One of the things I do in real life is administer our city’s charitable fund for families in need. This has been an unusually busy holiday season for us, and I know we’re not unique. So I’d like to like to ask all of my readers to please make a contribution to a local charity this year. It doesn’t need to be a lot; our emergency fund seldom gets a check for over $50, but the money really adds up, and every penny goes to helping people—there is no overhead. Or pick up some peanut butter, cereal, or soup on sale and donate it to your local food bank. If can’t find anywhere local, send a donation to Boston Medical Center’s Grow Clinic, which has a food pantry for malnourished children.
And I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
OK, on to the news. In this week’s Publishers Weekly Comics Week, I talk to Tokyopop’s Lillian Diaz-Przybyl about Aqua/Aria, Peace Maker/Peacemaker Kurogane, and Tactics, as well as Tokyopop’s attempt to use the creator as a selling point. And there’s a nine-page preview of Aventura to enjoy, as well as lots of interesting non-manga news.
ComiPress is reporting that four manga made the USA Today best-seller list this week, and as I don’t have time to check for myself, I’ll take their word for it. Vol. 18 of Fruits Basket places highest at number 67, and then there are the mandatory three volumes of Naruto: vol. 24 at number 77, vol. 22 at number 103, and vol. 23 at number 107.
Slam Dunk manga-ka Takehiko Inoue was in New York Monday night at the recently revamped Kinokuniya bookstore, where he talked to the press and painted an awesome-looking mural on the wall. Heidi MacDonald and Christopher Butcher were both there and have reports—and pictures! And John Jakala picks up on the news of a Vagabond omnibus.
John also checks out some photos of a Bleach artbook.
David Welsh devotes this week’s Flipped column to Pumpkin Scissors and Venus in Love.
At MangaCast, Pea continues her essay on manga publishing in Indonesia.
While Amazon’s e-book reader Kindle stole the spotlight in the US this week, over in Hong Kong an outfit called Voice Bank was displaying their manga software for the iPhone and iPod. Also at ANN: Rose of Versailles beauty products and Yakitate!! Japan bread!
Reviews: At Anime on DVD, Greg Hackmann takes an early look at vol. 1 of Hell Girl and the staff pitches in with some Small Bodied Manga Reviews. Michelle checks out vol. 13 of Bleach at Soliloquy in Blue. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie looks at vol. 4 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, vol. 1 of Bride of the Water God, Blue Spring, vol. 2 of Le Chevalier d’Eon, vol. 15 of Eyeshield 21, vol. 3 of 3 x 3 Eyes, and My Only King. About Heroes posts a potpourri of brief manga reviews. Dave Ferraro checks out Wild Rock at Comics-and-More.
About the Tokyopop article, I think it IS very hard to get name recognition for manga writers/artists. Unless its somebody like CLAMP or Peach-Pit, which is very simple to remember, or Tezuka, who is so famous. I love Fullmetal Alchemist, but off the top of my head could I tell you who draws/writes it? I doubt that any bookstore will ever sort manga by author. It’s all title recognition. But really isn’t it like knowing the name of your favorite band but not knowing the members names? And how many people know who directed and who wrote their favorite anime series? I do sort my manga at home by author but it would never be practical for a borders or barnes and noble. The publishers just need to put a page in the book like other novels that say “other works by the author” and list any other series, whether they wrote them or drew them or both.
Oh wow! Yakitate!Japan breads in BreadTalk! We have BreadTalk here in Manila. I wonder if they are doing the same promotion here too~ *fufufu* Oh I’m so excited!!