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The Josei Alphabet: A

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Welcome to the Josei Alphabet! For this installment, I’ve decided to focus on a small number of unlicensed titles, then try to list all of the titles that are available in English, along with Japanese magazines that start with that letter. As always, I hope you’ll mention your favorites that I’ve omitted, either licensed or not.

Some sites include yaoi titles in their josei listings. I’ve decided to exclude these for the simple reason that I may someday want to do a yaoi/boys’-love alphabet. So, while they’re often demographically targeted at adult women, I’ve decided to exclude them from this exercise. Now, without further ado…

“A” is for…

Abunazaka Hotel, written and illustrated by Moto Hagio, serialized in Shueisha’s You: A mysterious hotelier seems to specialize in guests in the midst of romantic transition or turmoil, challenging their current state of affairs. It’s by Hagio, so it’s instantly desirable, and it only ran for three volumes, so it seems within the realm of reasonable risk.

Ai wa Kassai ni Tsutsumarete, based on a novel by Metsy Hingle, adapted by Shin Kurokawa, published by Oozora Shuppan: It would be remiss of me to ignore the romance-novel end of the josei equation, particularly adaptations of popular Harlequin properties. This one is about a man trying to protect his brother from a fiancé he believes to be a gold-digger. My choices from this subcategory will probably be based on how much I like the covers, which I fully admit is lazy.

Akatsuki no Aria, written and illustrated by Michiyo Akaishi, serialized in Shogakukan’s flowers: This one’s about a beautiful young student pianist who may have supernatural connections. It’s ongoing and up to around the 11 volume point. Another of Akaishi’s josei titles, Amakusa 1637, ran for 12 volumes in Shogakukan’s flowers, and it’s about a high-school kendo champion who’s thrown back in time and uses her skills to protect persecuted Christians in Japan in the 1600s. No, seriously. It was published in French by Akiko.

Applause, written and illustrated by Kyoko Arisohi, serialized variously in Akita Shoten’s Princess, Margaret, and Elegance Eve. This classic yuri tale from the creator of Swan follows a Japanese transfer student from a Belgian boarding school to a career as an actress in New York City. Erica (Okazu) Friedman is on the case. The series ran for a total of seven volumes.

Aisuru Hito, written and illustrated by Yuki Yoshihara, serialized in Shogakukan’s Petit Comic. This smutty, four-volume comedy follows the dubious attempts of a broke college student to stay close to the professor she adores. This kind of story seems to be a specialty for Yoshihara, who also created Butterflies, Flowers (Viz).

Licensed josei:

  • All My Darling Daughters, written and illustrated by Fumi Yoshinaga, published by Viz, one volume, originally serialized in Hakusensha’s Melody.
  • Angel, written and illustrated by Erica Sakurazawa, published by Tokyopop, one volume, originally serialized by Shodensha. (I’m sure I’ll have occasion to mention this again, but Johanna Draper Carlson wrote a piece on Sakurazawa’s translated manga for The Comics Journal that she’s made available at Manga Worth Reading.)
  • Angel Nest, written and illustrated by Erica Sakurazawa, published by Tokyopop, one volume, originally serialized by Shodensha.
  • The Aromatic Bitters, written and illustrated by Erica Sakurazawa, published by Tokyopop, one volume, originally serialized by Shodensha.
  • Awabi, written and illustrated by Kan Takahama, is licensed for publication in English by Fanfare/Ponent Mon, but it’s on hold. These short stories originally ran in Yukagu Shorin’s Junkudo.

What starts with “A” in your Josei Alphabet?

Reader recommendations and reminders:

  • Anywhere But Here, written and illustrated by Moto Hagio, originally serialized in Shogakukan’s flowers, two volumes.
  • Ashita no Ousama, written and illustrated by Emiko Yachi, originally serialized in Shueisha’s Young You, 10 volumes.
  • Amatsuki, written and illustrated by Shinobu Takayama, currently serialized in Ichijinsha’s Comic Zero-Sum, 12 volumes at the time of this writing. due for publication in French by Kaze.
  • Amazoness no Matsue
  • Aru You de Nai Otoko, written and illustrated by Miho Obana, originally serialized in Shueisha’s Chorus, 1 volume.

Demon Sacred Volume 3

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Demon Sacred Volume 3 by Natsumi Itsuki

I absolutely love this series. The third volume wasn’t quite as crazy as the first two, but some good stuff happens. We get to see melancholy teen idol Keito’s reaction to meeting his demon doppleganger K2 and learn that Shinobu, hot young doctor and guardian to mystical teen twin girls has an Evil! Adoptive! European! Family! in his past. I feel somehow like this manga should come packaged with a musical microchip to play suitable dramatic music during these important plot revelations.

Nothing good can happen when a doppleganger takes the place of a teen idol in a photo shoot and manages to produce better pictures. Keito is amazed and disturbed when he sees photos of K2, and a little worried about his livelihood because the photographer is saying that he doesn’t need any other subjects for the rest of his life. Keito tracks down K2 at Mona and Rina’s house, and the teens begin to hash out this case of mistaken idol identity. Mona learns that Keito has been orphaned by return syndrome too. He sent his parents on a celebratory trip when he made it big, and they disappeared after encountering demons. Mona’s hesitant about telling Keito the truth about K2, but they end up forming an alliance after Mona explains about the increased numbers of demons, the possible government involvement, and her desire to cure Rina’s return syndrome. Itsuki continues to do a great job with characterization for two people that look the same but have totally different personalities. Keito is mature and a little bit withholding and glum, which is at odds with his job. K2 is a dangerous 5000 year old little kid with a severe case of puppy love. When Mona hugs him and tells him she’s glad to see him when he shows up just in time to fend off a demon attack, he’s delighted.

Shinobu has plenty of problems to deal with when he is abruptly called into work due to his malicious European adoptive siblings suddenly showing up to find out how he’s doing with the family business. It turns out that tortured scientist Shinobu is tortured because his evil blond brother Helmut abused him so badly as a young child, he lost his memory of the abuse. Now nothing is left but Shinobu’s severe repulsion whenever he has to look at Helmut’s angelic Aryan face. Shinobu has a few other evil European siblings but the one that seems like the most trouble next to Helmut is the bitchy Zophie, who quickly susses out the woman at work who has a crush on her Japanese brother, makes some horribly cutting comments, and figures out that Shinobu’s research interests are not what they seem. She really is amazingly efficient.

I put down this volume amazed at the sheer amount of plot Itzuki was able to cram into 200 pages. I didn’t even mention the way the group dealt with the pesky Griffin that’s been bothering them, and the hints about demon/human chain relations and the nature of K2’s power. Sometimes Demon Sacred has passages here and there that rely a little too much on exposition, but the world that Itsuki is building is so interesting, I don’t mind it at all. Demon Sacred‘s combination of cute guys, plucky in the face of tragedy teen girls, and wacky fantasy complete with conspiracy theories is so compelling. I can’t wait for the next volume.

Canada is just plain cooler

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The Toronto Comics Art Festival has scored a coup:

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) is excited to announce that internationally renowned manga creator Natsume Ono will make her first-ever North American public appearance as a Featured Guest at TCAF 2011. Hailing from Japan, Ono is one of the most exciting and unique women working in the medium today, and she will appear on panels and sign books in support of her English language works at Toronto Reference Library, May 7 and 8, 2011. Ono appears with the support of her English-language publisher VIZ Media.

Since I can’t resist praising Ono whenever her name comes up, I will happily repeat another paragraph from the press release:

“Ono’s fantastic work fits squarely into the ‘art comix’ idiom that’s at the core of the Festival,” enthuses Festival Director Christopher Butcher. “It’s the type of work we try to encourage. She’s a true auteur, working in a variety of styles and on different subjects, and her work is sure to find favour with fans of our other Featured Guests including Chris Ware, Jillian Tamaki, Mawil, and Adrian Tomine.”

You may recognize Mr. Butcher from his awesome blog or his work as manager of The Beguiling.

The cruelties of the calendar generally mean I can’t travel during the Festival, but I’m sure Ono’s appearances will be packed. I would certainly be elbowing people out of the way to get floor space, believe me. This is because I uniformly adore Ono’s work, going so far as to theoretically adore work that has yet to be published in English.

Other people who are excited by this news include Brigid (Robot 6) Alverson, Deb (About.Com) Aoki, and Heidi (The Beat) MacDonald. Erica (Okazu) Friedman and I were yammering on Twitter the other day about her concept of a “fifth genre” of manga that extends beyond, fuses, or ignores traditional demographic categories, and I only half jokingly suggested that you can identify a fifth-genre anthology by its serialization of work by Natsume Ono. Sure, she hasn’t had work run in Comic Beam, to my knowledge, but she’s all over IKKI, Manga Erotics F and Morning Two.

Enter the Digital Manga Guild

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Back in November, I posted a quick blog entry about the Digital Manga Guild, asking readers what they thought of its pretty radical proposal. Not unsurprisingly, much of the response was wary. Prospective participants were unwilling to trust an untested system with admittedly sketchy details on things like process and payment.

With that in mind, I contacted the folks at Digital Manga Publishing to ask how they’d feel about having someone report from the inside. I proposed that I sign up and take the editor’s test, and if I passed, I’d enter the Guild as both a participant and a journalist, reporting my experiences at Manga Bookshelf, so that prospective Guild members could get a real feel for how the Guild works, where the kinks are, and how the process might evolve during its debut run. To their credit, DMP was very enthusiastic about my proposal, and eager to hear any feedback I might have for them along the way. They also gave me the go-ahead to reveal anything about the Guild I felt necessary, including details like payment.

Last night, I received notification that I passed the editor’s test, so I guess it’s time to begin! I have three important notes before going forward. First, in order to report accurately, I must treat my participation as seriously as anyone else going in. So I’ll be approaching the DMG as a job with hard deadlines and high standards. Secondly, as a journalist, I feel it would be inappropriate for me to accept payment from DMG, so anything I personally make on the job will be donated to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. And lastly, I want to assure any participants who end up working with me that I will never reveal their names in my reports, and that my intention is to report on the Guild and not them.

Unsure if I’d be going forward until I received the results of my test, I took a few notes along the way. We’ll start with those here, with more detailed reports to come as my experience really gets underway.

11/4/10 – Just submitted my pre-registration. The process was easy, though the information requested seems sparse. Since I’ve never edited manga before, I submitted links to my own website, with a bit of discussion on other writing and editing I’ve done. From the form, I get little sense of how much experience they’re really looking for, or if the only thing that really matters is the upcoming test. Time will tell.

11/9/10 – Submitted my editor’s test. Had a little trouble uploading, because the file format the test was delivered in is not one of the formats accepted by their uploader. The webpage promises I’ll be contacted “shortly” but discussion on the forums reveals that they have a high volume of submissions & it might take a while. It might be nice to have a little more clarity on this subject. Also confusing, they are asking people who registered as individuals to form groups on their own, even though we haven’t found out yet if we’ve passed the test. This seems backwards.

1/31/11 – Received notice of acceptance into the Guild!

Dear MJ,

Thank you for taking the test, and for your patience in our grading. We are happy to let you know that you have passed the test, and welcome you to the Digital Manga Guild! If you haven’t already, please begin forming a group of at least three (typesetter, editor, and translator) and choosing one member to be your representative. The group representative will handle all communication, projects, and payments, so choose wisely! Feel free to visit our forums (http://www.digitalmanga.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=56) to find other group members. We will be contacting you very soon with the next step, including more details on a Q&A teleconference in mid-February with our President and agreement forms. Congratulations and welcome to the Guild!

Sincerely,
Digital Manga Publishing

My next step is to try to find myself a group. Most of the groupless have gathered in this thread at the DMG forum to introduce themselves and spell out their experience. It’s immediately apparent that there are more homeless editors than anything else, so we may have some difficulty each finding a place. With this in mind, my initial feedback to DMG is that I think some of the groupless editors feel a bit lost at this point. Understanding that the DMP staff is pretty swamped, I hope they’ll be able to provide a little moderation and assistance should things get dicey for groupless participants.

I’ll be posting my credentials over there along with the rest. Anyone want to join up with me? Please let me know!

More updates to come!

ETA: I’ve (sort of, maybe definitely) been invited to a group! More on this in the next installment!

Upcoming 2/2/2011

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No one should be surprised by my Pick of the Week, should they? With that out of the way, I thought I’d take a look at two of the titles on this week’s crowded ComicList. (Okay, they aren’t confirmed on the list, but they’re probably already available through sources other than Diamond.)

I’ve had a pretty good track record with comics about yokai, diverse supernatural creatures of varying degrees of menace. It’s a fairly popular genre, though, so you’re bound to come across a mediocrity from time to time. This week, the middling yokai are brought by Hiroshi Shiibashi’s Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (Viz). It’s about a dull boy whose one-quarter yokai heritage puts him in line to be the big boss of a motley group of minor demons. He’s surrounded by fabulously rendered, energetic creatures who spend too much time in the background in favor of his stereotypical human classmates.

Rikuo wants to emphasize his human heritage rather than his yokai legacy. He objects to the anti-human meanness of his prospective subjects, and he struggles to conceal his weird home life when he’s at school. Dangerous circumstances occasionally draw the yokai part of Rikuo to the forefront, and he becomes an assertive butt-kicker who bears at least a passing resemblance to InuYasha. This only serves to remind you that there’s better folklore-based manga out there for your perusal.

Even with a sprawling cast of frequently charming monsters at his disposal, Shiibashi can’t seem to devote much attention to them. He’s more interested in Rikuo’s secret-identity shenanigans, his generically flinty female friend, and the idiot rival who develops a boy-crush on Rikuo’s forceful alter ego. They’re a predictable group, as are their escapades. I’d much rather see what was happening at Rikuo’s yokai-packed family manse than follow this shônen-ready Marilyn Munster around.

On a happier, though still decidedly gothic note, I like the second volume of Kaori Yuki’s Grand Guignol Orcheastra (Viz) better than I did the first. It inches closer to becoming a Yuki title that I can fully embrace, balancing melodrama, a dizzying aesthetic, and weird spikes of both humor and gore.

For those who have forgotten, it’s about a traveling group of magicians who battle the zombies that have overrun their sort-of period, kind-of European country. Their leader and vocalist, a guy named Lucille, has dark secrets and likes to dress in drag. Their pianist, a girl named Eles, has a tragic past and disguises herself as a boy. Their companions are seedy, and the government line on their efforts is ambivalent on the best days.

In the second volume, Yuki seems to find both a more assured narrative rhythm and more underlying heft to her story. The back story she reveals about Lucille adds necessary layers to the character without undermining his essential ridiculousness. It also provides a strong, underlying subplot to fuel future stories.

Yuki’s penchant for the absurd and just slightly perverse is still on unapologetic display. Our protagonists go undercover in a convent, looking for a sacred relic and investigating the grisly murders of young nuns. This mini-arc is shaping up to be both creepy and very funny, provided you find secretive nuns committing and subjected to unexpected violence funny, which, I assure you, I do.

Grand Guignol Orchestra is still a bit on the bubble for me, but it’s sliding off of it and onto firmer ground. It’s not a singular kind of story, but Yuki’s work is as coherent as I’ve seen it while still displaying the quirkiness that’s made her a sort of superstar.

(Comments are based on review copies provided by the publisher. Nura is currently running in Shueisha’s Weekly Shônen Jump, and it’s up to about 14 volumes, so maybe it gets better. Grand Guignol Orchestra ran for five volumes in Hakusensha’s Bessatsu Hana to Yume.)

As for books that will be available through Diamond, the highlight has to be the 13th volume of Osamu Tezuka’s medical melodrama, Black Jack (Vertical). In the perfectly understandable excitement over Vertical’s announcement of the licensing of Tezuka’s Princess Knight, we shouldn’t forget this often gruesome, frequently moving, creepily funny classic.

Another excellent arrival is the 22nd volume of Hikaru no Go (Viz), written by Yumi Hotta and illustrated by Takeshi (Death Note, Bakuman) Obata. This marvelous series about a young man who dreams of becoming a great Go player ends with volume 23, I think, but it’s worth starting from the beginning if you haven’t yet done so.

I haven’t read the first volume yet, but various enthusiastic reviews have persuaded me that I need to catch up with Yuuki Fujimoto’s The Stellar Six of Gingacho (Tokyopop), second volume due Wednesday, about a group of kids, all children of local shopkeepers, who try and reestablish their waning friendship. In my defense, Tokyopop’s marketing is often confusing to me, and I’m never sure if I’m going to get The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko or KimiKiss.

PotW: Shounen Manga FTW!

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Though MJkicks off this week’s Picks with a new shoujo favorite, the theme of the week is resoundingly shounen, according to David, Kate, and special guest Michelle Smith!

From MJ: There’s quite a bit of new shoujo on Midtown Comics’ list this week, including favorites like Kimi ni Todoke and Seiho Boys’ High School! But the one I most consider an absolute must-read is volume two of previous Pick The Story of Saiunkoku, art by Kairi Yura, adapted from the novels by Sai Yukino. The series’ first volume charmed me completely with its smart, capable heroine and compelling palace intrigue, even earning itself a place on my list of Best Manga of 2010. Don’t believe me? Check out David’s recent review, fully as delightful a read as the book itself. A strong opening volume can be a tough act to follow, so I look forward to discovering what Yura and Yukino have in store.

From David: I’m going to take this opportunity to remind people of my abiding love for Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece and pick the 56th volume of this sprawling, hilarious pirate saga. It would probably not be wise to recommend that someone who has never picked up a volume of this series start with the 56th volume, unless that person is a fan of great action cartooning. Our hero, Luffy D. Monkey, is staging a massive jailbreak, battling sinister jailers and gathering an ever-larger gang of allies along the way. The chief joy in these giant set pieces is to see how Oda manages to combine wildly improbable action, comedy, and heart in a mad jumble that always seems on the verge of spinning out of control, but never does.

From Kate: My choice is Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, a new shonen series that VIZ has been promoting up a storm. The story focuses on a young teen whose grandfather leads a demon clan. Gramps wants Rikuo to follow in his footsteps, but there’s a catch: Rikuo is only one-quarter demon, and can’t control when or for how long he turns into a yokai. Not surprisingly, Rikuo’s iffy powers don’t inspire much confidence among the full-blooded yokai, and various factions try to prevent Rikuo from succeeding his grandfather. The story hasn’t quite found its groove: the comic relief scenes aren’t particularly funny, and the characters haven’t come into their own yet. But the pacing is smart and the yokai designs nifty (think Gegege no Kitaro meets the Hokusai Manga), so I think it’s worth pursuing, especially for readers who liked Kekkaishi and Natsume’s Book of Friends.

From Michelle: It’s another wallet-busting week for manga! I’m definitely excited about new volumes of some Shojo Beat favorites, as well as volume three of Bakuman, which I realize isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but honestly, the one release on this list that has me going, “Eee!” more than any other is volume fourteen of Slam Dunk. Why? Because I’m allowed to read this one! You see, this is a series that benefits from being read in multiple-volume chunks, which occasionally requires me to bide my time and sit on some books until I have amassed enough to read them. I’ve been doing that with volume thirteen. Honestly, two volumes really aren’t enough to satisfy one’s appetite, but it’s better than nothing! And yes, I know, I know. I really should read Inoue’s REAL, which is, I’m sure, the better manga, but that doesn’t keep me from loving Slam Dunk whole-heartedly.

Amazon.com Widgets

So, readers, what is your must-buy manga this week?

Eensy Weensy Monster 1 by Masami Tsuda: B

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From the back cover:
Nanoha Satsuki, an average, plain-Jane high school student, comfortably spends her time in the shadow of her two beautiful, popular friends. But new guy Hazuki Tokiwa, with his snobbish, arrogant demeanor, has a way of getting under Nanoha’s skin, and releasing her inner monster!

Is this the beginning of an ugly relationship, or does Hazuki have his own hidden qualities?

Review:
I feel a little guilty that I’ve started another Masami Tsuda series rather than actually finish Kare Kano, but this one is so short and cute and I really will finish the other one this year, I swear!

Nanoha Satsuki is normally a calm, friendly girl. Even the attention paid to her childhood friends—princely Nobara, dubbed the “Lady Oscar” of the school, and genius Renge—doesn’t get her down. For some reason, though, a superficial boy named Hazuki and his snobby ways really get her goat. Nanoha attributes these mysterious feelings of anger to a “little parasite” and does her best to keep a lid on them, but one day she’s had enough and lays into Hazuki for being arrogant and narrow-minded.

Should it be a surprise to anyone that these two will eventually end up together? No, but how they get there is actually pretty interesting. After the outburst, Nanoha lives in fear of some kind of retribution, but her words have actually shocked Hazuki out of his reverie. Bratty vanity, as it turns out, is his little monster to overcome. He realizes he has no real friends or goals and comes to appreciate her hard-working qualities. In time, Nanoha is able to relax when he’s around, and by the end of the first volume—after the passage of several months—they’ve become friends.

Tsuda is very good at depicting the opening stages of a couple’s relationship—the first two volumes of Kare Kano are still my favorite part—and puts those skills to good use here. One technique she’s fond of is putting the girl’s perspective of events on the right-side page, and the boy’s on the left, and it works nicely here. For all of the moments when Nanoha catches Hazuki looking at her and thinks he’s plotting something dastardly or contemplating her lack of academic prowess, we see that he’s usually thinking things like, “If I want to be a better person, I should learn from someone like her.”

The overall tone is lighthearted, but one does come to like the leads a good deal by the end. Nanoha’s friends are quirky, too, and I’d like to know more about them, but if the couple gets together in the first two volumes and then we spend loads of time on their friends, I guess this would just turn into a clone of Tsuda’s more famous series.

As a final note, I must mention how much I love what Tsuda does with Hazuki’s fangirls. Immediately after being told off by Nanoha, Hazuki goes to them for sympathy. Instead, they all laugh in his face. “She sees right through you! I mean, we all like you, but we wouldn’t go out with you or anything.” Later, when Hazuki and Nanoha have gotten friendly, a few girls decide that they ought to bully her, but they’re rotten at it. At one point a cluster of girls follows Nanoha after school with the intention of threatening her, only to instinctively end up rallying to her defense when it looks like she’s been accosted by a creepy dude. Then they all find a new prince to swoon over. The end.

In the end, Eensy Weensy Monster is a totally cute and sweet shoujo romance. It probably won’t convert anyone to either the demographic or the genre, but it will provide an afternoon’s pleasant amusement to existing fans of both.

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!

Chatty types

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Here are a couple of links to recent conversations on comics in which I’ve been a participant:

First, Kate (The Manga Critic) Dacey and I talked over Nicolas de Crécy’s Salvatore, recently released by NBM.

Second, genial host Ed (Manga Worth Reading) Sizemore held a Manga Out Loud podcast on Felipe Smith’s edgy Peepo Choo (Vertical), and invited Erica (Okazu) Friedman, MJ(Manga Bookshelf) and me to join in.

From the stack: Set to Sea

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After the announcement of one of my favorite annual award programs, the Great Graphic Novels for Teens, I decided it might be fun to look at all of the books in the top ten this year. Since the list is always interesting and varied, it’s less of a homework assignment than a usefully structured pleasure.

I wish I could claim some metaphorical design in my first choice, but it was made at random. There’s nothing random about Drew Weing’s Set to Sea, though, which publisher Fantagraphics describes as “part rollicking adventure, part maritime ballad told in visual rhyme.” If that last part sounds a little pretentious, don’t worry. Fantagraphics’ solicitations always sound a little pretentious, even when they’re absolutely true.

Weing’s story does have the shapeliness of a poem, and it has the careful structure of a three-act play. It follows a would-be poet as he becomes an unwilling participant in the kind of seafaring adventures he tries to set to verse. In spite of his imposing size, he’s a tentative sort, and the brutality of life at sea takes a while to penetrate. When it does, he still maintains his artist’s viewpoint, and Weing neatly persuades us that art of any sort is better with some life experience to inform it.

That may seem to be a little ironic, given that Set to Sea is Weing’s debut graphic novel. He’s an experienced creator of webcomics, though, and that’s where this book was born. Consequently, each page is a single panel, but each of those panels is so attractively detailed and evocative that the storytelling structure never feels rigid. Instead, it comes across as economical and precise while still filled with event and emotion. It’s a quick read, but it’s very satisfying, and it just invites you to revisit the story again.

You could read it online, obviously, but the physical package is very handsome and worth the investment. In dimension, it’s like a diary or sketchbook that a traveler would carry, appropriately enough. Kevin (Robot 6) Melrose listed its cover as one of the best of 2010, and he’s quite right. The book itself wound up on a number of Best of 2010 lists, including Andrew Salmond’s and Martin Steenton’s at Forbidden Planet International, Brigid Alverson’s at Robot 6, and the Vulture blog of New York Magazine, and Glen Weldon of NPR’s Monkey See counted it among his most memorable comics and graphic novels of the year.

Set to Sea offers a wonderful beginning to this little project of mine. It’s artistically successful on every front, but Weing’s substantial craftsmanship never overwhelms the simple, heartfelt story he’s telling.

Other reviews in this intermittent series:

You can nominate titles for the next Great Graphic Novel for Teen List, and you can take a look at the current batch of contenders.