Lean times at the comics store

Pickings are slim, but the MangaCast crew reviews this week’s new manga anyway.

The Japan Times reports that Japanese companies are catching on to the marketing as well as the money value of licensing.

Queenie Chan reports on her LJ that she has finished vol. 3 of The Dreaming and is hard at work on Odd Thomas, the graphic novel about the character created by Dean Koontz. And she links to an interview in which we learn that if it hadn’t been for the dot-com bust, Queenie might have gone on to a lucrative career in Information Systems instead of manga.

Bad news for Divalicious fans: T Campbell learns it has been cut back to two volumes.

LJ’er sparklyfanta has some thoughts on CLAMP and feminism. (Via When Fangirls Attack.)

More NSFW follies: ComiPress has an article about the notion of “harmful manga,” i.e., smut, loli, etc. The article itself has occasioned some controversy; read the comments. At Icarus Comics, Simon Jones puts it into perspective. And ANN has a handy checklist!

Erica Friedman has info on the contests at Yuricon.

News from Japan: Shogakukan will be re-releasing some of Moto Hagio’s work as a “Perfect Collection.” (Via ComiPress.)

ANN’s Zac Bertschy interviews Anime Expo marketing consultant Chase Wang about the problems with this year’s con.

Reviews: Matthew Alexander hits the adult racks with his review of vol. 1 of Flash Bang at Anime on DVD. At Active Anime, Scott Campbell checks out vol. 1 of Shaman Warrior and Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 3 of Trinity Blood. Connie wraps up vols. 10, 11, and 12 of Death Note and them moves on to the next stage with a lenghthy review of Apollo’s Song at Slightly Biased Manga. Julie gets a sneak peek at vol. 1 of Pretty Face at the Manga Maniac Cafe.