In this week’s Publishers Weekly Comics Week, I interview action/fantasy/romance writer Christine Feehan about her manga Dark Hunger, an adaptation of one of her short stories, which took comics fans by surprise when it topped the Amazon charts—and puzzled some of her regular readers as well. Also: Kai-Ming Cha talks to NYAF organizer John McGeary, Calvin Reid interviews ICv2 publisher and general comics maven Milton Greipp, and Kai-Ming Cha and Heidi MacDonald have lots of questions for Takehiko Inoue.
ICv2 reports that Fruits Basket bumped the latest volume of Naruto off the top of the BookScan graphic novels chart this week. The article includes some interesting observations on sales patterns, a rather eclectic top ten list (Chibi Vampire??) and the news that Death Note has seen a jump in sales since the anime started running on Cartoon Network—enough to boost sales of the first volume higher than vol. 1 of Naruto.
Ed’s back and the whole MangaCast gang goes over this week’s new manga. Katherine Dacey-Tsuei gives her take, along with some quick reviews, at Manga Recon.
Precocious Curmudgeon David Welsh also picks through this week’s new manga and comments on some shifts in focus in vol. 9 of Eden: It’s an Endless World and vol. 5 of Dokebi Bride. Then he devotes his Flipped column to a manga lover’s holiday shopping guide.
Active Anime interviews Little Butterfly creator Hinako Takanaga.
I do believe Jason Thompson is going to be the most-interviewed author of 2007, handinly beating out Fred Schodt. Here’s Deb Aoki’s interview with him at about.com.
Speaking of Fred Schodt, Imagi.com has posted an interview with him, but you have to be patient, as this is one of those websites that forces you to wait while they load some animation thing, then hides all the content behind a pure-white interface. Eventually you will see a “what’s new” link; click on that to find the interview.
Yaoi Press posts some samples of art from upcoming manga.
News from Japan: ANN reports that Yakitate!! Japan creator Takashi Hachiguchi is launching a new series, this one a medical manga, and manga-ka Keichiro Oki, best known for his pachinko manga, has died.
If you’ve missed Anne Ishii’s incisive writing and sharp eye since she left the Vertical Blog, head over to The Beat, where she’s guest-blogging for a couple of days.
Reviews: At Anime on DVD, Gary Thompson enjoys Princess Ai: Ultimate Edition, John H. Zakrzewski takes an early look at vol. 1 of Yozakura Quartet, and the whole team pitches in on some Small Bodied Manga Reviews. Julie checks out vol. 2 of Love*Com at the Manga Maniac Cafe. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie reviews vol. 2 of Apothecarius Argentum and vol. 2 of Metamo Kiss. Sakura Kiss reviews vol. 1 of I Shall Never Return at The Yaoi Review. Ferdinand reviews vol. 1 of Magical JxR and vol. 1 of Zombie Loan at Prospero’s Manga. Katie McNeill takes a look at Arm of Kannon at Blogcritics. Anime Punk Joey checks out vol. 1 of Kon Kon Kokon at Manga Punk. Caldi-Chan enjoys vols. 1 and 2 of Dramacon at Way of the Geek.