My mind is reeling over the Eisner nominations for so many reasons, but the only one I can focus on at the moment is that wily feline, The Rabbi’s Cat.

When Chris Tamarri did his poll of comics bloggers, I remember wondering precisely which category would be most appropriate for this work (and lots of manga titles). It’s a collection of three installments that were published individually, and it’s an English translation, but, as NBC used to say during re-run season, “It’s new to you!”

Apparently the Eisner committee couldn’t decide either, as Sfar’s lovely book is nominated in both Best Graphic Album – New and Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material. I wouldn’t think that a book could be eligible for both of those, to be honest. I could certainly see how The Rabbi’s Cat might be eligible for, say, Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material and Best Publication Design, with an additional nomination for Sfar in the Best Writer/Artist or Best Writer/Artist – Humor categories, though.

But, as I said, the mind reels. Don’t get me wrong. I’m all about the Sfar love. This just seems like something getting nominated for Best Play and Best Revival Tony Awards during the same season.

Oh, and I’ll just register myself as not being surprised at all that Cromartie High School got a nomination in the Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material category. It’s very entertaining in a sneakily low-brow way, but it’s also the kind of manga title that seems to have a special appeal for western comics aficionados. It has the cultural cachet of being manga without being either too conventional in style or structure or taking its subject matter at all seriously. It’s post-modern without being nouvelle, so it ultimately seems like a very safe choice.

I can’t believe I forgot to mention this yesterday. I can only chalk it up to the terrifying prospect of today’s comic shop bill and Digital Manga’s culpability in it.

Anyway, in addition to everything else they’re dumping on readers today, there’s also the first volume of Project X: Datsun Fairlady Z. Yes, it’s a manga biography about a car company.

I’ve been dying for more non-fiction manga to make it into translation since I first learned about it, so I hope this lives up to my expectations.

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Speaking of non-fiction graphic novels, G.T. Labs is conducting an on-line survey and giving out books to ten lucky participants. Jim Ottaviani talks about the survey and provides a link in this Engine thread. I really enjoyed Dignifying Science (especially the Rosalind Franklin story), and I keep meaning to pick up more of Ottaviani’s books.

Once again, Entertainment Weekly has surprised me by providing a useful piece of information. I had no idea there was a new autobiography of the late, deeply lamented Julia Child, much less one that focused on her time in France. Anyway, My Life in France, written with Alex Prud’Homme, is due in bookstores today. Given my well-documented love for culinary memoirs, Child, and stories with a strong sense of place, I think I know how my next Borders Rewards coupon will be used.

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I first saw this mentioned at Brigid’s MangaBlog, and now news of Go! Comi’s round of second printings of first volumes has shown up on ICv2. This news delights me probably more than it should, but I’m really glad to see Go! Comi succeed. I think they’ve been really smart in their first year – a small initial list of titles, excellent production values and extras, and strong licensing choices. I think what’s most heartening is that they don’t seem to have assumed that publishing manga is a license to print money, concentrating on quality over volume. I’m glad to see that it’s worked out for them.

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I’ve confined myself to digests as far as Shojo Beat titles go, but I think I’ll have to pick up the current issue for the interview with Keiko Takemiya. I can always skip the titles I don’t want to spoil and laugh at the god-awful Godchild script.

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I’m really looking forward to Wednesday’s trip to the comic shop. There’s a new volume of Girl Genius at long last, Agatha Heterodyne & the Circus of Dreams, and I know I could be reading it online, but it’s just not my preferred delivery system. Sue me.

It’s also a big week for Digital Manga Publishing with new volumes of Antique Bakery, Café Kichijouji de, How to “Read” Manga: Gloom Party, and La Esperança. Pace yourself, DMP.

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And now, I must once again bitterly mourn the loss of the drop-down menus on Tokyopop’s web site. As a blogger who always tries to link to title information whenever possible or relevant, this adds all kinds of pesky layers to the process. Those menus made Tokyopop’s site my hands-down favorite of any manga publisher because it was so easy to find what I needed. (It still loads more quickly than Viz’s site, though.)

Dear retailers,

You might want to stock up on early volumes of Bleach. I’m just saying.

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See? It’s not just me. Tony Salvaggio has a very positive review of the charming and surprising Chikyu Misaki (CMX) in the latest Calling Manga Island.

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It’s here! Dr. Scott begins his examination of Monster over at Polite Dissent.

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Just as I was wondering if all these recent yaoi titles weren’t a little too similar, into my hands falls Shout Out Loud (Blu). Finally, a yaoi title that doesn’t take itself so damned seriously.

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I know he’s one of the lead characters and that we were bound to get some more extensive insight into his character at some point, but I really could have done with a lot less Yuki and a lot more Tohru and Momiji in the latest volume of Fruits Basket.

We went to a really interesting lecture last night. It was by an artist, Judy Glantzman, who does these amazing canvases that have a wonderful cumulative effect. They seem really organic, but her process is to essentially paint over the same canvas over and over again, adding or subtracting elements until they’re really layered and complex. I would have loved to have seen some of the canvases themselves, just to get a closer look at the depth and texture they must have. It was really interesting to hear her talk about how her canvases come together, because they ultimately seem to have just sort of happened.

During the question and answer session, most of the questions were couched in comparisons to other artists, and they were all respectful and complimentary, but it was still kind of uncomfortable. It’s not like anyone was saying, “Did you mean to lift that technique from so-and-so, but not as well?” And the artist made a very sincere showing of being flattered by the comparisons, but it still made me decide to resist equating illustrators’ styles when I’m writing about comics, even if I mean it in a positive way.

At the reception afterwards, I was talking to a professor from another college, and his specialization is French cultural history. His spouse is an art instructor, so I asked if he’d ever read any bandes dessinées, since it seemed like a reasonable intersection between their scholarly interests. He wasn’t familiar with the category, so I started telling him about Joann Sfar and The Ticking and Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators and other stuff, which was horribly Team Comix of me. It was the cheap red wine, I swear.

I didn’t think this was possible, but the quantity of content in Entertainment Weekly seems to shrink with each new issue that arrives in my mailbox. Since the quality bottomed out ages ago, I guess it’s all relative, but it sure seems like their white-space percentage has increased.

In spite of that, there are actually a couple of useful tidbits in the latest issue. First is a review of a new book, Alternatives to Sex, by one of my favorite authors, Stephen McCauley. For those of you who only know McCauley via the dreadful film version of Object of My Affection, I can only tell you that none of his books were ever designed to be a Jennifer Aniston vehicle.

His novels are funny and bittersweet, focusing on complicated relationships, contentious families (either of birth or choice), and flawed, endearing characters. My favorite is probably Easy Way Out, though The Man of the House has a wonderful subplot that’s both hilarious and sad and perfectly represents McCauley’s world view.

This seems to be the season where all of my favorite authors put new novel on the market at once. I see that Christopher Moore has a new one, A Dirty Job. It’s so nice to fall even further behind in my prose reading.

The other EW blurb of interest is a review of a production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company in Cincinnati, directed by the genius whose revival of Sweeney Todd is destined to win a billion Tony Awards. What John Doyle is doing directing anything in Cincinnati is beyond me, but if you’re anywhere nearby, get a ticket if you’re able.

EW neglects to mention precisely where this production is running or for how long, though they do give a phone number. Because I care about you, I looked it up. It’s at Cincinnati’s Playhouse in the Park and runs through April 14.

And that’s all EW had to offer. So let’s move on to the week in comics.

If I hadn’t already picked up the singles, I’d certainly buy the collection of Banana Sunday (Oni). It’s great fun, especially Go-Go. There’s been some positive buzz about The Great Catsby (Netcomics), though the price tag ($17.99 for 224 full-color pages) is causing some distress. And Tokyopop brings the love with new volumes of Fruits Basket and Dragon Head. Well, it brings the love to me.

More manga-related material, found at of The Engine:

• Warren Ellis links to Frédéric Boilet’s Nouvelle Manga Manifesto, and weird discussion ensues.
• Ellis also shares a press release announcing Tokyopop’s new partnership with HarperCollins that will “create a progressive new line of co-branded manga titles. The program will include several projects from bestselling author Meg Cabot, whose HarperCollins novels have sold more than six million copies to date. In addition, HarperCollins will sell and distribute the entire TOKYOPOP line in North America.” There’s lots more at the link, but the initial thrust of the partnership will revolve around manga adaptations of the popular young adult novels of Meg Cabot.

There’s some fascinating discussion of manga in libraries going on over at Love Manga. (Brigid at MangaBlog was the first to spot the news item in question, and offered her own insights.) David Taylor pretty much says it all:

“Already my mood is blackening, I do not need to see another story where some wily kid manages to get their hands on material not suitable for them.”

It’s a twisty issue, as demonstrated by the thoughtful comments following David’s post.

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I love it when a plan comes together. The inimitable Dr. Scott at Polite Dissent is going to take an in-depth look at Naoki Urasawa’s Monster (Viz Signature), a psychological, neurological thriller.

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The highlight of the weekend’s manga reading was the third and final volume of Chikyu Misaki (CMX). I really enjoyed the first two installments, and the conclusion is just as good. Don’t let the super-cute covers fool you: this is a smart, complex mystery-adventure with lots to say about good and evil and the vast gray area in between. (The occasional use of vertical lettering is annoying, I admit, but it’s worth enduring for a story this satisfying.)

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In this week’s Flipped, I gush shamelessly over Fanfare/Ponent Mon’s Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators. There’s some breathtaking work on display in this anthology from some of the finest creators from the worlds of nouvelle manga and bandes dessinées. Jog wrote a wonderful review of it here.

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Absolutely unrelated to anything else in this post, but does anyone out there like onion dip? Because I made the most awesome onion dip in the world over the weekend from this recipe, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. (A warning: just reading the recipe is enough to raise your cholesterol levels, so proceed with caution.)

I went to Barnes and Noble this morning to pick up some books I ordered, and guess what I saw?

Rurouni Kenshin and Negima! on the “New Paperback Releases” table up front.

Anyone else seen this happen?

I got 16 entries for the Gray Horses give-away. Using the most stringent methodology and carefully supervised by one of my cats, I wrote all the entrants’ names down on a sheet of paper, cut them up, put them in a cereal bowl, mixed them carefully, and drew a name at random.

And it seems like the early bird gets the horse, as the winner was the first entry I received, from the talented web-comic artist known as Metrokitty:

“My favorite read-over-and-over graphic novel is Kyle Baker’s Why I Hate Saturn. It’s such a riot! The one-liners crack me up, and Kyle Baker delivers a great cynical take on aspects of modern life (dating, race, self-confidence). Plus the artwork is gorgeous – it’s rock-solid and less exaggerated than his current more cartoony style. This is the graphic novel I loan out to friends who don’t read comics but who are interested in them – it’s very approachable, it’s stand-alone, and I feel like it reads a bit like an episode of Seinfeld in comic book form.”

Here are the other books cited as perennial favorites:

From ArnCharl: “My nomination for most re-readable book is Jar of Fools by Jason Lutes. It’s so poignant and subtle; I always find myself thinking new thoughts and wondering new questions every time I read it.”

From Bill Roundy, who I met at SPX and has a mini-comic, Man Enough: a queer romance (which also features a two-page story written by Roundy and illustrated by Tim [Cavalcade of Boys] Fish) set to debut at the upcoming Alternative Press Expo: “Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life. I’ve read that thing at least five times in the last two years, and I’m sure I’ll reread it again which each new volume comes out. It’s just SO much fun!”

From Rachel Nabors, of SubcultureofOne.com and MangaPunk.com: “My re-readable graphic novel has to be Princess Mermaid by Junko Mizuno. I assure you that it is not your regular mushy shoujo manga. The art is Marilyn Manson meets My Little Ponies, and every time I read it, the characters seem more vibrant and tragic than before. The feminist statement comes out clearer with each pass, too.”

From Michael Denton of Silent Accomplice: “There are several GNs I enjoy reading over and over. The American Elf collection is great to re-read. From a more narrative sense, Goodbye, Chunky Rice and Box Office Poison are winners. For not-to-be-beat superheroics, Batman: Year One, The Authority, and Planetary are favorites. Lastly, my most favorite thing to re-read are the Sandman collections.”

Stever is “Reading Watchmen again!”

From Brandon Davis-Shannon: “I love to reread Berlin: City of Stones.”

From Eileen Mack: “Craig Thompson’s Goodbye, Chunky Rice. over and over. since I’m a “non-resident alien” in the US…”

From Michael Baird: “I think one of the graphic novels I find pulling me back over and over is Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Another I find indispensable for convincing people that comics deal with real, deep issues is Batman: The Ultimate Evil.”

From TangognaT: “I can reread Nausicaa over and over again!”

From Matt Huynh of Stikman Comics: “My favourite re-readable comic is Craig Thompson’s Blankets.”

From Scott Cederlund of View from the Cheap Seats: “A graphic novel that I read over and over again? The immediate one is Matt Wagner’s Mage: The Hero Discovered. I think I pull this book out every couple of months to either read the whole thing or just the last third.”

From Mark Purtill: “I’m not sure there’s any graphic novel I enjoy reading over and over, but I have reread the Usagi Yojimbo collections I have repeatedly with enjoyment. If you’d like a specific book, volume 2 (Samurai) is the one I’ve reread the most.”

From Bill Burns: “A graphic novel I enjoy reading over and over is Batman: Year One.”

From Richard Baez: “My rereadable title is Kill Your Boyfriend by Messrs. Grant Morrison and Philip Bond. I first read it one Friday night during my fifteenth year and proceeded to read it twice more as the evening progressed. It was a constant companion with me at school and got me in trouble on at least two occasions when I let it associate with my peers. It now exists sans cover but avec love in a much-thumbed through long box in my closet. It gets a good meticulous thumbthrough at least once a month, I imagine.”

And last, but certainly not least, Scott of Polite Dissent: “Far West, by Richard Moore (published by NBM) is the graphic novel I re-read the most.”

Thanks to everyone who entered and to everyone who linked to the contest on their blogs. This was fun!