Grave Matters

Lea Hernandez, you are awesome. (Much thanks to Cognitive Dissonance.)

And that's all for today, folks.

"Les mangas" makes it sound so ... elegant.

The Orlando Sentinel notices that graphic novels and manga make kids read.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer notices that webcomics make syndicated newspaper comickers wary.

Animaxis notices that Nana, the wildly popular manga by Paradise Kiss creator Ai Yazawa, will be adapted into a live-action movie.

ICv2 notices that Del Rey has announced two new manga titles, Basilisk (which I recall was some sort of horror-ish adventure tale? don't quote me on this) and A Perfect Day for Love Letters, an anthology of short stories about ... love letters.

And for the Francophones among us, Le Monde has a special section on various manga titles that are currently being published in France. Wish I could read the article, but the series they're profiling along the nav bar have page previews you can look at.

NOTE: Edited for correction about the Le Monde article.

Policy Change

Okay, here's a thought, I'm going to quit linking to every single review I see because a lot of them are just routine. And some aren't all that fun to read (not naming names). If it's a review I find particularly pleasing, or someone does a really good in-depth analysis, or simply hocks up a gigantic stack of reviews in one go, then I'll consider it newsworthy. Hopefully this'll make my blogging a little easier and I won't be clogging this place up with so many links.

Fans of Tokyopop's Ragnarok manwha can get to play a free trial of its online RPG incarnation. Because, yeah, if you ever get sick of City of Heroes or World of Warcraft ...

The San Antonio current notices that suddenly, comics (particularly in graphic novel form) matter. Longish article, but Thought Balloons has the Cliffs Notes version.

James @ Reading Along explains why Hot Gimmick rocks so hard. Yes, and also, it has the best side-story couple EVER. Subaru + Akane = ROBOT LOVE. <3

Lumos!

Here's something interesting I found off Aku-Tenshi: Harry Potter doujinshi, i.e., fan-comics by amateur manga-ka set in the HP world. Check it out for a Japanese take on an exceedingly British phenomenon.

Tokyopop announces a screencap collage cine-manga of The Incredibles, and no one is surprised.

Dark Horse announces an April 27th release date for Hipira: The Litte Vampire, written by Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo. Be nice if we had some preview pages; the cover looks somewhat interesting.

Thought Balloons got to it first, but yeah: It's Hikaru No Go's fault that everyone is playing Go these days.

AoD has a review of Bride of Deimos Vol. 2, an intriguing anthology of shoujo horror tales.

Big news day!

Thought Balloons wonders: Why isn't CMX as awesome as we hoped it would be? Personally I think that part of the problem is the Big Manga Publishers (you know who you are) already have a lot of the really good licenses in the most popular genres. What CMX needs to do is go hunting for unexpected hits (may I recommend Beck or Yakitate!! Japan?) and not try to pick up third-tier shoujo and action titles. We've got enough of those. Then there's the issue of them being linked to DC, so of course, everyone has such high expectations of them just because they're affiliated with a huge, huge name in comics.

In the beginning, and in the end, there will always be ... Sgt. Frog.

The Long Beach Press-Telegram interviews Jimmy R. Vann, one of Tokyopop's Rising Stars of Manga 4 winners.

Bookslut finds alternative manga, yay! And you get Awesome Points for name-dropping Secret Comics Japan (one of the few books I could read over and over).

Pressing even further beyond, there's a contemporary Japanese art exhibit at the Galeri Petronas in Malaysia.

Seven Seas enters the final stage of its Manga-fy Me! Contest. Yes folks, it's time to pick the most talented artist in the Wannabe-Manga But Not Really idiom.

And of course, what would a day be without an AoD review? This time it's Hanaukyo Maid Team Vol. 2, chock full of ... maids ... and fanservice. 'Nuff said.

The world of comics is DOOMED! ... or not.

Year-end recap from Publishers Weekly, Thought Balloons has it first: In case you hadn't noticed, only manga can save the comics industry now!

(Well ... not reeeeally ... but mostly.)

AoD braves the shores of ridiculous cuteness and comes out unscathed with kind words for Di Gi Charat Theater - Dejiko's Adventure.

AnimatedBliss goes for a double-dose of CLAMP with positive reviews of Tsubasa Vol. 3 and xxxHOLiC Vol. 3.

And, since enough people think Hayao Miyazaki is that important, here's an insightful review of Howl's Moving Castle from Midnight Eye, which also manages to pass commentary on the typically nearsighted American outlook on Japanese animation.

Slower news day

This week's Right Turn Only is up, with all the manga recommendations you'll ever need.

A couple of interesting discoveries:

From Deph comes Hareluya, about the Son of God (serious! I am not making this up) who happens to be an irresponsible brat. So God sends him to modern-day Earth for re-training ... and weird funny stuff ensues.

For something a little more down-to-earth (ahahaha), there's Shiba-O from The Sylphs, a short tale of a dog who goes around unexpectedly changing fortunes.