Manhwa Bookshelf

Welcome to another Manhwa Monday! Those of you who follow my blog regularly will know that I just finished moving, so this week’s column will just be a quick overview of some recent reviews.

This week’s featured review comes from Erica Friedman at Okazu as she talks about volume five of Youngran Lee’s Click (NETCOMICS).

It’s been both entertaining and informative to watch Erica make her way through this series, but this review is undoubtedly my favorite, mainly due to her ability to effectively describe the story using rice crispy treats as a metaphor.

“Rice cereal – marshmallow treats are harder to mix together than you’d expect and not all that pliable,” she says. “And the characters in Click are much the same.” Check out her review for more! …

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Welcome to another Manhwa Monday! As May begins, let’s take a look at what’s on the way from our favorite manhwa publishers this month!

First off, Udon Entertainment offers up the fourth in their Korean artbook series, Apple, scheduled for release on May 11th, according to Amazon.

Yen Press has an impressive lineup for May, with new volumes of sunjeong series Legend, Sarasah, Sugarholic, as well as all-ages title, One Fine Day (my special favorite of the group), and action series Black God and Laon.

Lastly, NETCOMICS continues weekly chapter releases of several fantastic series (mostly for grown-up women!), including There’s Something About Sunyool, Please, Please Me, The Adventures of Young Det, and Full House, which is about to begin its fourth volume….

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Welcome to another Manhwa Monday!

The big news this week comes by way of ANN, who reported on Tuesday that Simon & Schuster lists an October release date for March Story, a series created by Korean manhwa-ga Kyung-Il Yang and Hyung-min Kim for the Japanese magazine Monthly Sunday GX, to be published here by Viz Media.

This news is unconfirmed at the time of this writing, but the prospect of seeing some Korean creators published by Viz is admittedly pretty exciting, even if they are coming to us via Japan. Check out the article from ANN for details about the series and its creators.

With a view towards lightening your pocketbook, RightStuf is having a Bargain Bin Blowout sale, featuring manga and anime up to 95% off. …

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Welcome to another Manhwa Monday! It’s been a quiet week for manhwa, with just a couple of series stealing most of the focus from reviewers.

I’ll lead off with a review of my own, featuring YoungHee Lee’s You’re So Cool, complete in six volumes from Yen Press. This review is also my first guest spot at Brigid Alverson’s MangaBlog, which is quite an honor for me.

You’re So Cool is a series that benefits greatly from being read straight-through, particularly in its first half. Though its heroine is spunky and adorable from the start, the romantic premise is so problematic, it would be easy to abandon just two volumes in. “Fortunately, midway through the series’ third volume, Lee forgets that she’s writing a hopelessly clichéd, emotionally-backwards romance and gets caught up in the real heart of the story: how people (especially families) shape each other, for better or worse.” …

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Welcome to another Manhwa Monday! I type this column from my sickbed, where I’m feeling weary and, frankly, old as I realize that to me, that title is a Marx Brothers reference, but to the rest of you… probably not.

On to the topic at hand: as if answering a call from the depths of my heart, Manga Critic Kate Dacey recently visited the “Korean Comics: A Society Through Small Frames” exhibit at the San Francisco Public Library and wrote up a detailed report in her blog, including footnotes and suggested reading.

Something Kate notes in her article, which has been pointed out previously by readers familiar with the manhwa scene in Korea, is just how little the English-translated manhwa we see here represents Korean manhwa as a whole. As a fan of what’s currently being translated, I’m not necessarily complaining, but it would be exciting to see a broader spectrum of work being offered in English. …

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Welcome to another Manhwa Monday!

Before we get into April releases, the big news last week was DramaQueen’s shipment of The Summit (Vol. 1) by Young Hee Lee (You’re So Cool). Brigid Alverson has the full scoop at Robot 6. The real news is not the release date (which was announced mid-March) but the fact that those who pre-ordered have actually received books, an event that no one could have confidently predicted based on DramaQueen’s recent history.

Snow Wildsmith reviews the first volume at Fujoshi Librarian, admiring Lee’s comic timing and skill with “off-kilter relationships.” Snow also has praise for DramaQueen’s production, specifically a new style of cover and improved paper quality.

The obvious question, of course, is “Will we ever see volume two?” Stay tuned!…

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It’s a hectic Manhwa Monday today at Manga Bookshelf, but we’re squeaking in at the last minute!

With the manga/manhwa blogosphere still riding out the aftershocks of the most recent debate on scanlations (or “scanslations,” depending on who you talk to) it’s refreshing to see some fans still sharing untranslated material the old fashioned way.

A reader recently pointed me towards this journal from dreamwidth.org user sohan, who is sharing summaries and translated (text-only) exerpts of the unlicensed manhwa series Nabi by Kim Yeon-joo (not to be confused with Tokyopop’s Nabi: The Prototype, a collection of one-shots).

Four volumes are covered so far, with more to come. Those learning Korean currently will be pleased to note that sohan posts excerpts both in English and hangul. …

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Welcome to another Manhwa Monday! First, an apology. I’ve been horribly remiss. Though fellow manhwa fan, Eva Volin, alerted me at least two weeks ago about an upcoming exhibition on manhwa at the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library, I failed to report it here.

Though the exhibit, “Korean Comics: A Society Through Small Frames,” continues through June 13th, it’s already too late to catch one of its accompanying lectures which took place on March 17th. Fortunately, reader Sara K. attended and was kind enough to write out her recollections of the event in a comment to last week’s post. Many thanks to Sara for sharing her report!

Another related event, Manhwa for Girls will take place on Thursday, April 8th, featuring discussion of “the role of girls and women in comics as well as comics by women artists.” …

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Greetings on another Manhwa Monday! First, a bit of news I picked up from Variety, NETCOMICS will be producing a film version of the manhwa series X Diary by Toma. According to the article, casting will begin in June of this year (with filming beginning in October). The film is being produced by NETCOMICS’ VP Soyoung Jung.

In a review from The Comics Journal earlier this year, Adam Stephanides writes, “X Diary is a feather-light collection of humorous four-panel strips — I would call them gag strips, but “gag” is too strong a word for the gentle humor here — about Mingo (female) and Jerry (male), a pair of 26-year-old ex-lovers who have decided to remain friends … X Diary is unpretentious, and there is a genuine warmth to both the writing and art. It could perhaps best be described as likable.”

For those interested in seeing for themselves, X Diary is available in print …

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Welcome to another Manhwa Monday!

As an update to last week’s discussion of March releases, let’s talk a bit further about NETCOMICS. As Michelle Smith pointed out this week on Twitter, all of NETCOMICS’ scheduled chapter updates for March are for its current manhwa series, including The Adventures of Young Det, Full House, Small-Minded Schoolgirls, and Please, Please Me. New chapters for each of these series will be debuting each week.

It’s worth noting that each of these series (mainly for adult women) made an appearance on our Manhwa Monday special edition, Favorite Manhwa of 2009, being recommended by at least one of that feature’s contributors.

Also in the realm of recommendations, the Library Journal came out with a list of “27 Graphic Novels for Women’s History Month,” including Kim Dong Hwa’s …

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Welcome to another Manhwa Monday! I’ll get to the reviews in a moment, but first let’s take a look at some of this month’s upcoming releases. It’s all Yen Press this month (at least in print) but they are giving us plenty to look forward to. In March, we’ll see new volumes of Angel Diary, Very! Very! Sweet, Raiders, You’re So Cool, The Antique Gift Shop, and Time and Again.

My personal picks from the lot would be the next installment in JiUn Yun’s Time and Again (see my review of volume one here) and new installments of JiSang Shin and Geo’s Very! Very! Sweet and Lee Young-hee’s You’re So Cool, both in their sixth (and final, in the case of YSC) volume.

Meanwhile, NETCOMICS will be offering at least one new chapter of Sooyeon Won’s Full House (see my reviews of chapters one and two) and Youngran Lee’s There’s Something About Sunyool, both due on March 5th. …

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With just a handful of reviews to report this week, the big buzz among manhwa fans online is a new series from NETCOMICS, There’s Something About Sunyool by Youngran Lee, author of Click. Though Click has some fairly questionable qualities, a quick read through the three available chapters of Sunyool shows quite a bit of promise.

Born the illegitimate child of a big-time politician, Sunyool has been accepted officially into her father’s household as an adult and thrown straight into negotiations for arranged marriage. While the premise seems rife with cliché, the execution (so far) is anything but. What could easily be a typical rags-to-riches or fish-out-of-water story actually appears more likely to be a thoughtful, wry look at two young people from vastly different backgrounds learning to make a life together within the cold world of politics. Sunyool’s smart (occasionally cruel) sense of humor and self-awareness make her a very appealing female lead…

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Welcome to Manhwa Monday! It’s a lazy day over here at the household, but thankfully there’s always enough energy to talk about manhwa.

Today’s featured review comes from Emerian Rich at dashPunk, discussing Yeon-Joo Kim’s Nabi the Prototype (Tokyopop, 2007). Posted specifically for yesterday’s holiday, Emerian explains, “When we think of Valentine’s day, we often think of poetry, so for today’s post, I thought I’d bring you a book of poetry themed comics.”

This short review contains a sample from the book to whet the appetite, explaining also the potential difficulty for readers who may not connect easily with the book’s poetic style. “I’d recommend this book for anyone who likes to look beyond the obvious and experience love stories truly unique.” Check out the review for more!…

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I am still out of the office so this’ll be a quick one!

Today’s featured review comes from Rob at Panel Patter, where he discusses the first volume of Mi-Kyung Yun’s Bride of the Water God (Dark Horse).

Having just begun to delve into manhwa, Rob says, “Bride is by far the best manhwa I’ve read so far, combining the detailed and intricate line work that I like so much in Tarot Cafe with a storyline that is both compelling and well-plotted.” Even as a “story-first, art second style of reader” he is especially taken by the series’ artwork, and talks about going back to linger over it after his first read.

“It’s going to be really hard to wait for the library to bring me volume two,” Rob says at the end of his review,” In fact, I wonder if the library gods would accept a sacrifice…” Click here for more! …

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