Getting to Know You Manga Views, the website that brings manga reviews all together in one place has started a feature about the people putting up the reviews. They will be posting profiles of manga bloggers. Just answer a few questions and the whole world will know about you! The first has already gone up. It’s Ed Sizemore of the Manga Worth Reading Blog. Check it out and all the other great things going on there!
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.