Lori Henderson lists this week’s all-ages comics and manga at Good Comics for Kids.
Deb Aoki talks to Jason Thompson and Victor Hao, the creators of King of RPGs, at About.com. And you can see some sample pages here.
Comic Attack has a nice interview up with Michael Gombos, Dark Horse’s director of Asian licensing.
Alex Dueben talks to Dan Hipp about the future of Gyakushu! at Comic Book Resources.
There seem to be some signs of life at DramaQueen, but we’ll reserve further comment until someone sees an actual book.
David Welsh posts his picks for the best online comics criticism of 2009 and invites others to add their choices in comments.
Gottsu-Iiyan takes a look at Takehiko Inoue’s covers for Vagabond and how his art has evolved over the years.
Matt Blind posts the top 500 manga (online sales) for the week of Jan. 3 as well as his ranking of new releases and preorders.
Same Hat has some Shintaro Kago gag comics for you (NSFW).
Manga Jouhou unveils a handy resource: A list of Japanese publishers and their websites.
People are talking about Graphic.ly, a new program for reading comics on computers. I haven’t looked into it yet, but at Anime Vice, Gia is already considering how it would work with manga.
Tangognat is giving away a copy of Love Hurts; click here for further instructions.
News from Japan: It’s bleak out there. Shuho Sato, creator of Say Hello to Black Jack, recently posted that a major publisher of manga and other magazines lost several billion yen in 2009, and he predicted the demise of three top-selling series. Matt Alt translates a blog post by Negima creator Ken Akamatsu about an interesting phenomenon: Tankoubon sales are down, but the top sellers are doing OK; the problem is with the lesser-known titles, which aren’t doing well and therefore are unlikely to find an audience. At the Icarus blog, Simon Jones blames it on the internet, but it’s not what you think. As always, Simon’s thoughts are well worth reading. In other news, Mizuki Kawashita, creator of Ichigo 100%, is bringing her other manga, Anedoki, to an end this month. And ANN has the latest comics rankings.
Reviews: Kate Dacey reviews recent volumes of Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs, Rosario + Vampire, and Slam Dunk at The Manga Critic.
Jennifer Leblanc on Dog X Cat (The Yaoi Review)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 22 of Fullmetal Alchemist (The Comic Book Bin)
Vom Marlowe on Godchild (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Happy Cafe (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 4 of Ikigami (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sterg Botzakis on Japan Ai: A Tall Girl’s Adventures in Japan (Graphic Novel Resources)
Melinda Beasi on vol. 1 of King of RPGs (About.com)
Connie on vol. 1 of Kurashina Sensei’s Passion (Manga Recon)
Jack T. on vol. 1 of Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture (MangaCast)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 2 of Ooku (MangaCast)
Erica Freidman on Otome Ouji ~ Joshikou Manken Host Club (Okazu)
Julie on vol. 2 of Rin-ne (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Shinobi Life (Kuriousity)
Thanks for the link! (The Michael Gombos interview; I’m glad that people are finding it informative.)
The page 28 panel layout for King of RPGs is awesome. Between that layout and dialogue on that page, and the mmorpg parody panel with the poor level 1 stick figure, I think I want to buy it already, even if that reasoning seems greatly flawed XD
I guess that means the preview is doing its job though.