Spending too much on comics, then talking too much about them
by David Welsh
Here, in alphabetical order and without any real comment, are ten series that concluded in 2008 that I really enjoyed:
I know there’s another volume of Emma coming out in 2009, but the core story concluded in 2008. Also, I warned you I would mention Dororo more than once. I could have done the same with Cat-Eyed Boy, but I liked Dororo better.
by David Welsh
Here, in alphabetical order and without any real comment, are ten series that debuted in 2008 that I really enjoyed (and continue to enjoy):
I realize that Your and My Secret actually debuted in English years ago, but a first volume came out in 2008, so I’m counting it. I also realize that Sand Chronicles and Honey and Clover may technically be seen as debuting in 2007, since they’re serialized in Shojo Beat, but I wait for the trades. And, yes, I also realize that, if I do a list of series that concluded in 2008 that I really enjoyed, I may be robbing myself of Dororo, but I can always list it again, because it’s my blog and I am capricious that way.
Y’know, it was actually kind of hard to limit that list to ten.
by David Welsh
Flush with the thrill of trimming the dog’s toenails without removing any actual toe, I directed my excess energy to writing a Flipped column inspired by Tom’s “five memorable comics moments of 2008” query.
by David Welsh
“Man, Kiri’s dad was amazing!! He can do all those amazing cuts even when he’s drunk.”
— From volume nine of Kiyoko Arai’s Beauty Pop
by David Welsh
The crew at Manga Recon put their heads together to discuss various manga that should be rescued from licensing limbo, that cold, airless place where a publisher has the rights to a given title, but their efforts aren’t rewarded with audience demand. Sometimes they come back. This year saw the return of Ai Morinaga’s Your and My Secret (rescued from ADV by Tokyopop), Slam Dunk (rescued from Gutsoon by Viz), Black Jack (rescued from Viz by Vertical), and the continuation of books like Parasyte (rescued from Tokyopop by Del Rey). And Aurora’s Deux imprint just saved Cigarette Kisses from Broccoli’s Boysenberry imprint, which has to count as one of the shortest sentences to licensing limbo in history.
I thought I would focus on one at-risk title in particular, Mari Okazaki’s Suppli (Tokyopop), because I really think it’s something special. Suppli is one of those all-too-rare books about grown-ups… people with demanding jobs and complicated personal lives, kind of like Fumi Yoshinaga’s Antique Bakery. There’s plenty of smart, detailed character development and absolutely gorgeous art in Suppli, but don’t just take my word for it:
by David Welsh
For whatever reason, I’m really enjoying the “best of/favorite” lists from group blogs this year. Case in point: the round-up from the crew at Good Comics for Kids.
I may not agree with every choice (Life Sucks? Seriously?), but it’s a great cross-section of different kinds of books for different age groups. And maybe it’s just me, but I often find lists focused on a younger audience full of books that could just as easily populate a general “best of/favorites” list. But that might just be me.
And speaking of good comics for kids, I just got around to reading the second volume of Satoko Kiyuduki’s Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro (Yen Press). What an odd, sweet, gently unsettling little book this is. I think it may need some Flipped love in the near future.
by David Welsh
Over at Rocket Bomber, Matt Blind answers Tom Spurgeon’s questions and mine, and it’s fabulous, and you should all go read it.
The only question remaining is how much of Matt’s case of beer remains?
by David Welsh
No, one of the good kind.
I went to a bookstore I don’t usually visit, and I hit one of those strides. “Oh, I’ve been looking for this!” “Oh, I didn’t know this was out yet!” “Oh, I forgot all about that, and yet there it is, urging me to spend!”
Okay, maybe that’s not necessarily a positive thing that I spent a lot more than I planned, but…
by David Welsh
No publisher is as capable of making me go all Team Comix as Fanfare/Ponent Mon. If they’ve got a new release, it’s bound to be my pick of the week. If they’ve released anything in a calendar year, it’s bound to be somewhere on my theoretical list of the year’s best. (I say theoretical because I’m deeply ambivalent about my ability to concoct a list without over-compensating for my personal biases and anxieties about looking… well… dumb.)
So this week I will urge you all to at least take a look at Jiro Taniguchi’s The Quest for the Missing Girl, which fuses Taniguchi’s facility with evoking sense of place and his fondness for detective pulp in some very effective ways. I reviewed it over at The Comics Reporter.
And speaking of Fanfare/Ponent Mon and year-end round-ups, Hideo Azuma’s Disappearance Diary (which I reviewed here) has deservedly been popping up on several, including this one at Manga Recon. I point to this one in particular because it’s one of my favorites. I love the format, and I think it allows for a very natural eclecticism of tastes. It’s a great example of the kind of thing a good group blog can do really well.
Here’s this week’s ComicList, by the way.
by David Welsh
Writing for The Christian Science Monitor, Amelia Newcomb looks at the growing influence of Japan’s pop-culture exports:
“In France last year, for example, 1,787 foreign comic books were translated – 64 percent of them Japanese. In the US, total manga sales in 2007 rose about 5 percent, to more than $210 million, according to ICV2.com, a trade website. Otakon, a convention devoted to Japanese pop culture in Baltimore, saw a record-breaking 26,000-plus attendees this past summer.”