Snowy Monday
The snow today has forced me to take a day off, which ends up being a replacement for the day I planned to take (but did not) on Friday. Still, I’d like to have a day off that did not involve shoveling snow. *sigh*
I have one review out today, at Manga Recon’s Manga Minis for volume 26 of Bleach. I still enjoy Bleach more than some of my MR cohorts do, so this was fun for me to review.
I’ve been working on a full series review of Tokyo Babylon, but I’m having a lot of trouble finding a way to address its most compelling themes without giving away major plot points. I guess we’ll see how it goes.
Also, I’ve been watching the discussion on the demise of Scans Daily at LiveJournal, and a lot of the arguments I’ve seen flying around have been perplexing (if not surprising). I can understand objections to scanlations and the sharing of full scans of comics (even if I think those objections often overlook some important points), but objections to the posting of partial scans with analysis/discussion baffles me. For some very sane words on the topic, check out Brigid Alverson at Digital Strips and Johanna Draper Carlson at Comics Worth Reading.
You know, one of the points I’ve seen argued in favor of Scans Daily is that, unlike many comics forums, it was a place where non-typical fans, particularly women, could feel comfortable talking about comics without feeling like they were intruding in someone’s clubhouse, and honestly, I can really understand that. I think some guys in the comics world don’t realize that they exist in an atmosphere that actually discourages new readers to a great extent. I’ve had a hard time getting into western comics, despite the best efforts of some of my friends. I was not a reader of Scans Daily, but I’m considering checking out their new home to see if it might help steer me towards some western comics I could love.
On a completely different topic, those who follow me on Twitter, either through Twitter itself, its RSS feed, the sidebar of this blog, or Facebook (where it feeds my status updates), will know that Paul and I were unexpectedly gifted with free tickets to the Fountains of Wayne acoustic show last night at the Iron Horse in Northampton. I may try to write up a review of some kind later on (the show was fantastic), but for now, here’s a review Paul tracked down at the Hartford Courant. FoW draws a nice crowd in this area (which is Chris Collingwood’s home), and it was great to be there with so many people, most of whom were our age or older.
That’s all for now. Wish me luck on the shoveling. Later!
March 2nd, 2009 at 12:23 pm
a place where non-typical fans, particularly women, could feel comfortable talking about comics
This is an *excellent* point. As with any community, s_d could get irritating in terms of trolls and groupthink, but it was *by far* the one place, other than individual journals, where I felt comfortable and as if I belonged in comics fandom.
I think some guys in the comics world don’t realize that they exist in an atmosphere that actually discourages new readers to a great extent
I’m a lot more cyncial than you (surprise, surprise!), in that I think guys/fanboys/whathaveyou are well aware of this and *cultivate* it.
I’m considering checking out their new home to see if it might help steer me towards some western comics I could love.
Let me know if you find some! I’m so disillusioned these days. DDD:
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Melinda Beasi Reply:
March 2nd, 2009 at 12:39 pm
I’m a lot more cyncial than you (surprise, surprise!), in that I think guys/fanboys/whathaveyou are well aware of this and *cultivate* it.
I’ve been kind of hoping this was not the case, but I’m not too surprised to hear you say this. *sigh* And you know, I’ve met some seriously awesome people in the comics world through this blog, and I know that doesn’t apply to everyone, but there’s a reason why when I go into a comic shop by myself, that I really only feel comfortable standing in front of the manga section.
Let me know if you find some! I’m so disillusioned these days. DDD:
I will!! :) *love*
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March 2nd, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Yeah, I was really surprised about scans_daily because as you said, it’s not scans of entire comics, but just pages or even single panels. There is no way that someone could use that comm in place of buying comics. It’s so stupid and yet so typical of the way companies come down heavy-handed and end up shooting themselves in the foot.
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Melinda Beasi Reply:
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:04 pm
As I mentioned in comments to Johanna’s post, I’ve used larger sections of manga pages than what they allowed at scans_daily in my posts that were specifically aimed (and have been proven successful) at encouraging people to buy them. With scans_daily’s much larger readership, they must have sold many more comics than I ever have.
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March 3rd, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Hey, so you’re getting through a giant Tokyo Babylon review! I’m definitely waiting to read that. I read the first 2 vols. but they gave me little reason to get the rest because there were other more flashier CLAMPers available to read at the time (and it was already spoiled for me because X/1999 kinda spoils it).
I’ll let you know that if you liked Tokyo Babylon, the story is continued in the dark recesses of X/1999, so I hope you can read that series as well. How are you doing on your Tsubasa/xxxHolic reading? Where are you on that? I’m kinda procrastinating on reading Tsubasa just ’cause it’s like one of those series you have to marathon-read to understand what’s going on.
Will your TB series review be here or Manga Recon?
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Melinda Beasi Reply:
March 3rd, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Hi Oliver! When my review is done, it will either be here, or (if I think it’s good enough and they want it) over at Comics Should Be Good. But either way, I’ll link to it from here, so it shouldn’t be hard to find! :D
I’m up-to-date on both xxxHolic and Tsubasa, though I’m dying for the books here to catch up, so I can enjoy them properly! :)
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