In the mood for web manga? Check out my latest post at Digital Strips, wherein I chat with artists J. Dee Dupuy and Dan Hess about their latest projects and why Wirepop is better than you think.
After Ellen has a really nice profile of Erica Friedman, founder and moving spirit behind Yuricon, the first yuri manga publisher in the U.S.
ANN recently listed Fanfare/Ponent Mon’s publishing schedule for the rest of 2007. This got Jog all excited as it looked like they would be putting out seven volumes of Times of Botchan in a Naruto-style blitz. (Times of Botchan Nation, anyone?) Alas, David Welsh went straight to the source, publisher Stephen Robson, and clarified that only two volumes are coming out this year. Still, he points out, F/PM has definitely speeded up its publishing schedule, and that, combined with better bookstore distribution, could do more damage to our wallets than Naruto.
Incidentally, David’s recent article on manhwa has been picked up by 2ch, which brought out some manhwa-haterz. Manganews reports:
The thread started out with people stating the article has no proof that manga is better and no numbers that indicate manhwa sells more than manga. The thread reminds the world that in the Korean market, 80% of their comics are imported from Japan, and toward the end of the thread, it cites various graphical examples where manhwa plagiarizes from manga. (Aside from that, I would probably those who comment on that thread saying “manhwa is boring” and “manhwa is in the level of Japanese doujinshi” ignorant though.)
Japanese government representatives will hand out copies of Barefoot Gen, the story of a survivor of the Hiroshima bombings, at the Preparatory Committee For 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in Vienna, Austria.
ChunHyang72 has revamped the Tokyopop Round-Up a bit but continues to bring you the best of that site, with all the IM-speak and art theft filtered out.
ComiPress has the nominees for the Tezuka Awards.
New York Magazine is running a preview of King City in its blog.
The MangaCast has a preview of Special A.
Adam Stephanides discovers a reason to go to Ohio: the OSU manga library!
Reviews: In his Flipped column, David Welsh reviews two Del Rey titles that start with P, Princess Resurrection and Parasyte. At the Mangamaniaccafe, Julie checks out vol. 2 of Fullmetal Alchemist. Ed Chavez reviews vol. 1 of The Good Witch of the West for AoD.
[...] Almost missed it: Animation World News reports that the Japanese government will be handing out copies of Keiji Nakazawa’s Hiroshima-bombing memoir Barefoot Gen at the Preparatory Committee For 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, currently taking place in Vienna, Austria. (Link trail: ComiPress ← Brigid Alverson.) [...]
There is a disturbing hint of racism in a lot of the talk about manwha in japanese fandom, particularly with professionally published manga like “Hate Korea”. It’s all part of the backlash of the popularity of korean pop culture in Japan, and fairly ignorant to the works of many talented Korean cartoonists. Works like Saver, Laya Witch of the Red Pooh and Witch Class have offered me material that build on what manga does, but offer something distinct from it. Much like a lot of domestic manga-inspired comics do [sadly, it's only a matter of time before that backlash happens in Japan, though some US fans feel like doing it in advance]. It’s always depressing to see the ugly side of fandom.
Considering Manga Jouhou guys promote scanlation which is a product of criminal act,it’s easy to understand that they’re familiar with shch a dirty place.
But Picking up 2CH and analyzing “What Japanese Thinks” isn’t a good idea.
Yeah, there are a lot of doinks on 2ch who constantly flame and post rude comments. It’s what happens on any unmoderated anonymous board, and unfortunately, just as on other anonymous boards, the doinks always drown out the more open-minded people who are probably interested in checking out a manhwa for themselves. As Sai says, I wouldn’t take 2ch as an indication of what all Japanese people think about Korea or manhwa. A lot of other Japanese people also think that most 2ch posters are doinks. Though I don’t have a big interest in manhwa, I do recognize that there’s some interesting manhwa titles out there.