I did some manga shopping over the weekend at the newish Big Chain Bookstore in town, and picked up Yotsuba&! (cute, in spite of the typesetting mishap that seems to have taken place with the title… kidding!) and Eyeshield 21 (haven’t had a chance to read it yet). There seems to be something weird in the air at Big Chain Bookstores where I buy manga.

Up at one store in Pittsburgh, I waited in line and watched the cashier cheerfully chat about the purchases of the people in line in front of me, congratulating them about their good taste and making recommendations of other books they might like. When I put my stack of manga down, he looked at it, thought for a minute, and said (cheerfully), “People sure do buy a lot of that stuff!” (I felt kind of bad for him, but I was strangely proud that I’d been the one to make him hit the wall in terms of the suggestive sell.)

Then on Saturday, another cashier looked at my purchases and kind of muttered, “Manga, manga, manga,” like nothing in the world was more dispiriting than Japanese comics in translation. Still riding the large coffee I’d had in the cafe, I informed her that I loved the stuff. She quickly changed gears and said she’d read some, just to get an idea of what it was like. Then she listed off some titles that would leave me disspirited, too, if they were my only exposure to manga. I felt her pain when she couldn’t remember the name of “one of those battle things.”

The odd thing was that there was a stack of Shojo Beat on the magazine rack right in front of her register. Speaking of which, I thrash that subject one last time (I promise) in this week’s Flipped.

The Pickytarian has written a fine review of Catwoman 44 (DC), the debut issue for writer Will Pfeifer and artist Pete Woods. I always enjoy reading the Pickytarian’s examinations of visual storytelling, and this is another good example. (I feel like I have a rather limited vocabulary when talking about the visual end of the equation, and I really admire people who handle that well.)

He notes what could be a plot hole in the proceedings, specifically why precisely Selina would even pretend to take Hush up on his offer. There were a couple of other story elements that rubbed me wrong, and since I can’t resist nitpicking, I’ll just toss them out:

• The presence of Hush doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence. My knowledge of the character begins and ends with the story that introduced him, and that didn’t drive me to find out more. Obviously, he’s become some kind of player in the interim, but it’s never made clear what his place is in Gotham City’s hoodlum hierarchy. Knowing that might have made me less curious about why Selina didn’t just roll her eyes and leave.
• I’m not quite clear on why the arrival of two grade-z freaks (“Jet Pack guy” and the Ventriloquist/Scarface) throws Selina for such a loop. She dispatches them with very little effort, and neither seems to have any grand designs for the East End. One is robbing a deli, which isn’t exactly a prelude to a web of criminal intrigue. Their little incursions don’t seem like enough stimuli to fear for the neighborhood’s future, except maybe its dignity.

Still, it isn’t a bad start for a new creative team, and the book looks better than it has in ages. Pfeifer has a nice overall handle on Selina’s moral ambiguity and a nice ear for dialogue. I hope he devotes more time towards creating a real sense of place for the East End and what makes it distinct from the rest of Gotham, which would make Selina’s choices and anxieties clearer.

(Oh, and I’ve noticed in a lot of reviews that this is many readers’ first issue of the book. You really should consider sampling some of the collections from earlier in the run, because Ed Brubaker did fine, fine work. Anything prior to the onset of Paul Gulacy’s jiggly, love-doll pencils is a good choice, particularly if you enjoy the art of Darwyn Cooke and Cameron Stewart. You do, don’t you?)

“In the series, a group of kids discover that their parents are secretly super-villains. To enter the YACB Runaways contest, just email (Dave) a paragraph addressing the topic: If your parents were super-villains, which super-villains would they be, and why? (Please put ‘Runaways Contest’ in your email subject.)”

Deadline is July 1. As Heidi MacDonald noted at The Beat, Runaways digests are burning up the bookstore market. This is a good chance to see what you may have been missing.

I’m really enjoying DC’s latest stab at Legion of Super-Heroes. It’s nice to have a little corner of the DC Universe that’s independent of the line-wide madness that’s making many of their books a bummer and a chore.

Another big part of the book’s allure is the green gentleman referenced above. Throughout the Legion’s long and uneven history, there have always been points when I thought the writer is disproportionately fascinated with one or two characters. In this case, I’m fine with writer Mark Waid’s evident partiality to Brainiac 5, because I share it.

In each issue, it seems like Waid gives Brainiac 5 a fresh new reason to disapprove and criticize. In Legion 7, the target of his crusty wrath is Light Lass (and by extension Star Boy) for treating her potentially awesome powers as a fashion accessory. He could be a profoundly obnoxious presence, but I find him rather refreshing.

Part of it is the way Waid portrays Brainiac’s intelligence not as an on-and-off ability but as a state of being. It reminds me of the way Peter David presented Quicksilver’s speed during his run on X-Factor. It’s a constant, and it creates a natural distance between Brainiac and the people around him in spite of their shared goals and values.

I much prefer him as a point-of-view character than someone more gee-whiz, like Invisible Kid. Since the whole concept has its dodgy points, it’s nice to have a skeptic’s perspective. I think previous writers of various incarnations of the character have erred on the side of martyrdom; he’s been irritable because he feels unappreciated. This time around, Brainiac is dyspeptic because people can’t keep up, which is a lot funnier.

I do wish Waid had given Brainiac a better opposite number than Cosmic Boy. There’s some kick to the leader of a youth movement being just as manipulative and bureaucratic as the society he theoretically rejects. (It’s also amusing to see a less gleaming take on the Legion’s premiere Eagle Scout, but that wouldn’t come across for new readers.) But beyond the irony and novelty, there isn’t much else to say about Cosmic Boy. He’s a fairly unpleasant control freak who might have his reasons for being the way he is, but as yet they aren’t sufficiently clear to balance out the equation.

Still, Waid’s focus on Brainiac has been a real pleasure. He’s done nice work with other characters, and his gradual approach to introducing the cast has been surprisingly successful. But for me, it’s worked even better with Brainiac’s consistent presence on the sidelines, providing pointed, exasperated commentary.

Yesterday’s manga ramblings sparked some interesting comments and questions, so I thought I would follow up with… well… more rambling.

Lyle from Crocodile Caucus reports:

“The Borders in Stonestown, SF has manga that has been worn out from browsing. For that reason, I could see them sealing up everything but the first volume and not be bothered.”

This seems like a good idea to me, if a retailer is determined to wrap their manga. It reminds me of the way many museum bookstores and similar shops shelve their coffee table volumes, leaving one unwrapped (and marked) as a browsing copy with the rest of the stock wrapped to spare them wear and tear. (I don’t think there’s quite the same level of concern about condition as it relates to a manga digest as it does to a $75 retrospective on John Singer Sargent, but it’s portable enough.) It seems like a good compromise, limiting but not eliminating a shopper’s ability to browse, preventing wear and tear, and still letting them get a sense of what they’re buying.

Tivome has another perspective on wear and tear:

“That’s why in Japan, all manga’s wrapped and the store owner has no qualm about
whacking you on the head with a stick if you break the plastic for a peek.”

That makes me wonder if browsing is less important to manga readers in Japan in part because they’ve already been able to sample titles relatively cheaply in anthologies. Digests are still largely the end product there, right? With serialization serving as the loss leader to drive digest sales? Maybe the anthologies already fill the role that in-store browsing serves here.

JennyN wonders:

“has the friend you mentioned awhile back tried out his idea of a readers’ corner in his store? If so, how’s it working?”

He has set up a space at the front of the shop where he puts out some reading copies of some lesser-known titles from smaller publishers, though he’s being cautious about it. That’s partly a function of time, because he’s had to spend a lot of time and resources expanding his graphic novel sections due to unexpectedly high demand. He’s upped his space for western graphic novels by about a third, and he’s almost doubled his shelf space for manga. He’s still committed to the idea and is dabbling in it, but other priorities have put it on the back burner.

JennyN also makes an excellent point that I meant to fold into the column (really!) if it hadn’t already been so bloody long:

“Dorian’s remark on postmodernbarney a while back that demand for a given manga will actually increase if scanlations have been previously available is also worth meditating.”

I completely agree, and I think scanlations are an entirely different kettle of fish than in-store browsing. I think they can be a very useful way of demonstrating potential demand in a web-friendly audience and indicating interest in publishers looking for their next successful property. It doesn’t seem like something a publisher would openly endorse, but it does seem like something they could use to see what’s on readers’ radar. (I could be wrong. I often am.)

And, stepping out of the comments section, David at Love Manga notes that many readers never even touch a manga before they buy it:

“It’s very hard to browse a book before buying when all your purchases are done online. (and I’m not talking about previews, I’m talking about physically flipping through a book in your hands.)”

So, sane people do buy manga sight unseen. Either that or David just likes to throw cold water on my hyperbole, either of which is cool.

Oh, and for those of you who thought I was exaggerating about my Yû Watase obsession, even Barnes & Noble knows about it and sent me a Watase update shortly after I published yesterday’s post. And yes, I am unnerved that computer tracking software knows me that well.

Lastly, a note for Shojo Beat: It is a cheap way to curry my favor by running an ad for Antique Bakery. It’s was successful, but that doesn’t minimize its cheapness.

There’s a new manga column at the Pulse, and it looks pretty terrific. The first installment of Manga Fan Service, by manga editor Jake Forbes, is informative and funny. Excuse me for a moment while I go weep salty tears of bitter envy, then break to rehydrate.

I’m in total agreement with Dave at Yet Another Comics Blog that the pick of the week is the first issue of Shojo Beat from Viz. Greg McElhatton reviews the anthology at iComics, and I definitely share his enthusiasm for Crimson Hero, though I thought the introduction to Absolute Boyfriend worked just fine. (This might be a side-effect of my Yû Watase fixation.)

Of course, one shouldn’t discount this week’s arrival of the 10th volume of Fruits Basket from Tokyopop, which I’m willing to swear has subliminal messages on every page. (Tohru’s wide eyes are actually some kind of hypnotic device compelling innocents to buy, buy, BUY.) Volume 9 is still selling strong, both in bookstores and in the Direct Market.

To the folks who read my review of Digital Manga’s Passion and suggested that Only the Ring Finger Knows is much, much better, you’re right, and thanks for the pointer. It was actually Lyle’s review at Crocodile Caucus that tipped the scales. (Well, Lyle’s review and a well-timed trip to a Borders up in Pittsburgh.)

If you read only one on-line manga column this week, make it the aforementioned Manga Fan Service. If you have time for two, there’s another Flipped up.

The graphic novel Drive (Frequency Press) asks the familiar question, “How stupid does a person have to be to try and steal drugs from the mob?” This begs the follow-up question, “How stupid can a protagonist be and still maintain an adequate level of audience sympathy?” The answer to both in this case is, “Just stupid enough.”

Writer Nate Southard manages this overlap by keeping Drive’s plot simple and moving quickly. Things kick off when Brian, a Las Vegas cab driver of marginal intelligence and limited prospects, gets carjacked by a gun-toting thug trying to abscond with a duffle bag full of narcotics. A tense and deadly car chase later, the thug is dead and Brian is left with a wrecked cab and a quantity of valuable drugs.

Rattled by the experience and encouraged by his even stupider friend Dalton, Brian decides to see if they can unload the drugs quickly and make off with the profits. (Dalton is the kind of moron who thinks he’s a player. He “knows people.”) Brian’s girlfriend Shelby is understandably dubious about the idea, but she hasn’t got the force of personality to overrule the plan and get the stash off of her coffee table. Even as Dalton begins making inquiries, some crooked police officers are tracking Brian with their own designs on early retirement.

There’s a strong feeling of immediacy to the proceedings; Brian doesn’t really have time to think about his actions, and the near-death experience seems to have left him feeling like negative odds don’t apply to him. (This is an area when Southard could have played up the setting; the Vegas economy is all but built on fostering that belief.)

At the same time, Southard doesn’t really seem to expect anyone to root for his protagonist. It’s not a story where the reader breathlessly wonders how Brian is going to pull this caper off. It’s more a case of wondering how badly damaged he’s going to be in the attempt. That’s a much more sensible approach than to try and overlay some Robin Hood nobility on a guy with a mullet.

I can’t say I’m crazy about the doofus noir genre. I’m not really interested in lowlife culture, and I’m a very hard sell when it comes to noble scumbags. But Southard does a nice job crafting his story. He keeps things to scale, which helps a lot, and plot holes are kept to a minimum as a result (provided one assumes the people of Las Vegas are pretty committed to looking the other way). If nothing particularly genre-expanding is going on, nothing pointlessly outlandish is either. It’s a coherent, well-constructed narrative.

Art by Shawn Richter shows a lot of potential. He has a nice sense of composition and does good work with backgrounds. Some of the body language is a bit stiff, but character acting is generally effective. The storytelling is very clear.

In the interest of full disclosure, Drive came to me as a review copy from Southard. It’s not a book I would have picked up on my own, mostly because of the aforementioned disinterest in the genre. That said, I think it’s a well-executed story, and it leaves me wanting to see more of Southard’s work in other types of stories. He’s got a real grasp of storytelling mechanics and is able to invest those mechanics with a fair amount of style.

We went to see Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith today. I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about the idea, but I’m still paying for dragging my partner to see Sideways, so that gives him quite a few picks before the bad-movie-choice balance is restored. (To his credit, he said he’d be fine with Batman Begins, too, but he almost always hates super-hero movies. I also can’t get past the fact that all of the promotional posters look like little Billy made a diorama for third grade using his Batman action figure.)

I honestly don’t remember the movie very well, because I got stuck on that disturbing Brawny Paper Towel commercial that ran before the previews. The one on television that looks like an audition reel for a boring gay porn video is bad enough, but this cinematic follow-up is just freakish beyond my wildest imaginings.

Who at Brawny thought it would be a good idea to promote their paper towels with a profoundly weird psycho-sexual death match between some hapless nebbish and a twink in a flannel shirt who likes to decorate cakes? They’re paper towels, for pity’s sake. You spill a brightly colored substance, you wipe up the brightly colored substance, and the suburban order is restored. How hard is that?

Oh, and in case anyone was wondering what I thought of SW:E3-RotS: Long it was. Nap I did.

And I knew it would come from Cunard. I would have been able to resist if he hadn’t thrown in a picture of napping puppies.

Sigh. Here we go:

If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why? (Assume you also get baseline superhero enhancements like moderately increased strength, endurance and agility.)

I would have to go with long-range teleportation, not for any particular crime-fighting usefulness but to allow me to go places I love cheaply and without having to pass through airport security. Forget all that great power/responsibility blah-blah. I just want to be able to pop down to New Orleans for Sunday brunch.

Which, if any, ‘existing’ superhero(es) do you fancy, and why?

I was going to pretend to be above this question, but then I remembered Hugh Jackman in a sleeveless t-shirt in the X-Men movie, and I became distracted and ashamed.

Which, if any, ‘existing’ superhero(es) do you hate?

Green Arrow. Creepy old hypocrite.

OK, here’s the tough one. What would your superhero name be? (No prefab porn-name formulas here, you have to make up the name you think you’d be proud to mask under.)

I would have to go with something vaguely pretentious but somewhat inscrutable, like “The Skeptic” or “Mister Spite.” I would insist it be spelled properly, with no kewl vowel substitutions.

For extra credit: Is there an ‘existing’ superhero with whom you identify/whom you would like to be?

This was a tough one. I wouldn’t wish the current emotional state of most super-heroes on my worst enemy. But if she counts, I very often feel like Agatha in Girl Genius: never entirely sure what exactly is going on, relying on improvisation to bluff through random unpleasantness, and at the mercy of ill-tempered felines who are nonetheless adorable. (I don’t wander around in my underwear nearly as often as Agatha does, which is probably for the best.)

There really isn’t one I’d want to be, because chances seem strong that my fate would ultimately be decided by either Geoff Johns or Brian Bendis, and those possibilities are utterly unacceptable.

Pass it on. Three people please, and why they’re the wind beneath your wings.

That’s okay. I can forgive others for meme-ing me, but I can’t bring myself to meme others.

For those of you who were worried, the Prankster Spirit of Comics Shipping decided to cut me a break and allowed the safe delivery of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (Oni Press) into my greedy hands. I haven’t read it yet, because the idea of saving dessert for last has been drilled into my brain.

Yes, I’m one of those freaks who take the time to stack weekly purchases based on how much they expect to enjoy them. I try and hold off on the really good stuff to make sure my most recent memories of the week’s comics are pleasant. It helps to keep my naturally sunny and optimistic nature intact.

What?

Does anyone know if Lucifer (Vertigo) is going to end any time soon? Because it feels like it should have ended about six issues ago. It’s not bad by any means, but it seems awfully protracted. Maybe I should have stuck with the trades.

Usually at least one thing in Previews makes me mutter “Buh?” This time, it’s in the Tokyopop listings. The manga publisher spares no expense, gobbling up almost as many pages as Image. Listings feature what seem like very useful factoids for retailers, often including pointers towards a title’s likely audience.

In the promo for Off*Beat Vol. 1, Tokyopop suggests the shônen-ai title “will appeal to fans of Gravitation and Fake.” This helps me not at all, because I loved Fake and thought Gravitation was kind of annoying. It’s like saying a candy bar “will appeal to fans of Nutrageous and Almond Joy.”

Dear Prankster Spirit of Comics Shipping,

I know that it must be boring having such a narrow field of influence, and you’ve got to make your own fun within those confines. I’m sure you had a good chuckle fixing circumstances so that a copy of JLA written by Geoff Johns showed up in my pile of pre-orders last week. (Don’t worry. I can look back at this and laugh now, no matter what I might have said at the time.)

And I get that you need to occasional pet project. That’s probably why you’ve decided to create an inconsistency field around West Virginia that delays admission of titles published by Oni Press. Your ways are whimsical and not for my understanding, etc., etc.

But seriously, if you could lay off the mischief for a week and let my carefully pre-ordered copy of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World show up in the shop on Wednesday, I’d be eternally grateful. (I’ll even forgive you for putting my copy of Same Difference & Other Stories on back order last week.)

Hugs,

David

It’s actually a rather hefty Wednesday. There doesn’t seem to be much manga, but there’s plenty of compensation.

DC has Birds of Prey 83, Ex Machina 12, JLA Classified 8, Manhunter 11, Klarion the Witch Boy 2, and Vimanarama 3. DC also has something called Wildsiderz 0.

Dear Everyone in the World,

Please stop indicating plurals with a “z” in an effort to make yourselves look hip. It has the opposite result, and it drives me crazy. Please submit requests to use this technique ironically at least three months in advance. Lack of response should not be construed as permission.

Sternly,

David

Marvel has… well… Marvel has GLA 3. It hasn’t been my favorite work by Dan Slott, but heck, it’s Dan Slott.