I’ve put back up some manga that didn’t sell the first time. Next time I’ll have new titles to go up. But if you missed them the first time and were interested, here they are again. Eagle: The Making of an Asian-American President v1-5 Princess Resurrection v1-3 Case Closed v1-5 Please check them out and happy bidding!
Even though the decade isn’t technically over, the years that we call the “aughts” are, so this review is my look back at the aught years, 2000-2009. And if you had to say anything about manga in these years is that it found itself on the rise. When the new millennium began, manga was in the same place it had been in the last century. It was a niche of a niche. Trying to appeal to comics fans, most titles were published as floppies, their content flipped. Titles such as Ranma 1/2, Inuyasha, Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z, Ceres: Celestial Legend, and Pokemon started this way, and then were collected into trade paperback sized books and priced around $15. Comics fans treated manga as the red-headed step child and manga fans didn’t like the price or format. I know I didn’t. As much as I wanted to read the Galaxy Express 999 volumes Viz had brought out, the $16.99 price tag was too much for me. But that all changed in 2002, when Tokyopop literally started off a revolution.
Well, the most stressful part of the holiday season is over! Christmas has come and gone, and all that’s left are wads of wrapping paper, stray bows and lots and lots of manga! At least that’s how my Christmas turned out. Check it out! How’s that for a good haul? In fact, I missed a few! Pig Bride Volume 2 as well as Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 20-21 should have been included in that picture too. 12 volumes in all. Woo Hoo! Now, while manga is nice and all, and I do appreciate getting the books I did, what I really loved wasn’t something that was purchased but that was made. My husband works with wood, and he made me these four wooden scroll puzzles, all from oak in different finishes. Aren’t they awesome? So, what’s you get for Christmas?
Yes, my first manga giveaway has ended, and we do indeed have a winner. After the cut off of Friday evening, there were 8 contestants for the prize. My youngest daughter, bewildered when I called her to stick her hand in a pot and pull out a folded piece of paper, drew the name and made Lee the lucky winner! Congratulations! I want to thank everyone that participated. I got some great feedback and will be implementing most of the suggestions I got. So expect to see more reviews, and I will continue with the Shonen Jump/Yen Plus Drive By reviews. And just so you know Lee, my husband does contribute reviews to my blog. They are prefaced with “Brian’s Spot” and are marked in the Review Archive with a (BS). 🙂 I also want to thank First Second and Good Comics for Kids blog for helping to make this happen.
Hey! I’m holding my first contest! Thanks to First Second Books and Good Comics for Kids, I’ll be giving away one set of this manhwa series. To enter is simple. Just leave a comment on this post telling me what you like to read, or read more of, on the blog; manga news, reviews, commentary/rants, e-book and digital technology reviews, etc. I’m looking for feedback so I can improve the site however you, the readers, would like. And you’ll get rewarded with a set of manhwa! Winner will be drawn randomly by my very random daughter Krissy. Deadline is next Friday. Good Luck!
Here a new set of auctions of manga I’ve put up on eBay. Christmas is coming. Get some great manga for gifts. Lunar Legend Tsukihime vol 1-6 Case Closed (Detective Conan) vol 1-5 Case Closed (Detective Conan) vol 6-9 Good Witch of the West vol 1-3/Densha Otoko – CMX – Complete Good luck and happy bidding!
November 29 marked the 5th anniversary that Godzilla, the walking warning from nature about the harm of nuclear weapons, got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was given to the Japanese kaiju eiji as part of his 50th anniversary and the release of his 28th and final movie in the US, Godzilla: Final Wars.
While bouncing around Google, I stumbled on Anime Stitching, a site for cross stitch patterns for anime characters. This site is dedicated to patterns of sprites, SD-like characterizations of anime characters that can be animated or static. And they’re really cute! If you’ve wanted to cross stitch actual, licensed manga characters, these fan created patterns are as close as you are going to get. This site also has links to other sites that include patterns for other geeky interests such as video games and comics, and one site, by Littlemojo, has some great pokemon patterns and another site with some really nice Fullmetal Alchemist patterns. I really liked the Hohenheim of the Light pattern. The 1337xstitch site also has a forum for talking about works in progress and completed, as well as patterns you’re looking for. These sites are some great resouces. Check them out!
I don’t get upset about many things. I tend to go with a “live and let live” policy. If what you’re doing isn’t against the law, and isn’t hurting anyone, then as a rule, I don’t have a problem with it. I may not agree with it, but I’m not going to tell you you can’t do it because I don’t like it. But one of the things I have little tolerance for is censorship. And that’s exactly what these two library workers colluded to do. Cook can dislike League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier all she wants, but that DOES NOT give her the right to keep a book from circulation because she believes a child might find it. It’s not her job to police the library and decide what’s proper for other people’s children to read. It’s for the parents, and the parents ALONE. The library makes this responsibility clear to parents when they sign for library cards for their children. Cook challenged the book, as was her right, but acted like a sore loser when her challenge was denied and chose to keep the book to herself. To protect the children. Who cares about any of the…
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…
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…
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!