The Manga Curmudgeon

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

The Monday after the Saturday

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Surprising me not at all, I flubbed some of the details in Diamond’s top 100 graphic novels. A kindly correspondent wrote to point out that there 22 manga titles in the top 100 graphic novel chart. I missed Alone In My Kings Harem (more yaoi from Digital Manga at #68), Push Man and Other Stories (Drawn and Quarterly at #89), and Ultimate Buffy the Vampire Slayer Cinemanga (Tokyopop at #75). (Can you blame me for missing that last one?) Also Del Rey had two titles in September’s chart Negima! vol.07 at #20 and Wallflower vol.05 at #98.

In a slightly related development, the nightmare that was Love Manga’s absence from the blogosphere is now over.

In another slightly related development, Digital Manga had to delay its scheduled October and November yaoi titles until December.

And now it’s time for the “Hell is other people” portion of the program. I had high hopes for a weekend trip up to Pittsburgh, hoping to do some comics shopping in a chic urban setting (all things being relative to West Virginia). A visit to a comic shop I’d really enjoyed several months ago was a bust, in part because of That Guy, the apocryphal comics-shop weirdo who provides a running commentary on any damned thing that comes into his head at any (and every) given moment.

Of course I felt like a total crank for being bothered, because he was having a great time and the shop employees were clearly enjoying the patter, but it was kind of like being in a very small room with a running leaf blower. I’m not looking for a Japanese tea ceremony when I walk into a comics shop, but some measure of serenity would have been welcome.

Add to this the fact that the floor show was parked right in front of the rack of new graphic novels (my primary reason for the visit) and that the remainder of the graphic novel stock had apparently been organized by a conspiracy theorist trying to scratch out some desperate code by his or her seemingly random arrangement of titles, and you have me bolting for light and air and hope. Or at least a nice Thai lunch.

If you’re ever in the Shadyside area of Pittsburgh and are craving this particular cuisine, look up My Thai. The food was really delicious, cheap, and the service was great. Everyone, from the owner to the bus person, apologized for the inconvenience of having a party of 35 in the adjacent room, but I never noticed any glitches in service.

Then there was the visit to Whole Foods. I love an extensive cheese department as much as the next person, but I’m also crazy about personal space. This didn’t seem to be a priority for the other customers. I did share their reluctance to dive into the wonderful world of spelt, though.

Desperate not to leave an urban area without making some comics purchases, I did some panic shopping at a Borders on the way home. While I don’t think this was designed specifically to irritate me, every title I was looking for was shelved in the wrong place. Death Note? Filed under S. Love Mode? Under M. Tenshi Ja Nai? I don’t even remember where I found that one. Maybe it was with the cookbooks.

Fortunately, my naturally sunny disposition returned in time to write this week’s Flipped, a gush-a-thon over the wonderful Sexy Voice and Robo.

October manga

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Comic Book Resources has posted the Diamond sales figures for October, and while I’m sure David Taylor will do a much better job providing an analysis of the manga elements, some things jumped out at me.

Tokyopop’s Direct Market dollar share bumped up from 1.96% in September to 2.88% in October. Viz’s dollar share dropped from 1.95% in September to 1.69% in October. A.D. Vision experienced a smallish upward bump from September’s .44% dollar share to October’s .46%.

Tokyopop has half of the top 50 manga titles for the month, including some OEL books. Mark of the Succubus shows up at #14 (#85 in graphic novels overall) and Psy-Comm at #34. A total of 19 manga titles made it into the top 100 graphic novels for the month, 13 of them from Tokyopop. This doesn’t really surprise me, as Tokyopop spares no expense on their section of Previews. Beyond standard solicitation elements (plot summary, cover art), they also provide what seem like retailer-friendly factoids (marketing tidbits, some “if your customers like…” suggestions, etc.). Marvel may have a special insert, but the thoroughness of Tokyopop’s solicitations isn’t to be sneezed at.

The rest of the manga entries in the top 100 GNs were divided among Dark Horse (Berserk #9), Digital Manga (Yellow #2), A.D. Vision (Full Metal Panic Overload #2), CMX (Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne #1), and Viz (Hana Kimi 8 and Video Girl Ai 13). While a lot of these 19 books are shonen-seinen, it’s nice to see josei Tramps Like Us #7 in 100th place and even nicer to see yaoi Yellow hitting 52nd place.

Many of Viz’s entries in the top 50 (14 total) aren’t actually debuting volumes. Naruto is still enjoying a bump from Cartoon Network, with the first six volumes showing up. And the third volume of Fullmetal Alchemist is still hanging on, even though it came out in August. Viz’s shojo output didn’t go unrepresented. Shojo Beat moved up the top 300 comics list, from 299 in September to 281 in October, and Yuu Watase had two entries in the top 50 manga (Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden #2 at 20th, and Fushigi Yugi #8 at 45th.)

Go! Comi claims two places in the manga top 50, with debut volumes of the excellent Cantarella in 43rd place and Tenshi Ja Nai (I’m No Angel) in 48th. Other entries that make me happy are Kindaichi Case Files #12 in 25th (this after a fairly long gap but with an extra-thick installment) and Yotsuba&! #1 in 30th place. (I wonder if that isn’t supposed to be #3, which actually came out in September, though it would make me equally happy if the Direct Market audience was catching up with the book. I also wonder why A.D. Vision still doesn’t have information on the book posted on its web site.)

It’s not all joy, though, and I’m totally baffled by the presence of Honey Mustard #2, a truly awful bit of forced-marriage rom-com from Tokyopop, at 40th on the manga list. And this makes the second month running with no Del Rey titles in the top 100 graphic novels. Given their generally excellent bookstore performance, I can’t see them viewing it as a problem.

From the stack: PARIS 1

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If Andi Watson’s script for the first issue of Paris (Slave Labor Graphics) is a bit slight, it doesn’t really matter, as it would have needed to jump through absurd hoops to compete with Simon Gane’s fabulous illustrations. Watson wisely stands back and lets Gane do the heavy lifting, presenting highly stylized, richly detailed images of the City of Lights in the 1950s.

Juliet is an American studying art. Deborah is a rich English girl visiting the city for the first time. Juliet has to churn out portrait commissions to pay her tuition. Deborah is prevented from seeing the city by her snobbish chaperone. They meet when Juliet gets a commission to paint a portrait of Deborah, and they click when Deborah has some interesting and unconventional ideas for the commission

That’s pretty much all that goes on in the first issue in terms of narrative. Watson provides solid if minimalist introductions to his characters and their circumstances. There’s nice chemistry between his leads, and the supporting cast – the frumpy chaperone, Juliet’s bloviating tutor and bohemian roommate – rounds things out with dashes of humor.

But Gane is the main attraction here. Paris doesn’t really look like any other comic on the stands, with the possible exception of Joann Sfar’s The Rabbi’s Cat. Watson has scripted a number of showpieces for Gane’s lavishly detailed, imaginative style.

Establishing shots of a variety of settings are breathtaking, from sidewalk cafes to hotel lobbies to Juliet’s Latin Quarter digs. They’re glorious and numerous, but they never seem like travelogue material. Instead of interrupting the momentum of the story, big panels and splash pages contribute to its flow, immersing readers in the city and connecting them to its inhabitants.

Character design is exaggerated and appealing. Gane likes to draw characters in profile and uses the perspective to give added detail (like the chaperone, with her hawk-like nose). Wardrobes have specificity and texture, from Juliet’s rolled-up denim to Deborah’s starchy dresses. Juliet’s art-school activities allow Gane to reproduce works by Ingres and others, loyal to the source but investing them with enough of Gane’s own visual vocabulary to ground them in the comic.

So maybe Paris is an experiment in style over substance, with Watson purposely receding as a writer to let Gane do what he does best as an illustrator. Given the gorgeous results, I’ve got no problem with that.

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Okay, so the giving-up-on-Big-Two-singles thing kind of loses its momentum in a week when there weren’t many singles I collected to begin with. I’ll keep the spirit alive when I head up to Pittsburgh this weekend.

Still, the week isn’t a total loss. Oni has the second issue of Ted Naifeh’s Polly and the Pirates. (I liked the first issue a lot.) Del Rey releases the third volume of Genshiken. This surprisingly subdued (and slightly surreal) look at otaku culture is still working for me, particularly the insanely detailed illustrations.

I might have to make a note of the titles on Publishers Weekly‘s Best Comics of 2005. (The site offers a free 30-day trial for anyone who’s curious.) The list includes some of my favorites (The Rabbi’s Cat, Scott Pilgrim Versus the World, and We3), so the remainder should make a good starting point for browsing. King from Fantagraphics looks particularly promising.

And if all else fails, I can just keep re-reading Sexy Voice and Robo (Viz).

Everything old is new again

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The new edition of PW Comics Week has arrived in my in-box, and I’m a little disoriented. Aside from a banner ad for Dramacon, there’s no coverage of Tokyopop’s OEL initiative. I… What? Where am I? Who are you?

That absence aside, there’s plenty of manga coverage in the form of Ian Brill’s piece on Yaoi-Con, hitting the highlights and major announcements. Apparently, not only can I eagerly anticipate You Higuri’s Gorgeous Carat from Blu, I can look forward to her Gorgeous Carat Galaxy from Digital Manga. (But will I have to hold off on reading one to avoid spoiling the other?)

To get my OEL hype fix, I need only look just about everywhere else. Coincidentally, there was a piece on Morning Edition today about the continuing decline in circulation of daily newspapers. Will manga be able to help reverse the trend? Or at least make the average reader age skew a bit younger than 53?

Speaking of manga in interesting forms and venues, I was interested to see that Tokyopop has branched out into the radio drama format to promote its titles (via yesterday’s Lying in the Gutters at Comic Book Resources). Lea Hernandez finds more reaction from creators over at her LiveJournal.

Bits

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I’m not usually crazy about anecdotal evidence, but this case reinforces my own tastes, so I’ll happily wallow in it. Scott Pilgrim and Yotsuba&!? Darlings of the blogosphere. Scott Pilgrim and Yotsuba&!? Local comic shop can’t keep them in stock because they’re awesome.

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How is it that I can find copies of Antique Bakery in two of the big chain bookstores in town but can’t find a single copy of the second volume of Death Note? Or the third volume of Ultra Maniac? Is there a big yaoi audience in north central West Virginia? I thought it was just me.

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Case Closed is always a fun little title, but it’s more fun when the Junior Detective League is around. Hence, volume eight didn’t achieve it’s full entertainment potential. More elementary schoolers outwitting murderers and jewel thieves, please.

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It’s Monday, so there’s yet another Flipped column posted. Pretty angels just can’t compete with murderous Italian nobility. I’m sorry, but they can’t.

From the SPX stack: LA PERDIDA 1-5

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Every time I read La Perdida (Fantagraphics), I’m amazed at the balancing act Jessica Abel achieves.

Her characters could come off as naïve, and they are to a certain extent. They ache to connect to something larger, to immerse themselves in something they believe will fix their lives. But they pursue this immersion without fully understanding its implications and consequences. They dive into their respective pools without knowing how deep they are or what precisely is under the surface.

But the sincerity of their desires is never in question. They may be willful, selfish, and even foolish, but they don’t mean any harm. That they end up doing harm is clearly their fault, but it’s hard to blame them entirely.

Take Carla, the protagonist. An American with an absentee Mexican father, she travels to Mexico to see the land of her dreams. She’s romanticized Mexico, and she longs to have an authentic experience. Carla attaches herself to an acquaintance, Harry, an upper-class American who’s traveled to Mexico City to follow in the spiritual footsteps of Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. (Yes, he’s kind of a git.) They casually fall into a sexual relationship, though Carla’s clearly using him to stay in Mexico.

Before long, Carla finds herself chafing at what she perceives to be Harry’s elitism. She scolds him for hanging around with nothing but other expatriates and walling himself off from “real” Mexicans. Carla has gone from romanticizing Mexico generally to yearning for a truly authentic experience, and her use for Harry comes to an end. (Harry may be pursuing his own posturing, romanticized notions, but at least he isn’t using anyone to fulfill them. It’s easy to sympathize with his irritation with Carla.)

But Carla’s notions of the “real” Mexico are no better informed than her earlier fantasies. She ignores warnings from friends and acquaintances, cuts herself off from the expatriate community, and finds an apartment and a part-time job teaching English. She starts hanging around with Oscar, who dreams of international DJ fame, and Memo, a washed-out socialist who feeds Carla’s vague notions that any kind of American lens will ultimately distance Carla from Mexico (and make her morally inferior, like the expatriates she rejected). Carla goes from user to used, but she’s in too much of a happy fog of authenticity to notice.

Abel uses amazing clarity in presenting Carla’s flaws. Her hypocrisy and narcissism are evident. At the same time, Abel uses equal delicacy in portraying Carla’s need. It’s overwhelming, obscuring consideration and common sense. It’s also very real, and it softens the reader’s view of Carla. As a protagonist, she almost transcends conventional notions of sympathy. Abel isn’t asking readers to support Carla’s choices and behavior so much as to immerse themselves in them. You don’t need to like her to find her compelling.

All of this carefully modulated characterization doesn’t lead Abel to neglect plot. It’s driven by character, obviously, but it’s also almost immune to character. All of Carla’s certainty and passion do nothing to protect her from still another “real” Mexico, and the five-issue series builds to a satisfyingly suspenseful conclusion.

I love Abel’s illustrations. She favors a fairly heavy line, but it doesn’t obscure any of the delicacy or depth of emotion. There’s a wonderful sense of place, too, which is obviously critical for this kind of story. Pantheon Books has a collection of La Perdida in the works, but I’m glad I bought the singles. They’re wonderfully proportioned and have gorgeous color covers. Beyond the quality of their contents, the comics have value as objects. (I was also lucky enough to pick them up from the Fantagraphics booth when Abel was signing during SPX.)

Visually striking and emotionally nuanced, La Perdida is a tremendous book. It’s probably my favorite SPX purchase.

And Yû and Yuu and You

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There’s plenty of promising manga to be found in the November 2005 edition of Previews, though the number of debuting titles seems a bit more restrained than last month. Even Tokyopop manages to come in with under a dozen launches.

ALC offers Yuri Monogatari volume 3, featuring “original stories by artists and writers from Japan, America, and Europe.” Del Rey delivers the second volume of the delightful Love Roma.

I’ll be reviewing Go! Comi’s Cantarella in Monday’s Flipped. Sneak preview: I’m ordering the second volume of this bloody, juicy Renaissance soap opera. Cantarella’s creator, You Higuri, also has a title coming from Tokyopop’s Blu line of yaoi, Gorgeous Carat. Jewel thieves in turn-of-the-century Paris? Yes, please.

Viz’s Shojo Beat line offers the first collection of Yuu Watase’s Absolute Boyfriend, the manga version of Kamikaze Girls, and the second volume of Ai Yazawa’s Nana.

The month’s debuts come from Tokyopop and Viz:

  • Sorcerers and Secretaries, Amy Kim Ganter ($9.99, Tokyopop)
  • Beautiful People, Mitukazu Mihara ($9.99, Tokyopop)
  • Broken Angels, Setsuri Tsuzuki ($9.99, Tokyopop)
  • Glass Wings, Misuzu Asaoka ($9.99, Tokyopop)
  • Kami-Kaze, Satoshi Shiki ($9.99, Tokyopop)
    Loveless, Yun Kouga ($9.99, Tokyopop)
  • Mobile Suit Gundam: Lost War Chronicles, various ($9.99, Tokyopop)
  • Sequence, Ryo Saenagi ($9.99, Tokyopop)
  • Gorgeous Carat, You Higuri ($9.99, Tokyopop Blu)
  • Read or Die, Hideyuki Kurata and Shutaro Yamada ($9.99, Viz)
  • Absolute Boyfriend, Yuu Watase ($8.99, Viz)
  • Baby & Me, Marimo Ragawa ($8.99, Viz)
  • Kamikaze Girls, Novala Takemoto and Yukio Kanesada ($8.99, Viz)

Did I miss anything?

From the stack: NOTHING BETTER

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(The following contains spoilers for Nothing Better #1.)

After an initial reading, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the first issue of Tyler Page’s Nothing Better (Dementian Comics). It seemed to start in a very low-key, observant place, then move rather swiftly into more melodramatic territory. By the end, differences of perspective erupt into shouting matches and slammed doors, and I admit that the comic made me laugh in places where I suspect it didn’t mean to.

After a couple of subsequent readings, I’ve decided that I’m fond of Nothing Better in the same way I am of other young-adult melodramas like Degrassi: the Next Generation. The eruptions of just-post-adolescent melodrama have the happy effect of letting me be moved while still finding them funny. The characters would hate it if they knew I was laughing at them from my old-man chair, but they don’t need to know.

The first issue follows Jane Fisher as she arrives for her freshman year at a Lutheran college. Page has good eyes and ears for the summer-camp quality of those first days of higher education – independent but not, structured but solitary, and sometimes a little mortifying. Jane’s terrifyingly enthusiastic resident assistant gathers the corridor for a “getting to know you” session (“Say your name, and one thing about yourself!”). “My name is Jane and… my roommate isn’t here yet,” is Jane’s pitch-perfect contribution.

As the new arrivals go through the stations of the freshman cross, Jane feels out of step due to her missing roomie. Katt Conner eventually arrives, but Jane isn’t particularly comforted. Katt rolls her eyes at the mixers and corridor activities. She’s glad to be away from her family. (Jane misses hers.) She smokes and sneaks off to less socially sedate corners of campus, dragging Jane with her. Fed up with Jane’s mild (but somewhat constant) disapproval, Katt plays a nasty prank on Jane. To her credit, Katt regrets it almost immediately and tries to clean up after, but the fallout throws Jane even further off of her freshman stride.

Thanks to Katt, Jane is late for course registration and winds up stuck in a religion class called “The Bible for Pagans.” Katt is in it, too, and she can’t understand Jane’s disappointment. This leads Jane to wonder, with disbelief and perhaps a little terror, if Katt is “like an atheist or something?” Glare! Shout! Slam! (Snicker.)

The tricky thing, and the thing that saves the book for me, is that the shifts in tone don’t come out of nowhere. Things do run from one to ten, but Page successfully portrays this as a function of the highly charged experience. His cast members are experiencing their first taste of independence and coming at it with different expectations. Their clashes are heightened but strangely natural at the same time. Jane didn’t expect to be stuck with some atheist art student who drinks and smokes any more than Katt was looking forward to nine months with a homesick Lutheran tight-ass. Neutral corners, and come out fighting!

I don’t know if I’m enjoying Nothing Better in precisely the way I’m supposed to, but I’m enjoying it nonetheless.

Updates and exceptions

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Flush with the prospect of freedom from Big Two floppies, I decided to do a little on-line shopping. (This would probably classify as counting chickens before they’ve hatched.) I was further reinforced in my decision by the fact that I found Timothy Lehman’s Manga: Masters of the Art for 40% off at Barnes and Noble. Lured by the false economy of free shipping, I threw in a copy of Sexy Voice and Robo.

Speaking of Viz, I tend to agree with David Taylor and Brigid Alverson that the publisher’s web site is much improved. There was nowhere to go but up, and it still doesn’t have Tokyopop’s easy-to-navigate alphabetical listing of titles, but this is drastically more user-friendly.

Oh, and after another look through Previews, I realized I’d have to make a very specific exception to the singles thing. It was the solicitation for the first Seven Soldiers trade that made me rethink the wisdom of collections on that particular franchise:

“This first volume reprints (in original release order): SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY #0, SEVEN SOLDIERS: SHINING KNIGHT #1-2, SEVEN SOLDIERS: THE GUARDIAN #1-2, SEVEN SOLDIERS: ZATANNA #1-2 and SEVEN SOLDIERS: KLARION #1. Independently, each of these characters are featured in a story arc of their own that redefines their purpose in the DCU.”

It’s like the appetizer sampler at Tipsy McStagger’s, with the mushroom caps touching the cheese sticks touching the hot wings. Oh, how the façade of stand-alone adventures crumbles. (Of course, reading the issues singly also lets me appreciate the wit and wisdom of Jog in a timely fashion and without fear of spoilers.)