Here are five items that struck me as particularly noteworthy from the current Previews catalog, and since orders are due tomorrow, I thought I should get off the pot and mention them.
Top five
September 14, 2007 by
Previews review
August 11, 2007 by
There’s plenty of joy in the latest Previews catalog, and while orders are due many places today, timeliness issues have never stopped me before.
ADV delivers the fifth volume of Kiyohiko Azuma’s absolutely wonderful Yotsuba&! (Page 215, AUG07 2389). I would link to the information on ADV’s web site, if such a wondrous thing existed in this day and age, so you’ll just have to settle for Amazon’s listing.
More Fumi Yoshinaga is always worth noting, and Digital Manga delivers with Garden of Dreams, a shôjo title set in Victorian England (Page 280, AUG07, 3580).
The easy pick of the month is the second volume of Moomin: The Complete Tove Jannson Comic Strip from Drawn & Quarterly (Page 286, AUG07, 3600). It’s glorious, timeless stuff, and it’s been beautifully packaged.
Lots of people loved Lat’s Kampung Boy, and :01 follows up with Town Boy (Page 289, AUG07 3662). If you missed out on Kampung Boy, that’s available for re-order as well (AUG07 3663).
If you aren’t already delirious, there’s more Andy Runton with the fourth volume of Owly: Don’t Be Afraid (or A Time to Be Brave) from Top Shelf (Page 354, AUG07 4028).
Upcoming 7/25
July 24, 2007 by
The ComicList is showing up a little funky on my monitor, so I’ve headed back to the wellspring to look at this week’s shipping list.
The easy pick of the week is CMX’s new release of Mashashi Tanaka’s Gon. I’ve looked at a preview, and it’s as gorgeous as I expected. Just look at what Katherine Dacey-Tsuei has to say over in her Weekly Recon column. (I’m in complete agreement with her review of Pretty Face, too. Between this and Strawberry 100%, I’m thinking Viz might be on the verge of announcing a new fanservice brand.)
It’s a good week for CMX, as they also release a new volume of one of my favorite shôjo series, Sakura Tsukuba’s Penguin Revolution. Sure, it’s gender-bending pop idol silliness, but it’s genuinely funny and features great characters.
I’m a little leery of the title of Friends of Lulu’s The Girls’ Guide to Guys’ Stuff. What kind of “guys’ stuff” are we talking about here? If it’s all team sports and Radio Shack and gas grills and boxers versus briefs, I couldn’t conceivably care less. And what kind of guys are under consideration? Straight guys? Enlightened or troglodytic? Gay guys? Bi- or metro- or pansexual guys? All of the above? There are so many unanswered questions, which leads me to conclude that it’s… kind of a bad title, not unlike Sexy Chix.
I’m horribly behind in my comics reading, what with one distraction or another, so I haven’t waded too far into another anthology, Postcards: True Stories That Never Happened. I absolutely share the fascination with these cultural artifacts, though, and I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the book. I kind of hope editor Jason Rodriguez pulls back a bit on the rest of his introductory pieces, which show a tendency to gush in the early going.
Diamonds
June 27, 2007 by
Okay, when I come home from the comics shop, I usually read… y’know… comics, but I find myself distracted by all kinds of manga craziness in the new Previews catalog.
CMX launches a new line for mature readers featuring two horror titles. The first is Kanako (School Zone) Inuki’s Presents. The second is Iqura Sugimoto’s Variante, which sounds kind of like Parasyte. They’ll both be in a larger format (5.5” x 8”) at a slightly higher price ($12.99). I’d also like to note that the cover for the second volume of Masashi Tanaka’s Gon is the cutest thing ever.
Horror fans will be pleased to see Viz give the Signature treatment to two works by Junji Ito – Uzumaki and Gyo, which they’d published previously. I haven’t read Gyo, but Uzumaki is amazingly creepy, for the most part.
Tokyopop gets on the omnibus with “Ultimate Editions” of Battle Royale, Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy, and Fruits Basket, collecting multiple volumes at a time in a hardcover packaging. Royale ($24.99) and Warcraft ($29.99) collect three volumes per, though Fruits Basket ($14.99) seems to stick to two.
In other Tokyopop news, they seem to have cut back a bit on their Previews pages, skipping the cover images for many of their longer-running series and going with more conventional listings, concentrating the illustrations on new series and products. (They still provide cover art for a good half of those end-of-the-section listings, though.) One of the books getting the full treatment is Kozue Amano’s Aqua, which I would be looking forward to even if the solicitation didn’t include the possibly snarky promise of a “refreshed translation.”
(The publisher’s revised web site isn’t quite up and running yet, as has been noted elsewhere, but I’ll add links when it goes live, provided the redesign doesn’t drive me mad… MAD! It could happen.)
Yen Press arrives with the release of Keiko Tobe’s With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child. It’s hard to settle on a pick of the month, but this one’s definitely in the running. (Yen hasn’t gotten any farther with its web site, but here’s an ICv2 article on the book.)
I’m pretty sure that these had been solicited previously, but Fanfare/Ponent Mon re-lists Kan Takahama’s Awabi and Jiro Taniguchi’s The Ice Wanderer. Nouvelle bliss!
(What is it with the shortage of usable permalinks? I feel like I’m wearing oven mitts as I format this!)
Previews review
June 11, 2007 by
It’s time for a look through the latest Diamond Previews catalog! (Only slightly related, but it’s also time for a lot of publishers to updated their web pages!)
Sometimes all it takes is a gorgeous illustration to make me want a book, and that’s certainly the case with Mi-Kyung Yun’s Bride of the Water God (Dark Horse, page 44). In my defense, the plot sounds interesting too, with a human sacrifice getting even more than she bargained for.
Sample pages (and great-looking art) go a long way towards piquing my interest in Mike and Louise Carey and Aaron Alexovich’s Confessions of a Blabbermouth (DC – Minx, pages 118-120). The fact that it’s about a blogger probably doesn’t hurt either.
For those of you who passed on Andi Watson and Simon Gane’s Paris (Amaze Ink/SLG, page 218) in single issues, it’s being released in collected form. The story is okay – two very different girls meet and fall in love in the City of Light – but the art is truly wonderful.
I snickered at part of the solicitation for Hoyuta Fujiyama’s Ordinary Crush (DMP – Juné, page 286) – “in an all boys school where 90% of the students are gay” – until I remembered the rumors about some of the parochial schools in the area where I grew up.
Well, lots of people have been wondering about the health of Ice Kunion, given shifting shipping dates and an unresponsive web site, but they’ve got listings in this month’s catalog (page 309). Take that for whatever it’s worth, which might be nothing.
My adorability sensors have been triggered by Mizuo Shinonome’s Chibimono (Infinity Studios, page 319). It’s about a guardian spirit for household items with some serious memory problems.
Bryan Lee O’Maley’s Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together (Oni Press, page 330) is almost here. That is all.
Vertical offers more classic stuff from Keiko (To Terra…) Takemia with Andromeda Stories (page 368), the first of a three-volume science fiction story.
There’s no cover image to lure me, but I’ll give anything in Viz’s Signature line a look. The latest addition is Taiyo Matsumoto’s TEKKONKINKREET: Black and White. (Okay, so it’s just a repackaging of a series that Viz has published previously. It’s still nice that they’re giving older, weirder books from their catalog another shot at an audience.)
Suddenly next fall
April 29, 2007 by
When I do these trawls through Diamond’s Previews catalog, I generally try and limit my focus to new series and graphic novels. Sometimes, that’s just impossible.
After over a year and a half in limbo, ADV will release a new volume of Kiyohiko Azuma’s delightful Yotsuba&! I could stop right there and be perfectly happy. (Page 217.) I won’t, obviously.
A new collection of Phil and Kaja Foglio’s funny fantasy adventure, Girl Genius (Airship), is always good news. The sixth trade paperback is listed on page 221, and I’ve reviewed previous volumes here, here and here.
David Petersen’s beautiful Mouse Guard (Archaia) was one of the surprise hits of last year, which leads me to suppose that the sequel, Winter 1152, will also be a hit, but not a surprising one. (Page 230.)
Aurora enters the Previews fray with two listings: Makoto Tateno’s Hate to Love You, described as “Romeo and Romeo,” and Chihiro Tamaki’s Walkin’ Butterfly, a shôjo series about an aspiring model. (Page 238.)
I had expected more of a wait for the second volume of Adam Warren’s sweetly subversive, cheerfully shameless piece of cheesecake, Empowered. Apparently not, which is certainly good news. I reviewed the first volume here. (Page 45.)
Dark Horse dabbles in shôjo with Kazuhiro Okamoto’s Translucent, about a girl who’s starting to turn invisible. My teen-angst metaphor sensors are pinging, but in a good way. (Page 47.)
If Tokyopop’s Dragon Head and Viz’s The Drifting Classroom aren’t adequately feeding your need for student survivalist drama, Del Rey launches Tadashi Kawashima’s Alive. There goes that metaphor sensor again! (Page 272.)
I must have been experiencing a shortage of serotonin last weekend, because I ordered a big box of Fumi Yoshinaga manga from Amazon. I read it all in a sitting, and I think my aura transformed from a dingy gray to a cloud of flowers that were sparkling in a slightly ironic fashion. I really recommend it, and manga publishers like Blu, 801 and Juné seem determined to keep these mood-elevating supplements in ample supply. Juné launches Don’t Say Anymore Darling (page 289) and releases the third volume of Flower of Life (page 290). I don’t know why DMP is publishing it in the Juné imprint [Edited to note that they actually aren’t, and I’m just blurring things in my feeble brain], because there doesn’t seem to be any ai among the shônen, but I don’t really care, because I love the series to a positively embarrassing extent.
Fantagraphics releases the second volume of Gilbert Hernandez’s marvelous Palomar stories in Human Diastrophism. (Page 302.) I reviewed the first volume here.
Go! Comi adds more shônen to its line up with the first volume of Yu Yagami’s Hikkatsu. (Page 308.) In it, the protagonist can use martial arts to repair appliances. Since the ice maker in my refrigerator has been on the fritz for weeks, this concept appeals to me.
While the concept of Oni’s The Apocalipstix doesn’t really speak to me – post-apocalyptic rocker girls! – I’m crazy about Cameron Stewart’s art, and he’s teamed up with writer Ray Fawkes for this original graphic novel. (Page 335.)
Back on Yoshinaga patrol, Tokyopop’s Blu imprint offers Truly Kindly, a collection of shorts from the mangaka. Let’s see… I love Yoshinaga, and I love manga shorts. We’ll mark that down as a “yes.” (Page 365.)
I will rename it "The Month of David"
April 6, 2007 by
Each June, comics publishers seem to join forces to drive me to poverty. Based on the latest Previews catalog, 2007 will be no exception. At least the weather will be warm.
The manga arrival of the month would have to be Masashi Tanaka’s Gon, in a new edition from CMX. Wordless, gorgeously illustrated stories about a tiny dinosaur who defends “the friendly and furry from the mean and hungry.” Sorry, Avril. (Pages 96 to 98.)
I’ve enjoyed a lot of comics either written or written and drawn by Andi Watson (Little Star, Love Fights, Paris, Princess at Midnight), so I’ll definitely give Clubbing (Minx) a look. It’s been illustrated by Josh Howard of Dead @ 17 fame. (Pages 113 to 115.)
In a couple of cases, well-written solicitation text was enough to interest me in books even though I knew nothing about them or their creators. First up in this category is Jamie Tanner’s Aviary from AdHouse Books, which promises “a world of mysterious corporations, foul-mouthed robots, drunken ghosts, amputee comedians, wealthy simian pornographers, and canine scientists.” Why not? (Page 215.)
I really liked the first volume of Kye Young Chon’s DVD (DramaQueen), about a dumped, possibly delusional young woman and the two slackers who give her renewed purpose (or at least are weird enough to distract her from despair). And now DramaQueen is offering the first four volumes. When they go Diamond, they don’t mess around. (Page 292.)
A new arrival from Fanfare/Ponent Mon is always worth a look. This month it’s Tokyo Is My Garden by Frédéric Boilet and Benoît Peeters. “With the collaboration of Jiro Taniguchi” is an effective extra inducement. (Page 295.)
The other Spring First Second release I’m eagerly anticipating (in addition to The Professor’s Daughter, recently given five stars by Tangognat) is Eddie Campbell’s The Black Diamond Detective Agency. Many gorgeous preview pages are available at First Second’s web site. (Page 300.)
Not everyone likes to buy even great books in hardcover, so kindly publishers almost inevitably offer soft-cover version eventually. Houghton Mifflin will roll out a paperback version of Alison Bechdel’s justly acclaimed Fun Home in June. (Page 312.)
I know nothing about Byun Byung Jun’s Run, Bong-Gu, Run! (NBM), but the preview pages at the publisher’s web site look absolutely exquisite. I may not like painted comics as a general rule, but I’m a sucker for watercolors. (Page 328.)
It’s been out for ages, but I’ve made a personal vow to mention Bryan Lee O’Malley’s wonderful debut graphic novel, Lost at Sea, at every opportunity, because I love it. Oni is releasing a new edition. Even if you aren’t eagerly anticipating a new volume of Scott Pilgrim, give it a look. (Page 329.)
Not being much of a webcomic reader, I didn’t check out the Young Bottoms in Love portal very often, but I liked what I saw when I did. Now Poison Press is releasing a print collection for geezers like me who don’t want to squint at a computer screen. Lots of talent, 328 color pages, $22. I can’t complain. (Page 335.)
As with Aviary, the solicitation text for David Yurkovich’s Death by Chocolate: Redux (Top Shelf) sells me. If anyone honestly thought I’d be able to resist “a series of bizarre, food-inspired crimes” investigated by “an unlikely hero comprised of organic chocolate,” they just don’t know me very well. (Page 364.)
Gon, baby, Gon
March 30, 2007 by
I usually try and do a run-down of what catches my eye in the latest issue of Diamond’s Previews, and I’ll get to that at some point, but I’ve been stopped cold by the preview pages of Masashi Tanaka’s Gon (CMX). That is some crazy gorgeous illustration going on, even beyond the pure pleasure of seeing a tiny dinosaur riding on the back of a vicious lion as it hunts a wildebeest.
I’m sure CMX will make some preview pages available on-line, because they’d be crazy not to. Here’s some background on Gon’s U.S. publishing history that ICv2 ran about a month ago. At the Casterman site, there are preview pages from each of the eight volumes they’ve published. Last Gasp has some of the Casterman editions available at its on-line store.
Prepare yourselves to be sick of me obsessing over Gon.
Mark your calendars
February 28, 2007 by
It’s Manga Month again in Diamond’s Previews, and while that’s not all the volume has to offer, there’s plenty of noteworthy new stuff from all over.
Del Rey debuts the first volume of Ai Morinaga’s My Heavenly Hockey Club. I keep hoping someone will pick up the rest of Your and My Secret, which vanished after one volume from ADV. Maybe this will provide a satisfying, substitute Morinaga fix. (Page 269.)
None of this month’s listings jump out at me, but it’s really nice to see Drama Queen’s offerings on the pages of Previews. (Page 288.)
The Comics Journal #284 (Fantagraphics) will include an interview with Gene (American Born Chinese) Yang, and interviews with Yang are always worth reading. (Page 292.)
:01 First Second unveils their spring season highlight (for me, at least): Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert’s The Professor’s Daughter, a Victorian romance between a young lady and a mummy. (Page 294.)
I know printing money actually involves specialized plates and paper with cloth fiber and patent-protected inks, but it seems like there could be a variation involving delicately handsome priests at war with an army of zombies. Go! Comi will find out (as will we all) when they release the first volume of Toma Maeda’s Black Sun, Silver Moon. (Page 298.)
Last Gasp promises “catfights, alien safari adventures, evil experiments, and a girl who dreams of becoming a pop idol singer” in its re-release of Junko Mizuno’s Pure Trance. Since its Mizuno, I’m sure that description doesn’t even begin to describe the adorable, revolting weirdness. (Page 313.)
Mike Carey’s work as a comics writer is hit and miss for me. I’ve loved some of it, and found other stories to be pretty tedious. One of my favorite examples is My Faith in Frankie (Vertigo), illustrated by Sonny Liew and Marc Hempel. So I’m inclined to give the creative team’s Re-Gifters (Minx) a try. (Page 109.)
Pantheon releases a soft-cover version of Joann Sfar’s sublime The Rabbi’s Cat. This was my first exposure to Sfar’s work, and I’ve loved it ever since. And in some cultures, the release of a soft-cover means a hard-cover volume of new material might be on the way, which would make me deliriously happy. (Page 324.)
The Tokyopop-HarperCollins collaboration bears fruit with the release of Meg Cabot’s Avalon High: Coronation Vol. 1: The Merlin Prophecy. The solicitation doesn’t include an illustrator credit, which is an unfortunate slip, and neither does the publisher’s web site. Maybe Cabot drew it herself? (Page 333.)
I’ve been hoping to see more work from Yuji Iwahara since CMX published Chikyu Misaki. Tokyopop comes through with Iwahara’s King of Thorn. (Page 335.)
Top Shelf offered some all-ages delights last month, which made me happy, and presents a new (I think?) volume of work from Renée (The Ticking) French. Micrographica is a collection of French’s online strip of the same name and offers “pure weirdness.” I don’t doubt it will deliver in a lovely, haunting way. (Page 352.)
Vertical rolls out another classic from Osamu Tezuka, Apollo’s Song, displaying the God of Manga’s “more literate and adult side.” For readers wanting something a little more contemporary, there’s Aranzi Aronzo’s Aranzi Machine Gun, featuring plush mascots on a tear. How can I choose? Why should I? (Page 355.)
I can’t read every series about people who see dead people. I just can’t. I wouldn’t have any money left for food. But Viz ignores my attempts at restraint by offering Chika Shiomi’s Yurarara in its Shojo Beat line. Shiomi is enjoying quite the day in the licensed sun, with Night of the Beasts (Go! Comi) and Canon (CMX) in circulation. (Page 372.)
And here’s an oddity, but an intriguing one: edu-manga from Singapore. YoungJin Singapore PTE LTD (you’ll forgive me if I hold off on adding a category) releases manga biographies of Einstein and Gandhi and adaptations of Little Women and Treasure Island. (Page 375.)
That month of the time again
February 20, 2007 by
The new edition of Previews doesn’t arrive in comic shops until tomorrow, but you can get a look at the Manga Month 2007 Checklist here.
And what will you see when you get there? Pretty much everything manga-related that’s shipping, but condensed into a nice, two-page PDF. Look closely and you’ll see that Last Gasp will be striking again, with a re-release of Junko Mizuno: Pure Trance.
