Gravett's picks, Twilight musings, and the monkey king

Can you handle one more best manga of 2009 post? This one is from manga expert (and banned author!) Paul Gravett, so you know it’s good.

Melinda Beasi ponders the larger significance of the Twilight graphic novel at There it is, Plain as Daylight.

Myth and Manga looks at the monkey king, the literary ancestor of Dragon Ball, Naruto, and many others.

Julie is looking forward to Alice in the Country of Hearts at Manga Maniac Cafe.

The shoujo-sunjeong alphabet reaches the letter P at Manga Curmudgeon.

Manga Views profiles blogger Lorena Nava Ruggero.

Not manga, but fun: The Manga Critic plays test kitchen with Vertical’s Worry-Free Bakery.

News from Japan: Canned Dogs gets word of a doujin opera adaptation of Higurashi When They Cry. My first reaction was “That’s a great manga to adapt into opera,” but my second thought was “Doujin opera???!?!!”

Reviews: Park Cooper tells us what he has been reading lately at Manga Life. Other reviews of note:

Rob on vol. 1 of 11th Cat (Panel Patter)
Danielle Leigh on vols. 6 and 7 of 20th Century Boys (Comics Should Be Good)
Noah Berlatsky on vol. 1 of Biomega and vol. 4 of Ikigami (The Comics Journal)
Charles Webb on vol. 1 of Biomega (Manga Life)
David Goodwin on The Box Man (Eastern Standard)
Connie on vol. 4 of Bride of the Water God (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 31 of Case Closed (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Crown of Love (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on Darkside Blues (Slightly Biased Manga)
Simon Abrams on vols. 1-3 of Dororo (The Comics Journal)
Katherine Farmar on vol. 1 of I’ll Give It My All… Tomorrow (Comics Village)
Joy Kim on vol. 1 of The Lapis Lazuli Crown (Joy Kim)
Leroy Douresseaux on Love Hurts (The Comic Book Bin)
Christopher Butcher on not simple (About.com)
Nina Stone on not simple (The Factual Opinion)
Connie on vols. 32 and 33 of One Piece (Slightly Biased Manga)
Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 4 of Otomen (Manga Life)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Portrait of M&N (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Rin-ne (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on Saber Tiger (Slightly Biased Manga)
Susan S. on vol. 1 of Sea View (Manga Jouhou)
Dan Polley on vols. 23 and 24 of Tsubasa (Comics Village)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 2 of We Were There (i heart manga)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 2 of Yokaiden (Kuriousity)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 7 of Yotsuba&! (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)