I usually find it really irritating when people use their cell phones in book stores, but I eavesdropped on the best conversation at a Barnes and Noble in Ohio the other day. Some guy was staring at the manga shelves and needed back-up, so he called his child.

“Hey, (child’s name), I’m here at the store, and there’s no book called ‘Manga.’ There’s like a thousand of them. Which one do you want?”

Pause.

“They have stuff called ‘Negima’ and ‘Imadoki’ and…”

Pause which must have included pronunciation corrections.

“Well, which ones do you want then?”

Pause.

“They have a lot of ‘Narutos.’”

And so on.

Aside from the floor show, this was probably the worst B&N I’ve ever seen. With some slight variations, I’m used to feeling that chain-store space warp that leaves me thinking I could be anywhere, because all of the outlets are essentially the same. This one was really cluttered, and its GN selection was terrible.

But they did have plenty of Narutos.

Voting is one of those things that just make me feel virtuous. It’s like donating towels to the animal shelter or turning in a car-load of recyclables or, I imagine, giving blood. It just puts a spring in my step, and I can go home and be a lazy slob with a clear conscience.

Today’s voting experience was clearly stacked with extra feel-good elements. Everyone at the polling place obviously was on a similar high of civic engagement. Three generations of one family showed up at the same time we did, and everyone was delighted that they’d brought the new baby to get him or her in the habit early (though I don’t think he or she had time to register).

I had never used an electronic voting machine before. While I’ve heard all of the stories about their unreliability, I can’t say I missed the paper ballot with the Number 02 pencil, as that always invoked uncomfortable memories of standardized tests and the certainty that I hadn’t filled in the bubbles correctly (either too faint or too enthusiastic) and wouldn’t get into the college of my choice. I did wonder why it didn’t ask me if I wanted cash back after casting my ballot, but that’s probably a side effect of spending too much time in the self-check-out at the grocery store.

I’m very anxious about the results of this election, even more at the local level. An out-of-state coal executive has been spending who knows how much cash to ensure a Republican majority in the state legislature, funding advertisements without the apparent participation or approval of the candidates he supports. I’m hoping the transparency of the ploy manages to swing things in the opposite direction. The backlash from Democrats in the state has been vicious but hilarious.

Anyway, go vote.

All of the culinary fiction (good and bad) that I’ve consumed lately finally caught up with me, and I spent most of yesterday baking. Both were from recipes from Baking with Julia.

My partner has made challah from another recipe in the bread machine before, and it turned out really well. I tried the purist approach, following the book’s recipe carefully, and it didn’t turn out nearly as well as the improvised, machine made version. It’s nice bread, but it isn’t as eggy and sweet as any of the really good challah I’ve had. (Confession: I was too lazy to braid and shape it in the traditional way. It was sticky.) It will probably make good French toast at some point. (I tend to agree with this person on the outcome, and on the superiority of the challah at Whole Foods, though the nearest one is about 90 minutes away. That’s probably just as well.)

I also got it into my head that I wanted to make a complicated dessert of some sort, so I went with the mocha brownie cake that’s cut into three layers and slathered with ganache. Because it didn’t seem sufficiently time-consuming or fiddly, I decided to add layers of chocolate mousse as well, and used Alton Brown’s recipe (though I halved it).

I’ve noticed something weird about Brown’s recipes: if they’re for a dish I normally really like, I don’t care for his version. If they’re for something I don’t normally enjoy (like fruitcake), he really knocks it out of the park. The mousse is okay, though I would be disappointed if I’d made it just to have mousse.

I usually avoid tricky pastry assemblies or presentations, because I suck at them. (Pie crust seems to be completely beyond my abilities in the kitchen.) This one turned out really nicely though. It’s pretty and satisfyingly dramatic, though it’s far too much cake to have in the house, and it’s way too rich to have more than a small slice.

It’s not fair, as the timing couldn’t have been planned, but I have to chuckle at the simultaneous arrival of the uproar over Tokyopop’s on-line exclusives initiative and the gushy profile of Stuart Levy in yesterday’s PWCW. (David Taylor has a balanced run-down of the piece at Love Manga. At Dangerous Beauty, Lea Hernandez takes a skeptical view of the warm fuzzies.)

And yes, I bitch probably to excess over the mutual love between Publishers Weekly and Tokyopop, but look at some of these excerpts:

• “So you’re the prophet.”
• “Tokyopop and manga have changed the bookstore environment completely.”
• “Is Tokyopop still growing?”
• “One thing about manga, and the American book market in general, is that people love to say something is impossible to do, until someone does it.”

And those are from the questions. Now, I’ve lobbed softballs in my time, but wow.

I was talking to a friend about the whole on-line exclusives deal, and we were wondering if (when?) Tokyopop might add a title that’s actually selling into this sales category. We couldn’t really think of any negative reaction that might prevent it, because they’re certainly getting plenty of negative reaction now, so why not try a book that might be more likely to turn a profit?

Kevin Melrose at Blog@Newsarama does a fine job collecting links to reaction to the initiative.

We went to a canine agility show this weekend. I’ve seen them on television before, and I assumed this would be another collection of slightly crazed border collies and Australian shepherds.

In reality, there were tons of breeds competing, from huge to wee tiny. And the longhaired Dachshund and Pomeranian in particular rocked that obstacle course.

Of course, the ventilation in the arena was kind of poor, and there was some serious dog grooming product in the air. It was like a fog of puppy perm solution.

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I meant to link to this when I first saw it, because it’s hilarious. Better late than never, I guess. Dr. Scott at Polite Dissent answers frequently asked questions about the dos and don’ts of the Superhero Registration Act. Don’t skip the comments.

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John Jakala not only provides a handy guide to graphic novel content in Entertainment Weekly, he spots earth’s mightiest homage, courtesy of Tokyopop. (I find both sites virtually impossible to navigate, so extra points to John for stamina.)

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If I had known today was Joann Sfar’s birthday, I would have tried to get my Klezmer review done. I love the book, by the way.

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In this week’s Flipped, I basically stand out of the way while the delightful Robin Brenner talks about manga in libraries, graphic novels for young adults, collection controversies, and a bunch of other subjects.

Lyle at Crocodile Caucus has two great posts up. (Well, he always has a bunch of great posts up, but these two in particular caught my eye.)

He takes a look at the current state of Shojo Beat and its roster of titles and ponders future directions for the anthology:

“Now, however, I’m wondering which title will get rotated out of the magazine next and how I’ll react. For the moment, it looks likely we’ll see titles rotated in and out of Shojo Beat every three months and a series I’m enjoying will get the boot.”

Suspenseful, no?

Lyle also takes a very constructive look at the possibilities of a social network as a marketing resource:

“Looking at it as a marketing geek, I’m mostly thinking of how one can make the product a social experience, intertwining the product and the bonds of friendship. Considering how manga fandom (which is largely made up of people who buy manga) is so social, that should be easier to accomplish than with other products.”

Lots of interesting thoughts there.

As someone who works in higher education marketing, one of the questions that is currently baffling me (and just about all of my colleagues) is how to effectively harness the power of an on-line social network (blogs, MySpace, what have you) for marketing communication. I don’t know if it’s really possible, as the appeal of the social network is that it’s wide open and driven by users, and that’s often at odds with the messages a college or university wants to send. Imposing those messages on the social network might very likely kill its appeal for users, which would seem to defeat the purpose entirely.

But it will definitely be interesting to see how Tokyopop’s efforts in that area evolve.

While looking through the Flipped archives, I’m starting to worry that I’m leaning too heavily on my personal pet titles. Actually, Dave Carter’s wonderful Undiscovered Gems contest planted that seed, which was then watered by Jarred of MangaCast who pointed out not one but two cooking mangas that had completely escaped my notice.

As a result, I’m hoping to expand my horizons a bit, with your help. Is there a manga title you’re really enjoying now that doesn’t seem to have a seat at the cool kids’ table? That never seems to get reviewed or name-checked in the general discourse? (I’d like to stick with things that are currently and widely in print. As much as I love finding obscure manga, it can be frustrating to see someone talk about a book and have to search high and low for it.)

I can’t guarantee I’ll love it as much as you do, but I promise to give it a shot. Just post the book in the comments section or send me an e-mail at DavidPWelsh at yahoo dot com, and I’ll do my best to work it into the rotation.

MangaBlog’s Brigid pulls out all of the CMX highlights from the ICv2 interview with Paul Levitz. I agree with her that neglecting to recognize the contributions of director of manga Asako Suzuki (and CMX honcho Jim Chadwick) was a mistake, because they’ve both done a lot to turn the ship. First and foremost, we know who they are and what they do. Second, they seem to be repositioning CMX from being DC’s manga arm to a publisher with a reputation and a philosophy independent of its parent company. And I think that’s a good thing.

I also agree with remarks from Ed (MangaCast) Chavez in the comments section, particularly this one:

“They will have a tough of mad otaku to overcome. And I feel that announcements made in 2005 (the obscure shojo faze, which is something I feel every manga publisher that wants to be considered serious goes through) made it hard to take seriously for a while. But with some fun quirky releases (Omukae desu., Yubisaki Infinity) and some titles that really push the envelope … they are not sticking to the conservative play book anymore.”

It’s an interesting view of CMX’s rehabilitation process in that it portrays their efforts as almost remedial – doing now what they probably should have done from the start. I’ve really been taken with a lot of CMX’s recent and upcoming releases, and it seems smart to try and rebuild a reputation based on title quality and a willingness to step a little bit out of conventional categories.

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I also really enjoyed Kai-Ming Cha’s interview with Makoto (Yellow) Tateno in the latest Publishers Weekly Comics Week (formatting/copy editing problems aside). I passed on Yellow, but now I’m thinking I’ll have to go back and give it a look.

“Actually, I had been reading a lot of boys’ love and seeing a lot of seme and uke things going on. I like the pairing of Starsky and Hutch—the officer type of story. I wanted to write something like that, something different.”

There are also interesting bits on how she juggles concurrent work in yaoi and shôjo, and what seems like good advice for would-be manga-ka:

“Draw a lot. My advice is that even if you’re not that good, even if you’re copying the artwork of others, just keep going. Eventually you’ll find your own style.”

I seem to remember that notion – even just copying work you admire builds up your muscles as an illustrator — coming up a lot in the interviews in Manga: Masters of the Art.

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This announcement from Cold Cut is interesting to me mostly because news about non-Diamond distribution outlets usually focuses on bankruptcy rumors. I keep meaning to ask the owner of the local shop if he uses anyone but Diamond. I’m pretty sure he does, but maybe I’ll print this out before I go shopping today.

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Also at The Engine, Tom Spurgeon asked for feedback on his Comics Reporter site. He indicates in this post that he’s looking to expand his manga coverage, which is exciting.

Comics blogging used to seem so simple – read comics, write about them, and, with any luck, interesting discussion will ensue. But recent experience has taught me that there are whole layers of impregnable doctrine that render me utterly unqualified to comment on comics not specifically targeted towards my demographic. Well, at least I shouldn’t talk about them through any kind of personal lens that reflects my life or tastes or experience, because then I’m being a cultural imperialist.

So maybe I’ll just confine myself to talking about those comics that are targeted at the late-thirty-something gay man.

Does anyone else hear crickets chirping?

Anyway, with this more enlightened guiding principle in mind, let’s take a look at what this week’s comics hold for me.

I think I could probably get away with Action Philosophers: The People’s Choice (Evil Twin). It’s not specifically targeted to my demographic, but there’s nothing to indicate that I’m excluded either, so we’re off to a promising start.

After reading Lyle’s thoughts on the preview, I’d been kind of interested in Beauty Pop (Viz – Shojo Beat), but I’m neither girl nor tween. In spite of Brigid’s reassurance that her daughters don’t rise up in a rage every time I write anything about Ultra Maniac, I just don’t think I should take the risk.

I’ve really been enjoying Death Note (Viz – Shonen Jump Advanced), but the barrier is right there in the brand. While the “advanced” creates a bit of leeway, It’s been decades since I could be categorized as “shonen” without the accompaniment of derisive laughter.

I think I can get away with Phoenix (Viz – Editor’s Choice), but I’m still catching up on that one, so the current volume will have to wait.

If only First Second, Fanfare/Ponent Mon or Oni had some books coming out this week. Sure, :01 and Oni publish some books for young readers, and I’d have to steer clear of those, but F/PM would be safe as houses for me. (And with all the money I’m saving, I wouldn’t even be bothered by their higher price point!)

Drawn & Quarterly thoughtfully provided that Mr. Jean book, and there’s a companion piece out there. I’ll need to be careful not to try and appropriate the lead character’s heterosexuality for my own purposes, though. And I should probably steer clear of Moomin, which just breaks my heart. I could always improve my French and track down some of the autobiographical comics by Fabrice Neaud.

Alternately, I could read whatever I please, but do so in secret, like a male Japanese teen sneaking looks at his sister’s copy of Bessatsu Margaret when nobody else is around.

Or I could just follow Brigid’s advice to “Read what you like, write what you want, no need to apologize. Life is too short.”

I didn’t think they’d pull it off, but the city has managed to close at least one lane of every major traffic artery, just in time for the fall semester to start. Impressive! Motorists now have the choice of either sitting in traffic for a minimum of ten minutes or driving at least ten miles out of their way, depending on which they find less irritating.

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Weeds is kind of entertaining, mostly for Mary Louise Parker. Her weird, arrhythmic delivery works well with this material, and that isn’t always the case. Kevin Nealon’s acting style seems all wrong for it, though. And when did Elizabeth Perkins turn into Cathy Moriarty?

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There’s no recipe in the Betty Crocker cookbook that doesn’t benefit from doubling or tripling the amount of seasoning they suggest you add. Honestly, when did a quarter of a teaspoon of nutmeg ever do anyone any good?

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The second volume of Shout Out Loud (Blu) is even better than the first. I love the variety of character interactions and relationships, and I think the fandom elements add a nice backdrop. Satosumi Takaguchi does a nice job handling a comparatively large cast.

Wait… I’m already a volume behind?

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For a fairly straightforward (though excellent) shôjo title, the set-up for Penguin Revolution (CMX) is tough to summarize succinctly. Watch me fail miserably in this week’s Flipped!