Size matters

ChiSweetHome_vol1_CoverI went to Anime Boston this weekend, and I dropped in on the Vertical panel; check out my panel report at Robot 6. Former fellow manga blogger Ed Chavez, who is now Vertical’s marketing director, gave a great, detailed presentation on their planned releases for the next 12 months, including Twin Spica, Chi’s Sweet Home, Peepo Choo, and 7 Billion Needles. Ed also dropped some tantalizing hints about licenses yet to come, and over at ANN, commenters are speculating about one of them, a manga by an artist who has been published by Viz. That doesn’t narrow it down much, does it? ANN also has more complete coverage of the con.

Faith Erin Hicks compares Pluto with the Astro Boy book that inspired it and contemplates the different approaches of Urasawa and Tezuka.

Kate Dacey looks over this week’s new releases at The Manga Critic.

David Welsh and Tangognat check out the manga offerings in the latest issue of Previews.

Casey Brienza points to a fascinating aspect of American manga: From 2002 on, publishers not only standardized the trim size, they used it to identify all sorts of other books as manga.

Amazon is listing vol. 1 of Hetalia – Axis Powers as a September Tokyopop release.

Vol. 1 of Yashkaiden, by Vampire Hunter D creator Hideyuki Kikuchi, is now available online at emanga.com.

We Love Kawaguchi Kaji!

We Love Kawaguchi Kaji!

Gottsu-Iiyan has found an interesting Japanese magazine to blog about, We Love Kawaguchi Kaji!. He provides a brief summar of the lead story (time-traveling Beatles cover band!) and promises more to come.

News from Japan: Shio Satō, the creator of The Changeling and One Zero, has died at the age of 59. And apparently the police have in Fukuoka prefecture have been going around asking store owners not to sell manga that depicts the Yakuza, a request that didn’t go over well with Manabu Miyazaki, a writer of Yakuza novels who is himself the son of a Yakuza member. According to the article, the Yakuza organization itself isn’t illegal in Japan, but promoting the lifestyle is.

Reviews: The Manga Recon writers check out some recent releases in their latest Manga Minis column.

Julie on vol. 3 of Fire Inspector Nanase (Manga Maniac Cafe)
D.M. Evans on Il Gatto Sul G (Manga Jouhou)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 1 of Hero Tales (MangaCast)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of In the Walnut (The Comic Book Bin)
Erica Friedman on Love Flag ★ Girls!! (Okazu)
Todd Douglass on vol. 4 of Maid Sama! (Anime Maki)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture (Tangognat)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of Muhyo and Roji’s Bureau of Supernatural Investigation (Comics-and-More)
Grant Goodman on vol. 2 of Oninagi (Manga Recon)
Emily on Sedono Danshi Hana no Ran (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Richard Bruton on Twilight: The Graphic Novel (Forbidden Planet)
Sean Kleefeld on Twilight: The Graphic Novel (Kleefeld on Comics)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 15 of xxxHOLiC (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Snow Wildsmith on vols. 1 and 2 of Your Honest Deceit (Fujoshi Librarian)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 3 of Ze (Kuriousity)

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Comments

  1. Ha ha, I picked up that exact volume of Chi’s Sweet Home this weekend at Anime Boston from Sasuga Books in the Dealer’s Room! I’m sad to have missed that particular panel, but it’s awesome that Vertical is going to be releasing the series here in the States!

  2. Wait so…. Yoshiki Nakamura’s Tokyo Crazy Paradise is technically illegal to sell in Japan? Haha…..
    I didn’t know they were so nutso about that sort of thing over there (depicting the seedy underground). I guess…they don’t want to romanticize it maybe, so people won’t join?