Manga Xanadu

Viz Media made their debut at Anime Boston this year, snubbing the closer west coast con Wondercon for an east coast outing. They brought some new licenses including two new hardcover deluxe releases. Tomie is a horror manga by the master Junji Ito that hasn’t seen print in over a decade. It truly deserves the deluxe treatment. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 3: Stardust Crusaders already had a print run here in the US, where it barely made an impression. Just a decade later, the stardust has been re-ignited with Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 1 and 2 not only selling gangbusters, but as deluxe hardbacks as well. It seems only right that Part 3 get the same treatment. Not having matching releases on the bookshelf can be maddening, and you don’t want to make Jojo fans mad. They might pose furiously at you.

While Yen Press was kicking it up in Seattle at Sakura-Con, Kodansha was staying cool at Anime Boston. They had announcements for 5 new titles as well as news about current titles.   Starting with the new titles, Kodansha picked up Ninja Slayer Kills. This is another adaptation of the novel series Ninja Slayer, about salary man Kenji Fujikido, who is possessed by the Ninja spirit Naraku. Kenji’s wife and child was killed in a ninja turf war, and his thirst for vengeance matches Naraku’s lust for killing. Together they become Ninja Slayer. Veritcal Comics already announced another adaptation, Machine of Vengeance. It’s not surprising Kodansha picked up one as well, especially with an anime set to run this year. This series has two volumes out so far and is ongoing. I will probably pass on this one, since ultra violence just isn’t my thing. A title I am excited about is Cat Diary: Yon and Mu by horror manga creator Junji Ito. A semi-autobiographical comedy, it is about a horror manga artist and his fiance’s cats. I’ve been interested in this title since I heard about it in 2009. Ito’s creepy art combined with the mysteries of cats who are probably…

Anime Boston/Wondercon Roundups Two comics/manga related cons occurred this last weekend.  On the West Coast was Wondercon, the smaller, younger brother of SDCC, located in San Francisco.  While more comics based, it seems Hollywood is taking every opportunity to jump on the popculture bandwagon.  Manga related, Viz Media had a booth, as did CMX, Last Gasp, and EigoManga.  Deb Aoki of Manga.About.com has an overview of the con as well as links to other coverage.  Over on the East Coast, Anime Boston took place.  While mostly an anime con, many manga bloggers attended and even held panels.  Vertical, Inc. had a panel, and Ed Chavez, marketing director for Vertical as well as creator of Mangacast hosted a panel of manga bloggers.  The big news from the Vertical panel was the license of a title from a mangaka once published by Viz Media.  Calling it “Manga Series R” the clue is that the “R” refers to either the mangaka’s name or manga’s title.  I voting (hoping) its Leiji/Reiji Matsumoto.  Brigid Alverson has a full rundown of the Vertical panel at Robot 6, and you can hear the audio from the Manga Mania panel by scrolling down to the Ninja Consultant’s like…

Reprint-a-thon Tokyopop, after serious reduction in their catalog, has been slowly building it back up.  Part of that build up is a reprinting of older titles that had become scarce, and difficult for fans to get a hold of.    Now, fans no longer have to hunt high and low, go to trading sites or bid up to ungodly prices to get volumes of their favorite series’ as they reappear back in print.  I’m of two minds about manga as a collectible.  While I understand that demand can set the market price, is there really such a demand for titles to justify prices up in the $100s?  Or is that just greed?  As much as I enjoy my manga, it’s not enough to ever justify that kind of pricing, so kudos to Tokyopop for thinking of the fans and making these books available again. Bento Comics To Go A bunch of former Tokyopop creators and employees have gotten together and created a really interesting website.  Bento Comics is a place where you can read comics online from creators like Queenie Chan and Svetlana Chmakova.  Then, if you want to keep the stories, you can choose your favorites and create your own…