No Manga Love from the New York Times…Again This week the New York Times released their holiday gift guide for graphic novels, and it should come as no surprise to anything that follows the NYT’s blog that manga doesn’t get any love from the writers in charge. This list was no different. David Welsh of the Precious Curmudgeon blog decided to take matters into his own hands. He announced on Twitter that he would be doing his own holiday gift guide for manga, and invited other manga bloggers to join him. Watch for David’s list on Thanksgiving, and other lists from Kuriostiy, Okazu and Manga Bookshelf blogs next week just to name a few.
Do Comics Need Age Ratings? I’ve already ranted and raved about the Kentucky library workers and their attempts at censorship. But the comments on this article at The Beat goes into an interesting debate over a universal age rating for comics. While it’s brought up that no one is calling for age ratings for prose books (which I wouldn’t mind as a parent), comics and manga are a visual medium like movies, TV and video games. Those all have rating systems, so why not comics? I certainly wouldn’t mind one. Even among manga, where there are age ratings, it’s far from universal, and could certainly do to be refined. And as a parent, it would help to at least have an idea what the suggested age for books should be. There have been times when I’ve looked at a title, and just couldn’t be sure if it was at appropriate for ages under 13 or not. It wouldn’t hurt publishers to help out parents, since it’s their kids that will be their future audience.
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…
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!”
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.
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.
Inside Scanlation ComiPress, one of the first manga new reporting sites is hanging up it’s news hat and has moved over to a more timely topic: Scanlations. There has been a lot of talk about scanlations, especially since the economy took a dive, but do you really understand what scanlations are or how they came to be? Inside Scanlation seeks to answers these questions and more. The site looks at the history of scanlations, interviews scanlators and publishers for their takes and even explains some of the nuances of the community. I think this is an interesting project. And while people don’t agree with what the scanlators do, I think it’s worth the time to find out why they do it. It’s the anthropologist in me.
One Piece in BIG Bites? Found via Twitter. @swanjun found these entries for One Piece at Simon and Schuster. At 600 pgs each, and combining three volumes a piece, they sure do sound like VizBIG editions, even if the solicitations don’t actually say so. With the speed up of One Piece coming in January, this is the perfect time for Viz to put out BIG editions of the series. Catching up is a lot easier with the BIG editions than trying to hunt down individual volumes, especially for a series that has been going since 2003. One Piece premiered with Shonen Jump. However, a look at the Previews solicitations makes these appear to be bundles rather than BIG editions. Previews calls them “GN sets” and advertise “get three volumes for the price of two.” Either way, it’s a good deal. The first two scheduled for Dec and Jan releases, with 7-9 scheduled for March 2010, and 10-12 for May 2010.
I have mixed feelings about this. Dragon Ball is being reviewed for it’s content in a Maryland school district because a 9-year-old checked it out of a elementary and middle school library. I think people are oversensitive in general and especially towards manga. I’ll agree that Dragon Ball doesn’t really belong in the hands of a fourth grader, but I think it’s fine for a middle school student. The first Dragon Ball series is a comedy that does contain some sexual innuendo. The first volume does have a few questionable scenes, but I wouldn’t go so far and the Councilman from Wicomico did to describe them. I might be able to see the “sexual innuendo between an adult and child”, with Master Roshi wanting to seen Bulma’s panties, but there is in no way anything sexual between Goku and Bulma. Bulma is more like a big sister to Goku. And Goku is too dense to get any kind of innuendo. So I can see a parent getting upset at their 9-year-old bringing it home to read. So that doesn’t bother me so much. What does is the way it was presented. The mother of the offending 9-year-old didn’t go to…
New York Anime Festival Days 2 & 3 Days 2 & 3 of NYAF brought publishers Del Rey and Viz with more licenses and news. Del Rey remains conservative with only a few new licenses, but shows it’s still got some cred with Kodansha. Viz has a little something for everyone in each of their lines, including some interesting suprises. What isn’t surprising is the number of titles from already known mangaka. Easier to sell a known than unknown quantity, I would say.
September 19 was International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Did you remember to say “Arrrr” a lot and read some pirate manga? Manga in the Classroom Patrick Macias, Japanese pop culture aficionado, has posted the audio for a lecture he gave at the California State University at Monterey Bay last week. Called Theoretical Perspectives on Manga, Anime & Otaku, it includes some older material from a speech earlier this year at the Temple University Japan Campus as well as some new material about American fandom. I love it when this kind of material is shared, especially the academic talks. I’ve always been fascinated by the cultural aspects of fandom and I’ll take any opportunity to feed my hunger.
Arrrrr. It be the news. Shelf Porn! Found via Twitter. @MagicalEmi shared a picture of her manga collection. Now just think this whole thing is squeezed into a two room apartment. Not two bedroom, two room. All these bookshelves also explains how she can keep up her website Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page. I hope she’s got those bookshelves secured to the wall, or isn’t home when the Big One hits. Thanks for sharing! I need to take a pic of the shiny new bookcases my husband built for our books and manga.