Good reads from 2009

7036752e0493a57b16d31f5d49a687fbI have spent most of today going over the past year’s worth of MangaBlog posts for a Robot 6 piece, and as I went, I noticed a number of interesting essays, interviews, and think-pieces, so I figured I would round them all up into a year-end post as a special treat for those who have a bit of time on their hands this time of year. And in case you’re super-efficient and have read them all already, here’s something new that I just discovered: The blog Three Steps Over Japan has been doing a detailed history of manga, with lots of fun facts and fascinating vintage illustrations. Here’s part 1 to get you started, and you can find the rest of the links in the December archive in the sidebar.

And here are the rest. Enjoy!

The Hooded Utilitarian’s manga roundtable, which kicked off with Tom Crippen’s admission that he just doesn’t get it.

qjmagazineManga translator Gottsu-Iiyan translated an interview with Naoki Urasawa, creator of Pluto and 20th Century Boys; the interview is broken into six parts, but you can start with part 1 and follow the link at the bottom of each post to the next one.

Matt Blind’s pie chart of all manga

Joe Iglesias looks back at Mangajin magazine

My interview with manga translator and scholar Matt Thorn

Casey Brienza on the exploitation and objectification of women in manga and anime

Good Comics for Kids roundtable on whether manga should be flipped

nk_comics_coverBad Jew on North Korean comics
And here are scanlations of two actual North Korean comics: Great General Mighty Wing and the adventure comic Blizzard in the Jungle (part 1, part 2, part 3)

The Manga Village team, Kate Dacey, and Jake Forbes on the question of OEL manga

Gia Manry talks to Lillian Diaz-Przybyl about marketing global manga in Japan

Lawrence A. Stanley on child pornography in manga (note: images aren’t pornographic but may be unsettling)

Jason Thompson on moe
Jason Thompson on military and political moe

rowsofcherrytrees3Nice old shoujo art from Macoto Takahashi

The cultural implications of emoticons

Jason Thompson on dirty manga

Michele Mason on manga creators grappling with the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings

Matt Thorn on bad manga translations
Shaenon Garrity’s response

Joy Kim on different “doorways” into manga

Shaenon Garrity on Fumi Yoshinaga

And some comics for you to sample:

Saint Onii-San on scans_daily

Preview of Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s A Drifting Life at Words Without Borders

est em’s Age Called Blue (first chapter is free)

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Comments

  1. I just ran across your post while doing some research, and I thought you might want to know that I have updated links for what you’ve posted above on North Korean manhwa. This link will also give you around 50 pages from all three of the graphic novels.
    http://www.heinzinsufenkl.net/manhwa.html
    Cheers,
    HIF