Manga wants to introduce you to the wonderful world of manhwa. He’s sponsoring a Manhwa Competition, and all you have to do is tell him why you want the titles that are up for grabs from publishers like DramaQueen, Ice Kunion, and NETCOMICS.

More of the same

I know, I know… more linkblogging. What a surprise! Let’s start off with a round-up of manga reviews:

  • At PopCultureShock, Erin F. (of Manga Recon and MangaCast fame) takes a gander at Densha Otoko (Train Man) phenomenon, and Katherine Dacey-Tsuei reviews Omukae desu (CMX).
  • Back at the MangaCast mother ship, Jack Tse reviews Suzuka (Del Rey), D. Gray-man (Viz – Shonen Jump Advanced) and Q-Ko-Chan (Del Rey).
  • Updated to note: I missed a bunch, but Brigid didn’t, so go ye to MangaBlog.

At Crocodile Caucus, Lyle synthesizes much of the recent talk about manga anthologies and takes a look at comics anthologies past and present.

At Love Manga, David Taylor filters through the week’s ComicList for manga offerings. At the risk of repeating myself, god, finally.

Other Wednesday highlights include the concluding chapter of the first volume of Scott Chantler’s Northwest Passage (Oni Press), which I may have previously mentioned in passing. Or ad nauseum. And before I’ve even gotten around to reading Pyonyang: A Journey in North Korea, Drawn & Quarterly releases Guy Delisle’s Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China. A PDF preview of Shenzhen can be found here.

In truth, I’m still fixating over some of the books I bought over the weekend, particularly Dokebi Bride (NETCOMICS). I liked the first volume so much that I had to hit Amazon for the second.

On an unrelated note, I’m developing a horrible case of WordPress envy. I crave tags, but I worry that my web haplessness would lead to disaster if I tried to transition. Many others have survived the experience, so I’m sure I wouldn’t make too much of a muddle of it. We’ll see.