New titles and fresh reviews

Digital Manga has just announced four new licenses on their web page: Border, vols. 1-3, by Kazuma Kodaka; Bad Teacher’s Equation, vols. 1-5 by Kazuma Kodaka; Blue Sheep Reverie, vol. 4 by Makoto Tateno; and the novel Demon City Shinjuku: The Complete Edition, by Hideyuki Kikuchi.

Meanwhile, Udon has unveiled their latest manga series, the two-volume Street Fighter Gaiden.

Lori Henderson posts this week’s all-ages comics and manga at Good Comics for Kids.

Japan, Inc. takes center stage in Jason Thompson’s latest House of 1,000 Manga column at ANN.

Jones, one of my favorite infrequently-updating bloggers, does a guest turn at The Hooded Utilitarian talking about “visual aliens,” characters who are drawn in a noticeably different style than the rest of the cast. He starts with Moyasimon and extends it to Western comics, but I could have come up with a lot more examples from manga, where I often find it rather distracting.

Trick or treat: Melinda Beasi has a seasonally-themed Three Things Thursday column at Manga Bookshelf: Ghost hunters. Shannon Fay’s latest Halloween manga pick is Madeline Rosca’s delightful Hollow Fields. And to really get you in the Halloween mood, check out Pink Tentacle’s gallery of Tatsuya Morino’s drawings of classic monsters from Gothic literature. (Last link via Comics Alliance.)

Happy blogiversary to Rob McMonigal, who has been writing about graphic novels for two years now over at Panel Patter.

News from Japan: Shin-Men, a new anime and manga series based on Crayon Shin-Chan will start running on TV and in Monthly Manga Town magazine, the home of the original. The series features five little men based on a mixed bag of elements (fire, water, wind greenery, and iron) who will fight against evil pigs. Also, Say Hello to Black Jack creator Shuho Sato has found an overseas site to translate his manga for free; Sato announced earlier this week that he was looking for unpaid translators.

Reviews: Kate Dacey looks at two new kid-friendly releases from Viz, Panda Man to the Rescue and Taro and the Magic Pencil, at Good Comics for Kids. Deb Aoki takes the express line with seven short reviews of recent manga at About.com.

Zack Davisson on vol. 2 of 20th Century Boys (Japan Reviewed)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vols. 3 and 4 of Butterflies, Flowers (Comics Worth Reading)
Kelakagandy on vols. 1 and 2 of Demon Sacred (kelakagandy’s ramblings)
Zack Davisson on vol. 2 of Dorohedoro (Japan Reviewed)
Julie Opipari on vol. 4 of Ghost Talker’s Daydream (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Penny Kenny on vol. 52 of InuYasha (Manga Life)
Greg McElhatton on vol. 3 of Kobato (Read About Comics)
J. Caleb Mozzocco on vol. 1 of The Stellar Six of Gingacho and vol. 1 of Summoner Girl (Blog@Newsarama)
Anna on vol. 1 of Wicked Lovely: Desert Tales (Manga Report)

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