Over at Good Comics for Kids, my colleagues and I sat down and had a roundtable about the end of Shojo Beat and its significance for girls and for manga readers in general.
Top Shelf has a 22-page preview of the Yoshihiro Tatsumi story Love’s Bride, which will appear in their AX anthology, but as John Jakala points out, the preview ends before the red-hot monkey sex begins.
Scott VonSchilling writes about the hassles of scanlation and the possibilities for commercial digital distribution of manga at The Anime Almanac.
Sadie Mattox defends the girls of shoujo manga:
So what makes the yasashi or “don’t rock the boat” girl so unappealing to our American sensibilities? Is it the idea that by bending to those around her she somehow gives up her individuality? But, these days, how overrated is individuality anyhow? What I notice is a woman who takes her strength from herself then offers that to her friends, her lovers, her parents and her community at large. The shojo heroine consciously makes the choice to be better every day.
Yaoi Press has a yaoi coloring book in the works, but Docucopies refuses to print it. Yamila reproduces some of the images so you can see for yourself whether or not they are “disturbing”; some are definitely NSFW.
Matt Blind has started including graphic novels in his online sales ranking charts; here’s the latest.
Sad news from New Jersey: There will be no MangaNEXT convention this year.
News from Japan: Tenjho Tenge leads the pack, with V.B. Rose and Fairy Tail right behind it, in this week’s comics rankings from Oricon and Tohan, courtesy of ANN.
Reviews: Paul Gravett has a short but illuminating piece up on Yuichi Yokoyama’s Travel.
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 27 of Bleach (The Comic Book Bin)
Steve Duin on A Drifting Life (OregonLive.com)
Karen Maeda on vol. 7 of Gimmick! (Sequential Tart)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 2 of Happy Happy Clover (Sequential Tart)
Cynthia on vol. 9 of Junjo Romantica (Boys Next Door)
Karen Maeda on vol. 7 of Kekkaishi (Sequential Tart)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 11 of Kurohime (Sequential Tart)
Connie on vol. 2 of Leave it to PET! (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 13 of Lovely Complex (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Masca (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Nabari no Ou (Slightly Biased Manga)
Wolfen Moondaughter on vol. 5 of Nora: The Last Chronicle of Devildom (Sequential Tart)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 16 of O-Parts Hunter (Sequential Tart)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 3 of Pluto (Sequential Tart)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Rasetsu (The Comic Book Bin)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 2 of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (Comics Worth Reading)
Laura on Shugo Chara (Heart of Manga)
Danielle Leigh on Tail of the Moon: Prequel (Comics Should Be Good)
Patti Martinson on Tail of the Moon: Prequel (Sequential Tart)
Anna on vol. 1 of Tower of the Future (2 screenshot limit)
Julie on vol. 1 of Venus Capriccio (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Melinda Beasi on vol. 4 of We Were There (There it is, Plain as Daylight)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Yokai Doctor (The Comic Book Bin)
manganext was a really nice con, i’m glad they are only taking a break
[...] morning I followed a link from Brigid Alverson’s mangablog to an article on the Yaoi Press blog regarding an issue they had experience recently with a [...]