We went out shopping today. My oldest’s birthday is coming up this week, and we were getting the last gifts we needed. One of our stops though, wasn’t for presents, but for supplies. Both my girls like to collect Pokemon cards (actually my oldest is totally hooked on Pokemon right now) and the box we bought for their cards has filled up. So, we went to our local comic shop (LCS) to get another box. Our LCS is small. Every wall is stacked with books, comics, games and toys. There isn’t an inch of wall that isn’t displaying something. The middle holds shelfs for back issues and trades. And then there’s the table, directly opposite the register that is for clearance items. Every couple of months, or until the table is cleared, the shop would put out stuff that hadn’t sold and was taking up space needed for new inventory. Sometimes it’s comics, or toys or trading cards, or manga. This week happened to have manga. Three rows length wide across the table stacked about 8 volumes high and a sign over it saying $2.50 each. So, guess where I was for the next 10 minutes. The only problem with…
This week at Manga Village, we’ve got another batch of reviews for you. John Thomas is getting small with is review of Minima Volume 1 from Del Rey. Things aren’t looking so divine to Dan Polley with his review of My Heavenly Hockey Club Volume 3 also from Del Rey. Charles Tan, on the other hand, kicks it with Eyeshield 21 Volume 2 from Viz. I’d like to flip mine off though, with Volume 1 of Switch from Viz. Don’t “hulk out” until you read the review of it though. We’ve also got our picks from the new releases this month. There’s shojo, shonen, a touch of seinen with a sprinkle of old school, and a side order of BL, so come check them out!
It’s another interesting mix of books this week. I never expected Dark Horse to have any comics for younger audiences. The Harvey Comics Classics is rated for 10+, right on the border. And someone explain to me why we needed *another* Teen Titans book? Didn’t the “babies” phenomenon go out with the 80’s? And Gumby’s back! ARCHIE COMICS Archie & Friends #117, $2.25 Archie Digest #242, $2.49 Sonic The Hedgehog #186, $2.25 DARK HORSE COMICS Harvey Comics Classics TP Vol 03 Hot Stuff, $19.95 DC COMICS/JOHNNY DC Legion Of Super Heroes In The 31st Century #12, $2.25 Tiny Titans #2, $2.25 IDW Doctor Who #2, $3.99 ** Recommends ** MARVEL COMICS Avengers Fairy Tales #1 (of 4), $2.99 ** Recommends ** Marvel Adventures Hulk #9, $2.99 Marvel Comics Presents #7, $3.99 SCHOLASTIC INC. Goosebumps Horrorland SC Vol 01 Revenge Of Living Dummy, $5.99 WILDCARD INK Gumby TP Vol 1 (resolicited), $12.95 RECOMMENDATIONS Doctor Who #2 : This is a new series based on the current Doctor played by David Tennent, with last series’ companion Martha Jones. The stories are written by show’s story editor Gary Russell and are definitely written for a younger audience. You can see a preview of…
When Soah’s impoverished, desperate village decides to sacrifice her to the Water God Habaek to end a long drought, they believe that drowning one beautiful girl will save their entire community and bring much-needed rain. Not only is Soah surprised to be rescued by the Water God-instead of killed-she never imagined she’d be a welcomed guest in Habaek’s magical kingdom, where an exciting new life awaits her! Most surprising, however, is the Water God himself…and how very different he is from the monster Soah imagined. Bride of the Water God Volume 1 By Mi-Kyung Yun Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Genre: Fantasy/Romance Rating:Teen Price: $9.99 Rating: It’s a journey through Wonderland, Korean style, as we follow Soah’s adventures in the land of the gods. Will she find happiness with her new husband, the Water God Habaek, or does a worse fate await her? As serious as all that sounds, Bride of the Water God is a good mix of comedy and drama. Although the romance hasn’t really started yet, you can see it in filtering through slowly. Habaek and Soah are essentially strangers that have been put together in this “arranged” marriage. There are plenty of missteps and misunderstandings, some humorous,…
I was going to do this as “11 Naturo Volumes in 11 Days”, but so much goes on in these volumes, it was really hard to stop. I had to keep finding out what was going to happen in the next volume, so after reading 5 volumes during the week, over the weekend I finished the last 6. And, I said I wasn’t going to read any Shonen Jumps with the new arc until I finished the first. My Shonen Jumps are piling up now. It wasn’t as difficult as it sounds. The last 6 volumes, 21-26, is really one big chase. Volumes 17-20 was the set up for next 7. Naruto and Jiraiya are searching for Tsunade, the last of the Legendary Ninja. So is Orochimaru. After a lot of posturing, the Legendary Ninja face off, and though Orochimaru is thwarted, he is far from defeated. He decides it’s time to replace his body, and his chosen replacement is Sasuke. Sasuke becomes easy pickings for Orochimaru, as he first fails to even come close to defeating his older brother, and then sees how far Naruto has progress under Jiraiya’s teachings. So when Orochimaru’s underlings offer him power, he takes…
This week we’re cooking up the sweets at Manga Village! Dan Polley is serving up some shojo with Kitchen Princess Vol. 5 from Del Rey Manga. Charles Tan is ready with a cure if you eat too much with Death Note Vol. 2 from Viz. Or you can hit the streets to work off some of that good eating with John Thomas and his review of Tekkon Kinkrete from Viz. Pass the time running with some Andromeda Stories Vol 2 from Vertical by me. Then, check out our latest picks from the manga coming out this week. As usual, we have an all-you-can-eat buffet of picks to satisfy your manga hunger.
I’m gonna take a short break from my manga rantings to rant about another subject near and dear to my heart. Dragons. Yes, ever since my brother introduced me to the Dragonriders of Pern series (the Harper Hall Trilogy to be exact), I’ve been in love with the flying reptiles. I have stuffed dragons on top of my monitor, all the McFarlane’s toys so far, just about any other toy that strikes my fancy and sculptures scattered around the house. So, of course, I like movies with dragons in them too. Just recently, two movies have been released that feature dragons. One I will warn you about, and one I will thoroughly endorse. Dragon Wars aka D-War – This is a Korean movie that was filmed in Los Angeles, and completely in English. It is about the Korean legend of how dragons come to be. They start out as Imugi, serpent-like creatures, that receive the light of heaven, born in the form of a human girl, to become a Celestial Dragon. 500 years ago, the dark imugi Buraki, tried to steal the girl, and she died before the light could be passed on. In the present, in LA, the light…
It’s a small list this week, as I have a feeling most weeks will be. Younger readers are not a target audience for comic and manga publishers. No money=no market. Unless it’s got a cartoon/TV show running on the air. ARCHIE COMICS Betty & Veronica #234, $2.25 Betty & Veronica Digest #182, $2.49 Jugheads Double Digest #138, $3.69 Sabrina Vol 2 #92, $2.25 CAPSTONE PRESS Graphic Library GN Amelia Earhart, $7.95 Graphic Library GN Challenger Explosion, $7.95 Graphic Library GN First Moon Landing, $7.95 Graphic Library GN Jobs & Wozniak And Personal Computer, $7.95 DC COMICS Cartoon Network Action Pack #23, $2.25 EUREKA PRODUCTIONS Graphic Classics Vol 15 Fantasy Classics, $11.95 IDW PUBLISHING Doctor Who Classics #4 (Joe Corroney and Dave Gibbons covers), $3.99 MARVEL COMICS Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #37, $2.99 RECOMMENDATIONS: Doctor Who Classics #4: These reprints of stories from Doctor Who Weekly(soon to be Monthly) magazine are perfect for the child who likes good action and sci-fi. These stories follow the adventures of the 4th Doctor, as played by Tom Baker. The stories were serialized, so every one ends on a cliff hanger. But with 6-7 chapters per issue, you don’t have to be left hanging for longer…
Wandering around the web yesterday, I stumbled upon a Livejournal group for an unlicensed manga called 07-Ghost. It’s a shonen sci-fi that I read a few chapters of a few years ago and liked. No new chapters came out after the initial few, so I figured it was dropped as happens so often in scanalations. But, on the community, there was a message about the possible licensing of this manga based on a Take Down notice Tokyopop had sent to this manga trading website. The list of manga Tokyopop asked to be taken down can be found here. The Take Down notice was sent in January of this year. I found this list rather odd though. Yes, all of Tokyopop’s titles were there, as well as 07-Ghost. There were also a couple of other titles on the list that were not announced licenses such as Saiunkoko Monotagari, Sayuki Gaiden, and Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam. These are all series I would love to have, and Sayuki Gaiden just makes sense since Tokyopop has published Saiyuki and Saiyuki Reload. But, what made me wonder about the reliability of this list is that there were several series’ on this list that were licensed,…
The January issue of Shojo Beat wasn’t really anything exciting. The preview of Be With You didn’t do anything for me. Haruka felt kind of disjointed, like panels were missing as the characters made huge leaps in time and space. On the plus side, Absolute Boyfriend is on it’s last chapters, so with the end of that comes some relief. But I am still stuck with Vampire Knight, which was as predictable as ever. I’m liking Crimson Hero as long as they say on the game and Norbara’s continued development. Honey and Clover had the obligatory Christmas chapters, and Sand Chronicles didn’t make me cry this time. I did like the fortune telling feature. That was fun to check out. And the featurette on Japanese disaster movies. I really like those kinds of movies, and will have to try and find some of them such as the new Japan Sinks! The February issue was a lot better. I loved the preview of Monkey High! Give me those snarky shojo protagonists! I liked Haruna, and Macharu is cute. I can’t wait to read the whole volume! My faith in Haruka is restored after a moment of doubt with the last chapter….
As I’ve described before, the Kindle has a lot of potential, but it seemed to be wasted in the 1.0 version. Well, apparently that wasn’t quite true. There is more potential in the Kindle, they just didn’t want you to see it. Fortunately, there are people out there who are never satisfied with what we’re given. I learned about this while listening to Leo Laporte’s Tech Guy podcast. Igor Skochinsky has a blog called Reversing Everything. He got a hold of a Kindle and decided to see what made it tick. Taking it apart both physically and hacking the software, he found some interesting programs residing in the Kindle, just out of reach of the user; a picture viewer, minesweeper game, and some GPS capabilities through the browsers. The program of interest to mangaphiles is of course the picture viewer. It allows for a “picture” folder to be created, and the pictures can then be loaded into a sub folder to create a “book” that will appear on the home screen. It’s a little slow at turning pages, but will view jpg, png, and gif. So if you read a lot of scanalations, this might be worth a try. A…
We’ve got another week of “something for everyone” at Manga Village! For the Manly Man, Dan Polley shoots out a review of Golgo 13 Vol 12 from Viz. For some sweet shojo goodness, Lissa Pattillo goes to the Yume Kira Dream Shoppe from Viz. Charles Tan continues the horror with Uzumaki Vol 2 from Viz while John Thomas takes a flight on All Nippon Airline: Paradise at 30,000 Feet for some Yaoi comedy from Digital Manga Publishing. I’ve got some good anti-hero action in Togari Vol 5 from Viz. 4 out of 5 reviewer prefer Viz Media this week. Over in the columns, we give our Picks for the week, and then Charles Tan explains Why he Loves Sports Manga. Come check out these and our other columns and reviews. Everyone’s welcome at Manga Village.