Slow news day

Here's something just a bit unsettling: a manga adaptation of the real-life North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens.

AoD reviews the manwha Hard Boiled Angel Vol. 2, a good, serious police drama.

Rare events

Believe it, folks! Yoshitomo Nara is coming to St. Louis. Self-conscious, nonconformingly alike J-pop-culture hipsters ensue.

But not to be outdone, we are reminded that La Monnaie de Paris has just opened the Miyazaki-Moebius Expo, which may very well violate the laws of physics by having way too much comics and cartoonery talent in a single place.

SeqTart takes a nice long look at the romantic implications of Kizuna: Bonds of Love Vol. 1.

AoD goes double-dipping today, with the sword-slashing snoozefest Yongbi the Invincible Vol. 2 and yet another boy-meets-way-too-many-pretty-girls title, DearS Vol. 1.

Yes, we have no space-time witches

Okay, okay! Because it's just SO important, AoD has picked up the news on CMX's Jan/Feb '05 offerings: Vols. 1 of Gals! and Tenjou Tenge, and Vols. 2 of From Eroica with Love, Madara, Musashi No. 9, and Swan.

Watch out, folks: a young wave of Chinese artists who have no recollection of the Communist era are emerging as a pop-culture force in their own right: "the Cartoonist Generation."

Enough with the hemming and hawing, it's real this time! CLAMP's hit series Tsubasa will be adapted into an anime starting April 2005 in Japan. Yes ... no more rumors or kidding around, swear to honest.

And jumping right into serious matters, AoD reviews Nambul: War Stories Vol. 2.

Hello Kitty The Smartest Kid On Earth

AAAAHHHH. AAAAAHHHHHH. Midori No Hibi Vol. 8 Ch. 1 has just gone up on SnoopyCool. Of course, I could go on yet again about how awesomely funny and cute and artistically accomplished this series is, but I'll let my friend Sky offer a testimonial this time: "so, omfg. Midori is like the best thing ever"

And that's all you need to know.

Don't forget that Tokyopop's Rising Stars of Manga Vol. 4 comes out this week. Amy Kim Ganter was one of the winners, people! Yes, that Amy Kim Ganter! Man, if Becky Cloonan ever got the urge to enter RSoM ... well, who knows -- Round 5 starts Dec. 1 and runs through Feb. 15, 2005, so we'll see. Ganbatte, comickers!

Why bother going to this blog? CWR covers manga better than I ever will!

Meanwhile, David @ PreCur totally digs Yu Watase's Alice 19th.

Via Thought Balloons and email: Publishers Weekly's top graphic novels of 2004. Tokyo Tribes makes the list, as does (interestingly enough) Hikaru No Go.

AoD kicks it über old-school with Osamu Tezuka's 1948 title Lost World.

Haven't you always wanted to rewrite Jimmy Corrigan? Like, make it less depressing or whatever? Well, now you can!

Yes folks, the 10.5 million yen Hello Kitty (~US$100,000) has been sold to an Osaka resident. I'll let the ANN forums speak for me on this one:

"RADDEST HOOD ORNAMENT EVER.

pimp my ride hello kitty!!"

IP Lite!

I'm in a hurry today, so here's a quickie. No time to sweep the blogosphere, just going through the main news sites:

If the movie confused your pants off, don't worry: the Ghost in the Shell 2 manga (due out 01/19/05 from Dark Horse) is an entirely different beast.

Want to make a quick 2 million yen? Then hurry, hurry and enter the Yomiuri Shimbun International Cartoon Contest and show off your comicking skills! Open to all ages and nationalities.

And AoD brings us a review of Here is Greenwood Vol. 1, the loopy-as-all-get-out boarding school comedy.

Post-Thanksgiving Roundup

Let's see what you scamps were up to while I was eating the food in my parents' house!

Johanna @ CWR has reviews for the complete Marmalade Boy, a classic shoujo series that also triggered the right-to-left explosion in domestic manga, and Your and My Secret Vol. 1, a gender-confused body-switching comedy.

James @ Reading Along is pleasantly surprised by Princess Tutu Vol. 1 (adapted from a much better anime) and gets a laugh from the rom-com manwha Couple.

AnimatedBliss has a glowing review of Othello Vol. 1, which strangely misses the whole issue of reproduction quality.

AoD looks at Firefighter! Vol. 8, arguably the Best Manga No One Is Reading, and Kia Asamiya's Dark Angel Vol. 4 (not to be confused with other stories or series of identical title).

Now here's a manga with a twist: Red (scroll down to find the downloads) is about a samurai in the 1880's who runs to America to escape the dishonor that would have befallen him in Japan. The rest of the story is ... well ... a Western. Red is the Native American who befriends our samurai runaway, and an interesting adventure ensues ...

But by far the most important news item of the day: Dorian @ PoMoBa is my hero for finding superhero fanart of the Japanese persuasion -- oh, and of the yaoi persuasion, at that. (There's also Star Trek and Andromeda for all you future-lovers.)