Get a cup of coffee and put your feet up before you start reading Tania del Rio’s lengthy but thoughtful post on the graphic novels vs. monthly pamphlets vs. anthologies question. As someone who has been working in the pamphlet format for a while, she brings in an interesting point of view. There’s even more in the comments, where David Boller of Lime Studios chips in with his experiences working on the French anthology Shogun, which will soon be splitting into two (maybe three) smaller magazines.
David Welsh understands the appeal of cell phone manga, even if he’s unlikely to read it himself.
Apparently David is not alone. A Japanese bookstore has come up with a new twist on people who like the idea of cell phone manga but hate cell phones: Manga rentals for PCs. For a modest fee (100 yen), you get access to an online volume of manga for 24 hours. Meanwhile, back here in the States, DrMaster is offering downloads of its manga in PDF form through Direct2Drive.
Now for another contemplative moment: Shaenon Garrity takes a stroll with The Walking Man for her latest Overlooked Manga Festival.
Chloe takes a look at the new CLAMP manga, Kobato, and is not impressed.
At the MangaCast, Ed has PR on some upcoming titles from Broccoli/Boysenberry and Tokyopop.
News from Japan: Manganews has word of a new Taiwanese BL imprint, a new bishojo comic, and more. Also, they’re looking for translators.
Reviews: At Comics-and-more, Dave Ferraro enjoys vol. 2 of Inverloch. AoD’s Matthew Alexander takes an advance look at vol. 1 of My Heavenly Hockey Club, and Julie Rosato reviews the BL one-shot The Day I Became a Butterfly. At Manga Life, Michael Aronson reads vol. 2 of Tezuka’s Buddha and vol. 14 of Hunter x Hunter. Comicsnob Matt Blind checks out vols. 1 and 2 of MAR Marchen Awakens Romance. (Sorry, I don’t do umlauts.) At Active Anime, Scott Campbell checks out a new noir manga, vol. 1 of The Dark Goodbye, and vol. 1 of Kamiyadori Christopher Seaman reads Calling You, Davey C. Jones reviews vol. 4 of The Law of Ueki, and Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 14 of Hana-Kimi. Mangamaniac Julie reviews vol. 1 of Time Guardian for MangaCast. Back at the cafe, she’s reading vol. 4 of Tail of the Moon. At Prospero’s Manga, Miranda enjoys Paintings of You and Ferdinand wraps up vols. 2 and 3 of Chikyu Misaki. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie reads vols. 3 and 4 of Swan.
Manga distribution over digital platforms is overrated. Scanlations come in .zip files, and are transfered mostly over http or irc, both really bad compared to the torrent. Publishers in America want to make people read stuff on their online manga viewers, which are laggy and don’t grant much liberty. Some want to use .pdf, which was not made for comic book viewing. Comics have have the .cdb, which usually gives great resolution pictures, good compression, and comes over torrents. They should use something similar to that.