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Resources & Essays

This page contains links to selected features at Manga Bookshelf, providing easy access to our most popular or informative posts along with supporting resources, both on and offsite. Also see the Manga Resources page at Katherine Dacey’s The Manga Critic.

Manga Advocacy & Persuasion Posts

Wild Adapter Manga Moveable Feast – A week-long look at Kazuya Minekura’s Wild Adapter

Complete archive

A Celebration of Fumi Yoshinaga – a week-long look at Yoshinaga’s varied works

Making the Case for Banana Fish – an introduction to the series by Akimi Yashida

  • Breaking Down Banana Fish – an ongoing roundtable discussion including Michelle Smith, Khursten Santos, Connie C., Eva Volin, Robin Brenner, and Katherine Dacey.
  • Ash vs. Shahryar – comparing the primary relationships in Akimi Yashida’s Banana Fish (Viz Media) and Han SeungHee and Jeon JinSeok’s One Thousand and One Nights (Yen Press)
  • Banana Fish at Shaenon Garrity’s Overlooked Manga Festival
  • If you like this, you might like: Wild Adapter (Tokyopop), Let Dai (NETCOMICS), One Thousand and One Nights (Yen Press)

Why You Should Read NANA – an introduction to the series by Ai Yazawa

Why You Should Read xxxHolic – an introduction to the series by CLAMP

Girls Only Week – a week-long look at series from female mangaka

10 Great Global Manga (Katherine Dacey)

The Best Manga You’re Not Reading (Katherine Dacey)

Good Manga For Kids (Katherine Dacey)

Tezuka: A Bibliography for English Speakers (Katherine Dacey)

Regular Features

Manhwa Monday – weekly look at the Korean comics blogosphere, hosted at sister site, Manhwa Bookshelf
Pick of the Week – weekly recommendation pulled from either the week’s new releases or my own recent reads
Off the Shelf – weekly discussion of recent releases with Soliloquy in Blue‘s Michelle Smith
Let’s Get Visual – monthly discussion of manga artwork with Michelle Smith, hosted at Soliloquy in Blue
3 Things Thursday – weekly list of 3 manga-centric things, just for fun!
Fanservice Friday – Friday feature focusing on fanservice in manga, first Friday of every month
Follow Friday – based on the Twitter meme of the same name, a monthly look at whose blogs you should be following, second Friday of every month
I Wish I Wrote That! – Friday feature focusing on comics criticism so awesome I wish I’d written it, third Friday of every month
Failure Friday – Failures in manga, fourth Friday of every month

View Manga Bookshelf Features Calendar

Gender in the Manga Blogosphere

Soapbox: Women’s Manga – The state of women’s manga in the US
New TCJ: Where are the women? – Questions on the relaunch of The Comics Journal online
Twilight & the Plight of the Female Fan – guest post at The Hooded Utilitarian
5 Female Voices in Manga Criticism – I discuss a few of the many unique female voices in the manga blogosphere
Female Manga Bloggers from A-Z – alphabetical listing of women in the manga blogosphere, including links to blogs and Twitter accounts – ongoing
Dear Fandom: Please Grow Up. – I make a plea for tolerance of an unlikely group: Twilight fans.
Keeping Up Appearances as a Female Fan – discussion of the problematic nature of maintaining credibility as a female comics fan
Gender Roles in Fruits Basket – discussion of three characters from Fruits Basket

Essays/Meta/Misc.

Confessions of a Former Scan Junkie – I talk about my past with scanlations and how getting closer to the North American manga industry convinced me to think more deeply about them.
Getting Our Geek On: What Our Symbols Mean to Us – discussion of the value and meaning behind our favorite geekish collectables
Tears and Manga – what kind of stories can bring us to tears?
Why Manga? – why we read fiction, specifically manga
Why Twitter? – a manga blogger’s view of Twitter
Musings on Online Identity – discussion of pseudonyms, accountability, and personal identity online
How I read Dororo, volume one. Finally – Intimidated by Tezuka? Don’t be!
Ultimo. A Rant? what I didn’t like about the first chapter of Ultimo
How I Got Into Comics, or Why There is Hope for Bob Thompson – the story of my journey from prose to comics

Recommendations & Buying Guides

Favorite Manhwa of 2009 – Michelle Smith, Danielle Leigh, Connie C., and I list our favorite manhwa titles in 2009.
Favorite Manga of 2009 (Manga Recon) – I join the crew at Manga Recon as we list our favorite manga of 2009.
Manga Bookshelf’s Manga/Manhwa Holiday Gift Guide – detailed gift guide including both manga and manhwa titles, divided into a number of gift-friendly categories.
Holiday Special Round-Up – list of holiday manga sales across the web, with an emphasis on recommendations.
Picks for Right Stuf’s DMP Sale – recommendations of series from Digital Manga Publishing
Let’s Talk about Manhwa: Yen Press Edition – recommendations focusing on Yen Press’ manhwa line
Recommendations for NETCOMICS Sale – recommendations of series from NETCOMICS
Recommendations for Yen Press Sale recommendations of series from Yen Press
Let’s Talk About Manhwa – request for manhwa recommendations, yielding much fruit in comments
Best of 2008! In a way – my favorite series read (not necessarily published) in 2008

Korean Manhwa

Manhwa Publishers in North America

Dark Horse Comics
Fanfare/Ponent Mon
First Second
NBM/Comics Lit
NETCOMICS
Tokyopop
Udon Entertainment
Yen Press

Resources at Manga Bookshelf

Manhwa Monday – Manga Bookshelf’s weekly column featuring news, reviews, and discussion of manhwa from all over the web
Favorite Manhwa of 2009 – Michelle Smith, Danielle Leigh, Connie C., and I pick our favorite manhwa of the year
Manga Bookshelf’s Manga/Manhwa Holiday Gift Guide – detailed gift guide including both manga and manhwa titles, divided into a number of gift-friendly categories.
Manhwa 100: Centenary of Korean Comics – Press release detailing the 2009 exhibit created by the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) and Korean Cultural Centre (KCC) UK
Let’s Talk About Manhwa – request for manhwa recommendations, yielding much fruit in comments

Offsite Resources

100 Years of Korean Manhwa – A brief history from Park In-ha at LIST Magazine
Manhwa – Wikipedia entry on manhwa
List of Manhwa – Wikipedia list of manhwa licensed for release in English
On Manhwa: Availability and Representation – Great post by troisroyaumes at Dreamwidth about the availability of manhwa in English
Ten Must-Read Manhwa – Ten recommendations from Kate Dacey.
Korean Comics: A Society Through Small Frames – Kate Dacey’s report from the Korea Society’s recent exhibit at the San Francisco Public Library.
Manhwa – the Korean manga. A short look. Brief overview from Animerated
Manhwa Reviews from Manga Recon – Archive of reviews from Manga Recon
Manhwa Reviews from Soliloquy in Blue – Archive of reviews by Michelle Smith
Manhwa Reviews from Joy Kim – Archive of reviews & tagged posts by Joy Kim
Manhwa Reviews from i ♥ manga – Archive of reviews by Lorena Nava Ruggero
Manhwa Reviews from TangognaT – Archive of reviews by Anna

Yaoi/Boys’ Love

BL Bookrack – monthly BL review column co-written with Soliloquy in Blue‘s Michelle Smith
My Thoughts on Yaoi (no, really) – what I liked and disliked about the genre as a new reader
My Thoughts on Yaoi Manga, Part II – continuation of discussion of yaoi and how it relates to my tastes in manga overall
Let’s Talk About Manhwa – discussion on Korean manhwa begins with a look at Korean BL, specifically
Shopping eManga – an overview of DMP’s eManga website, including discussion of several titles
Age Called Blue & the Drabble – a discussion of the writing style of BL icon, est em

Read Manga Online

eManga
ComiXology
GEN Manga
JManga
NETCOMICS
Shonen Sunday
SigIKKI
Square Enix
Viz Manga
Yen Plus