David Welsh responds to John Jakala’s post on comics by women creators by making a list of his own favorites, and he goes on to discuss the pros and cons of swearing off superheroes.
Today’s big news is the launch of yet another manga magazine, and this one is yaoi: BL Twist, from Iris. It sounds like a boys love riff on Shojo Beat, with 100+ pages of manga plus articles, news, and of course, reviews.
Chloe has some thoughts on shelving manga in bookstores, and why lumping everything into a single category isn’t such a bad thing.
Simon Jones muses on manga piracy:
My personal take is that part of the motivation is similar to that of art vandalism (which makes it sound worse than it is)… a way for someone to feel s/he is involved, even if only in the barest way, with something they admire yet have no professionally ability to do otherwise (or either does not know how, or have little desire to, be involved in a legitimate way.) Association in any way possible… the modern version of scribbling one’s name on someone else’s painting.
(Link is proudly NSFW, as always.)
A Toronto gay newspaper checks out Anime North. (Via The Beat.)
Reviews: At Q-ko-kun, Cameron reviews vol. 1 of The Recipe for Gertrude. Mangamaniac Julie checks out vol. 1 of Punch at the MangaCast. Matthew Alexander reviews vol. 1 of Puri Puri for Anime on DVD. Prospero’s Manga returns from vacation with reviews of vol. 1 of Love Pistols by Miranda and vol. 1 of My Heavenly Hockey Club by Ferdinand. The French blog du9 translates a review of Coree, a.k.a. Korea as Viewed by 12 Creators. Since they’re French, they are looking at the Casterman edition, not Fanfare/Ponent Mon’s. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie finds A Patch of Dreams eminently worthwhile. Shandy Casteel reviews vols. 1 and 2 of Q-ko-chan for Playback:stl.
I like that article you posted from David Welsh! I really did enjoy reading that one.
That review of Q-Ko-Chan basically shared my sentiments, albeit being a little bit harsher. The only thing I really disagreed with was the note about the art.. I really liked that
“My personal take is that part of the motivation is similar to that of art vandalism (which makes it sound worse than it is)… a way for someone to feel s/he is involved, even if only in the barest way, with something they admire yet have no professionally ability to do otherwise (or either does not know how, or have little desire to, be involved in a legitimate way.) Association in any way possible… the modern version of scribbling one’s name on someone else’s painting”
quite possibly the dumbest thing ive read on the internets.
i read this out loud to everyone in the office and they all burst out laughing
what a buffoon
i gotta stick up for Q-Ko Chan too. The art is perfect, but perhaps an acquired taste, and the story is not quite as simple as it appears.
[...] Chloe explains why shelving manga by demographic category can be a drawback. (Link via Brigid Alverson.) [...]