Her bio quote from the latest volume of Fullmetal Alchemist:

“Apparently, when my neighbor’s 3-year-old daughter found out that I’m a manga artist, she said with a sparkle in her eyes, ‘I wonder if she draws princesses and stuff?’ Sorry, little girl, I only draw grubby old men.”

Okay, so it’s just one of the reasons why I love Hiromu Arakawa.

If you haven’t, and you plan to, time’s running out! You have until midnight tonight (Friday, March 24) to enter to win a copy of Hope Larson’s lovely Gray Horses (Oni).

Send me an e-mail (DavidPWelsh @ yahoo dot com) mentioning a graphic novel you enjoy reading over and over again, and I’ll do a random drawing to determine the winner. I’ll also list the re-readable titles in the post announcing the winner on Saturday, March 25.

Thanks to everyone who’s entered so far, and to everyone who’s mentioned it on their blogs!

Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators (Fanfare/Ponent Mon) is really amazing, but I have to know… Is any of Fabrice Neaud’s other work available in English? Because his piece for the anthology is spectacular, and I think I’m in love. I’m going to have to suck it up and re-learn French, aren’t I?

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Are you a librarian who deals with holdings for young adults? Would you like to answer my dumb questions about the process your library uses to select graphic novels and offer me anecdotes about your experience with user responses for use in a future Flipped column? E-mail me at DavidPWelsh at yahoo dot com, and I’ll be very, very grateful.

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How weird is Yun Kouga’s Loveless (Tokyopop)? I mean that in a good way, I think. I know Earthian is probably considered Kouga’s classic work, but Loveless seems a lot more immediate and moving to me. There’s also something strangely… wrong about it, but the wrongness seems to contribute to why it works so well. I’ll have to ponder this and consider just how such a strange little piece of shônen-ai has managed to move so well in bookstores.

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What exactly are all those people competing for on Top Chef? It doesn’t seem like the prize is as impressive as Project Runway’s, though I guess it’s harder to pinpoint a consistently desirable outcome for people with so many different professional backgrounds and ambitions. (I can’t see all of them wanting, say, a restaurant start-up, a cookbook deal, or a television show, so cash was probably the way to go.) It’s a lot of fun, though, and it’s certainly better than The Next Food Network Star.

(I’m kind of dying for Food Network to do a Chefography on Sandra Lee, because I think it would be hilarious and tragic. “And then, young Sandra saw her first electric can-opener, and her life changed forever.”)

There is an absolutely hellacious amount of manga coming to comics shops this week. Seriously, it’s just an avalanche. I like a lot of it, but nothing… nothing, I say… can match my anticipation for Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators from Fanfare/Ponent Mon. It feels like I’ve been waiting for this one forever. With work by the likes of Joann Sfar, Jiro Taniguchi, Kan Takahama, and Frédéric Boilet, it should be astonishing. *

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There’s an interesting piece in the latest PW Comics Week on the impact of manga sales on the fortunes of Japanese bookstore chain Kinokuniya:

“This month, Kinokuniya’s Rockefeller Center store will undergo renovations directly tied to manga sales. ‘We need to make more space for comics,’ says Ishikawa, who points out that manga has resuscitated the store, as well as the rest of the book retail market. ‘The economy was really bad. Book sales were down. The manga boom saved bookstores. Now Barnes & Noble and Borders carry it. Now they’re our competitors.’”

I’ve been to the Rockefeller Center branch, though I’m ashamed to admit I didn’t buy as-yet-unpublished volumes of Fruits Basket and a Japanese-English dictionary. It didn’t even occur to me. And I call myself a manga addict.

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Kevin Melrose has added another blog to his already impressive roster (Dark, But Shining and Supernaturally). This one’s called Comics, Covered, and it’s “dedicated to comic-book cover art and design.” It’s full of wonderful stuff, though I think Kevin’s look at the cover of Mouse Guard 2 is my favorite so far.

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Viz has announced the impending release of a Naruto DVD. According to the blurb at the Naruto online store, these are the edited episodes that have appeared on Cartoon Network. Maybe they’ll release an unedited version down the line to wring even more money out of ninja-philes. Will this be before or after the stage musical, Naruto café, and string of ninja sportswear boutiques/tattoo parlors?

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Greg McElhatton has a lovely review of Eden (Dark Horse) up at iComics. Dark Horse seems to do awfully well in the Direct Market, but isn’t quite as successful in bookstores. I think Eden would definitely resonate with an audience looking for smart, layered science fiction. As Greg puts it:

“Two volumes of Eden are currently out, and it’s a really thoughtful, exciting book. Hopefully with time it will gain the recognition it deserves; Eden‘s the sort of book that has a hook for just about everyone to be interested in. In a sea of manga currently being translated, this is one that shouldn’t get lost in the shuffle.”

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You still have plenty of time to enter my Gray Horses give-away. Thanks to everyone who’s entered so far and to Comics Worth Reading and Crocodile Caucus for the links.

With so many what-were-they-thinking examples of comics marketing, it’s nice to see someone (First Second Books, in this case) put together a smart, entertaining sales tool (its Spring ’06 catalog).

What makes the First Second catalog so terrific is that it doesn’t simply preach to the choir. Like Paul Gravett’s books, it combines eye-catching design and the kind of information that should be useful to people who aren’t familiar with graphic novels as a category. The final product is a persuasive argument for the category itself, as well as for First Second’s offerings (which are also on gorgeous display).

It opens with a fun Graphic Novels 101 piece, written and illustrated by Jessica (La Perdida) Abel. Later on, Paul (Batman: Year 100) Pope talks about the diversity of the medium and lists some of his favorite creators. Booklist columnist Michael Cart talks about some of the best books currently on the shelves, from Age of Bronze to Persepolis to Calvin and Hobbes. Editor Tanya McKinnon talks about her later-in-life-than-usual introduction to comics, and Kat Kan outlines the increasing presence and popularity of graphic novels in libraries.

The catalog is an appealing introduction to the graphic novel category for people who might not have delved into it too deeply (or at all). I can see it being of real value not just to casual readers but to booksellers and librarians who want to offer more graphic novels but aren’t sure know where to start. First Second isn’t just selling its list; it’s selling the category as a whole in an engaging, informative way.

(The only piece that doesn’t work for me is Calvin Reid’s “My Life as a Comics Reviewer.” I like the idea of including a look at the increasing presence of graphic novels in mainstream critical discourse, and Publishers Weekly is certainly a solid example of that trend, but the self-congratulatory tone here is a little off-putting. It’s the closest the catalog ever comes to boosterism.)

The catalog intersperses informational pieces like this with solicitations and sample pages of First Second’s spring line. Like the text pieces, the entries are crafted well, suited to the individual titles in terms of tone, and feature sample pages and author bios. Putting them side by side with the general interest stuff places them in intelligent context with the category as a whole. The two-part message is very clear: “graphic novels are the next big thing, and we think our books can stand with the best of them.”

It’s a really nice appeal to multiple audiences at the same time. It’s smart, solid work.

ICv2 has its February numbers up, so I can compare recent Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat figures. I don’t know why I’m so curious about this, since the Direct Market is such a small portion of either magazine’s pie, but it’s an itch I must scratch.

February

216 – 6.73 – SHONEN JUMP MAR 06 #39 – $4.99 – VIZ – 4,472
271 – 3.08 – SHOJO BEAT MAR 06 VOL 2 #3 – $5.99 – VIZ – 2,047

January

190 – 7.59 – SHONEN JUMP FEB 06 #38 – $4.99 – VIZ – 4,735
242 – 3.32 – SHOJO BEAT FEB 06 VOL 2 #2 – $5.99 – VIZ – 2,071

December

194 – 12.18 – SHONEN JUMP JAN 06 #37 – $4.99 – VIZ – 7,692
280 – 3.55 – SHOJO BEAT JAN 06 VOL 2 #1 – $5.99 – VIZ – 2,242

This might be a bad period to check, come to think of it. The January Jump was a larger-than-usual anniversary issue with a trading card in it, so its 7,692 sales figure isn’t normal. But still, the books do seem to have fairly steady comic shop sales, special issue aside, and the shifting rankings don’t really seem to be reflected in unit sales.

Okay, with that out of the way, I can self-promote. It’s Monday, so there’s a new Flipped up featuring the cheery title, “Freaks.”

David Taylor does a much better job examining February LCS manga sales than I did, but that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. David also gives an early run-down of manga offerings found in the April edition of Previews, and all I can say is “Ouch.” So much manga, so little cash.

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It’s been a while since I mentioned the MangaTrade Yahoo Group. I’ve made some nice exchanges through it, and I hope others are finding it useful as well. In fact, my latest swap gave me fodder for Monday’s column.

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You still have plenty of time to enter my Gray Horses contest. Details are here.

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The yard has turned into an ornithological singles’ bar, which is always exciting. It’s a painful reminder that the comics creative community has yet to give me the Action Birdwatchers comic I so desire. For shame, comics creative community! I’m telling you… ornithologists will be the new zombies.

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Barnes & Noble is having a sale on selected manga titles, including some new releases from Tokyopop and Viz’s Shojo Beat line. While 30% off still isn’t enough to get me to touch Godchild, I did pick up a copy of Loveless.

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There’s just over a week left to wait for the new Elizabeth Peters novel.

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Speaking of novels, I have a relationship etiquette question. When you give a book as a gift to your life partner, just how long should you wait for said life partner to read it before you commandeer the book for your own enjoyment? I gave mine the latest Amy Tan book for Christmas, and I’m just now getting my hands on it.

Oh, and by the way… can anyone think of a prose or graphic novel that’s used automatic writing as a plot point? (No, not prose or graphic novels that were written on auto-pilot. I can think of plenty of those.)

Comic Book Resources has posted Diamond’s sales charts for February 2006. Thirty-one of the top fifty manga made the top 100 graphic novels chart (32, if you count Image’s Spawn Manga Vol. 2, which came in at #38 on the GN list, which would have placed it at #7 on the manga chart).

Tokyopop saw a bump in both dollar and unit share over January, with Viz experiencing a slight decline in both. That will likely turn around in March, as a new volume of Naruto dropped.

The top-selling manga property was Dark Horse’s Trigun Maximum Vol. 8. This is another property with a popular anime attached, so it’s not surprising that it’s doing well. I can’t remember it ever charting very highly in the BookScan lists, but it airs in the wee hours on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. Another Adult Swim tie-in, Tokyopop’s Samurai Champloo Vol. 2, shows up at #49 on the GN list. It will be interesting to see where Viz’s R.O.D.: Read or Die tracks, as it’s aired intermittently on Adult Swim as well.

After some usual suspects (Ruroni Kenshin, Tsubasa, etc.), Tokyopop’s Loveless makes a strong debut at #40 on the GN chart. Tokyopop’s strongest performer is Warcraft Vol. 2, though. DrMaster gets nice results with another game title, SNK vs. Capcom Vol. 3, which lands at #72 in GNs.

Yû Watase continues to reward Viz’s devotion with a strong debut for Absolute Boyfriend (#75) and solid performance from Ceres: Celestial Legend Vol. 14 (#81). Nana, wildly popular in Japan, hasn’t seemed to take off yet. Vol. 2 comes in at #35 on the manga list. It seems like lots of LCS shoppers are on the You Higuri train, with the first volume of Gorgeous Carat (Blu) reaching #90 on the GN list.

Neither of Viz’s new Signature books (Monster and Golgo 13) cracked the top 100 GNs, though both made the manga top 50 (at #37 and #35 respectively).

On the top 300 comics chart, Shonen Jump ($4.99) dropped from #190 in January to #216. Shojo Beat ($5.99) fell from #242 to #271. When ICv2 posts its numbers, I’ll have to check back and compare how many units those positions represent. (Jump was ranked lower in December – an estimated 7,692 units — than January – an estimated 4,735.)

(Corrected, because math is hard.)

Through a happy accident, I wound up with two copies of Hope Larson’s lovely Gray Horses (Oni). I thought about putting one in a bag and shelving it away for the inevitable day when I read the other one into tatters, but then my better instincts took over.

So I’ve decided to have a little mini-contest. Just send me an e-mail (DavidPWelsh @ yahoo dot com) mentioning a graphic novel you enjoy reading over and over again, and I’ll do a random drawing to determine the winner. I’ll also list the re-readable titles in a future post.

Deadline is midnight (Eastern Standard Time) Friday, March 24, with the winner announced the following Saturday. (And don’t worry. I’m giving away the pristine shop copy as opposed to the review copy that I’ve already read a half dozen times.)

The Manga Revolution marches insidiously forward as Tokyopop sets up a new message board. Categories include Anime, Fashion, Manga (obviously), and others. Judging by the guidelines, it looks like it’s going to be moderated fairly closely, which is never a bad thing. I’m particularly fond of guideline #3:

“Please read or re-read your posts before posting… Also, make sure that your post makes sense.”

Crazy dreamers!

Taking a look at the Manga section, I’m happy to see lots of love for Off*Beat. There’s also what I assume is a rhetorical question, and what was probably an inevitable one. In that last thread, there’s mention of an OEL differential that’s been floating around lately:

“I like OEL because it’s coming from a more western vantage point. Japanese manga can be fun to read, but the fact that the culture is so different from my own is kind of alienating. Sure, it’s interesting to read about people in other countries, but I can relate more to stories that are based in my own culture and country. The fact that the stories reflect a western sense of the world gives these stories that might otherwise fall into the category of monotony, blending in with all the other Japanese comics, a sense of innovation and originality.”

Every time I run across this position, I get involuntary and probably unfair flashes of Vicki Lawrence dressed up as Mama Harper exhorting me to “Buy American!” It’s starting to sound a bit like a pre-fabricated talking point.

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Chris Butcher weighs in on manga price structures, making the compelling, elegantly simple argument that publishers price things the way they do because they can.

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Should vendors start stocking up on past volumes of Bleach? Viz has announced that it’s “secured the television, home video and merchandising rights” to the property, and there have been whispers about the series showing up on Cartoon Network at some point in the future.

I seem to remember John Jakala saying nice things about Bleach, so I really should sample a volume or two.

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ICv2 doles out a little more information on Boychild’s upcoming title, The Japanese Drawing Room – Victorian Travelers in Japan, which sounds just fascinating.