Tokyopop Webinar staring Domo! (‘s creator) Tokyopop’s Webinar was actually on 10/29/09, but posts about it didn’t go up until after 11/1/09. Lissa at Kuri-osity has a quick rundown of the webinar and questions for Tsuneo Goda. Deb Aoki of the About.Manga Blog has a full transcript. If you want to know more about Domo, this is a must read. I’m kind of disappointed that Domo isn’t interested in Global Domination. He certainly couldn’t do worse than the leaders we’ve had lately. And as my daughter would say, “He’s Domo!”
Cute Pups: Canine Friends and Accessories By Chie Hayano Publisher: Vertical Inc. Age Rating: All Ages Genre: Craft Price: $14.95 Rating: Even…More…Puppies!!! It’s like “The Littlest Pet Shop” for adults! Even though by nature I’m a cat person, I can’t resist a puppy. They are just so cute and cuddly! Vertical must know how irresistable puppies are, as they release their second craft book of little dog making: Cute Pups.
Yokai…Japanese spirits. Most people fear them, and a few people even hunt them, thinking they are horrible monsters to be destroyed at all costs. But young Hamachi wants to be friends with them! He sees them as mischievous creatures that could co-exist peacefully with humans if only given a chance. When his grandmother dies under mysterious circumstances, Hamachi journeys into the Yokai realm. Along the way, he encounters an ogre who punishes truant children, and angry water spirit, and a talking lantern. Will Hamachi be able to find his grandmother’s killer, or will he be lost forever in another world? Yokaiden Volume 1 By Nina Matsumoto Publisher: Del Rey Manga Age Rating: 13+ Genre: Supernatural/Humor Price: $10.95 Rating: The plot of Yokaiden sounds very generic. Orphaned hero goes off to another realm filled with monsters to avenge his grandmother’s death. But Yokaiden turns out to be much more than it’s basic plot. It’s a showcase for many of the strange and sometimes playful, sometimes dangerous creatures that make up Japanese folklore. The interplay with these beings often overshadows the plot, and its clueless main character. Hamachi is your typical happy, often oblivious protagonist. Despite losing his parents at young age,…
I’m a very crafty person. Starting when I was young, my mother taught me to embroider in order to keep me busy when I had to go with her to help by Great, Great Aunt who was blind and lived in a retirement home. From there, I moved to knitting, crocheting, needlepoint, sewing and finally cross stitch. I also love to cross my interests, so when Katherine Farmar asked on Twitter if anyone knew of a manga about knitting, it got me thinking. Were there any crafty manga out there?
It Sounded Like A Good Idea… The announcement of Shojo Berry got a lot of people talking, and last week Deb Aoki of the About.com Manga blog tried to get more info on it with an interview with Garett Boast. Chris Butcher of the Comics 212 blog wasn’t impressed with what he heard. Mainly he takes issue with the apparent lack of a business plan, or even any real forethought on the project. Simon Jones of Icarus Publishing (NSFW) weighs in in the comments section, where there are some interesting comments about small publishing and licensing. Personally, I still think it’s a worthy idea to per sue, but as a fan publication. By fans, for fans. Any thoughts of replacing Shojo Beat as a manga magazine a little too lofty I think. But a homegrown mag with the articles and info that Shojo Beat provided with original manga by doujin/domestic creators would be worth the time and effort. There’s nothing wrong with thinking big, as long as you start small.
Last year, I talked about a bunch of the manga that was out that I thought was most appropriate to read on a dark and spooky nights of Halloween. This year, I want to narrow my focus some, and look at some manga that isn’t particularly spooky, but features some traditional monsters, both eastern and western.
I learned about this title from a review on a podcast of the live action j-drama tv series. My husband and I watched the j-drama and enjoyed it a lot. It’s 11 episodes and was filled with great action and dramatic scenes, and lots of unexpected twists to keep the story moving. Having enjoyed the j-drama, I had to find out about the manga. The manga, complete at 11 volumes, is about Fujimaru Takagi, a second year high school student and member of the Newspaper Club. Unknown to everyone but his father, the PSIA (Public Security Intelligence Agency) and the newspaper club, Fujimaru is also known as Falcon, a prodigy hacker who exposes corrupt people’s crimes to make them pay. The series starts with Fujimaru being recruited by the PSIA to help them decode a memory stick that may have information on an incident in Russia where a segment of the population was killed off by a possible poison gas. And that gas may be now in Japan. The story follows Fujimaru as he gets pulled further into the investigation and conspiracy. His father is accused of murdering his superior. A teacher at his school is trying to stop him…
Viz’s SigIkki website isn’t just an experiment in manga for mature readers. Going to the site does more than let you read some great manga. You, the reader, can make a difference in which manga will get published. Your clicks and reviews can make all the difference in the world for a title seeing print. In Japan, the fate of a manga is decided not just by circulation, but also by what the readers say. Survey cards are checked and titles can live or die by what readers say in these. Viz has taken this idea and applied it to the web. The titles at SigIkki are not guaranteed to see a print edition unless enough people show interest through page views and reviews that readers can leave. While this is a good idea for a small market as these Ikki titles will attract, that also means that your favorite title manga get a print edition unless YOU do something. Just like pre-ordering, this is putting your money were your mouth is, just without so much of the risk. Going to the site and reading chapters is easy, but if you really love a title, so much so that you…
Manga Publishers Go APE! Even though APE, the Alternate Press Expo, is mostly for comics and graphic novels, a couple of manga publishers showed up to pawn some of their less mainstream wares. Vertical, Inc. had a table there, with Ed Chavez hocking their books, and selling out titles left and right. By the end of Sunday, the last report from him was Guin Saga manga and Black Jack v2-7 were all that was left. Not bad! Viz was there too, with titles from their Signature line, and reports from the floor sounded favorable to them. They also had a panel on Sunday for their Ikki line. Deb Aoki was on the floor both days reporting, so check out her twitter page if you don’t follow her already.
Recently over at Anime News Network, artist Bettina Kurkoski was featured in their The Gallery column. I read this, as I like Bettina’s work. I really enjoyed her OEL manga, My Cat Loki, buying the volumes after reading the first volume on line. Yes, I like it that much. In the article was of course links to Bettina’s home page and Deviant Art page. Of course I had to check those out. In the updates of the Deviant Art page at the time, Bettina was asking about KA-BLAM, a printer that specializes in comic books. She is doing this so her fans can finally get the rest of My Cat Loki. I think this is so awesome, that Bettina is looking for ways to finish My Cat Loki for the fans. Even though Tokyopop is giving some fans a chance to read the end of their favorite titles with their Wednesday online comics, it’s even cooler when the creator does this. She’s already put out some MCL works with sketchbooks for sale at cons (that I can’t go to), but seeing this title complete would be the best. It’s such a wonderful and touching story that it really deserves a…
I found this link while searching for an item for my This Week in Manga column. I was looking for manga subscription services, when I came upon a link for an extension to Firefox that watches OneManga for new updates of manga. Now, I’m not endorsing either this extension or OneManga. Instead, I want to suggest that manga publishers, such as Viz and Tokyopop, who put up online manga chapters, maybe look at doing something similar. I have a hard time keeping up with the online manga, often forgetting about them until someone on twitter mentions one went up. Having something in the browser that could check and tell me when a new chapter is out, AND what the last chapter I read was would be sooooo awesome! I sometimes spend more time trying to figure out where I left off as I do reading the actual chapters. It would make a great promotional tool if it was made into a Shonen Sunday or Ikki toolbar and could be used in more browsers. And since scanlators are always “borrowing” from publishers, I think some turn around is fair play.
If you’ve been following Tokyopop’s Boys of Summer online releases, you’ll notice there hasn’t been an update for a couple of weeks. No, I don’t know why. All Tokyopop has said is that it “won’t be back up for several weeks.” What I want to bring attention to though is the title they’ve moved up to fill in. Earthlight. This wasn’t supposed to be going up until January 2010, but now it’s been pushed up to this Wednesday, October 21. So, if you’re one of those rare sci-fi manga fans, and had given up on this series (like a friend of mine), take heart! You’ll finally get the finish of your series!