The Manga Curmudgeon

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

Slice and dice

by

I haven’t seen For Your Consideration yet, but I know what movie I want Christopher Guest to make next: something about celebrity chefs. In the most recent episode of Top Chef, the competition centered on a luncheon being hosted by the wonderful Jennifer Coolidge, and it all just became so obvious.

Catherine O’Hara as a frosty, control-freak Martha Stewart type… Parker Posey eviscerating perky Rachael Ray… Coolidge sloshing her way through a parody of Paula Deen… I would watch it a hundred times.

Gift guides

by

Two ads showed up in the e-mail box this morning, and since neither was for cheap prescription drugs or a home loan, they caught my eye. They’re for the seasonal gift shops at Barnes & Noble and Borders, and each has a special graphic novel niche, though B&N’s is listed a layer in.

B&N breaks theirs down into “Graphic Novels and Comics,” “Manga,” and “Collectibles.” DC’s Absolute program seems to have positioned them very nicely for placement in these gift guides. While the Marvel entries are reference books, DC’s are largely stories. Someone at B&N really seems to like Joann Sfar (represented by Pantheon’s The Rabbi’s Cat and First Second’s Klezmer) and Osamu Tezuka, which is perfectly understandable. Ode to Kirihito (Vertical) makes both the graphic novel and manga lists.

My favorite entry on the GN list is probably Paul Gravett’s Graphic Novels: Everything You Need to Know (or Stories to Change Your Life). It’s a beautifully produced book with tons of page samples and a really solid cross-section of the more interesting books that are out there, along with well-written history and context from Gravett.

The manga list illustrates something of an industry shortcoming, to my way of thinking. While there are plenty of big, comprehensive, stylishly produced volumes on the GN list, there’s little in the way of boxed sets in the manga section. There are some art books and character guides, but there are a lot of single volumes from late in ongoing series that don’t immediately scream “stocking stuffer” unless you’re buying for a dedicated reader who probably already has Fruits Basket 14 anyways.

At Borders, the “Comics & Graphic Novels” link has better placement, but it also has fewer choices. On the bright side, they’re also having a 4-for-3 sale with page after page of choices. There are plenty of volumes of popular manga series like Naruto, Bleach, and Death Note, and an otherwise eclectic mix of everything from Doonesbury to Little Lulu. One can also find lots and lots of boys’ love or yaoi titles in the listings from publishers like Juné, Blu, Netcomics, and others.

Books-A-Million doesn’t seem to have a GN/manga section to their gift guide, though the chain seems to be making a lot of money off of the category.

If I were to assemble some kind of gift guide, it would definitely include Moomin, Linda Medley’s Castle Waiting hardcover, Gene Yang’s American Born Chinese, a personally assembled box set (maybe of Fumi Yoshinaga’s four-volume Antique Bakery, Ai Yazawa’s Paradise Kiss, or Scott Chantler’s Northwest Passage), Jessica Abel’s La Perdida, and Paul Gravett’s Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics.

Moving on to more current offerings, the week’s releases are up at ComicList. Lazily assembled highlights include:

Insert cornucopia joke here.

Weekend reading

by

Sometimes I forget the awesome, palate-cleansing power of really well-executed shôjo fluff. After spending way too much time pondering four variations on the Train Man phenomenon, I was happy to remember that I had a proof copy of the second volume of Penguin Revolution sitting in my to-read pile.

It’s still delightful, and for all of the same reasons the first volume was. It’s nice to see a smart, tenacious protagonist handle a wide variety of personal and professional situations with aplomb. It’s even nicer that those situations are genuinely funny, and that the supporting cast is developing in entertaining ways.

And speaking of delightful, Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip so delivers on the promise of the Drawn & Quarterly Free Comic Book Day sample. (So did Get a Life, come to think of it. D&Q gets a retroactive A+ on that freebie.) The loopy, meandering sweetness of this strip is a perfect counterpoint to Jansson’s often barbed commentary on greed and status. It’s a perfect read for a drizzly afternoon, though I suspect it’s a delight under just about any meteorological conditions.

(Tiny nitpick: That band around the back cover was a really nice design element, but it covered up some of the biographical text, and it was bound too tightly to remove without tearing. This might not constitute a problem for anyone but me, but I felt like I was defiling a holy object or something.)

I’m so glad there are four more volumes to come, as I’m really eager to read more of Jansson’s work. I’d also like to try some of her prose, and if anyone can recommend a good biography, I’d be grateful. She sounds like a fascinating person.

October numbers

by

Direct market sales figures for the month of October are up at Comic Book Resources and The Pulse. As with bookstores, Tokyopop’s Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories leads the manga pack, coming in at number 9 in graphic novels overall.

It’s a good month for Juné, with three manga titles and a novel making the manga top 10. They all lag behind Tokyopop’s Loveless in the BL stakes; the third volume came in second in manga and 22 in graphic novels. And while Juné’s books ranked higher, Blu’s books were nipping at their heels.

A total of 28 manga titles made the top 100 GN list. I’m particularly glad to see Dark Horse’s Ohikkoshi (reviewed here by Jog) crack the GN rankings, placing at roughly the same spot Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (reviewed here by Christopher Butcher) did in September.

On the much-discussed global front, the second volume of Svetlana Chmakova’s Dramacon leads the pack, hitting #25 in manga and #89 in GNs, Kingdom Hearts aside. The second volume of Sokora Refugees just missed the cut, hitting #30 on the manga list.

For me, the oddest question posed by the list is why did the fourteenth volume of Fruits Basket (Tokyopop) return to the list when it’s been on the shelves for months? It hit 17 in manga and 75 in graphic novels in October, and came in 32nd in GNs in August. I love the series, and I’m used to seeing earlier volumes crop up on these lists from time to time, but the resurgence of this chapter seems odd. Did Tokyopop ship it again?

Cross over, children

by

Now here’s something you don’t see every day: a piece on recommended comics for manga lovers. It’s usually the other way around, so it’s nice to see Katherine Dacey-Tsuei take a different approach:

“My guess is that there are other seasoned manga readers out there who are curious about that long wall of floppies on the opposite side of the store, but share my aversion to spandex. So from time to time, I’ll post a run-down of recent releases that might tickle the fancy of all those InuYasha, Monster, Crying Freeman, and—dare I say it?—Fruits Basket fans who’ve wondered, “Would I like Mouse Guard?” (The correct answer, by the way, is “Yes!”)

Dacey-Tsuei starts off with Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall (Vertigo) and Daughters of the Dragon: Samurai Bullets (Marvel).

In other news, chicks dig Sandman.

Untitled

by

John Jakala deftly takes a scalpel to the kind of myopia required to look at everything that happened in 2006 and call Joe Quesada comics’ “Man of the Year.”

In other news of crappy magazines admiring Marvel, Maxim thinks Civil War is worthy of the designation “Most Awesome.”

Based on the hit manga…

by

Speaking of Nodame Cantabile, it seems to be enjoying a bump from the release of its TV drama adaptation. ComiPress shares the latest Tohan Top 10, and Nodame occupies three spaces on it, with the most recent volume just ahead of the first and third. It’s like the Cartoon Network Effect, only with live actors.

And what does the Daily Yomiuri think of that program?

“[I]t displayed potential for the first 15 minutes.”

In other multi-media news, Anime News Network notes the joyous arrival of the Sgt. Frog anime in February, and that the invasion began a little early.

And last but not least, that trailer for the Death Note sequel is really, really creepy. But so is the trailer for the first one.

Around the world

by

Is Birmingham, England, the next big hub of the comics industry? Possibly, argues this piece in the Birmingham Post about StripSearch, an initiative for would-be cartoonists helmed by Hunt Emerson and John McCrae. The goal?

“‘We have given them the strength to break out of their nine to five hell,’ adds John ‘And throw them into comic hell…’”

There’s also a manga primer attached to the piece, and… well…

“Manga characters almost always have large eyes, small mouths, and they also usually have abnormal hair color.”

It reads like narration from a documentary on some startling genetic disorder, doesn’t it?

Still, the Midlands Comics Collective sounds like a wonderful idea, and they’ve already published an anthology. Some of the creators are also featured in The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga.

*

It’s not just Nana. Apparently, Nodame Cantabile has inspired a themed café, though how anyone could want to eat after looking at a recreation of Nodame’s room is beyond me.