Manhwa Monday: A Moment of Self-indulgence

Welcome! Today I’m featuring one of my own reviews, mainly as an excuse to talk more about one of the most enjoyable manhwa series I’m reading right now, One Thousand and One Nights from Yen Press. Last week, I reviewed volume nine, which features fourteenth-century Chinese novel The Romance of the Three Kingdoms as its story-within-a-story. “Though what appears here is obviously just a tiny fragment of the original Chinese epic (which stands at 800,000 words and 120 chapters) it is more than enough to entice readers to seek out the source material for more. This was, apparently, a strong motivation for its inclusion in the story, as the volume’s endnotes reveal writer Jeon JinSeok’s desire to introduce the testosterone-heavy novel to a new generation of female readers who may not have been otherwise encouraged to check it out.”

Volumes like this one are a big part of what makes this series so engaging, balancing the epic drama of its main story–that of the mad Sultan and his “Scheherazade”–with tales from other places and times, even present-day. “With several characters’ lives hanging in the balance (really) by the end of the volume, the tension in this series shows no sign of letting up anytime soon, and with only two volumes remaining, readers face a single burning question: how to survive the wait until the next volume.” Read the full review for more, or check out the series’ tag here at Manga Bookshelf to get the full picture of what’s so addictive about it.

In manhwa news this week, Deb Aoki posts transcripts of the recent Tokyopop Insider session. In part one, Stu Levy and Lillian Diaz-Przybyl discuss the future of some of their manhwa titles, and in part two, they discuss Tokyopop’s manga/manhwa-to-film projects, including details on the upcoming film adaptation of Priest.

At Manga Before Flowers, Danielle Leigh and Michelle Smith choose ten underrated girls’ series, including two manhwa titles, The Adventures of Young Det (NETCOMICS) and Very! Very! Sweet (Yen Press). Lori Henderson gives away a full set of Kim Dong Hwa’s Color series (First Second) over at Manga Xanadu. That series also received a short review at Lakeside Librarian. Meanwhile, at Precious Curmudgeon, David Welsh comes to the letter “I” in his Shôjo-Sunjeong Alphabet, where he includes Tokyopop’s I.N.V.U.

The reviews are a bit scant this week, and what’s there focuses on Yen Press. D.M. Evans looks at volume one of Jack Frost at Manga Jouhou, Lissa Patillo checks out volume two at Kuriousity, and Snow Wildsmith reviews volume one of Time and Again at ICv2.

That’s it for the week!

Is there something I’ve missed? Leave your manhwa-related links in comments!