I’ve added a few new links to the sidebar:

• Tom Spurgeon has launched The Comics Reporter, and it looks like it’s going to be an excellent resource. Spurgeon hopes “that the site works in service to the professional, retail, andreadership communities.”
• I’ve been meaning to add the link to the Howling Curmudgeons for ages. The curmudgeonly contributors offer “two-fisted comics commentary and criticism.”
• I really enjoy Christopher Butcher’s Previews Review. He covers a great range of titles and throws in some really interesting retailer perspective.
• Last but not least is Prism Comics, “a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the work of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) creators in the comics industry, as well as LGBT themes in comics in general.” I love the Queer Eye on Comics essays. (Found via Postmodern Barney.)

In Yu Watase’s tense, elegant Alice 19th, the heroine’s main difficulty is her inability to express her true feelings. The protagonist of Watase’s antic, charming Imadoki! doesn’t have any such problem. Tanpopo says precisely what’s on her mind, and she can’t understand people who don’t.

The manga opens with a great visual. Having barely won admission to the elite Meio Academy, Tanpopo is eager to get a look at her new school before the session starts. Since the school gates are locked, she just launches herself over the fence, crashing into golden boy Koki in the process.

The act is a nice summary Tanpopo’s outlook. She takes the direct approach to life, which causes no end of disruption at her regimented new school. Her fellow students are keenly aware of the social structures that govern their environment. Tanpopo, coming from a friendly, small-town school, doesn’t have the faintest notion of how things work at a place like Meio. When her classmates and teachers try and explain it to her, she never even considers conforming.

It quickly earns her the nickname “Weed,” which is perfect on a couple of levels. Tanpopo means dandelion; she may be a “weed,” but, like her namesake, she’s sunny, pretty, and can bloom just about anywhere. That isn’t to say the Meio environment doesn’t do its level best to stop her; even the plants at the school are plastic.

Learning that, Tanpopo takes it upon herself to start a gardening committee. She wants to bring a little life into her stiff new school, and she sees it as an opportunity to reach out to Koki, who has his own issues. Koki may be the top student at Meio, and filthy rich to boot, but he doesn’t have any friends. He’s too aware of his privileged position and too suspicious of his fellow students’ motives in trying to befriend him.

The first two volumes track Tanpopo’s efforts to launch the committee, doggedly enlisting Koki’s aid and gradually expanding her circle at the school. One of those new friends is scheming, ruthless Tsukiko, who’s exactly the kind of climber Koki expects to find. Tsukiko is so blatant about her motives, though, that it makes her almost adorable. And Tanpopo doesn’t hold the fact that Tsukiko is a witch against her. She’s too much of an optimist to think that Tsukiko is defined only by her greed.

Tanpopo takes a similarly long view of Aoi, a seriously unbalanced computer geek. Aoi thinks even less of Meio’s caste system than Tanpopo does, but he takes decidedly more destructive steps to upset the status quo. He can’t help but be charmed by Tanpopo’s enthusiasm and impressed by Koki’s integrity, though. Aoi’s still crazy, but at least he’s using his powers for good. Mostly.

It’s harder to start a gardening club than you might expect, even with Koki’s full support. But it provides for some charming plots and engaging character interaction. Surprising almost no one, Tanpopo realizes her feelings for Koki go beyond friendship. Surprising even fewer, there are complications keeping them apart. On the bright side, those complications are based in the characters’ decency and kindness. All in all, the blend of comedy and romance and the underlying will-they-won’t-they subplot make a very solid foundation for the manga.

Watase’s art is predictably lovely. I thought I’d miss the supernatural sequences that are the highlights of Alice, but her work with more mundane material is just as inventive. Imadoki! also gives Watase’s flair for visual comedy a freer reign. Exaggerated expressions and pratfalls can seem a little out of place in Alice, but they’re right at home here. And the comedy is tailored to the characters.

You probably know perfectly well whether you like shojo or not. I mean, a teen rom-com about a garden club, no matter how polished, won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. But it’s really, really charming. Tanpopo’s kindness and can-do optimism are hard to resist, much like the manga itself.

So I passed on New X-Men and Noble Causes yesterday, and filled the void with the first collection of Girl Genius: Agatha Heterodyne and the Beetleburg Clank. It’s a delight, and a bargain. I loved the sepia look of the reproduction of the first three issues, and the last chapter (a glimpse into Agatha’s future) was lovely in full color. Funny, imaginative, pretty… can’t wait for future collections to come out, as this is a really high-quality package.

I’m not quite up for a full review at the moment, but why not stop by iComics and see what Greg McElhatton has to say about the first and eighth issues of the ongoing? Or, you could pop over to creators Phil and Kaja Foglio’s pages. Or, you could just leave a comment wondering why it takes me so freaking long to pick up the interesting stuff.

There’s been lots of entertaining blogging on the Jon Stewart-Crossfire dust-up, but one of my favorites comes from Wing Chung, who has helped give the world Television Without Pity and Fametracker. Here’s a sample:

“Imagine, for a second, that you’re Tucker Carlson. (Let me help you to get into character: you’re a dead-eyed assberet.) You know that, of the conservative pundits — a group that includes such non-luminaries as Sean Hannity and your own colleague Robert Novak — you are marginally the least loathsome. You are occasionally, privately, able to break from Republican doctrine (as he did in Vanity Fair this summer, talking some shit about the even more odious Karen Hughes). But on camera, you have an image to project, and that image involves a bowtie. If you ever had any idea of being a respectable journalist, that was a long time ago, and you can never go back.”

“Assberet.” Snerk.

Ifro!
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Mark Millar talked with Comic Book Resources about Ultimates and Ultimates 2, wondering why people think “shocking” can equal “bad”:

“It never ceases to amaze me when people talk about shock in a negative sense. Are the nerves of these softies really so weak that even a gentle shock can upset them to that degree? The original had maybe two or three ‘shocks’ over thirteen issues, one of which was Hank Pym beating his wife and being subsequently ass-thumped for it by Captain America.”

I don’t think it’s so much a case of weak nerves as it is possession of a functioning sensationalism detector. Plenty of readers love to be shocked, but many of those same readers would prefer those shocks arrive in the form of genuine narrative surprise as opposed to crass, under-motivated violence. (The fact that the characters in Ultimates are a bit malnourished actually helps Millar get away with this kind of thing. Since they’re largely undeveloped, can anything really seem out of character?)

As defenses go, I wonder about the wisdom of this argument:

“I nicked this exact set-up from the episode of “er” where Kovacs kicks the ass of the violent neighbour who beat up Abby, but I didn’t read a single review of that episode where anyone said the writers were going for cheap shocks.”

Where to start? Do I wonder about the percentage of crossover audience between a past-its-prime medical drama and a super-hero comic? Do I puzzle over how admitting he lifted it whole from another source constitutes an artistic justification? I mean, Chuck Austen heisted Romeo and Juliet for Uncanny X-Men. That doesn’t make UX-M Shakespeare, does it? Paul O’Brien certainly didn’t seem to think so.

So, in conclusion, “Creator willfully misinterprets criticisms of his work. Film at 11.”

There was just something in the air at the shop yesterday. Usually, the Wednesday rush is over by the time I get there, but I stopped by early, and… well… wow.

Family hour: A father, mother, and their young son came into the store. They were looking for information on Yu-Gi-Oh cards, which immediately made me grumpy, because even a brief glimpse at the cartoon can send me into a rage. It’s the most incomprehensible thing I’ve ever seen, and it’s about as exciting as listening to someone read the instruction manual that comes with tax preparation software. Anyway, every geek has his or her limits, and the staff couldn’t help. So, the father went on to ask if the shop carried any “adult anime.” (He wasn’t going all Tipper Gore on the shop. He seemed like a connoisseur of Japornimation.) Before I could process that shift, I was distracted by the mother sternly telling her son that, no, he could not have a Shrek comic book. Lady, you’ll buy your kid Yu-Gi-Oh, but not Shrek? What’s that about?

Moving on: I overheard another customer asking the owner if he thought there would be a price spike on Superman back issues in response to the recent death of Christopher Reeve. I was immediately reminded of the grave robbers’ song from Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol.

Forgiveness: Okay, so the clerk I asked about ordering Scott Pilgrim totally forgot, so I had to ask again. (Don’t tell Christopher Butcher.) He redeemed himself through his recent work on the window display, which has comics, manga, action figures, DVDs, etc. Most importantly, the display features an Iron Man action figure fitted with a big, honking afro. The clerk took one of those foam balls, distressed it, painted it black, and plopped it on Iron Man’s head, and I absolutely crave that action figure. For those of you who’ve wondered, Iron Man can really rock an afro. I think Marvel should immediately come up with a fifth week event where Marvel super-heroes wake up with giant afros. I would buy so many copies.

Cutting the cord: I had planned to buy New X-Men and Noble Causes, but I just couldn’t. I flipped through both and felt tired. New X-Men is too crowded for any of the characters to be really interesting. I opened Noble Causes to a close-up of Gaia’s face, and I realized that I can’t take the book seriously as long as the characters look like something out of Time Squad. (And I love Time Squad, don’t get me wrong.)

Another week, another printing of Identity Crisis #1. This time around, they’ve spared buyers the ugly Michael Turner Boo-hooperman cover, opting instead to go with someone who can draw hands and feet.

Rags Morales does the honors, and it’s right in the spirit of the title. “We shall shatter your Silver Age icons and drench them in blood! Bloooooooooood!” (I think the splatter is completely over the top, but I think the series is defined by its excesses, so there you go.)

Happily, all involved make it through the press release without trying to pass off IC as some Spider-Girl-ish underdog. Actually, Bob Wayne, DC’s VP of Sales and Marketing, has never played that card, for which I’m eternally grateful.

In other solicitation news, Marvel’s January blurbs sound a bit less like they’ve been written by a meth addict.

I’ll spare you the tedium (and me the shame) of posting my whole shopping list, but I did want to mention a few books that I’ve been enjoying.

DC offers Manhunter #3. I’ve been intrigued by the story so far; it seems like it could go in a number of interesting directions. And the art is gorgeous.

Madrox #2 (of 5) arrives courtesy of Marvel. This mini had a strong first issue, and I love Peter David’s work with this set of underused characters from his X-Factor run.

Is that… can it be… Yay! Yay, yay, yay! Amelia Rules Superheroes #3 shows up via Renaissance Press! This is one of those titles that I can read again and again. It’s a constant source of delight, and I can’t recommend it strongly enough.

The contests keep a-comin’! The lovely and talented Ed Cunard at The Low Road wants you to try Salmon Doubts, by Alternative Comics, and he doesn’t care how Troy McClure you get. Deadline for your ichthyologically inspired entry is Oct. 31.

If I hadn’t already ordered the OGN, I would certainly enter Steven and Rose’s Win Scott Pilgrim! contest at Peiratikos. (If I hadn’t already ordered it, I would have bought it this weekend up at Phantom of the Attic in Pittsburgh, as I have even less impulse control than I have contest luck. But I had ordered it, so I got the first three issues of Street Angel instead. You may remember John Jakala’s squid-themed contest related to that title. It all comes down to aquatic life, really.) Deadline? Nov. 5.

Last, but certainly not least, a reminder about Shane “Braaaaains” Bailey’s Walking Dead: Days Gone By contest. Shane wants you to get your zombie groove on, and he’s giving you until Oct. 30 to do so. Just in time for Halloween! So ask yourself, “What really drives the shambling undead… I mean, besides hunger for the flesh of the living?”