Over at About.com, Deb Aoki has been posting a series of “Best of” readers polls, where anyone can vote for their favorite new manga (in quite a number of categories) released in 2009. The latest of these has special interest for me: Best New Korean Manhwa.
I had a really rough time choosing my favorite from that group (I ended up going with Byun Byung-Jun’s collection of moody short manhwa, Mijeong, though now 13th Boy, Time and Again, and even U Don’t Know Me are looking at me as a traitor), though I’m anxious now to get my hands on a copy of Udon’s Reading Club–the only one of the bunch I don’t have in my possession. I was a bit disappointed not to see any of NETCOMICS’ new ladies’ titles on the list, such as Small-Minded Schoolgirls and Please, Please Me, though perhaps Deb only included manhwa available in print.
So fans of manhwa, head over and place your votes! Voting closes on January 15, 2010, at midnight PT.
Deb Aoki says
January 8, 2010 at 5:00 amThanks for the link to the manhwa readers’ poll!
Just thought I’d answer your question about why I excluded Small Minded Schoolgirls and Please, Please Me. Yep, I do only nominate titles that have had their first volume of their print edition published between January 1 – December 31, 2009. The two titles you mentioned aren’t yet available in print (to my knowledge) so I did not include them.
The reason is pretty simple — if I included titles that made their debut online, then that would put all the new SigIkki.com and ShonenSunday titles into contention in all of the polls (to name just a few), not to mention I’d perhaps have to consider webcomics too. It just seemed simpler to stick to the print editions.
Melinda Beasi says
January 8, 2010 at 8:19 amDeb, thank you for clarifying! And yes, when you explain further I can see how that could be a real headache!
I hope we do see Small-Minded Schoolgirls and Please, Please Me in print at some point. I’m not sure what the plans are for those series.