The Manga Curmudgeon

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

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Upcoming 1/23/2008

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Okay, I just have to say this. There’s no grief quite as unsettling and, frankly, often distasteful as nerd grief. To me, at least.

Now, on to this week’s comics releases.

AdHouse delivers the third issue of Fred Chao’s delightful Johnny Hiro, featuring a night at the opera and 47 Ronin Businessmen.

I don’t know how I’d feel if the protagonist of Masashi Tanaka’s Gon (CMX) actually ate baby penguins. He hasn’t (yet), so I’m looking forward to the third volume of this beautifully drawn manga. It promises vengeful baby wolf cubs, hungry piranha, and possibly psychedelic mushrooms.

Wow, two pamphlet comics in one week! The second comes from Fantagraphics in the form of the 10th issue of Linda Medley’s enchanting Castle Waiting. And hey, the revised Fantagraphics site has reasonably useful permalinks!

Wait, make that three floppies, all of which I love! The 19th issue of Jimmy Gownley’s funny, observant Amelia Rules! arrives via Renaissance Press.

Upcoming 8/22

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With a relatively lean week on our hands, you’d think it would be easy to single out a pick of the week, but it’s a tough call.

Fond as I am of comics about food, I can’t wait to check out a comic starring food. In this case, it’s David Yurkovich’s Death By Chocolate – Redux (Top Shelf). I’ll just let the first sentence of the solicitation do the talking:

“Agent Swete — an unlikely hero comprised of organic chocolate and a member of the FBI’s Food Crimes Division — and his sharp-tongued partner, Anderson, investigate a series of bizarre, food-inspired crimes.”

Sold! (“Food Crimes Division” inspires a lot of unkind Sandra Lee jokes, but I’ll spare you.)

I’m a sucker for both hype and manga that lives on the border of shôjo and josei, so I’ll have to pick up a copy of the new Shojo Beat from Viz. It includes the debut chapter of Chika Umino’s Honey and Clover, an eagerly anticipated Kodansha Award winner about a group of students at an art college. It sounds right up my alley.

A new issue of Jimmy Gownley’s Amelia Rules! is always worth noting.

Netcomics re-offers the first volume of Morim Kang’s 10, 20 and 30. Katherine Dacey-Tsuei has already made an extremely persuasive case for the book over in her latest Weekly Recon column, so I’ll just point you there.

Oh, and it’s Viz Signature week at comic shops with new volumes about endangered elementary school students, saintly doctors and the serial killers who fixate on them, and ruinously endowed assassins. Choose your poison.

Three go in…

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This week’s edition of ComicList is like the poster for some ultimate fighter title bout. With the exception of a certain bewhiskered trainee ninja, all of the heavy hitters will be arriving simultaneously, sizing each other up for a sales cage match.

In this corner, plucky orphan Tohru Honda! She’s taking on an ancient family curse, but can heartfelt pluck stand up to the one-two punch of…

The Elric Brothers? They’re looking for the secret to eternal life, but will it be enough to fend off the deadly, note-taking onslaught of…

Light Yagami? The sleuthing sociopath is taking names in this battle of the commercial juggernauts! Who will win?!

Well, comics retailers with even a rudimentary manga selection, for one. (To be fair, none of the above will probably come within spitting distance of this release from Marvel in terms of sales in the Direct Market.)

If none of the above interest you in the slightest, not to worry, because both Tokyopop and Viz are unleashing an absolutely insane number of titles. Tokyopop is rolling out 18, and Viz is offering 37. Thirty-seven.

One of those 55 titles is the sixth volume of Minetaro Mochizuki’s Dragon Head (Tokyopop), much loved by bloggers like me, but disappointingly ignored by the average bookstore browser. Seriously, there aren’t that many volumes out, and new ones don’t come out that often. You have plenty of time to catch up with this tense, apocalyptic suspense story.

Sick of hearing about comics from Japan? No problem. There are also comics from France, most notably a prestige edition of Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert’s The Professor’s Daughter from First Second. I’m going to hold out for the $16.95 paperback instead of the $29.95 collector’s edition that’s coming out tomorrow, but I strongly suspect it will be lovely and delightful either way.

And wow, how long as it been since a new issue of Jimmy Gownley’s wonderful Amelia Rules! (Renaissance Press) came out? Too long, almost certainly, but these fun stories are always worth the wait.