First things first: Be sure to check out the June Shojo Beat, which in addition to the usual awesome lineup of manga includes an article on Aranzi Aronzo by yours truly.
Also, I talked to the Tokyopop folks about Hee Jung Park and the Del Rey folks about Faust for the latest PWCW.
Next: While I was off doing other things (dentist appointment, day job) yesterday, the entire blogosphere adminstered a beat-down on the Tokyopop Manga Pilot program. I gathered up quite a few links and added my own take over at Digital Strips, and Lea Hernandez, who was the first to comments, has more links today.
Kate Dacey has this week’s new manga and her recommendations in the latest Weekly Recon.
Danielle Leigh writes about fansubbing and scanlations in this week’s Manga Before Flowers column at CBR. It’s a good overview of all the arguments and justifications from scanlators and readers.
Over at the MangaCast, Ed Chavez has the Viz PR on Book Expo America, and he adds this:
I expect them to represent at the Graphic Novel Buzz panel as they now are in control of more than half of the US manga market (actually quite a bit more according to my source).
Can that be? If so, it’s impressive.
Uniqlo has a line of lovely manga T-shirts that have already attracted a bit of attention, and now they’re giving away seven limited-edition Ts that are not sold in stores as prizes in their trivia competition. I’m sure MangaBlog readers will have no trouble answering the questions, right?
SDCC update: Fairy Tail creator Hiro Mashima will be a guest at SDCC, courtesy of Del Rey.
News from Japan: Gia reports that the Japanese government is considering adopting a fair-use clause in its copyright law, but she cautions that won’t necessarily mean all doujinshi is legal. (Via About.com.)
Reviews: David Welsh has high praise for vol. 12 of Hikaru no Go at Precocious Curmudgeon. At PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog, Erin F. reviews Family Complex and Chloe Ferguson checks out vol. 1 of Cy-Believers. Dave Ferraro enjoys vol. 1 of Flower of Life at Comics-and-More.
Yay, George Alexopoulos is back! It didn’t even register with me because you can only see his name on the Newport title page. I’m glad that he’s doing new work, and a bit sad that the criticism of the Manga Pilot, while justified, is taking attention away from these new creators. But after not even spotting George’s credit despite going through his comic (I had to see your link), I’m baffled and annoyed at why Tokyopop didn’t mention him anywhere else on the page.
I’m going to sit this debate out. Definitely feeling stuck in the middle.