Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews
AmyM at 3 Questions… and Answers has a great article today, Want to Write Full Time?…3 Questions You Need to Answer with some great advice on what you need in order to write full-time. What I like about it is that it is a truly realistic but optimistic approach to the topic.
Just passing it on!
I’m actually going to talk about something other than manga today. Hopefully this does not mean the end is near.
So, I got an e-mail this morning, letting me know that Derek Sivers is selling CD Baby. I knew it had to happen someday. Derek never really intended it to become what it did, and the site was never going to be his life-long passion. He’s selling to Discmakers, and while I’m not exactly sure what to think of that, they are at least a company that depends on independent artists for their business, so they should understand who they’re working with. After all the drama with Livejournal selling to SixApart a few years back, I suppose I should be much more jaded over all this “they’ll do a better job” type of talk, but I can hardly think of any person I’ve known in any business with more integrity and real sincerity than Derek Sivers, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt here. Yes, I’m sure that there will be changes at CD Baby, and probably some of them I’ll like, and some I won’t, but that might have happened even with Derek. Now I admit, I don’t have as much at stake as many other artists on the site. My cd is out of print, I’m not marketing it (as if I ever did, heh), and I’m only collecting digital sales from CD Baby at this point anyway. But I really believe in and care about what CD Baby stands for, so I do have some stake in preserving that. I hope Tony Van Veen at Discmakers feels the same way. Also of interest, the birth of CD Baby comes in at #1 on CMJ’s “Ten Moments in Ten Years : a celebration of independent music.”
On a more personal note (because that’s what I do, I personalize everything, and hey, I’m managing to bring in manga after all), Derek also posted today Abraham Maslow’s 8 Ways to Self-Actualize, which really struck a chord with me this morning. …
Sakuragi has never been a hit with girls. In fact, in three years of junior high he amassed an impressive fifty rejections! Now in his first year of high school, he once again believes he’s met the girl of his dreams. Haruko loves athletes, and basketball in particular, so to win her affections, Sakuragi becomes determined to join the school team.
This aim is complicated by Sakuragi’s overwhelming, almost painful stupidity and violent outbursts of temper. He mouths off within earshot of the captain (who also happens to be Haruko’s older brother) and publicly humiliates him in a basketball contest. Though he manages to control himself long enough to get onto the team, he is quickly frustrated by fundamentals training and ends up storming off the court in a huff.
I know Slam Dunk is a classic of sports manga, a genre I really like, but I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I thought I would. Most of that has to do with Sakuragi’s temperament, though, so I’m hopeful that as he’s forced to learn discipline and teamwork, the ignorant boasting and random karate chopping will gradually subside. The actual playing and practicing of basketball is great fun to read, another reason I assume my enjoyment will increase in future installments.
I was both impressed and a little confused by Inoue’s artwork. The style is by turns realistic and comedic, and though sometimes it borders on unattractive, there are definitely moments of greatness. A page and a half spread of the basketball court is a particular standout; the way the panel is framed does an excellent job in conveying the size and height of the room.
The confusion stems from several characters that appear to be of African descent. Their names are Japanese, though, and one of them is Haruko’s brother, so I am assuming they’re not supposed to be a different ethnicity than their peers. I was also struck by the resemblance of one of Sakuragi’s buddies to the late Robert Goulet. Consider the evidence:
A number of extras are included in this volume, all without deviating from the standard Shonen Jump price of $7.99. The first chapter is printed entirely in color, and a glossy color section in back includes a profile of a real-life NBA superstar and some tips on how to perform a slam dunk. And a sticker!
I liked this okay, and I’m confident I’ll like the rest more. It’ll be a long wait until volume two–due out in February–but Viz recently announced that a new series is due to replace Slam Dunk in the magazine come March, so the frequency of releases ought to increase in the near future.
Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.
First of all, I should apologize to whoever was trying to leave a comment yesterday using Open ID. I have now discovered that the WordPress plugin for Open ID I installed is extremely broken. For now, I’ve just deactivated it, but I do hope to get it working eventually, so people can use that here. I am so sorry for the trouble. I know how irritating it can be to take the time to write up a comment, only to have it disappear into the ether.
To others who may be stopping by due to hits on their site meters: Um, hi. I’ve been adding some folks to my blogroll as I find things that interest me enough to be daily reads. Just trying to clear up the mystery, if there is any. :)
So, I’m know I’m late to the party (as always), but I finally started reading Tokyo Babylon recently, …
It’s a sleepy Saturday morning here in western Massachusetts, at least at our house. I’ve had a slow start, and the most productive thing I’ve managed so far is updating my manga needs spreadsheet. Yes, that’s right, I keep a spreadsheet of the manga I want to buy online so I can access it anywhere (for instance, from my phone while standing in a comic shop). I truly am a dork. Anyway, included on the list are series I am currently buying, as well as series I would like to start buying, including a few I’ve already read but wish to own. The reason I’m mentioning that here, is that I’m always looking for recommendations, and I find it helps for people to know what I already read and enjoy. I do spend quite a bit of time poring over Jason Thompson’s Manga, The Complete Guide, but even with his wonderful write-ups to go on, I’m not always certain if I’ll like a series or not. If anyone has recommendations, particularly of shojo manga (which I always want to read more of, but find so little to my taste), I’d be very grateful!
Segue into a ramble about shojo manga: …
The greatest strength of this series is the relationship between its two lead characters. After getting off to a rough start—with Kei badgering Kanzaki to allow her access to his apartment so she can search for a lost ring—it has developed into a solid friendship, with each able to confide in the other about their problems. I particularly like how Kanzaki’s consideration of Kei is shown through his actions rather than told in mere words. The best scenes are when they are engaged in heartfelt conversation.
Unfortunately, such moments do not happen often in this third installment of the series. The standout chapter actually focuses on the school doctor and her own experiences in high school. A nice character piece, it also provides a glimpse of the mysterious Suwa, the older man upon whom Kei is fixated and the owner of the ring for which she is searching.
Hidaka’s art is cute (I love the fleecy lambs sprinkled throughout) but my enjoyment is marred by the continual reliance on violence as a source of humor. Poor Kanzaki takes a pounding on practically every page and it’s really beginning to disturb me. If you can get past that, however, Tears of a Lamb definitely has something unique to offer.
ETA: As I read the galley copy in preparation for the review above, I noticed quite a few instances of dialogue appearing in an incorrect bubble (and thusly being attributed to the wrong character). I didn’t mention it then in the hopes that it would be corrected in the official release. Having just obtained said release, however, I am sad to see that they have not been corrected. Does nobody read the galley with an eye for mistakes? Isn’t that what it’s for? Did it not strike anyone as strange that the character jumping in the air jubilantly is not the one whose dialogue reads, ‘Yay!!’?! Grumble grumble.
Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.
From the back cover:
In the chaotic aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, the legendary Rear Admiral Lord Hornblower struggles to impose order. Serving as commander-in-chief of His Majesty’s ships and vessels in the West Indies, Hornblower confronts a formidable array of hostile forces, among them pirates, revolutionaries, and a blistering hurricane. The war is over, but peaceful it is not.
Review:
This was an enjoyable conclusion to the Hornblower saga—far better than the incomplete Hornblower During the Crisis would’ve been had I remained on publication order ’til the end.
Rather than one continuous narrative, the story was broken down into five self-contained novellas. My favorite was probably “St. Elizabeth of Hungary,” in which Hornblower thwarted an attempt to free Napoleon from St. Helena, though the rest all had their moments. Other challenges involved capturing a speedy ship trafficking in slaves, escaping from a band of desperate pirates, maintaining England’s neutrality in a Venezuelan conflict, and surviving a hurricane.
It wasn’t as dark as previous entries in the series, which makes sense given that it’s peacetime and all, but Hornblower was still personally as conflicted and brilliant as ever. Although I generally would prefer a novel over a series of novellas, these stories were so charming it’s hard to imagine this final outing as anything else; this approach was a nice way to craft a happy ending without diverging into sentimentality.
I never suspected that I would love the Hornblower novels as much as I did. It would make me happy if even one person decided to read them based on my endorsement.
This post is strange for me to write. It’s about the comic I’m writing a script for, which I’ve talked about here before, even recently, but what’s scary about this for me is that I’m going to have to let my ignorance and inexperience show in a very obvious way. So here goes. I don’t know who is reading this blog these days, if anyone, but I’d very much appreciate any advice offered.
I’m writing the script for a comic, as I’ve said. An OEL manga, really, but that’s not the important bit right now. What’s important is that I need to find an artist who is the right fit for the comic and for me, which I’m pretty terrified about, much of that terror being related to fear of presenting myself as an idiot. A few important facts:
…
From the back cover:
Doyle is in the supermarket when the latest vision hits. Fear. Fire. Death. And an ornately engraved ancient amulet. As usual, the Powers That Be are none too specific. When he comes to, he is being tended by an anxious young woman named Terri Miller.
A shy girl from a small town, Terri is new to L.A., and feeling like a wallflower in the bright lights of this big city. Soon after her encounter with Doyle, who heads off without more than a perfunctory thank-you, a charismatic young man invites her to a meeting for a club to which he belongs.
Meanwhile, Angel and his gang have been turned on to a killer who burns his victims beyond recognition. Several of the deceased have connections to Terri’s newfound circle of friends, and Cordelia suddenly finds herself in possession of an amulet that looks awfully familiar…
Review:
Lest you think I read that description and went, “Ooh, that sounds totally awesome!”, I hasten to explain that the first five words were sufficient to induce me to check this book out from the library. I’ve read a few Angel tie-ins before, but they were all set later in the series, and consequently did not feature Doyle. And the supermarket part sounded potentially amusing. I fully expected the rest to be pretty crappy.
Alas, the supermarket turned out to be a disappointment. I wanted to see Doyle amidst the bright lights and cheesy muzak, searching grumblingly for some hard-to-find but specific item that Cordelia had sent him to fetch. Or maybe rejoicing on having scored a good deal on something random, like squash. But no, he was just on a Guinness run. Boring.
I heartily disliked Terri, who was one of those whiny “I’m so worthless” people I can’t stand. Here’s an example: she’d promised to pick something up at the store for a homeless guy, but forgot. Instead of going back in like a normal person, she was overcome by “a sense of failure greater than any she’d ever known.” She promptly joined a cult, despite having received a warning from one of its current members. When she later regretted the decision, I could summon no sympathy for her.
As predicted, the rest of the story was not good. The plot was lame and the characterization of Angel and Doyle often felt wrong. I had a hard time believing they’d say or think the things they were saying and thinking, particularly during a manufactured argument over whether Doyle was capable of charming the insipid Terri—his character further sullied by the fact that he actually liked her—in order to obtain information on the cult.
The author also had a weird habit of trying to justify things, like spending an entire page on why Doyle was using a pay phone instead of his cell to call Angel. Sometimes this resulted in puzzling lines like “Terri dropped her face into her hands. The fact that, even to her, her reaction felt obvious didn’t render it any the less potent.” I wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but it seemed like the intent was to defend the clichéd writing.
Angel novels aren’t usually this lousy. I certainly hope there aren’t any out there worse than this one. For anyone considering giving them a try, I’d recommend Sanctuary as a good place to start.
This is a continuation of the Fullmetal Alchemist re-read I started last weekend. It’s been such a pleasure so far to re-read this series. Hiromu Arakawa’s storytelling, rich characterization, and humor make for an incredibly compelling reading experience. I have said before that if I could ever create something that made another reader feel the way I do when I’m reading Fullmetal Alchemist, I would consider that the greatest accomplishment of my life. That statement holds up on the second read.
Discussion of Volumes 1 & 2 here. Now on to volumes 3 & 4!
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