David Taylor notes that the same volume of Naruto is still breaking records on USA Today’s Top 150. If you’re in the San Francisco area and hear strange popping noises, it’s probably champagne corks flying over at the Viz offices.

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Speaking of youth-friendly properties, Barnes & Noble is having an online-only Kids’ Sale. Being curious about these things, I gave a quick scan to see if any graphic novels were included, and lo, they were, under the listing for teens.

It’s kind of a weird mix of product, with lots of film-friendly choices starring the X-Men and Fantastic Four, some high-end DC products that were probably gathering dust on the warehouse shelves, and some manga (though no Naruto, because it clearly doesn’t need any kind of discount incentive attached to it).

The manga choices include the first volumes of Bleach, Cromartie High School, and Fullmetal Alchemist, along with a Fullmetal art book and 500 Manga Heroes and Villains.

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Maybe this will be better than the television series that inspired it.

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There’s a new elliptical trainer at the gym. This would normally be a cause for great rejoicing, as there are never enough machines to accommodate all the people who want to use them. This one is just murder, though. The low-impact cardiovascular workout is counterbalanced by the spinal reconfiguration endured by anyone taller than 4’6”. The only thing the machine is lacking is a little tray where chiropractors and physical therapists can put their business cards.

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Just who is “the HBO of comics”? AiT/Planet Lar claims squatter’s rights to the title. And if Big Love and Deadwood move to Showtime, we’ll know for sure.

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Unsettling possibility of the day: the notion that the Project Runway producers would specifically edit out any mention of Zulema’s sexuality, in spite of frequent references to her wife in interviews and conversation.

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It’s almost Wednesday, you say? Why, that must mean the wait is almost over for Hope Larson’s Gray Horses (Oni), which is bound to be lovely. “Lovely” probably won’t apply to the first volume of Anne Freaks (ADV, which has no solicitation information for the book up on their site, but they still hasn’t gotten around to posting anything for Yotsuba&!, so no big surprise), but I’m looking forward to it all the same. Last week’s issue of Mister Miracle didn’t leave me very warmly inclined towards the Seven Soldiers experience, but perhaps the final issue of The Bulleteer (DC) will turn things around for me.

Joe Keenan is a very witty writer. Before his long stint with Frasier, he wrote two novels (Blue Heaven and Putting on the Ritz) that had almost an overabundance of great lines, matched only by the clockwork perfection of his comic plot twists. Now that Frasier is over, he’s returned to novel writing with My Lucky Star.

It features the same character set: writer Philip Cavanaugh, endearingly unlucky in love and career; Gilbert Selwyn, whose ambition is matched only by his laziness and capacity for disastrous schemes; and composer Claire Simmons, Philip’s writing partner and a paragon of good sense who’s invariably called upon to rescue Philip and Gilbert from the spiraling consequences of their apparently foolproof schemes. (The schemes had never counted on these particular fools.)

Gilbert inevitably draws Philip (and, by extension, Claire) into some ridiculous con that will, he swears, leave them draped in glory. Philip is somewhere halfway between shortcut-loving Gilbert and I-dotting, T-crossing Claire, which makes him an ideal narrator. When he ignores that little voice in his head that sounds like Claire, you can generally understand and sympathize.

In previous books, Philip and company set their sights on undoubtedly worthy targets. In Blue Heaven, they attempt to co-opt the exclusionary rituals of traditional family values for their own gain. In Ritz, they hope to expose profoundly awful Trump-esque greedheads to ridicule and scorn. (Well, more ridicule and scorn than they receive naturally.)

In Star, the target is a bit more problematic. To secure jobs as screenwriters, Philip and Gilbert agree to help a Cruise-ish megastar stay in the closet. Gilbert is motivated by his hunger for low-effort celebrity (since Philip and Claire would do all the actual writing, and he’d still see his name in the credits), and Philip is driven by lust for the closeted mega-star. Essentially, the ethics are reversed. Instead of trying to subvert a corrupt system or social construct, the characters are trying to maintain an unpleasant status quo for the sake of different permutations of greed. There’s one character who comes down squarely on the side of honesty, but his motives are so selfish and his mien so creepy that he’s ultimately irrelevant.

It’s a difficult sell, and it falls into most of the traps of closeted-celebrity comedy. Irritating and transparent as the facades are, and entertaining as it is to dissect them, the writer isn’t left with many narrative options. Actually out the fictional star, and you’re left with the choice of an ending can be viewed as either excessively optimistic (the public embraces him anyways) or just plain depressing (his comeuppance arrives in the form of obscurity and scorn). Construct things in a way that the character stays in the closet, essentially unpunished for his dishonesty except with some more-heightened-than-usual moments of fear of exposure, and you haven’t really said anything about the subject. Then there’s the question of whether any punishment is merited at all for that kind of personal choice. (I’m in the camp that wants to know less about the personal life of celebrities… the less the better.)

And the celebrity in this case, thinking man’s action hero Steven Donato, isn’t interesting enough to inspire either sympathy or hissing. He’s a standard-issue Hollywood type – handsome, charismatic, and self-serving. Keenan can’t quite bring himself to endorse the celebrity closet, but his usual narrative balancing act demands that he keep sympathies shifting and plot twisting. Keenan isn’t as successful as he usually is, partly because he seems unable to treat a soft target as a soft target.

Readers of Blue Heaven might have a mixed reaction to the return of that book’s primary antagonist, sociopath Moira Finch. The initial thrill of the character was Keenan’s ability to peel away her layers of awfulness to reveal fresh horror lurking underneath. Just when you thought she couldn’t sink any lower, voila, down she went. Here, she’s a known quantity, and Gilbert and Philip seem particularly foolish to expect anything but the worst of her. She’s still a delightful pot-stirrer, but she’s lost the element of surprise.

There’s still plenty of Keenan’s terrific wordplay to My Lucky Star. I laughed out loud at several points. But while it isn’t surprising that Keenan has put his cast into a no-win situation (it’s the formula), it’s difficult to see how they could have thought there was anything worth winning from this scenario in the first place.

Okay, so I was never really in danger of reading this anyways, but you have to keep the snark muscles working. And really, how often does an opportunity this perfect present itself?

Wow! A stretchy super-hero’s wife dies, and trauma ensues. Thanks, House of Other People’s Ideas!

Because someone touched his stuff!

Johnny defiantly decides to do whatever it takes- no matter the cost or consequence- to see his sister alive again.

Awesome! Super-heroes violate their deepest principles to protect and avenge the women-folk! It’s as fresh as 2004!

What he does will change the way the Fantastic Four look at him forever.

Does this seem eerily familiar to anyone else?

“A Death in the Family”— not a dream, not a hoax… and not to be missed. Includes bonus Fantastic Four issue #245! 64 PGS./Rated A …$3.99

Adding further nuance to the solicitation is a passage from the latest Joe Fridays at Newsarama:

Question: Isn’t Sue going to be dead as of May? We don’t want to quote you, but we seem to remember something to that effect?
JQ: Yes, this is true, so how the heck is this going to happen?
NRAMA: That’s what we’re asking you?? Isn’t dead dead? [laughs]
JQ: Yes, dead is dead and is dead in this case as well. Don’t dig any further, therein lies madness.

Now, if you have to specify that this is a real, serious, lasting death, it might be time to call a moratorium on deaths in general, because they’ve clearly lost all meaning.

Okay, that workout completed, I’m not going to flip into complete hypocrite mode and talk about how Death Note Vol. 4 (Viz – Shonen Jump Advanced) hinted that a previous demise could be undone, which has left me happy beyond all proportion. I’m not really going to talk about it, because it’s rather spoiler-y, but I am going to say that the new information about shinigami revealed in this volume gives me great hope regarding the ultimate fate of poor Naomi.

And I will defend myself by saying that Naomi’s apparent demise wasn’t constructed to punish or motivate some man. It was because Naomi was a threat to the book’s pro/antagonist because A) he’d touched her stuff, and B) she was smart and tough enough to scare him silly.

Last but not least, extra credit has to go to Alexis Kirsch, Death Note‘s translator/adaptor. This book is packed with characters, dialogue, and plot twists, and it can’t be easy to make sure everything stays intact from the original Japanese. It’s got to be a lot of hard work, and Kirsch does a fabulous job contributing to the creation of a riveting mystery series.

Heidi MacDonald notes that it’s nomination time for the Friends of Lulu awards. Johanna Draper Carlson confirms the value of the Lulus by taking a look at the slate for the Comic Buyers Guide Fan Awards. And Brigid at MangaBlog wonders if Viz’s price structure is sexist. (I think it’s ageist, but Brigid raises an interesting question all the same.)

One of the things I love most about manga is the number of thriving women creators. Two of the best-selling licensed titles (shôjo Fruits Basket and shônen Fullmetal Alchemist) are written and drawn by women. Hit-monster CLAMP is a four-woman collective. Some of the leading lights working in Tokyopop’s OEL line are women.

Is the manga category a feminist utopia? I have no idea. But based on what’s on the shelves and what flies off of them, it does seem to be a much more level playing field than corporate American comics.

But what, you might wonder, does any of this have to do with Wataru Yoshizumi’s Ultra Maniac (Viz – Shojo Beat)? Not a whole lot, I admit, but I’m having a Brenda Vaccaro moment, so bear with me. Because if I had a manga-loving daughter, I really think I’d encourage her to read Ultra Maniac.

Yes, it’s light and fluffy and resolutely cute. Yes, Yoshizumi is about as interested in magical world-building as Sanami Matoh is in police procedural or You Higuri is in the mechanics of jewel thievery. Yes, the Free Talks are drifty marketing patter. But Yoshizumi has created a really wonderful, rewarding female friendship between her mismatched leads.

Cool Ayu and flaky Nina don’t have any Betty-and-Veronica bitchery to them. Boys are fine, but when things get rocky (and it’s manga, so you know they will), they know that friendship comes first. They encourage each other and stick together through troubles mundane and magical. When a rival crops up, they do their best to understand her, not smite her.

Maybe it’s a little depressing that I find a portrayal of friendship like that so refreshing. But in it Ultra Maniac’s five-volume run, you get sweet, funny romantic comedy with two appealing leads who are unfailingly loyal and kind to each other, despite their differences. It’s slight, but it’s heart is so in the right place that I can’t resist it.

There’s been lots of chat of the impact of the Naruto anime on sales of the manga, which seems to be significant. Tom Spurgeon makes an interesting point when he notes that there’s rarely very much critical discussion of the property:

“The unfortunate thing about a mainstream comics-oriented mindset that doesn’t easily embrace a hit like this is that Naruto is clever and accomplished, well-written in terms of escalating drama and linking character interaction to plot lines, and features the recurring visceral thrill of ninjas punching and stabbing each other a great deal of the time in very expressively drawn and not particularly groove-on-the-violence fashion. I don’t think it’s a transcendent work or an artistically significant one, but its virtues are rare enough I can’t help feeling it would be nice if it more easily popped to mind when the discussions turned in its general direction. Not that it needs the boost.”

I’ve only read a couple of chapters of the manga in some issues of Shonen Jump, and I tend to hit the clicker when the anime comes on, because the register and volume of some of the voice work puts every mammal in my household on edge. The manga seems appealing enough, though, and it’s a title that always hovers on my “I should try that sometime” list. (Unfortunately, that list is pretty long.)

For a look at things from the other side of the equation, pop by Newsarama for the latest Animated Shorts. Steve Fritz talks to Cartoon Network VP Terry Kalagain, who oversees programming not actually produced by CN (Naruto, Zatch Bell, etc.). There’s nothing terribly surprising here (Naruto = cha-ching!), but it’s a nice overview. Kalagain talks about the Toonami block, the ratings performance of the Miyazaki films (To the person who once suggested to me that I should avoid the dubbed version of My Neighbor Totoro, I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you.), and politely evades questions about what new properties might be coming to a television near you.

She also disappoints me deeply when asked about the prospect of some shôjo programming:

“Well, you never say never, but I don’t think so. We did some testing and those kinds of shows just don’t do well in the U.S. Honestly, all around the world it’s been proven that girl-oriented properties never do as well as boy, specifically the anime. Now what’s interesting is a show like Totally Spies, which most people aimed for girls, actually does very well with boys. We have 15 new episodes of that starting in April.”

I think I remember reading elsewhere that CN already has a substantial audience of girls and women for its Toonami programming, so I guess it isn’t surprising that they don’t see the need to delve into that product niche. And I can always get Fruits Basket DVDs from Netflix. (I would actually find it pretty uplifting if it turned out that girls don’t generally like Totally Spies, because the characters are mostly vapid, shallow, and even more stereotypical than the Charlie’s Angels troika usually engenders.)

In my trawl through the latest Previews, I overlooked one of the books from :01 (First Second). I though Joann Sfar’s The Rabbi’s Cat was brilliant, so I’m looking forward to Vampire Loves.

I think I might be in some kind of denial over :01’s line. Almost all of it looks really good to me, and the last thing I need is another reason to overspend. The volume of Sfar’s material alone is daunting, though damned near irresistible. Ah, well.

Tom Spurgeon provides cover images for :01’s fall line of books (and thanks for the reminder to Ed, who has never come down on the side of restraint even once), with links to more information from the publisher. Klezmer looks particularly wonderful, as does Journey Into Mohawk Country.

For anyone who missed it in other venues, ICv2 repeats the wit and wisdom of Al “Kids today don’t read” Kahn, CEO of 4Kids Entertainment. It was funny enough the first time, but there’s extra comic value given that the item runs two up from the one announcing that “The first volume of the Nancy Drew graphic novel is on its third printing, and has sold 25,000 copies to date.”

It’s really smart that these books are “being racked with the prose series based on the same properties.” Degrassi High and Baby-Sitters Club, take note. I wonder if Dark Horse is trying to get its Harlequin manga shelved with the rest of the romance? And I keep meaning to see if the novelizations of manga properties are shelved in the appropriate prose genre sections, or if they’re just with the manga. Has anyone noticed one way or the other?

I don’t know if its getting into the hands of younger readers, but I’m thrilled to see that the first issue of Mouse Guard has sold out. It’s nice to see a book from a smaller publisher essentially come out of nowhere and do well, especially when it’s really good. (Kevin Melrose praises the book over at Supernaturally.)

David Taylor pulls out the week’s manga goodies at Love Manga, and there’s a lot of very likable material arriving on Wednesday. The fourth volume of the addictive Death Note (Viz – Shonen Jump Advanced) finally reaches comic shops. (David also notes that the book came in second on the 2/26/06 BookScan graphic novel list. I don’t really need to tell you which book was in first place, do I?)

The third and final volume of Chikyu Misaki (CMX) shows up. This charming title really snuck up on me, and I’m looking forward to reading the conclusion.

If you’re considering picking up the first volume of Godchild (Viz – Shojo Beat), you might check out what Mely has to say first. (Based on the few chapters I’ve read in the magazine, I think she’s dead-on in her assessment.)

Pantheon’s collection of Jessica Abel’s La Perdida hits the comic shop shelves. I bought this in singles and thought it was terrific.

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In this week’s Flipped, I take a look at Range Murata’s Robot from Digital Manga. It’s a full-color collection of eclectic stories from emerging manga-ka.

The new edition of Sequential Tart has a look at the American Library Association’s current nominees for their list of Great Graphic Novels for Teens (found via MangaBlog). Rebecca Salek suggests some additions to the list and provides a brief overview of what’s already there.

Now, you all know how much I love librarians. Had I made better choices during my youth, I might be among their number. But what in the name of all that’s decent and sensible is Identity Crisis doing on that list? Maybe Brad Meltzer or Rags Morales has a librarian in the family.

But I won’t let this aberration (which can certainly be corrected by the time the final list is assembled in 2007) shake my faith in the profession, because there are plenty of worthy titles on this list.

I’m glad to see books like Off*Beat, Girl Genius and Moped Army up for consideration. They all deserve more attention. (The list makes me a little nervous that I’ve somehow missed the fourth volume of GG, Agatha Heterodyne and the Circus of Dreams, but Amazon reassures me that it’s not due until March 25. Sneaky librarians and their preview copies!)

It’s also nice to see good popular stuff like Fruits Basket, Death Note, Crimson Hero, and Nana make the cut. And, as always happens with things like this, I’ve found more books to add to my list of titles I really should try some time. (It also provides a reminder that I really should catch up with Prince of Tennis. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read so far, but there’s so much manga and so little time. Boy, it would be great if my local library had a decent selection of graphic novels, wouldn’t it?)

And, because I can’t resist putting my two cents in, here are some other books I think would make fine nominations (though in some cases I think I’m fudging the “released after September 1, 2005” date):

• Antique Bakery, by Fumi Yoshinaga (Digital Manga)
• Banana Sunday, by Root Nibot and Colleen Coover (Oni)
• Cantarella, by You Higuri (Go! Comi)
• A Few Perfect Hours, by Josh Neufeld (Alternative)
• Livewires: Clockwork Thugs, Yo, by Adam Warren, Rick Mays, and Jason Martin (Marvel)
• Lost at Sea, by Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
• Northwest Passage Vol. 2, by Scott Chantler (Oni)
• Runaways: True Believers, by Brian K. Vaughan, Adrian Alphona, and Craig Yeung (Marvel)
• Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, by Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
• Sgt. Frog, by Mine Yoshizaki (Tokyopop)
• The Ticking, by Renée French (Top Shelf)
• A Treasury of Victorian Murder: The Murder of Abraham Lincoln, by Rick Geary (NBM)
• Young Avengers: Sidekicks, by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung (Marvel)

Heidi MacDonald has offered a lengthy wrap-up piece on the New York Comic-Con at The Beat, offering a comprehensive personal look at the experience and addressing a number of issues that have come up. For example:

“Just for the record, what you’re about to read is an honest as I can make it, given professional discretion over inside information that I am privy to. Both arms of Reed give me free reign here, and don’t pay me a penny to write the Beat. As I wrote elsewhere, I leave it to the intelligent reader to decide for themselves if I am dissembling or not.”

And that, I think, is the crux of the question. What MacDonald does or doesn’t write at The Beat is entirely up to her, and I don’t think the sincerity of her views in that venue is in question. It’s a blog that’s always trafficked at least partly in commentary delivered in MacDonald’s unique voice, and it would be ridiculous to suggest that she should restrict herself, regardless of what her professional affiliations might be. At The Beat, she’s disclosed potential conflicts of interest in her work for Publishers Weekly (the fact that Reed owns both Publishers Weekly and the New York Comic-Con, which PW would be covering, and that MacDonald was a paid consultant for NYCC), which is all to the good.

The question of conflict of interest is very different when it comes to what’s written for Publishers Weekly Comics Week. PWCW is not a blog. It purports to be a legitimate news outlet, which means it should be held to higher journalistic standards, and sincerity isn’t equivalent to impartiality. Admirable as it is of MacDonald to inform Beat readers of her professional affiliations to allow them to detect or discount any potential filters, it’s equally unfortunate that PWCW never mentioned MacDonald’s consultancy to its readers. (It did disclose Reed’s ownership of both PW and NYCC.) PWCW is not The Beat, and their respective audiences should be treated separately.

It matters more, in my opinion, that any potential conflicts be revealed at the former than the latter. And they weren’t. (MacDonald suggested in comments at Comics Worth Reading that PWCW’s disclosure of its own relationship with Reed somehow superseded the necessity of identifying MacDonald’s other connections to the company. I disagree. They’re independent, separate conflicts, and PWCW owed it to readers to disclose both whenever relevant.)

Here are some excerpts from a section of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics:

Act Independently

Journalists should be free of obligation to any interest other than the
public’s right to know.

Journalists should:

• Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived.
• Remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or
  damage credibility.
• Disclose unavoidable conflicts.
• Deny favored treatment to advertisers and special interests and resist their
  pressure to influence news coverage.

And, just as a closing note, I think it’s hilariously depressing that Guy LeCharles Gonzalez urges nay-sayers to shut it in one post while dismissing others as cheerleaders in another. Way to raise the tone.