The Manga Curmudgeon

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

B-sides

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I forgot to mention the second volume of Omukae Desu (CMX) in yesterday’s run-down of new arrivals, which was negligent on my part, as it’s a quirky and appealing book. This installment is still relatively episodic, but Meca Tanaka starts building up interpersonal relationships among the employees of GSG, who assist the recently deceased in letting go of earthly concerns and moving on to the afterlife.

It’s fun stuff. Tanaka blends sentiment with off-kilter comedy, and it all goes down very easily. She also makes good use of workplace absurdity, coming up with generally endearing sight gags from GSG’s fondness for “theme months.” (There’s one in the last chapter that’s absolutely jaw-dropping.)

But the most intriguing thing about this volume was the back-up material, which includes two stand-alone stories from Tanaka. The first, Tanaka’s official debut, is called “The Invincible Heartbreaker.” The second is “Natural Centripetal Force Alpha,” something Tanaka created as an amateur when not working days in an office.

“Heartbreaker” is awful – tacky, unfocused, and barely coherent, but apparently saleable. (It’s about a young girl who expresses her crush for the local doctor by flashing him daily.) “NCFA” is a gem, tightly written, funny, and sweet. In it, a girl crushes on a comically klutzy boy but has to decide if her feelings go beyond finding him endearingly amusing.

I don’t know if there’s anything to take from the contrast of the two, though I thought it was interesting that the one done in snatched hours away from a day job was so much better than the one that actually helped Tanaka break into the industry. The weather must have me feeling cynical.

Filed Under: CMX

Updates, reviews, and long-awaited Scandinavian cartoons

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Lyle has shared the cover of that issue of SF Weekly that featured the article on Yaoi-Con. It’s been suggested that they modified the artwork without the creator’s consent. Brigid has also found some letters to the editor in response to the article.

At The Beat, Heidi MacDonald links to an article from the Associate Press on controversial graphic novels in libraries, sparked by the dust-up in Marshall, MO. It’s a well-sourced and interesting read.

At Journalista, Dirk Deppy has heard reports from a reliable source that Yumi Hoashi left her post as head of Viz’s magazine division for a new gig, a theory posited by Simon Jones (whose blog might not be safe for work). Jones also provided me with my heartiest guffaw of yesterday, which was much appreciated:

“Won’t somebody think of the children!… who… read… the Comics Journal…”

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Brigid has also reviewed Inverloch from Seven Seas for Digital Strips. I liked the first volume a lot and keep meaning to track down the second. Johanna Draper Carlson reviews one of my favorite books, Girl Genius from Airship Entertainment. And Jamie S. Rich, author of 12 Reasons Why I Love Her from Oni, also loves June Kim’s 12 Days from Tokyopop.

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As for today’s comics, the clear front-runner (for me, at least) is Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip Book One from Drawn and Quarterly. (Go here, scroll down, and click for a preview.) I’ve been looking forward to this since Free Comic Book Day, and my anticipation has only intensified thanks to the Moomin references in at least two of the manga versions of Train Man.

Speaking of that subway Romeo, Del Rey offers its one-volume shôjo take on the story. (Count Jog among the unmoved.)

If forced to pick only one item from Viz’s rather substantial list of product, hunger would win out and I’d opt for the second volume of Yakitate Japan.

The ComicList has thoughtfully compiled a manga-centric list of the week’s releases, and the MangaCasters have gone through it with a fine-toothed comb.

From the stack: 12 DAYS

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As “Best of 2006” lists start rolling out, some have noted that 2006 isn’t exactly over yet. June Kim’s 12 Days (Tokyopop) is a solid argument for waiting until January 1 to assemble such lists, because it’s one of the oddest, loveliest books I’ve read all year.

A one-volume piece of global nouvelle manga with a pronounced josei flavor, it’s the kind of book a lot of people have been hoping for since the promise of “Manga After Hours” flickered briefly. It’s an elegantly minimalist examination of love and pain, executed with serious craft by Kim.

Jackie’s ex-lover Noah has died in a car accident. Blindsided by grief, Jackie isolates herself in her apartment with her cat and enlists the help of Noah’s brother, Nick, to complete a ritual she feels will help her move on. She wants to consume Jackie’s ashes over a period of 12 days.

It’s a bit grotesque, but Kim focuses more on the feelings that drive Jackie’s decision than the mechanics of the ritual. Those feelings are portrayed with potent understatement through Jackie and Nick’s elliptical conversations and carefully placed flashbacks of Noah’s life. Kim is a sharp observer of small but telling moments; nothing in 12 Days feels overwrought, but nothing is trivialized either.

And Kim doesn’t reserve her sympathy for Jackie. Nick is an equal partner in grief, mourning his sister’s life and perhaps what he sees as his failures. We’re given glimpses of Noah’s father, devastated for his own reasons. And Kim manages the difficult trick of capturing the things about Noah that would drive a person to both leave her and mourn her. It’s a very graceful presentation of character, emotion, and mood.

Kim’s illustrations are largely ideal for this material. As with the writing, she avoids a tendency to overstate, going for elegant realism for the most part. I was initially put off by her use of some chibi elements, highly stylized bits of cuteness, to lighten transitional moments, but it grew on me as the book moved on. I’m still not entirely sold on the lettering, done in a flat typeset, but it isn’t too distracting. And some of the tone work in the early chapters seems a bit sloppy. On the whole, though, Kim’s strong line work and inventive paneling carry the book through the few rough visual patches.

12 Days is such a lovely and surprising book. I worry that it will get lost on the ever-swelling manga shelves. But if you’ve been hungry for more josei, or any book that takes an imaginative, pointed look at interpersonal relationships, you really should make a point of reading it. It’s a very rewarding experience.

Fit to print

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Heidi MacDonald and Tom Spurgeon have both already linked to the latest chapter in the materials selection policy development process going on in Marshall, MO, but I did want to extend my compliments to Zach Sims and the Marshall Democrat-News for their continuing coverage.

Having worked at weekly and daily papers that serve smaller communities, I know that it’s hard to commit limited resources to ongoing coverage of a public policy issue. The process involved isn’t always riveting, certainly less so than the controversies that act as the trigger. But it’s tremendously valuable to lend transparency to those processes, and I think it speaks very highly of Sims and the Democrat-News that they’re in the story for the long haul.

Here are the Democrat-News articles that have run so far that either cover the story or comment on it:

Playing catch-up

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There won’t be a new Flipped this week, as we had company over the weekend (and I’m generally lazy). I’m still catching up on the slew of interesting links Brigid has found over the last couple of days.

The one that immediately caught my eye was the announcement of the American Anime Awards, summarized at ICv2 and printed in full at The Beat. I have to say, if I had been inclined to guess what the first New York Comic-Con awards program would look like, I wouldn’t have picked anime. It’s obviously a driver for manga sales, but given how expansive the NYCC seems to want to be, it seems awfully specific.

I don’t think I really have a problem with it. Anime is a significant subsidiary or companion industry for manga publishers, so it makes sense to me that manga-friendly comics conventions factor it into their programming. And maybe the folks at NYCC didn’t want to compete with existing comics awards programs like the Eisners and the Harveys. But it does strike me as narrow in focus and not entirely in keeping with the general vibe the event projects.

And launching any kind of awards program is tricky in much the same way as assembling a “best of the year” list. A focus on a specific category might be a more sensible approach than the kind of awards programs that lead to frankly bizarre co-nominees in some categories. As the graphic novel market expands, it might be easier to pick a sector when you’re looking to pass out accolades.

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Also eye-catching was the New York Times piece on Dark Horse Comics (found via Comics Worth Reading). As NYT pieces on graphic novels go, it’s something of a relief. Going just from memory, the paper’s comics coverage often involves the reporter swallowing whole some bit of malarkey from either Marvel or DC on how deep and meaningful their spandex themes are.

And while this piece is seriously flattering to Dark Horse, it also successfully makes the argument that, regardless of how varied their product is and how varied its origins are, their business plan manages to cohere. And with a mixture of creator-owned comics made specifically for Dark Horse, licensed manga and manhwa, and property adaptations, that coherence strikes me a significant accomplishment.

It’s not at all unusual for comics companies to convey the impression that their left and right hands barely have a passing acquaintance with one another, much less a full understanding of their respective agendas. Dark Horse seems to have evaded that problem.

Curling up

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I was looking through USA Today’s top 150 best sellers for any graphic novels, and I found myself distracted by prose.

At #47 is Erik Larson’s Thunderstruck, another look at murder near the turn of the century. Larson also wrote the generally excellent The Devil in the White City; the paperback version is at #140. While Larson does have a tendency to try and go further into the heads of the people he writes about than non-fiction usually permits, I found White City really fascinating for its look at the intersection of crime, culture, and history. (There’s a great graphic novel version of roughly the same material from Rick Geary in his Treasury of Victorian Murder series from NBM.)

At #73 is I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris. You might know Sedaris as inspiration for some of the more disturbing essays from brother David, or you might have seen her as middle-aged prostitute high school student Jerri Blank on Comedy Central’s Strangers With Candy. She is also famous for her cupcakes, which surely will play a role in this combination of useful party-planning advice and twisted comedy.

At… well… okay, it isn’t on the list, but I was at Barnes & Noble the other day, buying some manhwa, when I noticed that there’s a new collection of short stories from Susanna Clarke, author of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. The book is called The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories. Most of the stories in the collection have been published elsewhere, but they’ll all be new to me.

Thankless jobs

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Publishers Weekly has released its list of Best Graphic Novels of the Year, and Heidi MacDonald links to Amazon’s choices. I love this time of year, as it provides so many rich opportunities to nitpick.

In fairness, it’s impossible to say “That choice is empirically wrong,” or “I can’t believe they excluded (fill in name of excellent choice here),” because so many books come from so many sources that the level of subjectivity is automatically high. And the best thing about these lists is how they function as a springboard for discussion and maybe alert readers to books they haven’t read yet.

On the discussion front, Tom Spurgeon offers some initial impressions of the PW roster, and Johanna Draper Carlson goes through the list in more detail. Both note the fact that 2006 isn’t quite over yet, and that only one translated manga title (Tokyopop’s Dragon Head) made the PW cut. Two licensed properties made Amazon’s list: Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s Abandon the Old in Tokyo (Drawn and Quarterly) and Hiroaki Samura’s Ohikkoshi (Dark Horse).

I think Dragon Head is an interesting choice. It was front and center in the negative reaction to Tokyopop’s on-line exclusives initiative, and it’s a critical darling that seems to enjoy retailer support. I like it a lot, though I don’t even know if it would top my list of post-apocalyptic manga. (Viz’s Drifting Classroom and Dark Horse’s Eden are currently vying for the top spot in that niche.)

But again, it’s subjective. When I contemplate the possibility of putting together my own list of the year’s best, I’m gripped with a combination of weariness and anxiety. There are so many books I’ve liked this year for so many different reasons that I would be hard-pressed to develop a single set of criteria for the year’s best.

Is Scott Chantler’s Northwest Passage (Oni Press) as good as J.P. Stassen’s Deogratias (First Second)? If forced, could I pick among :01’s Deogratias, Gene Yang’s American Born Chinese, and Joann Sfar’s Klezmer if I wanted to share the wealth and limit myself to one book per publisher? Do the collections of Castle Waiting (Fantagraphics), Ode to Kirihito (Vertical), or Get a Life (Drawn and Quarterly) count, just because they’re new to me? Are the ways I enjoyed Polly and the Pirates (Oni) comparable to the ways I appreciated Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)? Do I really want to go so far as to develop a unified critical theory when I know perfectly well I’ll violate it at the first opportunity?

So I’m grateful to the people who will actually commit to a set list of the year’s best, because, if nothing else, they provide plenty of food for thought and grist for blogging.

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The other thing that particularly caught my attention in this week’s PWCW was just how hard it is to find someone who’ll come out and criticize Kurt Hassler without the benefit of anonymity. If MangaBlog’s Brigid was troubled by the anonymous sniping in ICv2’s report, her reaction will probably be magnified by the bevy of veiled critics quoted in PW’s.

That’s not to say that I’m encouraging criticism or praise for Hassler. It’s just curious to me that the power of the position he’s left still has people taking the Deep Throat route when they assess his performance.

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Updated to add: David Taylor settles into his new MangaCast digs and takes a thorough look at all of the manga-related content in the latest PWCW.

And I heard the Schoolhouse Rock theme the whole time

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Voting is one of those things that just make me feel virtuous. It’s like donating towels to the animal shelter or turning in a car-load of recyclables or, I imagine, giving blood. It just puts a spring in my step, and I can go home and be a lazy slob with a clear conscience.

Today’s voting experience was clearly stacked with extra feel-good elements. Everyone at the polling place obviously was on a similar high of civic engagement. Three generations of one family showed up at the same time we did, and everyone was delighted that they’d brought the new baby to get him or her in the habit early (though I don’t think he or she had time to register).

I had never used an electronic voting machine before. While I’ve heard all of the stories about their unreliability, I can’t say I missed the paper ballot with the Number 02 pencil, as that always invoked uncomfortable memories of standardized tests and the certainty that I hadn’t filled in the bubbles correctly (either too faint or too enthusiastic) and wouldn’t get into the college of my choice. I did wonder why it didn’t ask me if I wanted cash back after casting my ballot, but that’s probably a side effect of spending too much time in the self-check-out at the grocery store.

I’m very anxious about the results of this election, even more at the local level. An out-of-state coal executive has been spending who knows how much cash to ensure a Republican majority in the state legislature, funding advertisements without the apparent participation or approval of the candidates he supports. I’m hoping the transparency of the ploy manages to swing things in the opposite direction. The backlash from Democrats in the state has been vicious but hilarious.

Anyway, go vote.

You're always a day away

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Another week, another opportunity to ponder the mysteries of the ComicList. Some weeks I get lucky, and Del Rey titles show up earlier than they do from Diamond (as with the excellent Genshiken vol. 7). Some weeks I’m left to writhe in jealousy as everyone else gets Love Roma vol. 4 before I do. MangaCast has a preview of Del Rey’s shôjo version of Train Man, which I believe is due in bookstores today, if not in comic shops tomorrow.

I’m curious about Project Romantic from AdHouse, but it wasn’t a book that I was confident in buying sight unseen. I’m sure I’ll get the chance when I hit Columbus for the holidays.

The concept for Hero Heel (Juné) tickles me, focusing on unexpected romance among actors in a super-hero TV show. Pick your favorite Heroes actors and play along!

Looking for something in a chic, josei, nouvelle manga style? Fanfare/Ponent Mon is releasing a new printing of Kan Takahama’s Kinderbook.

Mmmm… Greek food. Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey travel to the cradle of democracy for Action Philosophers #7: It’s All Greek To You.

Oni releases the second issue of Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt’s The Damned, a solid fusion of mob drama and supernatural weirdness.

I’m intrigued by 12 Days from Tokyopop, either in spite or because of its faintly nauseating premise. Here’s a preview from editor Lillian Diaz-Pryzbyl.

And of course, there’s always Death Note vol. 8 (Viz – Shonen Jump Advanced). MangaCast notes that the first volume of this series keeps popping up on Japanese best-seller lists.

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It seems that John Jakala is not alone. At Read About Comics, Greg McElhatton looks at the first two volumes of Drifting Classroom (Viz – Signature) and finds them really, really loud:

“With The Drifting Classroom two of its eleven volumes are now translated, and I can’t help but wonder if publishing the other nine books could somehow result in a worldwide shortage of exclamation points thanks to its relentless intensity.”

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And in this week’s Flipped, I take the really ill-advised step of reviewing Osamu Tezuka’s Ode to Kirihito (Vertical), in spite of the fact that tons of people have already done it really well. Here are some more successful examples:

Monday morning quarterbacking

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Commentary on Kurt Hassler’s departure from Borders for Hachette Book Group’s new graphic novel imprint, Yen Press. ICv2 picks up the story, noting the varying reactions Hassler’s Borders stint inspired. Diamond Book Distributor’s Kuo-Yu Liang offers this perspective:

“People say he only supports manga, but actually he pushed everything from Marvel to Top Shelf to Bone. People complain he was a hardline gatekeeper and would only bring in books that would sell. Well, yeah, isn’t that the fiscal responsibility of a buyer for a $4 billion 1,000+ store chain?”

At The Beat, Heidi MacDonald, one of the advocates of the “hardline gatekeeper” characterization of Hassler, confirms the difference of opinion on what the impact of Hassler’s departure will be.

At MangaCast, Ed Chavez chimes in, taking a look at the evolution of manga offerings in bookstores during Hassler’s tenure and what his departure might mean for readers:

“Could this lead to the potential, long-awaited, second-phase of growth in book stores? Could we see a change for shelving according to age or genre? Will we finally see something done with light novel placement? Could we see a real push from bookstores for a better rating system? So many questions really. This could go either way too, because Hassler’s decisions were not always the most accommodating for pubs or readers.”

At Guns, Guys and Yaoi, Tina Anderson points to some interesting discussion at Kethylia’s LiveJournal, which features input from a Tokyopop editor:

“I don’t think anyone will be able to replicate the explosive early days of TP. VIZ has their own thing going now, and they’re frighteningly good at what they do, even if I don’t personally agree with some of it, but any new company that thinks it’s going to make it to being even 2nd in the industry is sorely mistaken. Sticking with a niche is the way to go in my mind. Hopefully the bookstores will continue to appreciate those niche readers, too. That’s my only fear.”

I think I share that fear. “Hardline gatekeeper” or no, my experience shopping at various book chains led me to conclude that whoever was responsible for Borders manga selection was collecting a wider and more interesting range of books than either Barnes & Noble or Books-A-Million. I’ve found books from a larger number of publishers at Borders than elsewhere, and I appreciate that. (For example, Borders is pretty much the only place I’ve ever found titles from Fanfare/Ponent Mon on the shelf.)

Updated to add: Dirk Deppey offers commentary and points to this entry from David Doub at Manga Punk. I’m particularly interested in Doub’s argument that more localized responsibility for graphic novel buying might result in some benefits for publishers and readers:

“Personally I don’t like how the buying pattern of entire chain is decided by one person. I feel that regional or local mangers would naturally have a better feel for what does or doesn’t sell well in their area. Also it would be easier to work with smaller publishers to make local Borders feel more special and unique because they would have product that no one else has.”

And there’s an excellent comment that suggests the best way to educate your local bookstore is to let them know what you want:

“Perhaps the way to get the stores to change is to encouraged readers to go to their local store and request them to order comics they dont carry. If enough people do that, the higher up’s may get the message to have a more diverse selection and not favor certain publishers?”

Updated again because Simon Jones makes so much sense:

“Of course, the seemingly opposing images of Hassler as a heroic champion for manga or the evil gatekeeper to the book market are not exclusive. In fact they’re probably one and the same; the line between iron-handed rigidness and disciplined decision-making is paper-thin, after all.”

Updated yet again: Tom Spurgeon looks more at where Hassler is going than where he’s been at The Comics Reporter:

“Anyway, the Yen Press line seems set up with the leeway to publish whatever’s popular, and one thing you can say about Hassler and Johnson is that within those parameters neither man seems to have ever displayed a bias against anything that will serve the bottom line. A clear editorial point of view or lack of one guarantees nothing in terms of the final result, but there’s a thin line between art and art product, and it’s becoming thinner in comics all the time.”