The Manga Curmudgeon

Spending too much on comics, then talking too much about them

From the stack: Empowered

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Like its titular heroine, Adam Warren’s Empowered (Dark Horse) is much more than the sum of its often lurid parts. It’s consistently funny, and the comedy comes in a variety of flavors, from raucously crude to sly and sweet. It’s oddly moving, building genuine warmth and sympathy for its hapless heroine as the short chapters progress. And it’s unquestionably subversive, parading the worst kinds of super-heroine tropes for ridicule, but doing so without any of the lazy viciousness that sometimes characterizes those entertainments.

That the stories were born of spandex bondage pin-ups drawn on commission only serves to make me like it more, which must qualify as some kind of miracle. But I’m getting accustomed to Warren’s ability to take material I might otherwise find tiresome or distasteful and turning it into something endearing and compelling.

Take Livewires: Clockwork Thugs, Yo (Marvel). Under normal circumstances, a tale of ultra-violent, hipster teen mechas would leave me as cold as river rock. But Warren (ably assisted by artist Rick Mays) managed to execute those unpromising, overused elements and infuse them with an irresistible amount of personality. He does the same thing here, overcoming even more substantial hurdles.

For Empowered, humiliation is part and parcel of the super-heroic experience. Her costume is a lethal mix of titillation and unreliability, hugging every curve when it isn’t being shredded by the slightest outside influence. Even in those rare moments when it’s intact, it doesn’t work very well, and her adventures often end with her bound and gagged with a suggestiveness that no degree of satirical intent can mitigate.

She’d be a moron or a masochist if she didn’t let it get her down, and she’s neither. If Warren isn’t above sprinkling the pages with lovingly rendered sketches of a nearly naked, trussed-up woman, he isn’t given to letting them pass without comment either. Empowered’s harried frustration and resolute good intentions manage to balance her haplessness, softening the prurient material just enough to make me willing to overlook it. I have no idea if that will be the effect for every reader, and I have to admit that it required an active decision on my part. Mileage will obviously vary.

The deciding factor for me is that, while Empowered’s costumed life is a nightmare of marginalization, her real life is pretty fabulous. She’s got a terrific boyfriend, a reformed super-villain minion, to provide limitless moral support and tons of great sex. She’s got a best friend who can really commiserate on the pitfalls of the super-heroic lifestyle. And while her costumed successes are few, it’s got to be a pick-me-up to have an imprisoned destroyer of worlds sitting on the coffee table, even if he is given to grandiose pronouncements and has terrible taste in television.

If most super-heroes are hopeless neurotics who are only truly alive when in power drag, Empowered is a happy counter-example. Everyday life gives her the strength to put up with the indignities endemic to her calling. Maybe it should be depressing that the idea seems so fresh and novel, but Warren makes it too much fun to dwell on the dark side.

March manga sales

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Here are the top-selling manga in the Direct Market, pulled out of the top 100 graphic novels, via Newsarama.

1 (2) NARUTO VOL 13 (Viz)
2 (7) DEATH NOTE VOL 10 (Viz)
3 (10) WARCRAFT VOL 3 (Tokyopop)
4 (17) BERSERK VOL 16 (Dark Horse)
5 (50) BATTLE CLUB VOL 4 (Tokyopop)
6 (51) TRINITY BLOOD VOL 2 (Tokyopop)
7 (53) FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST VOL 12 (Viz)
8 (62) GUNSMITH CATS OMNIBUS VOL 1 (Dark Horse)
9 (68) CRYING FREEMAN VOL 5 (Dark Horse)
10 (69) ALCOHOL SHIRT & KISS VOL 1 (Digital Manga)
11 (71) DAY WHICH I BECAME BUTTERFLY (Digital Manga)
12 (73) SOLFEGE (Digital Manga)
13 (74) BLACK CAT VOL 7 (Viz)
14 (79) PRIEST VOL 16 (Tokyopop)
15 (86) INNOCENT BIRD VOL 1 (Tokyopop – Blu)
16 (88) IS VOL 12 (Viz)
17 (91) KASHIMASHI MANGA VOL 2 (Seven Seas)
18 (93) TSUKUYOMI MOON PHASE VOL 6 (Tokyopop)
19 (95) ROSE HIP ZERO VOL 2 (Tokyopop)
20 (96) READ OR DREAM VOL 3 (Viz)
21 (97) MABURAHO MANGA VOL 2 (ADV)
22 (100) KUROSAGI CORPSE DELIVERY SERVICE VOL 3 (Dark Horse)

Nothing tremendously surprising here, with the sprinking of perennial sellers up top, a healthy handful of boys’ love and yaoi, and a strong performance for Dark Horse, which always seems to earn solid numbers in comic shops. Most of the manga action is confined to the bottom half of the top 100, but three books cracked the top 10. That’s an unusually weak performance for Fullmetal Alchemist Vol. 12, but it did ship towards the end of the month.

Dark Horse had a terrific month overall, taking the top graphic novel spot with the hardcover of 300 and solid showings for books like Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser and Empowered. The first issue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 cracked the top ten in floppies, which is quite an accomplishment for a publisher that isn’t Marvel or DC. And while coming in at the very bottom of the graphic novel list might not seem like a huge accomplishment, I’ll trumpet any traction gained by The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service.

Room for improvement

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Top Design is over, and I’m glad. Glad, I say! Like the second season of Top Chef, the show erred in favor of contestant drama over illustrating the creative process. While the first-season designers weren’t as loathsome as the second-season chefs, they weren’t even able to generate sufficient drama to compensate for the lack of design insight.

There were some minor compensations. While their judging criteria generally didn’t make much sense, I often loved the casual cruelty of Kelly Wearstler and Margaret Russell. (“I felt like I had walked into an assisted living facility.”) Jonathan Adler’s tag line, “See you later, decorator,” was deeply grating, but it did open the door for all kinds of variations on, “After a while, ____phile.” And Wearstler’s wardrobe was so clinically insane that she almost had to have been styled by Jeffrey Sebelia.

My mental jury is still out on Shear Genius, though any show that seriously considers Meg Ryan’s shag haircut an enduring professional legacy can’t be all bad.

But seriously, when is someone going to produce Top Mangaka?

Filed Under: TV

Vowell sounds

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One of the benefits of living in a university community is a rich range of cultural events – lectures, recitals, and so on. Okay, so most of the time my appreciation of these opportunities is theoretical, as I’ve decided to sit on the couch and make fun of David Caruso’s acting in reruns of CSI: Miami. (Seriously, he’s like watching Danny Kaye try his hand at film noir.) But even I can be motivated to pry myself off the couch from time to time, and a lecture by Sarah Vowell was more than lure enough.

Vowell is an essayist and radio commentator. I first encountered her on National Public Radio pushing her book, Take the Cannoli. She struck me as a less self-involved David Sedaris (not that his self-involvement is bad – it’s just that it’s inspired too many inferior imitators), and I enjoyed the book a lot. I caught her from time to time on NPR’s This American Life, and I really loved her third book, Assassination Vacation. Like Sedaris, she’s got a funny voice and a wry sense of humor, but unlike Sedaris, she has expansive interests and peculiar but illuminating obsessions. In other words, she’s a big geek, which makes her barbed perceptiveness all the more appealing.

Last night’s audience was almost precisely what you’d expect – liberals and graduate students, gathered to pay tribute to our nerd princess. She did not disappoint. Her extemporaneous speaking is as delightful as her writing. (Any evening that concludes with a detailed differentiation between apathy and quiet despair is my kind of evening.) When asked who her current presidential candidate of choice was, she thought for a moment and said, “Gee, I’m just so un-picky these days.”

For whatever reason, I’d passed over The Partly Cloudy Patriot, but the opportunity to get it signed was too good to pass up. It proved, yet again, that I should not be allowed near any level of celebrity, because I always get weird when I actually interact with them. But hey, I have an autographed book by one of my favorite essayists, and I’m sure she wasn’t too alarmed by my complete lack of social skills.

One thing – I can understand the desire of professors to expand their students’ horizons by requiring them to attend events like this. And maybe a small handful of them come away better informed and more curious than they were before. But for the most part, no one is happy with this arrangement. The students are clearly unhappy, judging by their sighing, talking and compulsive peeks at their cellular phones to see if that undoubtedly life-changing text message has arrived at last. And the people who attended the event in question are unhappy if they have the bad fortune of sitting next to the students and are forced to try and tune out their ostentatious ennui. Just make them watch a video in class, or something.

But back to Vowell. Wikipedia has a terrific collection of audio and video links to her appearances on various radio and television programs. If you listen to only one, make it this episode of This American Life, where she confesses to actually enjoying marching band (see? big geek!) in a performance that led David Sedaris to insist that “She must be destroyed.” Oh, and she said her next book will be about the Puritans. I can’t wait.

Secret comics Japan

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I can barely stand to read a comic on a computer screen, so the idea of squinting at a cell phone for that purpose is completely beyond my comprehension. But this piece at BusinessWeek.com is a fascinating look at the phenomenon’s early growth in Japan, mostly for what it suggests about the potential to reach what might be called casual readers. Reporter Kenji Hall initially looks at this from the angle of boys’-love fans:

“‘Women and girls in their teens, 20s, and 30s like BL for their portrayals of innocent love,’ says Toshiki Fujii, a manager in the cell-phone content division at Nagoya-based Media Do. ‘But now those who might have been coy about walking into a shop can find what they’re looking for online.’”

Hall goes on to explore the phenomenon more broadly:

“The good news for publishers is that those Net-savvy readers aren’t yet curtailing their spending on real-world goods. ‘Many are still loyal comic book readers who use downloads as a way to try something they might not normally buy,’ says Shuta Suzuki at publisher Shueisha.”

In other words, it’s a variation on the loss-leader concept, but instead of leaving a reader with a thick magazine to dispose of, there’s just a file on their cell phone to be deleted. So there’s convenience added to the privacy of nobody being able to tell what you’re reading. That strikes me as a fairly compelling combination of benefits for people who, unlike me, view the cell phone as something more than an irritating necessity, best used for calls to AAA or the ordering of carry-out.

Though relatively young, the cell-phone manga industry seems to be moving in a very specific direction: towards women.

“When Toppan Printing launched the country’s first Web site for mobile manga downloads in late 2003, it focused on big-name titles favoring male readers. As other publishers and distributors entered the fray, it was the comics for girls and women—boys love and another category called teen love—that lit up the charts.”

Or, like those crafty, low-key BL fans, are those shôjo and josei titles being read by men and boys who don’t want to be seen with the latest copy of Margaret tucked under their arms?

Three go in…

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This week’s edition of ComicList is like the poster for some ultimate fighter title bout. With the exception of a certain bewhiskered trainee ninja, all of the heavy hitters will be arriving simultaneously, sizing each other up for a sales cage match.

In this corner, plucky orphan Tohru Honda! She’s taking on an ancient family curse, but can heartfelt pluck stand up to the one-two punch of…

The Elric Brothers? They’re looking for the secret to eternal life, but will it be enough to fend off the deadly, note-taking onslaught of…

Light Yagami? The sleuthing sociopath is taking names in this battle of the commercial juggernauts! Who will win?!

Well, comics retailers with even a rudimentary manga selection, for one. (To be fair, none of the above will probably come within spitting distance of this release from Marvel in terms of sales in the Direct Market.)

If none of the above interest you in the slightest, not to worry, because both Tokyopop and Viz are unleashing an absolutely insane number of titles. Tokyopop is rolling out 18, and Viz is offering 37. Thirty-seven.

One of those 55 titles is the sixth volume of Minetaro Mochizuki’s Dragon Head (Tokyopop), much loved by bloggers like me, but disappointingly ignored by the average bookstore browser. Seriously, there aren’t that many volumes out, and new ones don’t come out that often. You have plenty of time to catch up with this tense, apocalyptic suspense story.

Sick of hearing about comics from Japan? No problem. There are also comics from France, most notably a prestige edition of Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert’s The Professor’s Daughter from First Second. I’m going to hold out for the $16.95 paperback instead of the $29.95 collector’s edition that’s coming out tomorrow, but I strongly suspect it will be lovely and delightful either way.

And wow, how long as it been since a new issue of Jimmy Gownley’s wonderful Amelia Rules! (Renaissance Press) came out? Too long, almost certainly, but these fun stories are always worth the wait.

Flippedancy

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It’s Monday, so it must be time for me to pimp this week’s Flipped! Coming under scrutiny are two new series that focus on protagonists who might want to get their affairs in order: Black Sun, Silver Moon (Go! Comi) and Shakugan no Shana (Viz).

And here are a couple of links to folks who expand on last week’s column, either directly or indirectly:

  • Kristy Valenti offers some money-saving strategies for the manga shopper, and
  • John Jakala checks out another on-line vendor.

    • From the stack: Elk's Run

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    Before I get too far into the collected Elk’s Run (Villard), I have to take a moment to address novelist Charlie Huston’s introduction, because it’s awful. It’s filled with the kind of testosterone-fueled posturing that the story itself wisely avoids and even subverts. Here’s a sample:

    “Read the fucking book.
    “Burn, baby, burn.
    “And learn something about yourself.”

    If I knew nothing about Elk’s Run and was browsing it in a bookstore or comic shop, that invocation would compel me to set it on the nearest flat surface and move on, baby, move on. And that would be too bad, because the book is a fine and balanced piece of suspenseful drama, no matter what the introductory chest-thumping might suggest.

    Fortunately, I’d read some of the early chapters in pamphlet form and knew what to expect. But if you did scan Huston’s remarks and your fight-or-flight instincts kicked in (and no one could blame you), I hope I can convince you to reconsider.

    Elk’s Ridge, West Virginia, has isolated itself from the rest of the United States. Founded by veterans of the Vietnam War and funded by the eccentric heir to a coal fortune, they view the government as corrupt and the culture as fractured. They want no part of it and enter into their own social contract, raising their families and living their lives in relative peace and security.

    As the younger generation comes of age, the flaws in the arrangement become increasingly apparent. Choices the original settlers made don’t work for their children. Natural curiosity breeds boredom, and boredom creates tension and rebellion. The environment that seemed ideal to the adults proves stifling to the kids it was created to protect.

    And it isn’t just the kids. A defection leads to tragedy, which only escalates as the town’s power figures take increasingly draconian measures to keep their bubble culture sealed. Intergenerational tension blows up into the equivalent of civil war, and it can’t help but end badly.

    Joshua Hale Fialkov structures the escalating crisis with care and intelligence. The events he portrays are extreme yet chillingly plausible. Characters are given depth and detail. Artist Noel Tuazon has an impressive cartooning vocabulary. He adopts drastically different styles to ground the story in place and time, but it holds together. And I love the rich, saturated coloring by Scott A. Keating.

    The dialogue is a bit thick in expletives for a sheltered mountain town, though it’s reasonably easy to conclude that the kids are just repeating what they’ve heard from their parents. And in a story where the greatest danger is becoming what you despise, whether it’s an oppressive, deceitful government or a hypocritical, violent adult, it’s a fair way of illustrating that point.

    Post no bills

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    Is anyone else seeing Google ads on this site? They’ve been popping up intermittently this morning, and I’m not sure why.

    I will rename it "The Month of David"

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    Each June, comics publishers seem to join forces to drive me to poverty. Based on the latest Previews catalog, 2007 will be no exception. At least the weather will be warm.

    The manga arrival of the month would have to be Masashi Tanaka’s Gon, in a new edition from CMX. Wordless, gorgeously illustrated stories about a tiny dinosaur who defends “the friendly and furry from the mean and hungry.” Sorry, Avril. (Pages 96 to 98.)

    I’ve enjoyed a lot of comics either written or written and drawn by Andi Watson (Little Star, Love Fights, Paris, Princess at Midnight), so I’ll definitely give Clubbing (Minx) a look. It’s been illustrated by Josh Howard of Dead @ 17 fame. (Pages 113 to 115.)

    In a couple of cases, well-written solicitation text was enough to interest me in books even though I knew nothing about them or their creators. First up in this category is Jamie Tanner’s Aviary from AdHouse Books, which promises “a world of mysterious corporations, foul-mouthed robots, drunken ghosts, amputee comedians, wealthy simian pornographers, and canine scientists.” Why not? (Page 215.)

    I really liked the first volume of Kye Young Chon’s DVD (DramaQueen), about a dumped, possibly delusional young woman and the two slackers who give her renewed purpose (or at least are weird enough to distract her from despair). And now DramaQueen is offering the first four volumes. When they go Diamond, they don’t mess around. (Page 292.)

    A new arrival from Fanfare/Ponent Mon is always worth a look. This month it’s Tokyo Is My Garden by Frédéric Boilet and Benoît Peeters. “With the collaboration of Jiro Taniguchi” is an effective extra inducement. (Page 295.)

    The other Spring First Second release I’m eagerly anticipating (in addition to The Professor’s Daughter, recently given five stars by Tangognat) is Eddie Campbell’s The Black Diamond Detective Agency. Many gorgeous preview pages are available at First Second’s web site. (Page 300.)

    Not everyone likes to buy even great books in hardcover, so kindly publishers almost inevitably offer soft-cover version eventually. Houghton Mifflin will roll out a paperback version of Alison Bechdel’s justly acclaimed Fun Home in June. (Page 312.)

    I know nothing about Byun Byung Jun’s Run, Bong-Gu, Run! (NBM), but the preview pages at the publisher’s web site look absolutely exquisite. I may not like painted comics as a general rule, but I’m a sucker for watercolors. (Page 328.)

    It’s been out for ages, but I’ve made a personal vow to mention Bryan Lee O’Malley’s wonderful debut graphic novel, Lost at Sea, at every opportunity, because I love it. Oni is releasing a new edition. Even if you aren’t eagerly anticipating a new volume of Scott Pilgrim, give it a look. (Page 329.)

    Not being much of a webcomic reader, I didn’t check out the Young Bottoms in Love portal very often, but I liked what I saw when I did. Now Poison Press is releasing a print collection for geezers like me who don’t want to squint at a computer screen. Lots of talent, 328 color pages, $22. I can’t complain. (Page 335.)

    As with Aviary, the solicitation text for David Yurkovich’s Death by Chocolate: Redux (Top Shelf) sells me. If anyone honestly thought I’d be able to resist “a series of bizarre, food-inspired crimes” investigated by “an unlikely hero comprised of organic chocolate,” they just don’t know me very well. (Page 364.)