Bits and pieces

Hey, everyone, sorry about the lack of posting yesterday. Paying work and family demands kept me busy all day. Moving along, entries are now closed for the Black Jack contest, and we will be doing the random drawing on Thursday evening. Thank you to everyone who posted, and to the founders of the feast, the fine folks at Vertical.

On with the news!

At PWCW, Kai-Ming Cha chats with Sean Michael Wilson, the editor of the American edition of the alternative manga anthology AX. Also, it’s not manga but you should totally check out my interview with Hereville creator Barry Deutsch, also at PWCW. Hereville rules!

ICv2 has word of two new josei series from Aurora. Ed Chavez is pleased.

I give up on trying to follow the Chip Kidd Bat-Manga controversy any longer. Leigh Walton has a good roundup on his blog, though. I haven’t seen the book yet, so I don’t really have an opinion.

I’m hoping this isn’t true, but it’s popping up here and there: In his Lying in the Gutters column at CBR, Rich Johnston says things aren’t looking too good at Vertical these days, although he gives this a yellow light, so maybe it’s overblown. Simon Jones (NSFW) suggests we support Vertical by buying their books. Update: Vertical posts a reassuring note on their blog.

Ed Chavez looks forward to January with a list of the manga in this month’s Diamond Previews. And Lissa Pattillo scouts the Amazon listings and finds some possible new titles.

Jen Lee Quick, creator of Off*Beat (one of my favorite global manga) talks about her self-published comic Renascence, her earlier work, and how she has evolved as a cartoonist at Comic Book Resources.

Scott VonSchilling files an entertaining con report from MangaNEXT.

Deb Aoki observes Veterans Day by highlighting nine military-themed manga.

News from Japan: MangaCast has the weekly manga rankings from Taiyosha. The publisher Shogakukan has agreed to pay artist Makoto Raiku 2.55 million yen (about $26,000 according to the financial wizards at ANN) and apologize for losing his original artwork from Zatch Bell.

Reviews: Adam Stephanides finds vol. 1 of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya to be disappointing compared to the anime, but he’s looking forward to the light novels. It’s time for more Manga Minis at Manga Recon. At Comics Village, Charles Tan reviews vol. 8 of Hayate the Combat Butler and Dan Polley takes a peek at vol. 1 of Mao-Chan. D.M. Evans checks out vol. 1 of Classical Medley at Manga Jouhou. Deb Aoki formulates the first rule of shoujo manga (“the bigger the eyes, the younger the target audience”) in her review of St. Dragon Girl at About.com. Edward Zacharias reviews vol. 1 of Naruto (Collectors Edition) at Animanga Nation. Greg McElhatton checks out vol. 1 of Black Jack at Read About Comics. David Welsh goes for the medical manga as well with reviews of Black Jack and Monster in his latest Flipped column. At Manic About Manga, Kris reviews vol. 1 of We Were There, Love Bus Stop, Feverish, Vampire’s Portrait, vol. 2 of A Gentleman’s Kiss, and Waru. Alex Hoffman reads Haridama: Magic Cram School and vol. 1 of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service at Manga Widget. Ferdinand enjoys vol. 1 of Yumekui Kenbun Nightmare Inspector at Prospero’s Manga. Tangognat isn’t bowled over by Afro Samurai. Raymond Cummings reviews Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s Good-Bye at the Metro Times (via Journalista).

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Comments

  1. Hi Brigid, did you see Casey Brienza’s analysis of the search terms anime and manga on her livejournal? I thought it was an interesting insight into the demand for both in recent years.
    http://kethylia.livejournal.com/698174.html

  2. Thanks for pointing that out, Estara! I’ll link to it next post.