Deb Aoki has another poll out, this one focused on 2008’s Best New Original English Language Manga. I voted for Nina Matsumoto’s funny, polished Yokaiden (Del Rey), but I suspect all will be crushed in the wave of support for Anima (Yaoi Press), by Dany and Dany. In the handful of hours since the poll was posted, Anima has already received more votes than the two front-runners in the shojo poll have in a week.
Oldies, goodies
January 12, 2009 by
Deb Aoki is still going strong with her manga polls over at About.Com, this time asking readers to vote for the Best New Edition of Classic or Reissued Manga of 2008. Strong as the field is (though it’s sad that there’s only one eligible title by a woman), I had to go with Osamu Tezuka’s Dororo (Vertical), which was funny and moody and tragic and bizarre in that singularly Tezuka way.
Speaking of Tezuka, Matthew J. Brady has a great back-and-forth with his younger brother Noah, over at Warren Peace Sings the Blues. Tezuka features prominently in the discussion, and while neither demonstrates proper reverence for the Creepy Little Tumor, the Dororo love is rewarding.
Big reader
January 12, 2009 by
Writing for The New York Times, publishing beat reporter Motoko Rich mixes things up by reporting some good news for a change. According to a survey conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts, adults are reading more books just for the pleasure of it:
“‘There has been a measurable cultural change in society’s commitment to literary reading,’ said Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. ‘In a cultural moment when we are hearing nothing but bad news, we have reassuring evidence that the dumbing down of our culture is not inevitable.'”
The NEA initiative is called The Big Read, and it has its own blog. Here’s the link to the survey, though it doesn’t seem to be loading for me at the moment.
I haven’t had enough coffee yet to figure out how they might do this, but it would be neat if comics publishers participated in some way. The Times article doesn’t specifically mention graphic fiction, but I don’t get the impression that it’s excluded. I’d like to see the NEA ask if the increase in reading for pleasure (or just what portion of reading for pleasure) is contributed by comics.
Slam dunk
January 9, 2009 by
The choices just keep coming from Deb Aoki at About.Com. This time, she’s asking readers to pick the Best Josei (Women’s) Manga of 2008. This one was a bit easier for me, as my heart belongs to Chica Umino’s Honey and Clover (Viz).
Tough one
January 8, 2009 by
At About.Com, Deb Aoki continues her poll series asking for visitors to vote for the Best New Seinen (Men’s) Manga of 2008. While there are lots of great books on the ballot, I’m going to have to go with Hideo Azuma’s Disappearance Diary (Fanfare/Ponent Mon) for its combination of publishing ambition and entertainment value. But it really is quite a varied list with lots of quality entries for a variety of tastes.
You thought you were done with voting for a while
January 7, 2009 by
Over at About.Com, Deb Aoki is running polls on 2008’s Best New Shonen Manga and Best New Shojo Manga series.
In case you’re curious, I picked Hiro Mashima’s Fairy Tail (Del Rey) in the Shonen poll and Hinako Ashihara’s Sand Chronicles (Viz) in the Shojo run-off. Neither choice was particularly easy, as there are fun new series on both ballots. The Shojo pick was particularly tough, what with books like Ai Morinaga’s Your and My Secret and Kazune Kawahara’s High School Debut in the running.
Wrong, but how wrong?
January 6, 2009 by
I enjoy all of the stories in Vertical’s collections of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack, but I feel kind of off in that my favorite stories feature Black Jack’s creepy little ward, ambulatory tumor Pinoko. In part, it’s because she’s just so wrong on every level. It’s also that the relationship between anti-social vigilante Black Jack and utterly tragic sidekick Pinoko always strikes me as a stripped-to-its-disturbed-core version of Batman and Robin.
So for today’s survey, how wrong is that?
Just curious
December 4, 2008 by
Allow six to eight weeks for delivery
November 20, 2008 by
Friday poll 10/24/2008
October 24, 2008 by
Looking at the official selections recently announced by Angoulême, which book would you most like to see made available in English?
