Maid Service

Lorena Nava Ruggero lists her picks for the best new series of 2009 at i heart manga. Kris lists her favorite manga of the year—and it’s a very different list—at Manic About Manga. And Casey Brienza picks her top ten at her LJ. David Welsh lists some books he enjoyed in the past year, manga and otherwise. Also, Comic Book Resources presents their next installment of the Best Comics of 2009, in which I participated, and there’s some good reading there.

Here’s some good reading for your holiday weekend: Jason Thompson answers the vexing question of why there are so many maids in manga at comiXology. Actually, the answer is pretty simple, but Jason also discusses the variety of ways in which maids show up. Akemi looks at the roots of Sailor Moon at Myth and Manga. Bill Randall writes about the proliferation of manga in the U.S. at The Comics Journal. And Christopher Mautner’s review of Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto, also at The Comics Journal, is more than just a review, it’s a look at common themes in Urasawa’s work and how they play out in his different series.

The latest episode of David Welsh’s shoujo-sunjeong alphabet is brought to you by the letter L.

News from Japan: ANN has the latest Japanese comic rankings. Otaku News takes a look at Comiket.

Reviews

Edward Zacharias on vol. 7 of Black Lagoon (Animanga Nation)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 8 of Honey and Clover (Manga Bookshelf)
Michael C. Lorah on vol. 1 of King of RPGs (Blog@Newsarama)
Jennifer Dunbar on vol. 1 of The Lizard Prince (Manga Recon)
Emily on Make Sweet (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 20 of Nana (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on vol. 30 of One PIece (Slightly Biased Manga)
Todd Douglass on Only One Wish (Blogcritics)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 2 of Ouran High School Host Club (i heart manga)
Connie on vol. 3 of Papillon (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 3 of Pokemon Adventures (Kuriousity)
Connie on vol. 1 of Princess Knight (Slightly Biased Manga)
Gavin Lees on Red Snow (The Comics Journal)
Erica Friedman on vol. 1 of Silent Mobius (Okazu)
Jennifer Dunbar on vols. 5-8 of Vampire Knight (A word is a unit of language)
Megan M. on vol. 8 of Vampire Knight (Manga Bookshelf)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 7 of V.B. Rose (Comics Worth Reading)

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