Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

MJ

3 Things Thursday: Peepo Choo

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As David reported earlier this week, both he and I were guests on a recent episode of Ed Sizemore’s Manga Out Loud podcast, along with Ed (of course) and Okazu‘s Erica Friedman. Our topic of discussion was Felipe Smith’s Peepo Choo, originally serialized in Kodansha’s Morning Two magazine and published in English by Vertical, Inc.

To prepare for the podcast, I did a full re-read of the series as it stands, and as I reached the end, I felt incredibly sad that there was no more of it. Whatever the reason(s) for the three-volume wrap-up, and however gracefully Smith managed to wrap it up (quite gracefully, indeed), there was so much more I wanted to see, and I was pretty much heartbroken to know I’d never see it. Would Milton really be able to be true to himself once he got back home? What happens when Reiko gets there? Can Rockstar possibly survive Chicago, and who will he ultimately be if he does? These questions tease me mercilessly, along with many more.

Most of what I have to say about the series, I said on the podcast, but I do want to emphasize how much I enjoyed it and how much I thought it had to say, not just about fans, but about people in general, and how much energy we devote to our strong need for connection and identification. There’s a subtle warmth running quietly through the story that becomes evident as it progresses, offering a fascinating contrast to the outrageous, even shocking imagery Smith often uses to make his points. Ultimately the series was one of my favorites of the year, and if I can’t have more of it, I hope at least that we’ll soon see new work from Smith, whatever it might be.

On to the point of this column! There are a whole lot of reasons to read Peepo Choo, but since this is Thursday, I’m going to give you 3. Trust me, they’re more than enough. A bonus: alliteration.

3 Reasons to Read Felipe Smith’s Peepo Choo

1. Rants – One of the series’ most winning moments occurs right near the beginning of the first volume, when comic book store employee Jody calls out both the superhero fans and the anime fans in the store for being equal losers in the eyes of general society. Most fans will find that this rant hits home (maybe more than they’d like to admit). And just wait for what Smith does to US anime and manga companies later in the series.

2. Reiko – Easily the best (and best-written) character in the series, jaded teen gravure model Reiko kicks some serious ass, both literally and figuratively. She’s a strong female character who doesn’t have to give that up in order to find out who she really is. Hers is the most complete journey of the series, and it’s more than worth following.

3. Rockstar – I already admitted it in the podcast, so I might as well come clean here. Morimoto Rockstar is one of my favorite characters in the series, despite the fact that he’s pretty much a morally bankrupt psychopath. Somehow, right alongside his murderous impulses and shocking cruelty, he’s wearing his inner child right on the outside, plain for anyone to see. This juxtaposition of heartlessness and vulnerability is more than enough to fascinate me. Perhaps it’ll do the same for you!

All images and translation © copyright Felipe Smith. First published by Kodansha, Ltd. Published in English by Vertical, Inc.

So, readers, have you read Peepo Choo? What were your top three reasons?

Manhwa Monday: Just a tease

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Welcome to another Manhwa Monday!

It’s a slow week again in the English-language manhwa blogosphere, though we do have one fun tidbit to share.

Over at the iSeeToon blog, company representative Kim Jin Sung teases us with a webtoon trailer for one of their upcoming iOS releases, Ill-Fated Relationship, due to be available in English sometime this year. I’ve actually had a little peek at this series, and it looks to be quite interesting, so let’s hope we won’t have too long to wait!

On a personal note, with the understanding that many of South Korea’s most innovative comics are happening online rather than traditional print, I very much wish that more companies were finding ways to bring those comics to us. I do appreciate the efforts of both iSeeToon and NETCOMICS, but I must admit I am feeling quite impatient for more. I can’t help dreaming of an online portal such as Naver (as described by Hana Lee in her introduction to Korean webcomics) in English, though I expect this is a bit of a pipe dream.

This week in reviews, King of the Zombies reviews the manhwa series Priest (TOKYOPOP) in celebration of the upcoming film release. At Manga Xanadu, Lori Henderson runs us through the latest issue of Yen Plus (Yen Press), including ongoing titles Aron’s Absurd Armada and Jack Frost as well as the debut of Sirial’s new cat-centric manhwa Milky Way Hitchhiking. And at Slightly Biased Manga, Connie reviews volume two of Sarasah (Yen Press).

That’s all for this week!

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

Let’s Get Visual: Tricks of the Trade

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It’s time once again for Let’s Get Visual, a monthly feature co-written with Michelle Smith, hosted at her blog, Soliloquy in Blue.

In this month’s installment, Michelle and I take a closer look at some of the tips handed out by the editors at Hakusensha in their book, How To Draw Shojo Manga, published recently in English by TOKYOPOP. To get us started, Michelle pulled out a list of some of the book’s suggested techniques, and then we each turned to our bookshelves for examples of those in action.

To offer up some contrast in style, Michelle chose pages from Julietta Suzuki’s Karakuri Odette (Hana to Yume, 2005-2007), and I picked out some pages from CLAMP’s Tokyo Babylon (Wings, 1990-1993).

This was a particularly illuminating exercise for both of us, so please join us in conversation and let us know what you think!

Failure Friday: BL edition

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One of the things about “failure” when it comes to something like fiction is, that to a pretty significant extent, whether or not something fails is influenced by the taste of the individual. Sure, there are particular standards we set up–ways we believe we can measure skill and craft–but so much of what makes a story work (or not) really comes down to taste, no more, no less.

As a critic, it’s part of my job to evaluate things against the standards set by history, the industry, and my peers, and as a blogger, it’s my job to give readers a reason to care about my conclusions. With so many manga blogs out there, what do I have to offer that’s unique? My background, perhaps, my personality… and a slew of similar items that mainly come around to “taste.” And in a genre like boys’ love, my taste is pretty specific.

Why the long introduction? Before I begin to discuss what makes a BL manga fail for me, I want to be clear that “failure” here means “failure to satisfy my tastes.” I’m specifying this, because I’m going to be making a lot of sweeping points about failures in BL manga, and since this genre lives and breathes on its readers’ private fantasies, I want to be very clear that I’m judging these manga against my own, not passing judgement on anyone else’s.

Part of the impetus behind writing a BL edition of Failure Friday was a visit to my old post My thoughts on yaoi (no, really), written quite a long time ago, when I’d read very little BL manga and had limited vocabulary for discussing what I found problematic. I’ve read quite a bit between then and now, and my tastes have refined themselves accordingly. I’ve also found books that defied my taste, by making me love them regardless of some of their content. So, now that I’ve disclaimed, here we go!

Four common BL failures (and some manga that overcome them):

1. Non-con: Rape fantasy is probably my most common deal-breaker when it comes to BL manga, most likely because it is so common in the genre. Even as a casual BL fan, it’s pretty much impossible to escape. And though it’s obviously a popular fantasy among readers, it’s definitely not mine. While rape as a plot element is something I don’t eschew (witness my love for Akimi Yoshida’s Banana Fish), as a precursor to romance, I find it personally abhorrent and far from romantic.

Successes: Some BL manga (and manhwa) I’ve found worthwhile despite the presence of non-con include U Don’t Know Me (Rakun/NETCOMICS), Gerard & Jacques (Fumi Yoshinaga/BLU), Ludwig II (You Higuri/Juné), and the second volume of The Tyrant Falls in Love (Hinako Takanaga/Juné).

2. Split focus: As evident by the range of works we’ve seen imported to the west, sexual content in BL manga runs the gamut from sweet, chaste romance to outright pornography. Now, any reader of romance knows that a believable relationship takes time to develop, and with so many BL anthologies and one-shots out there, it’s no surprise that many of them are unable to achieve that goal. There’s nothing wrong with plain ol’ porn, after all, and it certainly has its place in any grown-up demographic. Where BL writers frequently fail, however, is with story-killing indecision. One of the complaints I find myself frequently making when I review short BL is that, within a limited number of pages, and without a clear commitment to either story or porn, many manga simply fail at both. Mangaka, please choose! Tell a great story or give us some great porn, but please don’t do either half-heartedly.

Successes: A notable exception to this rule is Fumi Yoshinaga’s Ichigenme… The First Class is Civil Law (801 Media), which in just two short volumes manages to excel at both.

3. Identity white-out: While it’s understood that BL manga has nothing at all to do with queer identity, more and more BL appearing in English is managing to at least address the concept, while keeping its fantasy space intact. Books like Future Lovers (Saika Kunieda/Deux Press) and No Touching At All have proven that you can make your gay characters actually gay without causing a riot amongst female readers. And even among the usual identity-free BL, there’s still a difference between glossing over the characters’ sexuality and actively stamping it out. Even worse, are stories that cross into real homophobia, emphasizing the “shamefulness” of the characters’ sex lives, or trivializing them altogether by making all characters gay at random, like a lusty caricature of an English boys’ school.

Successes: Among series that deftly avoid queer identity, there are some that still manage to project a sense of positivity on the subject, like Eiki Eiki & Taishi Zaou’s Color (DokiDoki) and any book by est em (Deux Press, NETCOMICS).

4. Crack overload: I love cracktastic storytelling as much as anyone (and probably more than most), but when it comes to romance, I nearly always prefer believability over hilarity, if I have to make a choice. Even in a single chapter or one-shot, if the sex isn’t moving the story forward or, at the very least, really hot, it’s difficult for me to be interested. And anything that bothers to take up an entire volume without giving me something real, is pretty much a complete failure. Outrageous antics? Sexual humor? Pretty boys romping around? All of that is pretty much lost on me as a reader, and when I encounter a manga of that kind I mainly wish I could get my twenty minutes back.

Successes: This is probably the toughest kind of story to sell me on, as I’ve discovered very few of its ilk that have managed to woo me. Notable exceptions include Blood Honey (Sakyou Yozukura/BLU) and Deeply Loving a Maniac (You Higashino/801 Media).

It’s been quite a pleasure over the past few years to discover how many BL manga don’t fail for me as a reader, quite a few of which I’ve taken the opportunity to mention above. Whether there’s more BL being released today that suits my tastes, or whether I’ve simply discovered how to find it, I can’t quite say.

So, readers, what makes a BL story fail or succeed for you?

3 Things Thursday: Easy People

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It’s been one of those days. You know the kind–where everything is stretched just a bit too far, and every time you’ve reached what you thought was the final straw, somehow another straw manages to shove itself in anyway.

On days like this, I crave warmth, food, and what the Nields would describe as “Easy People.” So for today’s 3 Things, I’m going to attempt to translate these concepts into manga. And maybe I’ll feel all better by the time I’m done.

3 Things: Warmth, Food, & “Easy People”

1. Warmth: Fruits Basket | Natsuki Takaya | TOKYOPOP – There are a lot of “warm” manga series out there, especially in the world of shoujo manga, but the first that springs to mind for me is Fruits Basket. Could there be a warmer heroine than Tohru Honda? And could that heroine possibly be more cherished and loved? The only question for me is, on a day like this, do I wish to be Tohru, or do I just want to know her? I think the latter might be just the ticket, but either way, there’s plenty of warmth and love in store.

1.Food: Antique Bakery | Fumi Yoshinaga | Digital Manga Publishing – This series could probably qualify on all three counts, but for now, let’s focus on the food. Though I tend to favor savory treats over sweets, there’s something about cakes and pastries as described by Yoshinaga that never fails to send me craving all the way to the nearest bakery. And reading this series back-to-back with Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy might actually be the most perfect food combination possible.

3. Easy People: Maison Ikkoku| Rumiko Takahashi | Viz Media – This choice was actually the hardest, especially since Really Complicated And Also Very Broken People are by far my favorite types of manga characters. But there’s a special kind of comfort in the characters of Maison Ikkoku. Whatever their personal foibles may be, like a classic TV sitcom, you can count on them to never really change. There’s growth, sure, and some very satisfying moments to be sure, but at their core, these people are simple and predictable, and I mean that in the best way possible.

So, readers, what manga would you turn to for much-needed comfort?

Gussying up

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As part of settling in to our new multi-blog format, we’ve been rearranging the furniture a bit over the past week at Manga Bookshelf, with a view towards improving navigation and making more recent content easily accessible from the front page. We’ve also picked up a brand new logo (thanks to Kuriousity‘s Lissa Pattillo), replacing the old, me-centric design with something that better represents the network as a whole.

Content is falling into place as well, including a new, collaborative incarnation of my old Pick of the Week, offering a more diverse selection of new manga for readers to choose from. Regular weekly and monthly features from each of the network’s blogs remain as they always have been, ensuring that there’s plenty new to read on pretty much any day of the week.

A couple of special features I’m aware of coming up in February:

2/12: Breaking Down Banana Fish, the next Banana Fish roundtable, covering volumes 11-13

2/23: A special edition of Off the Shelf, featuring Osamu Tezuka’s Ayako

So, readers, my question for you today: What would you most like to see from the new Manga Bookshelf?

More reviews? Roundtables? Collaborative features? Flame-inducing essays? We can’t make promises, but we’d really like to know!

Manhwa Monday: Grasping at straws

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Welcome to another Manhwa Monday!

It’s been a slow week in manhwa news. And by “slow week” I mean that there are absolutely no bits of news or reviews to share with you at all.

So, what shall we talk about, readers? This week’s upcoming release of the latest volume of Bride of the Water God reminds me just how little new manhwa we’ve got to look forward to in the foreseeable future.

What I do have ahead of me, though, are a few fantastic reads and re-reads that are long overdue. A few reads upcoming for me:

1. Bride of the Water God (Dark Horse) – I actually have yet to dip into this series, which is long overdue. I’ll be marathoning it in the next couple of weeks (with a review of volume 6 upcoming), in hopes of soon acquiring this week’s new volume.

2. Cynical Orange (Yen Press) – After a long, long wait, I’ve finally gotten a copy of the one volume I was missing of this series. Look for a full series review in the near future (most likely offsite).

3. One Thousand and One Nights (Yen Press) – I’ve already talked on and on about this series, but an upcoming offsite feature has given me the excuse to reread it once again!

4. Milkyway Hitchhiking (Yen Press) – As a big fan of Sirial’s One Fine Day (interestingly featured in a recent column on Manga Bookshelf), I’m definitely looking forward to this new, cat-themed series.

So, readers, I put the question to you: What new (or old) manhwa are looking forward to reading in the near future?

I Wish I Wrote That!

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Welcome to the first I Wish I Wrote That of 2011! I’ve got a great batch of writing to share with you this month, which is a pretty great way to start off the year.

First off, today’s main attraction is a wonderful essay posted just last night, the latest in Jason Thompson‘s “House of 1000 Manga,” this time featuring Swan.

Published incompletely in English by the now-defunct CMX, Swan is one of those manga I am trying my hardest to collect before the volumes become so scarce that they all go for $300 apiece from skeevy Amazon sellers. I haven’t yet made it to the double-digits, something that reading Jason’s essay makes me deeply regret. Almost nobody can make me want to read a manga the way that Jason Thompson can (which is why I went immediately broke after the release of Manga: The Complete Guide), and the way he talks about Swan, I expect my bank account will suffer again. A quote:

“I didn’t expect that a shojo manga about ballet would be one of the most fiery-spirited shonen manga I’ve read in the last few years. Blood and sweat, competition, agonizing training sequences — these are things that are more common in boys’ manga, but Swan transfers them to the ballet and somehow makes it a perfect fit. It’s a mixture of rivalry and hard work, art and elegance; a combination of yûjô, doryoku, bigaku … I don’t know if this is just stereotypes, but judging purely from Swan, Japanese girls in 1976 were 10 times more badass than men in most countries today.”

Jason’s maybe not as “quotable” as some snarkier manga critics–I’m not doubled over with laughter when I read even his funniest lines. The beauty of his writing is found in the whole, and the whole is what must be read. I wish I wrote that!

A few other terrific links:

Khursten Santos has a new review up at Otaku Champloo, for est em’s gorgeous BL anthology, Red Blinds the Foolish. “There was a time when I used to dream of Spanish fiestas. La Tomatina. Hogueras de San Juan. San Isidro de Madrid. Corrida de toros. And I did not dream of this because my country, the Philippines, used to be a Spanish colony. My fascination with it lies in the romance of the activity. There was something beautiful and romantic with the order that comes with the chaos of a fiesta.”

At The Manga Critic, Kate Dacey reworked a older review of Taiyo Matsumoto’s Blue Spring, and the result is beautifully descriptive: “Matsumoto eschews linear narrative in favor of digressions and fragments; as a result, we feel more like we’re living in the characters’ heads than reading a tidy account of their actions. Snatches of daydreams sometimes interrupt the narrative, as do jump cuts and surreal imagery: sharks and puffer fish drift past a classroom window where two teens make out, a UFO languishes above the school campus. Even the graffiti plays an integral part of Matsumoto’s storytelling; the walls are a paean to masturbation, booze, and suicide, cheerfully urging ‘No more political pacts–sex acts!'”

This one’s going to get super-meta, but in my very first incarnation of this column, I praised Shaenon Garrity’s essay about Cathy Guisewite’s Cathy. Today, Noah Berlatsky did the same at The Hooded Utilitarian, and dammit, his is better than mine. “Ultimately, though, while I appreciate the insight into my own animosities, what really made this perhaps my favorite piece of the year was the insight into Shaenon’s affections … the piece is filled with affection, and indeed love. That love is directed precisely at Cathy’s fans; the Baby Boomer women. Among those women is Shaenon’s mother…and Cathy Guisewite herself.”

And speaking of Shaenon Garrity, her latest post at comiXology, about Neil Gaiman’s Sandman makes me want to finally finish the series, which I had loved until I got too bogged down in the visual overload of its ever-changing artwork. “I dreaded rereading Sandman because it was the comic that got me hooked on comic books, when I was a nerdy teenager who hung out with the goths and followed them to Kent State coffeehouses on Friday nights, and there was no way it could possibly live up to my memories. The Dark Knight Returns didn’t; the art’s still amazing, but all of Batman’s monologues now sound like they’re about butt sex, and the fact that I can’t read them without giggling indicates that I’ve somehow gotten more juvenile since I was sixteen.” Or maybe I just want to read more Shaenon.

That’s what I wish I wrote this month! Readers, what about you?

3 Things Thursday: ‘ships ahoy!

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So, I used to be in fandom. No, I mean, Fandom. The kind with a capital “F.” Of course, anyone who’s ever been in Fandom knows that this means I used to read and write a whole lot of fanfiction. The less said about most of that now, the better, but somewhere around the New Year, I got a bit nostalgic and revisited my old writing. It was a fairly horrifying exercise, all told, but I came out of it all remembering just how much I enjoy ‘ships, and I don’t necessarily mean heavy-duty One True Pairing-type ‘ships (though I did have those from time-to-time), but more often the obscure, quiet, barely fannish ‘ships. I love the tiny, off-screen pairing whose story never gets told, the Big Fandom non-canon pairing with maybe three active fans, or the super-duper Big Time pairing… in a fandom with only three fans.

While it’s unlikely I’ll ever return to Fandom with the kind of zeal I once had, the whole thing got me thinking… what would I read now? Now that I read no fanfiction at all, is there any kind of ‘ship so compelling I’d throw aside everything in my too-busy day to read it? It just might be possible, I thought. And so I give you…

3 pieces of fanfiction I might actually read

1. Twin Spica | Mr. Lion/Yuko Suzunari | Kou Yaginuma | Vertical, Inc – One of my very favorite things about Twin Spica is the existence of Mr. Lion, first introduced as Asumi’s imaginary friend, and then later as the ghost of a young man who died in the tragic crash of the Lion space shuttle. The series’ first volume includes some of Mr. Lion’s backstory, including his romance with a young woman named Yuko Suzunari, who, years later, ends up being Asumi’s elementary school teacher. Though Mr. Lion intended to propose to Yuko, he never got the chance before he died.

There are any number of stories I might like to read about this couple, ranging anywhere from additional backstory depicting them as students to a bittersweet reunion that can never be made real. They’re a perfect fit for fanfiction, really, with just enough existing story to get a handle on the characters, but with so little actually written, there’s plenty of ground to cover.

2. One Fine Day | No-Ah/Aileru | Sirial | Yen Press – After finishing volume two of this whimsical children’s manhwa, I went directly to Twitter and said something like, “If nobody is writing No-Ah/Aileru fanfic, I don’t know what Fandom’s been doing with its time.” At least one person expressed horror over my statement at the time, but come on. There hasn’t been a pairing more obvious since Remus Lupin and Sirius Black.

Again, this pairing could really go anywhere, and they have the advantage of being both “friends” and antagonists, depending on when you catch them. Magical powers don’t hurt either, though I’m not a big fan of overdoing that sort of thing. I’d enjoy anything from a sweet domestic scene to an out-and-out magician fight between these two. And Sirial keeps drawing them prettier and prettier, so I know it’s not just me. ;)

3. Flower of Life | Yamane/Sakai | Fumi Yoshinaga | Digital Manga Publishing – So, despite the fact that Sakai’s boyfriend clearly suspects that his girlfriend is having a crush (“Are you a lesbian?” he even asks her outright at one point), it’s possible Yoshinaga would say I am making this one up. Still, these two are adorable in their little side story in which slovenly Sakai borrows a beloved book from mature, meticulous Yamane.

Though something set in the same time-frame as the manga could certainly be sweet, I actually think I’d prefer future-fic here, with the two meeting up as adults, or perhaps in later college years. I’d like to see how both of them might grow up–especially Yamane who appears so grown-up even in high school. I can imagine the story already, really… like the reunion of the two women near the beginning of Antique Bakery, only this time Tachibana might be right. Hey, maybe it’s a Yoshinaga crossover!

Okay, I’ve indulged myself enough here, I think.

So, readers, if you did read fanfiction, what fanfiction would you like to read? Or maybe you could write me some comment-fic? :D

Best Online Comics Criticism 2010

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You may remember last year, when Johanna Draper Carlson pointed out the absence of both manga and female writers in the Hooded Utilitarian’s Best Online Comics Criticism 2009, featuring pieces chosen from throughout the year by a jury of five (male) critics. It seems likely that Johanna’s criticism was a factor in the selection of the subsequent jury, which included several female manga critics, one of whom was me.

Along with me, 2010’s jury was made up of Derik Badman, Johanna Draper Carlson, Shaenon K. Garrity, Tim Hodler, Chris Mautner and Bill Randall. Throughout the year, we submitted links to the group, pointing to comics criticism we found exceptional. At the end of the year, these links helped us each create a list of our top ten pieces, which were then compiled by the jury’s organizer, Ng Suat Tong. As Suat tallied the year’s votes, he suggested that multiple votes for the same author (on different pieces) be consolidated into votes for a single article, which ultimately gave me more spots on my top ten, and also helped to solidify some writers’ inclusion on the final list.

2010’s top picks among the jury were:

Jason Thompson: The Other Love that Dare Not Speak Its Name

Katherine Dacey on Ayako

Joe McCulloch: Essay on Thought Balloons (“The Problem with American Vampires Is That They Just Don’t Think”)

Craig Fischer on David Mazzucchelli (Born Again Again)

David Bordwell on Hergé (Tintinopolis)

Dirk Deppey: The Mirror of Male-Love Love

Ken Parille: Casper, Formalism, and the ‘Great’ Search Party

Before I reveal my own final list, I’d like to mention a couple of pieces that are not there and why. I must begin by confessing how disappointed I was to discover after I’d agreed to participate, that Shaenon Garrity would also be on the jury. One of the great injustices of the 2009 list, I felt, was that nothing of Shaenon’s appeared there, and her inclusion on the 2010 jury meant that I would have no opportunity to right this terrible wrong! In particular, this year, I raved about her wonderful piece on Cathy Guisewite’s Cathy, and nearly anything pulled from her weekly column at The Comics Journal, The Strangest Pictures I Have Seen. Also not on my final list, but one of my favorite pieces this year, was Ariel Schrag’s Queer identities in comics, the first of her articles to appear at AfterEllen.com.

Now for my final ten votes! These notes are mainly personal reflections on the pieces rather than profound statements on their critical achievement, and should be taken as such. Here they are:

Katherine Dacey on Sexy Voice and Robo/Harriet the Spy. I originally nominated both this and Kate’s Ayako review, with the first consolidation effort resulting in this single vote. Though later discussion between jurors led to all votes going for Ayako (fine with me, obviously), I wanted to put a little spotlight on this review as well, as it was one of my very favorite pieces of the year. Kate has a magnificent ability to make connections between works from different mediums and to express those connections with insight and clarity, and her Sexy Voice essay is a prime example of this talent.

Jason Thompson – To Protect and Kill: Morality in Action Manga: Again, this vote ended up being consolidated into a vote for Jason’s incest piece, both of which I nominated in my original ten, but since this one didn’t make the cut, I thought I should give it a boost. I always enjoy Jason’s writing, and as someone who first came to comics via shounen manga, this piece had special appeal for me.

Dirk Deppey – The Mirror of Male-Love Love: This honest, personal discussion of the writer’s own history as a foundation for criticism of Boys’ Love Manga is a perfect example of what makes compelling writing, online or anywhere else. I’m always most swayed by writers who are able to talk about their personal experience without losing their argument inside it all. Dirk Deppey does that astonishingly well.

Peter Sattler on R Crumb’s Genesis: What’s fantastic about this piece of criticism is how deliberately and clearly it is structured, making it an incredibly informative read even for someone (like me) who hasn’t actually read the comic being discussed. Oh, to be able to write like this. I can only dream of that day!

Karen Green on Pushwagners Soft City: There’s already been some discussion of the fact that our votes lean heavily towards positive criticism, but this piece is actually a wonderful example of why. Karen’s essay here made me feel truly excited about the book she was discussing–I mean really, truly inspired and excited. “This is why I read comics!” I thought at the time. Who doesn’t want to feel like that?

Deb Aoki, David Welsh, Sean Gaffney, Tucker Stone, David Brothers, Joe McCulloch, Ryan Sands, & Scott Green – “AXed” Intro | Part 1 | Part 2: Suat has already expressed his dismay at the inclusion of AXed in this year’s list of runners-up, but in my opinion, this collaborative criticism created entirely on Twitter best demonstrates one of the ways in which online criticism can actually be unique as online criticsm. In the hands of bloggers, concepts of journalism, criticism (and any other kind of writerly “ism”), have ceased to be the precisely distinct entities they once were, carefully controlled and meted out by the keepers of their mediums. Online platforms give writers the opportunity to mash these things up as they please, and to discover new ways in which to express critical thought. While some certainly see this as an assault on traditional criticism, I think it’s fantastic. And it’s not just the “isms” that are being challenged here. The writers who participated in AXed also challenged the platform they were writing on, utilizing Twitter for something far more ambitious than it was ever intended. The result? More of what I’m looking for in the places I frequent online: smart, thoughtful people talking about manga.

Joe McCulloch on thought balloons (“The Problem with American Vampires Is That They Just Don’t Think”): Thought balloons (or boxes, or pieces of floating thought text) are tricky business in my book, always endangering the directive of “show not tell.” But this essay gave me a new appreciation for representations of the inner monologue in any form. It’s a great read.

Phil Nugent on Doonesbury: My very first exposure to comics was by way of my dad. There were two comic strips he loved enough to collect in full, book by book. One, unsurprisingly, was Charles Schultz’s Peanuts. The other? Gary Trudeau’s Doonesbury. I read all of my dad’s extensive Doonesbury collection multiple times over when I was a kid in the mid-seventies, despite the fact that I had little understanding of the politics behind it all. My early love for Doonesbury was no doubt the seed for my teenaged obsession with Berkeley Breathed’s Bloom County, the only comic strip I ever followed as ravenously as my dad followed those he loved. Having not kept up with Doonesbury as an adult, I found Phil Nugent’s analysis of his eventual disappointment in the strip sad, but I can’t deny that it reads like truth.

David Welsh on To Terra… : Though this particular installment of the Manga Moveable Feast brought out quite a bit of interesting criticism from around the manga blogosphere, David’s discussion of the series’ shounen-ai undertones was probably my personal favorite. Eternally fascinated as I am by Japan’s system of manga demographics, this essay could have been written just for me. Thanks for that, David!

Tucker Stone on Blue Spring: Recommended quietly on Twitter by the awesome Kai-Ming Cha, this review simply enchanted me with its understated humor and insight. “… because youthful purpose is the single greatest murderer of youthful pleasure that I can think of,” is probably one of my favorite quotes all year. Also, this: “In the cult of comics blogging, I’m as guilty as many, with a long list of regretful moments of generous praise that strikes me now as being overly kind. I don’t think I’ll regret saying that this is the kind of comic that I would love to see more of, no matter who produces it. It’s eclectic and demanding, hysterically immature at times, and yet, from beginning to end, its viscerally entertaining, visually fascinating, and extremely unique. ”

As a sometimes-critic, that sentence rings startlingly true to my own experiences. And as a reader, what more can I possibly ask?

Manhwa Monday: holiday quick links

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Excerpt from Sunjeong Manhwa Chapter 8Welcome to another Manhwa Monday! It’s been a quiet week on the manhwa front, so there are just a few quick links to share on this American holiday.

It’s Martin Luther King Jr. day here in the US, and The Korean has a message for his Asian-American readers today.

Our friends at iSeeToon have unveiled a new front page design for their blog, with easy access to their currently available (and in-progress) iOS manhwa apps, as well as their series on types of manhwa. They are actively looking for feedback on pretty much all these things, so please let them know how you think they’re doing!

This week’s manhwa news is nearly all live-action news, with HANCINEMA posting the newest Priest trailer, and Dramabeans sharing casting info for the new drama adaptation of Kang Pool’s Pain. Kang Pool is also the author of Sunjeong Manhwa, reviewed by Hana Lee in her introduction to Korean webcomics, and pictured here in this entry.

At Manga-Market.com, tomnomnom joins the legions who attempt to explain “What is manhwa?”

This week in reviews, Todd Douglass at Anime Maki takes a look at volume 11 of Korean-created Black God (Yen Press). And at Panel Patter, Rob McMonigal talks about Korea as Viewed by 12 Creators (Fanfare/Ponent-Mon).

That’s all for this week!

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

Ayako giveaway winner announced!

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With server issues finally resolved and our new collaboration off to a great start,we at Manga Bookshelf are happy to announce the winner of our Ayako giveaway!

And the winner is… John Jackson!

Congratulations, John! John is a regular reader of our Facebook page, and brand new to reading manga. We’re thrilled to be able to start him off on the right foot with a classic work like Ayako. John, please contact us with your mailing address, and we’ll have the book out to you ASAP.

Many thanks to all who entered!

Follow Friday: The localizers

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Server outages and related angst have given us a a rough week at Manga Bookshelf, so today seems quite an appropriate time to spread a little goodwill over the manga industry twitterverse.

One of the things I’ve loved about Twitter, is that it’s given me the opportunity to interact with the people who make it possible for me to actually read manga. I’m referring, of course, to the localizers–the translators, adapters, and editors whose work I rely on to enjoy manga in English to the greatest extent possible.

Twitter is teeming with manga industry folks, and though I can’t possibly list them all here, I’ll pick out a few I’ve especially enjoyed.

William Flanagan is not only one of my favorite translators around, he’s also a great conversationalist and one of my favorite twitterers. You can also find twin translators Alethea & Athena Nibley lurking around the twitterverse.

Adaptor Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane brings a smart, thoughtful presence to the discussion.

And for a look into the world of manga editing, don’t miss the Twitter feeds of Asako Suzuki, Nancy Thistlethwaite, and Daniella Orihuela-Gruber.

This is merely a handful, of course–just a peek into the riches Twitter has to offer. Who are your favorite manga localizers to follow?

3 Things Thursday: Second Chances

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I’m a very patient reader. I like long manga series, and since the long ones usually pace themselves (up to three full volumes of exposition at times), I’ll usually give a series that’s captured the slightest of my interest at least five volumes to woo me. Some of my very favorite series took a while to warm up for me, including the likes of xxxHolic and Fullmetal Alchemist–series I now vigorously recommend.

While it’s rare that I’ll drop a series completely before the five volume mark, there are times when I simply can’t go on. Sometimes I can recognize this as a pure matter of taste. Toriko, for instance, is a perfectly fine series… if only it didn’t make me recoil in disgust. Others, I find genuinely offensive or perhaps just completely lacking.

Considering my overall patience, I usually trust myself on these few occasions, but there are times when my judgement is so at odds with those whose tastes I normally share, re-evaluation seems in order. So for today’s 3 Things I’ll ponder a few rejected series that have earned a second look.

3 manga series that deserve a second chance:

1. Butterflies, Flowers | Yuki Yoshihara | Viz Media – Though this series’ first volume won my praise immediately, its second and third volumes so rubbed me the wrong way that despite my claim that the humor would keep me going, I privately doubted I’d ever pick it up again. A quote, “It’s possible I’m still holding a grudge over “strict but warm,” which ranks right up there with “I get the message” and “Men have dreams that women will never be able to understand” on my list of Great Moments in Imported Sexism.”

But when a series is consistently championed by the likes of David Welsh, it’s time to step back and figure out where the hell I went wrong. Butterflies, Flowers, we’ll meet again soon.

2. Black Butler | Yana Toboso | Yen Press – I tried to be fair to the first two volumes, I really did. I pointed out some character bits I genuinely liked–noted how there might be a deeper story hidden under the glitz. But these lines really get to the heart of my problems with the series, “That these series are intended to appeal to female readers seems plain, with their bishonen character designs, elaborate costuming, and frequent BL overtones. Unfortunately, Black Butler‘s specialty is not just BL but shota, which makes Sebastian even creepier and not at all in a good way … Black Butler gets off to a very slow and fairly vapid start…”

Yet, just last night, Michelle Smith gave me reason to give the series another chance. What Michelle says, goes. It’s that simple.

3. Little Butterfly | Hinako Takanaga | DMP – This one is a long time coming, and while it’s a series I’ve actually read in its entirety, my initial dismissal of it is sufficient for it to qualify. Way back in my infamous thoughts on yaoi (which I’m now afraid to re-read), I said of Little Butterfly that maybe if it “had actually been ten volumes, and the romance was developed over the course of a much greater plot, I would have actually liked (it), because honestly I did find the characters interesting, what I got to see of them. I just felt cheated by the way the ‘plot’ and the relationships were rushed along to serve the romance.”

But when someone like Kate Dacey gives it a review like this… what’s a girl to do? I actually have Kate’s omnibus sitting here in my living room, and it’s high time I gave it that second look.

Series that didn’t make the cut, but could have include St. Dragon Girl (beloved by Ed Sizemore) and Hot Gimmick (secretly loved by… everyone). So, readers, what series should you give a second chance?

Manhwa Monday: 12 Creators & the Milky Way

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Welcome to another Manhwa Monday!

After last week’s whining about the lack of new manhwa licenses, we’ve discovered at least one, though we don’t know for sure whether there are plans to release it in print.

The December issue of Yen Plus advertises an upcoming manhwa series from Sirial (One Fine Day), called Milkyway Hitchhiking, about a cat with a pattern that looks like the Milky Way on his back. The series will be in full color, and is also Yen Press’ first simultaneous serialization. Let’s hope it sees print publication as well! Lori Henderson has some thoughts on the series in her write-up of December’s issue of Yen Plus. (Thanks to Michelle Smith for the tip!)

Robot 6 has an exclusive look at cover art for TOKYOPOP’s new Priest Purgatory series. And on the subject of Priest, 411 mania lists the upcoming film adaptation as one of its Biggest Comic Book Movies of 2011 .

iSeeToon continues their series on different types of manhwa with a look at Korean webtoons in their blog this week.

Blog of Asia attempts to explain the difference between manga and manhwa, drawing some interesting conclusions about both.

Here at Manhwa Bookshelf, Hana Lee translates the list of winners from Korea’s Reader Awards for manhwa in 2010.

This week in reviews, both Ed Sizemore of Manga Worth Reading and Richard of Forbidden Planet International take a look at Korea as Viewed by 12 Creators (Fanfare/Ponent Mon), offering a nice break from our usual cluster of Yen Press titles.

That’s all for this week!

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