3 Things Thursday

3 Things Thursday: SOS

November 13, 2014 by MJ 8 Comments

As I was casting about for ideas for this week’s column, I found myself consistently drawn back to a manga-related quandary in my own life that I have not quite been able to resolve. As you know, I have recently opened up my personal manga collection as a library for my students (with a few rules in place about age appropriateness). It’s gone about as well as I expected, which is to say that a small number have shown interest. My problem is this: while I have had no trouble at all recommending manga for my teen students, I have been pretty well flummoxed by requests for recommendations from parents of my tweens. These kids are mostly girls, 9-11 (some will turn 12 over the course of this school year), very smart, highly imaginative, fabulously ambitious, heavy readers, into the arts, and not particularly interested in romance or other “teen” concerns. And while I have a few series I’ve recommended for kids in this age range in the past, I don’t consider them ideal for a number of reasons. Let’s take a look:

1. Shugo Chara! | Peach Pit | Kodansha Comics – This is a title I love very much and have recommended for younger readers in the past, for lots of reasons. It’s got a fantastic female protagonist (and lots of other great girl characters as well), wonderful friendships, an emphasis on positivity and cooperation, action, adventure, pretty artwork, and some pretty enticing, tween-fantasy romance, the likes of which my childhood self would have eaten up with a spoon. Thing is, these girls are (for the most part) much, much less interested in boys than I was a their age, which is great, but also makes this a far less compelling choice. Also, the early storytelling and artwork, especially, I think might strike these girls as childish (which, I find, tends to be way less forgivable to actual children than it is to adults). So as much as I love this series, I am having trouble recommending it to these particular girls. Also in this category: Cardcaptor Sakura.

2. Sugar Sugar Rune | Moyoco Anno | Del Rey Manga – While this title is more combative than romantic, its wry take on romance as a competitive sport between girls is commenting on a social structure that, frankly, I’m hoping these particular girls are going to play a part in crushing. In my day, girls their age were already learning how to hate each other and bring each other down in pursuit of popularity with boys, and I see none of that at all in this collection of smart, empowered young girls. In fact, their kindness to each other pretty much blows me away any time I see them interacting as a group. The kind of competitiveness Sugar Sugar Rune so deftly skewers just does not seem to be part of their lives, and I’m hesitant to introduce it to them. Same problem (though less humorously approached): Fushigi Yugi.

3. Fullmetal Alchemist | Hiromu Arakawa | Viz Media – I love Fullmetal Alchemist. Everyone knows how much I love Fullmetal Alchemist. This is not a secret. So it should come to no surprise to anyone that it tends to be my number-one go-to manga recommendation for any kid with reading skills developed enough to take it on. It’s got incredible world-building, intricate plotting, compelling characters, heart-wrenching drama, hilarious comedy, action, adventure, fantastic artwork, minimal romance, and (hooray!) awesome female characters. Unfortunately, none of those female characters is the protagonist. There is nothing wrong with this. It’s a shounen manga, and its protagonists are among my favorites of all time. They are smart and funny and totally woman-friendly. They are written by an extremely talented woman. All these are reasons why this is my number-one, most recommended series for kids, including these girls. But man do I wish that I had something this good to recommend to them with girl protagonists, but without the romance themes they do not care about. At all. Similar problem: Hikaru no Go.

So let’s get to the real reason for this column. I do not doubt that there are series floating around that are perfect for my tween girls. I’m certain there are. I just may not own them. For the sake of these students (and for mine as well!), however, I’d be open to picking up a series or two to add to my library. So what do you recommend. With the girls I’ve described in mind, what manga would you recommend I give them?

3 Things Thursday: Pretty Pictures

October 30, 2014 by MJ 4 Comments

Wow, this has been a weird week. I mean, really, seriously weird. Weird on levels I can’t quite talk about here. But whatever the weirdness, it is in times like these that I really just want to look at something pretty. No, seriously. That’s the only thing to be done. So today, that’s what we’re going to do. It’s Thursday. And these are…

3 manga spreads that are just freaking beautiful:

You’ve seen them here before… you’ll see them again.

1. The Heart of Thomas | by Moto Hagio | Fantagraphics

2. Please Save My Earth | By Saki Hiwatari | Viz Media

3. xxxHolic | By CLAMP | Del Rey Manga

I have more. So many more. But this will do for now. Got favorites of your own? Gimme!

3 Things Thursday: It’s Problematic

October 23, 2014 by MJ 10 Comments

As we near the end of my first full year at my new job, I’ve once again been finding more time to read and talk about manga (and hurray for that, I’d like to say). As a side-effect of that, my once music-centric Tumblr has seen an increase in manga-related posts and reblogs. This is mostly a perfectly fine thing, but given Tumblr’s fandom-heavy vibe, I think it’s safe to say that I must have experienced some kind of temporary loss of wits a week or so ago when I chose that as my venue for a brief rant on a popular(ish) manga ‘ship. Fortunately, Tumblr fans were fairly kind to me over the incident, but really, what was I thinking?

If you dared to click, you’ll know by now that my rant centered on a particularly destructive and tragic canon relationship between the two male leads of CLAMP’s Tokyo Babylon, and my lack of ability to understand why or how fans could actively ‘ship a pairing that was born pretty blatantly out of deception, cruelty, and (at best) sick curiosity. And I’ll admit that, though I now have a deeper understanding of their devotion to the ‘ship, I simply can’t get on board. As much as I love Tokyo Babylon (and I really, really love Tokyo Babylon), I’ll never be able to view Seishirou’s carefully calculated seduction of Subaru (and its significant collateral damage) as anything but horrible.

“Well, that’s just fine,” you say, “Judge McJudgy-pants.” And okay, I see your point. And before you add “hypocrite” under your breath, I’ll be the first to admit… YES. I have some pretty problematic ‘ships in my own catalogue. And even if maybe no part of them ever murdered anyone’s sister (ahem) I can’t deny that there are… issues. Really serious issues. Sometimes. Okay. Whatever. *sigh*

3 Problematic Relationships I Accidentally Love (or something like that):

1. Hachi/Nobu (NANA) – She’s a married lady (*@#!@^&#*^@&* Takumi grrrrrrr) whose poor judgement and inability to deal with romantic confrontation completely destroyed him and he’s a sweet but kind of codependent musician whose weakness and privileged upbringing will almost assuredly cause him to lose his current girlfriend (like it did with Hachi, whether he knew it or not). But even after all this time, and increasing unlikelihood that we’ll ever find out what really happens in this series, I CAN’T LET IT GO. Like Nobu, I’m always going to be hanging on to that tiny piece of hope, even when it’s obviously, irretrievably gone. And like Nobu, I’ll probably hate Takumi forever. Screw Hachi’s legal and emotional commitments. And… her children? GAH. Um. She belongs with Nobu. Damnit. Sorry, that’s just the way things are. Also, along these totally destructive and morally questionable lines? Shin/Reira. I ‘ship it. Sorry, I just do. Here, have some pictures:

(click image to enlarge – read right-to-left)

2. Seth/Shonach (Moon Child) – This one is really tough for me, but there’s a part of me that can’t let it go. So. Seth is a genderless fish alien who has yet to mature into female mermaid form (yes, seriously, this is a thing), and Shonach is a freaking human jerk who fails to recognize the awesomeness he has at hand. It’s hard for me to admit that I ‘ship this pairing at all, because, well… from our discussion of the series: “… it really bothers me that his [Shonach’s] obsession with Benjamin’s [Seth’s sister] beauty (her beauty only—he doesn’t care about her as a person at all, really) keeps him from being able to appreciate the best parts of Seth, to the point that even at the end, when Seth has matured into a female, he can only see her as Benjamin. That the only expression of true affection Seth ever really gets from Shonach is when he believes she is Benjamin really breaks my heart.” Also, that my personal justification for the ‘ship (“because Seth wants it”) is pretty much exactly the same as one fan’s justification of her Subaru/Seishirou ‘shipping (“because Subaru wants it”) has not escaped my notice.

(read right-to-left)

3. Ritsuka/Soubi (Loveless) – I can’t even really believe I’m putting this on the list, because not only is it just wrong on so many levels, but I don’t even want it as a romantic or sexual relationship. But the difference between this age-inappropriate ‘ship (Ritsuka: twelve; Soubi: … not twelve) and a few others I notably enjoy (Amu/Ikuto in Shugo Chara!, Alice/Rin in Please Save My Earth) is that, though it is the only one that is not explicitly romantic, it is by far the most sexualized, and there’s no getting around that. Yun Kouga does not let us get around that, as I’ve lamented many times. So I feel that to not include it on this list would be pretty dishonest. No, I don’t want to see Ritsuka and Soubi’s relationship become more romantic/sexual than it currently is. No, I am not even comfortable with what it currently is. Yes, I want them to be able to be together and stay together, whatever that means, because Soubi (especially) needs it—you know what, they both need it, and I’m sort of willing to accept that that’s probably awful. And. Yeah.

(read right-to-left)

So there’s my own sort-of ‘shipping shame. What about you?

3 Things Thursday: NETCOMICS

October 16, 2014 by MJ 3 Comments

It’s been over three years since Michelle and I published an Off the Shelf column entitled, “NETCOMICS Lives!” A year later, it seemed that our excitement was perhaps premature, as new chapter releases dwindled and the company’s social media accounts went dark. But this year, once again, we’ve seen signs of life! I’m a bit late realizing it, myself. When, just yesterday, the NETCOMICS Twitter account suddenly favorited two old tweets of mine from 2012, I headed over to the website, only to find that not only had NETCOMICS attended Anime Expo this year, but they were also releasing a new print series, Give to the Heart, the first volume of which was just released this week!

Give to the Heart is written by Wann, an artist I’ve had mixed experiences with (see 100% Perfect Girl), but her series So I Married an Anti-Fan was one of the charming new series Michelle and I got so excited about back in 2011, so I can’t help but feel optimistic. Most notably, as I mentioned, Give to the Heart is being released in print which I admit I far prefer over the company’s only other current method of distribution—its chapter-by-chapter, short-term rentals.

I still deeply regret not picking up all my favorite NETCOMICS series in print when they were available. In fact, one of my tweets that NETCOMICS recently favorited was this from February 9th, 2012: “Random wish–I read all 15 volumes of Let Dai digitally at @NETCOMICS… kinda wish I owned the complete print run. Volumes very $ now, tho.” Honestly, this is still true, perhaps even more now than it was in 2012. The longer I’m a fan, the more careful I am about keeping my personal print collection relevant and manageable, but it is series like Let Dai—epic fantasies (romantic or otherwise) with memorable characters and lovely artwork—that I most long to keep around.

Not only that, it’s exactly the kind of series I’d be pleased to share with my teen students, as it’s both the strengths and flaws of a series like this that make it something I’d have enjoyed most when I was a teen. If I enjoy it as an adult despite its excessively violent and melodramatic nature, I’d have loved it for exactly those things when I was twelve or thirteen. For this reason, I’ll likely pick up the print volumes of Give to the Heart as they become available, just in case it might become a source of later regret.

So what am I getting at here? What are my 3 things? Okay, here we go:

3 NETCOMICS series I wish I owned in print:

1. Do Whatever You Want | Yeri Na Oh, English-language publishing has been so cruel to Yeri Na. While I’m happy to have been able to read this series in its entirety on NETCOMICS’ site (a fate much kinder than that of Drama Queen’s ill-fated license for Peter Panda), a short-term rental just really can’t do this series justice. Like Let Dai, it’s a series that deserves a long shelf life, being re-read and shared and discussed in squeeful hushed tones between teens (or adults who still remember being teens). This is a terrific title that ends up being both deeper and larger in scope than it might initially appear. I own the first three published volumes, and they do sit happily on my shelf. I would dearly love to be able to add the remaining four. Pipe dreams… pipe dreams. Note: This same, unfinished fate also applies to Roureville.

2. Full House | Sooyeon Won – From the same gloriously over-the-top mind that brought us Let Dai, Full House was rescued from its original doomed publication by the defunct Central Park Media, and thankfully brought to us in its entirety to us via NETCOMICS’ digital platform. Unfortunately it remains in that format only. From my review of the second volume: “Though this series is, frankly, stunningly predictable, to leave it at that would be a grave oversimplification. Manhwa-ga Sooyeon Won has an extraordinary talent for turning romantic cliché into storytelling gold … Her secret to this is brazen excess, which in this case applies to the series’ endless stream of classic screwball comedy banter—precisely the thing that makes the story so much fun in the first place.” We wants it, precious… ON OUR SHELVES. *weep*

3. Small-Minded Schoolgirls | Toma – This three-volume series is the only one on this list that has never enjoyed a print run, and while I certainly understand the (apparent) difficulty in marketing comics for adult women, this truly is a shame. This unsentimental comic was one of my favorites in 2009, and remained so through the end of its run on NETCOMICS. Its idiosyncratic art style and fantastic female characters belong on my shelf next to Moyoco Anno, Natsume Ono, and Fumi Yoshinaga. What a wonderful collection that would be! Out of all the titles on this list, Small-Minded Schoolgirls is also the one I’d recommend most fervently to new readers. Its length makes it a low-cost, low-committment option at twenty cents a chapter (you can read the entire thing for under $3). It’s really a crime *not* to read it!

Of course, while I can avoid blame for not owning these non-existent volumes in print, will I ever recover from my lack of foresight in failing to buy Let Dai? Probably not. How about you? What NETCOMICS series do you wish you owned in print?

3 Things Thursday: Kouga’s Women

July 18, 2013 by MJ 3 Comments

If you’ve been a reader of this blog for any significant amount of time, you’ll know that I gravitate towards female writers—a tendency I wasn’t even fully aware of myself until the moment I realized that nearly all of the series that made my personal top ten list a couple of years ago had been written by women. Fortunately, this preference tends to offer me a fairly spectacular array of terrific female characters to meet and fall in love with, and I’ll be grateful to the Japanese comics industry forever for nurturing the talent of so many incredible female artists and publishing them in such volume.

Unfortunately, there is one female-dominated manga genre in which female characters are drastically under-utilized (and often vilified), and that would be boys’ love. And yes, I do realize that a love story in which both members of the primary romance are male will inevitably have male characters at its center, and that there isn’t often room in the romantic universe of two for anyone else of significance. Still, I admit I long to see relatable female characters as essential parts of any story, and I tend to hold BL authors who agree in the highest regard.

The male-centric sensibility often applies to shoujo manga as well—particularly those penned by creators who enjoy a strong undercurrent of BL subtext in their work, and this absolutely describes Yun Kouga. After all, even Gestalt‘s kick-ass heroine, Ouri, is actually a man temporarily endowed with a female form. Still, Kouga-sensei does not let me down! Female characters are always part of the fabric of her stories, even the most BL-rific of her worlds. For today’s 3 Things Thursday, I’ll look at three of these!

3 favorite female characters in the worlds of Yun Kouga:

1. Gestalt: Suzu – Ouri is a scene-stealing character from Gestalt‘s start to its finish, but I admit that my true heart belongs to dark elf Suzu, who begins as an antagonist, sent by the church to capture and return Father Olivier, and slowly but surely becomes part of our heroes’ party. Though she’s a character who is slow to open up, even to the reader, this scene in volume three in which she finds the courage to battle her sisters, by whom she’s been made to feel inadequate for pretty much her entire life, really begins to reveal who Suzu is. And that Suzu is awesome.

2. Earthian: Elvira – Though Earthian‘s romantic drama revolves largely around its primary couple—partnered angels Chihaya and Kagetsuya—a major key to its larger plot is human/angel hybrid Elvira, daughter of the fallen angel Seraphim, who fell in love with a human woman. Her role is complicated in many ways, but it’s her persistence that brings to light the angels’ true plans for the Earthian. She’s smart, angry, manipulative when she needs to be, and I can’t get enough of her.

3. Loveless: Yamato & Kouya – It may seem like I’m cheating by choosing these two characters together, but together is the way they belong, and they’re willing to risk life as they know it to ensure that it’s how they’ll remain. The story of this “Zero” team is one of my favorites in Loveless‘ early volumes, and I particularly love the way that Kouga-sensei references and then rejects the trope sometimes known as “Bury Your Gays” by setting these two up to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their love, and then turning that completely on its head. Also, they just kick ass.

Do you have favorite female characters created by Yun Kouga? Share them here!

To submit your contributions to the Yun Kouga MMF for inclusion in this month’s archive, please send your links by email to mj@mangabookshelf.com or via Twitter to @mjbeasi between now and Saturday, July 20th. If you would like your contribution(s) to be hosted at Manga Bookshelf, please email them to MJ, along with any included images. Contributions to the Yun Kouga MMF will be archived here.

3 Things Thursday: Wishful Thinking

April 18, 2013 by MJ 11 Comments

Today, as the Battle Robot chatted about next week’s new manga (see Sean’s post later this evening), a title came up that is one I have tried hard to like, but failed utterly to do so. My desire to “like” is large, in general. I’m a liker. I like to like things. My ability to “like” is a major contributor to my quality of life. This may diminish my worth as a manga critic, but in the big picture I’m okay with that if it means that, above all else, I get to deeply enjoy the medium I spend so many hours with. Obviously I don’t like everything, and I’m not afraid to complain loudly and often, especially when it comes to genres directed at my gender, like BL, shoujo, and josei manga. (Yes, Black Bird, I’m looking at you.) But I always approach a new series with the desire to like it (even love it, if possible), and I’m occasionally heartbroken when that desire bears no fruit.

So, with that in mind…

3 manga series I wish I could like:

1. Black Butler | By Yana Tobaso | Yen Press – Though I’ll admit I gave up many volumes ago, I initially tried hard to like Black Butler. I’ll usually give any series at least three volumes to grab me, and I gave this one five, but my efforts were in vain. Why did I want so much to like Black Butler? I suppose it’s a longing for connection. With its enormous female fanbase and significant slash fandom, it crosses over heavily into circles I once called my own, and my lack of ability to connect lends itself to a sort of (mild) identity crisis. Furthermore, the series runs in my pet “shounen” magazine GFantasy, home of many series I do like (and even love), such as Gestalt, Nabari no Ou, and my beloved Pandora Hearts. Is it just me? I fear it may be.

2. Alice in the Country of Hearts | By QuinRose & Soumei Hoshino | Yen Press – My desire to like this series has a name, and that name is “Michelle.” Normally, I’d feel no alarm or sadness at all over my inability to like a reverse-harem series based on a game. In fact, I’d consider any positive reaction to be more of a pleasant surprise. In this case, however, Michelle’s enjoyment of the series (and her oft-stated hope I might share in her enjoyment) raises the stakes considerably, and I’m rather sad and ashamed to admit that after reading through two of Yen Press’ new omnibus volumes I just can’t quite get there. I’m so sorry, Michelle. I really, really wanted to like this. Can you forgive me?

3. Saiyuki Reload | By Kazuya Minekura | Tokyopop – Of all of these, I think Saiyuki Reload makes me saddest of all. Those who know me must be aware of my fervent love for the works of Kazuya Minekura, especially her unfinished BL noir-action series Wild Adapter, which Michelle, David, and I have spent much time praising to high heaven (or the non-theist equivalent of same). Wild Adapter, in fact, is one of the few topics capable of compelling me to discuss things like industry news. Somewhat less beloved by me, but still thoroughly enjoyed, is Minekura’s nine-volume shounen fantasy-adventure Saiyuki, which was extended into a shoujo series for Comic Zero Sum called Saiyuki Reload.

I originally borrowed all the then-available volumes of Saiyuki and Saiyuki Reload from a friend, and it’s telling that afterwards I made it my business to acquire my own copies of the former and not the latter. I don’t know what it was—maybe the increased indulgence in the characters’ hotness and BL subtext demanded by a shoujo magazine—but something about the continuation just didn’t click. Though I’ll admit that, were it possible to get my hands on these volumes again, I’d be open to giving it a second chance. License rescue, anyone?

Readers, what manga series do you wish you could love? And why?

3 Things Thursday: First Quarter Favorites

April 11, 2013 by MJ 5 Comments

Now that we’re getting into April, it seems natural to look back at the first three months of the year with a view towards understanding the year to come. And despite some real tragedy in the English-translated manga industry, I am surprised to note just how good things look from here. Brigid Alverson posted a great article on the state of the industry at Publishers Weekly—a must-read if any of you missed it—but as usual, I’m better equipped to offer a personal take.

When I looked back at the first quarter of the year, what I mainly notice is just how many new and continuing manga being currently released (and re-released!) are truly catering to my tastes. So with that in mind, let’s talk about…

3 beloved first quarter manga releases

1. The Heart of Thomas | By Moto Hagio | Fantagraphics – The Heart of Thomas was my most eagerly anticipated manga of the year, and while its January release date set the bar perhaps unfairly high for the year to come, I can’t bring myself to be sad about that. Michelle and I discussed the book at length in our first BL Bookrack column of the year, and every moment spent with it was a true pleasure. My concluding thoughts from that column: “In case it isn’t obvious to anyone reading this, I loved this manga with my whole heart. And I’ll admit that’s not exactly what I expected. I expected to find it visually beautiful and worthy as a classic, but I also expected it to be very dated and I thought the story might not appeal to my tastes as a modern fan. Instead, I found it to be both beautiful and emotionally resonant to an extent I’ve rarely experienced—especially in BL manga. This is a book I’d wholeheartedly recommend to any comics fan, without reservation. It’s an absolute treasure.” Yeah. That.

2. Tokyo Babylon | By CLAMP | Dark Horse Comics – 2013’s first quarter was incredibly strong for MJ-friendly re-releases, the most spectacular of these being Dark Horse’s new edition of CLAMP’s Tokyo Babylon, a long-time favorite now back in print with a fresh English adaptation and gorgeous print production. I previewed the first omnibus for Off the Shelf in March, and I couldn’t be happier. From that column: “… Dark Horse’s English adaptation is noticeably different, presumably thanks to the hand of its new editor, Carl Horn. Carl has a gift for making English dialogue really come alive, and his influence is apparent immediately … I really do recommend the new adaptation. Plus, if the trim size is as promised, it’s going to be gorgeous. I’m hoping they’ve used really nice paper, too.” And yeah, they have. It’s beautiful. Don’t miss it.

3. Knights of Sidonia | By Tsutomu Nihei | Vertical, Inc. – One new favorite that really snuck up on me is Tsutomu Nihei’s Knights of Sidonia, the first volume of which appeared in early February. Never having read the author’s well-known title Blame!, I didn’t know what to expect from this series. But apparently it’s just my thing! Michelle and I took at look at it for Off the Shelf, and it easily charmed us both with its intriguing characters and wonderfully detailed artwork. From that column: “… while there is still a lot of mystery still for readers (as well as for Nagate) at the end of the first volume, that sense of the unknown is far from overwhelming. I’ll admit that I had to read the book twice in order to feel that I really understood it, but I honestly don’t consider that a negative in any way. I’m a fast reader, but it’s not too often that a single volume captures me so easily that I’m really happy to re-read it immediately afterwards, just to catch more of its details.” I’ve re-read it again since, too. It’s that interesting.

Special shout-outs too, to Viz Media’s new digital re-release of From Far Away and Archie Comics’ charming OEL series Sabrina the Teenage Witch: The Magic Within. It’s a great year so far, really.

Readers, any special favorites in the first quarter of 2013?

3 Things Thursday: Newsworthy

April 4, 2013 by MJ 1 Comment

Several articles and announcements have caught my eye this week in the manga (and comics) blogosphere, but there are three in particular that had me pressing the “retweet” button with the power of my whole heart. So with that in mind, I’d like to devote this week’s column to giving these items a signal boost.

3 must-click links in the comics blogsphere

1. Off*Beat Returns! – Normally I’d try to save the best for last, but I’m so genuinely giddy about this particular bit of news that I can’t help blurting it out right off the bat. Though new publisher Chromatic Press had announced a while back their intention to revive Jen Lee Quick’s unfinished series (originally published by Tokyopop), last night, they launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the re-release of the series’ first two volumes as well as part of the cost to launch their upcoming Sparkler magazine, in which Off*Beat will continue to be serialized.

If you’re wondering what I’m raving about, check out my review of the first two volumes here at Manga Bookshelf.

2. Ryan Matheson speaks – Earlier this week, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund released a short documentary on the story of Ryan Matheson—a manga fan who was arrested at the Canadian border for having images of manga on his computer that Canadian authorities deemed obscene. I wrote a post in 2011 about why I thought Ryan’s case should be of vital concern to all manga fans, and the CBLDF’s assistance and advocacy was key to his victory. Read more about the documentary (funded by the Gaiman Foundation) here in the CBLDF blog.

3. Gimme these clothes. Just gimme. – Also earlier this week, io9 (and everyone else in the comics world) pointed us to these fantastic (and sadly, theoretical) costume designs for a number of prominent female superheroes by artist Michael Lee Lunsford, in which they are actually dressed like people who could be comfortable and protected in a fight—or even just cold weather.

My personal favorite is Zatanna, on the left below, who just looks freaking awesome. As I said on Facebook when I first saw this, if I had the money, I’d dress like that every day.

That’s it for me this week! Readers, any favorite links to share?

3 Things Thursday: Late to the Party

March 28, 2013 by MJ 7 Comments

Having become a manga fan quite a while after its arrival to North America, I often find myself in the position of being “late to the party.” Which is to say, I’m often discovering newly beloved series years after everyone else. Though I’ve occasionally acquired such series slowly and painstakingly (and often expensively) long after they’ve gone out of print, new trends in omnibus and digital re-releases have recently made such discoveries much easier and more accessible than ever before. With that in mind, here are a few series I’ve belatedly discovered over the past few months!

3 older series to which I’m (fashionably?) late:

1. Loveless | By Yun Kouga | Viz Media – This series should not have been a surprise for me in the slightest, given my well-established fondness for Yun Kouga’s work, notably Crown of Love and Gestalt. Yet somehow, it was. After rescuing its license from Tokyopop’s now-defunct North American publishing division, Viz has not only continued where Tokyopop left off (volume 9), but has also begun re-releasing Loveless from the beginning in 2-in-1 omnibus format, making it possible for latecomers like me to catch up with relative haste. Viz’s third omnibus volume (containing volumes 5-6) comes out in just a couple of weeks, leaving only one more to collect before I can finally dig into their new releases, and that day can’t come too soon. Yun Kouga’s genius for wrapping up complex characterization in the most decadent genre tropes may leave her generally underrated—but certainly not by me. For my thoughts on Viz’s first two omnibus editions, check out Off the Shelf and My Week in Manga.

2. From Far Away | By Kyoko Hikawa | Viz Media – I’ve talked about this series a lot lately, but it’s been just that difficult to get out of my mind. As part of Viz’s new wealth of digitally re-released shoujo epics, the reappearance of From Far Away is what I’ve long dreamed of, even just in concept. And in practice, it’s even better. Its high fantasy setting, fast-paced adventure, and brave, determined heroine add up to pretty much my ideal shoujo fantasy, trumped by Yumi Tamura’s Basara perhaps only due to length. From my review of the first volume: “Another factor in From Far Away‘s success as fantasy-adventure is its overall complexity and sense of intrigue … everyone is a potential enemy, and it’s not clear at all whom we should be rooting for—including Noriko herself!” I’ll take fourteen volumes of that any day. Thanks, Viz, for giving this series a second chance!

3. The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service | By Eiji Ōtsuka and Housui Yamazaki | Dark Horse Comics – This horror manga about five Buddhist college graduates who use their (sometimes supernatural) abilities to provide paid services to the dead had always sounded intriguing, and with other members of the Battle Robot (along with half the manga blogosphere) frequently singing its praises, you’d think I’d have hopped on board without question. But I’ll admit that series’ high (still rising) volume count and the sketchy availability of its early volumes kept me at arm’s length. Fortunately, its availability on Dark Horse’s iPad app has given me the opportunity not only to obtain the first few volumes without having to rely on Amazon third-party sellers, but also to feel comfortable buying and reading at my own pace, for a reasonable price ($5.99 a pop) on the device I most prefer. I’ve just finally read this series’ first volume, and I’ve become a fast fan.

Readers, what manga parties have you been late to?

3 Things Thursday: Miracle Comics

November 8, 2012 by MJ 6 Comments

Unfinished manga series… everyone’s got a favorite—at least one beloved manga whose abrupt cancellation or apparently indefinite hiatus serves only as a source of pain. And we all know the score, don’t we? Vanished series almost never return to publication, so chances are, our disappointment is permanent. Still, sometimes, just sometimes, a beloved series does come back. Perhaps it finds a new publisher, or the artist recovers from a long-time illness—every once in a while, a manga miracle occurs.

Next week’s list of new manga includes one of these miracle series, as the third volume of Satoko Kiyuduki’s Shoulder-a-Coffin, Kuro (a former subject of Kate Dacey’s The Best Manga You’re Not Reading series) is due for release from North American publisher Yen Press after a five-year hiatus in Japan.

I have my own list of favorite comics that were prematurely interrupted, and a few of these have had their miracles! None has seen republication in English yet, but I have hope once again! And so…

3 Favorite Miracle Comics

1. Wild Adapter | Kazuya Minekura | Original publisher: Tokyopop – I know, I know, I’ll jump on any excuse to talk about Kazuya Minekura’s Wild Adapter, but that is seriously how often it is on my mind. Interrupted both by the author’s health problems and rumored content conflicts with its original Japanese publisher (Tokuma Shoten), the series finally resumed serialization in Ichijinsha’s Comic Zero Sum last year, starting from the beginning, with new chapters scheduled to begin next spring. Though Wild Adapter‘s original US publisher, Tokyopop, ceased their North American publishing operations last year, the prospect of new chapters certainly reawakens hope for fans that the series could be re-licensed in the future. We live in hope. So much hope.

2. Legal Drug | CLAMP | Original publisher: Tokyopop – Though it’s easy to pile on Tokyopop for their list of unfinished series, here is another case in which a canceled manga’s problems originated in Japan. CLAMP’s supernatural detective series Legal Drug ran from 2000 to 2003 in Kadokawa Shoten’s shoujo magazine Monthly Asuka, until the magazine itself went out of publication. Despite CLAMP’s (and particularly the series’ primary artist Nekoi’s) occasional remarks about wanting to continue the series, I think most of us had pretty much left it for dead. Much to our surprise, then, the series resumed publication in Kadokawa’s Young Ace Magazine, with a new name (Drug and Drop) and for a new (seinen) demographic. Though the series has been running again for nearly a year, it hasn’t been re-licensed… yet. With CLAMP, this seems thankfully inevitable. I can’t wait!

3. Off*Beat | Jen Lee Quick | Original publisher: Tokyopop – This one actually is Tokyopop’s fault, though it’s also to their credit that the series ever saw publication to begin with. Years ago, when Tokyopop was experimenting heavily in the world of OEL manga, a fantastic little series called Off*Beat was born. This idiosyncratic comic about a genius teenager figuring out who he is went down in flames with the rest of Tokyopop’s OEL program after only two volumes, but its quiet fandom lived on. I discovered the series thanks to a plea from my former PopCultureShock colleague, Isaac Hale, and followed that up with a plea of my own. Though contractual issues hung up many of the Tokyopop writers from carrying on with their series after cancellation, even after TP’s North American demise, hope seemed bleak. So imagine the joy and surprise that followed this article last year (sourced from Johanna Draper Carlson who spotted this tweet from Lissa Pattillo—see how news travels in the manga blogosphere?). The new volume hasn’t seen the light of day quite yet, but recent posts still sound positive. Hurrah!

Do you have favorite miracle comics?

3 Things Thursday: Monstrous

November 1, 2012 by MJ 4 Comments

I’m not a huge fan of horror manga as a genre, nor am I particularly easy to scare. But I do find that when a manga can scare me, it sticks with me forever. While a good ghost story is generally the ticket for me (and indeed I picked out three ghost hunters for my last Halloween column), there are other types of monsters that can get to me as well—often in complicated ways. So, without further ado…

3 Favorite Manga Monsters

1. After School Nightmare | Setona Mizushiro | Go!Comi – As I realized in the midst of a Let’s Get Visual column last year, sometimes the scariest monsters are the ones we see in ourselves. In After School Nightmare, Setona Mizushiro explores the terror of a group of high school students who are forced to endure a series of shared nightmares in which they appear as the physical manifestations of their own worst fears… about themselves. As you can see from the scans included in that column, the results are twisted, eerie, sometimes grotesque, and may hit just a bit too close to home for many readers (including this one). *Shiver*

2. March Story | Hyung Min Kim & Kyung Il Yang | Viz Media – Monsters aren’t always evil—at least not unambiguously so—and it’s a monster like this who played a big part in winning me over to March Story, an exquisitely drawn comic by a pair of Korean creators working in Japan. Though the series’ first volume was wildly uneven, one of the characters who immediately caught my eye was Jake, the (literally) bigger-than-life mentor of the story’s heroine, March. Though Jake first appears smiling and offering March a ride, she is immediately, utterly creepy, and remains so throughout, despite her frequent role as comic relief.

3. Wild Adapter | By Kazua Minekura | TOKYOPOP – Sometimes, our monsters don’t look like monsters, and may even be people we love. Hello, Wild Adapter. While both of the series’ main characters are frequently referred to as “monsters” (and one of them even has a sort of animal paw for one hand), the one who has done many, many monstrous things is Kubota, a former up-and-coming yakuza whose apathy about nearly all other people has made him a fairly brutal killing machine. One of the images that sticks in my mind always is the one below (discussed in-depth in our Wild Adapter roundtable), in which Kubota has helped out a young woman by savagely beating her abusive ex-boyfriend. Though he’s done this to protect her, even he knows that his actions make him a monster. It’s a poignant and chilling moment, especially as we’ve already grown to love him as a character (and continue to love him even afterwards). Well done, Minekura, well done.

Readers, who are some of your favorite manga monsters? As you can see, my criteria is pretty broad, so feel free to push the envelope!

3 Things Thursday: Favorite CLAMP Women

July 26, 2012 by MJ 9 Comments

It has been a while, but welcome back to 3 Things Thursday! As you know, this week is the CLAMP Manga Moveable Feast. CLAMP has written a lot of terrific female characters, like Sakura, Yuuko, Hikaru, and the list goes on. I’ve always gravitated towards supporting characters, though, especially when they’re as awesome as some of CLAMP’s. And so, this Thursday, let’s talk about my…

3 Favorite CLAMP Women

1. Hokuto, Tokyo Babylon – I already went on and on about Hokuto in yesterday’s roundtable, but really I could talk about her all day. While she’s pretty great in her capacity as “Subaru’s twin sister,” she’s even better on her own, and I’m thrilled that CLAMP decided to break away from the manga’s primary thread long enough to let us see that. Volume two’s final chapter, in which Hokuto steps in to rescue another woman from her male pursuers, is one of my favorite moments in the entire series. She’s like a superhero in this scene, and it’s impossible not to fall in love with her.

(click images to enlarge)

2. Himawari, xxxHolic – One of the characters who seems to get the least love from fans in xxxHolic is Himawari, Watanuki and Doumeki’s schoolmate who was born with the unfortunate characteristic of bringing bad luck to the people around her. But Watanuki adores Himawari, and so do I. I love her understated insights, her sweet good nature, and the smile that covers up her loneliness. This scene in which Watanuki finally realizes what’s really going on with Himawari is a favorite of mine, partly because of Watanuki being who he is, but also because of Himawari’s cheerful acceptance of what she is certain must be the end of their friendship.

3. Tomoyo, Carcaptor Sakura – Oh, Tomoyo, Tomoyo… if Cardcapter Sakura is the absolute dearest of all dear things in the world, Tomoyo is even dearer. Her complete devotion to Sakura is adorable of course—Tomoyo is a true friend—but it’s more than that. She’s a completely original little person, and it’s just a joy to watch her exist. She’s as dear as can be here, but I think my favorite moment is in the last panel, when she greats the fairly terrifying true form of Cerberus with, “Have we met?”

So, readers… who are your favorite CLAMP women?

To submit your contributions to the CLAMP MMF for inclusion in this month’s archive, please send your links by email to mj@mangabookshelf.com or via Twitter to @mjbeasi. If you would like your contribution(s) to be hosted at Manga Bookshelf, please email them to MJ, along with any included images.

3 Things Thursday: Fruits Basket Favorites

July 28, 2011 by MJ 44 Comments

It’s Manga Moveable Feast time once again, which so often inspires me to think about 3 things. This week, I have with me a special guest for 3 Things Thursday, Soliloquy in Blue‘s Michelle Smith, who, like me, is a big fan of this month’s MMF topic, Natsuki Takaya’s shoujo epic Fruits Basket.

We’ve already talked at length about the series as a whole, but one thing we’d like to linger on just a little bit longer is some discussion of our very favorite characters in the series. Fruits Basket is a treasure trove of complex, deeply moving characters, each of which could easily inspire hours of discussion. We don’t have hours, but we do have some favorites, and this seemed like the ideal time to share them. We’ve each picked three, so let’s start with Michelle’s! (Click images to enlarge.)

Michelle’s 3 Favorite Fruits Basket Characters

1. Yuki Sohma – My love for Yuki springs largely from a sense of pride in how much he blossoms over the course of the series. As he recounts the story of his childhood to Manabe, Yuki says, “There was something I wanted… loving parents… a home that no one would ever want to leave. A happy home. A warm place… with everyone smiling at me.” But Yuki was denied this. His parents valued him not for himself, but as a tool to gain favor within the Sohma family. Family members revered and reviled him just because of his status as the rat, something he had no control over. Even when he left the main house to live with Shigure and attend high school, the other students saw him not for himself, but as a princely figure.

Only Tohru saw and accepted the real Yuki. And once he found that with her, once he had that warm and happy home, he was finally able to move beyond the past and begin figuring out what kind of person he wanted to be in the future. One of my favorite Yuki moments occurs directly on the heels of his conversation with Manabe, where Yuki articulates his desire to give support to someone in the future, not just receive it.

2. Ayame Sohma – As a teenager, Ayame was self-absorbed and didn’t realize, until Hatori pointed it out to him, that the things he said and did could actually hurt other people. One of those he hurt was Yuki, who had reached out to him as someone he might be able to tell about his unhappy life as Akito’s companion. Ayame failed him then, but now regrets that deeply and tries his best to form a relationship with the little brother whom he once ignored. Sure, he’s kooky and outlandish, but he’s also absolutely sincere in his love for Yuki, and little by little wins his confidence.

My favorite Ayame moment occurs in volume thirteen, when he interrupts the parent-teacher conference Yuki and his mother are attending, deflects all of their mother’s hostility onto himself, and helps Yuki find the courage to tell her that he will be the one deciding his own fate. I also love that Ayame immediately texts Hatori to let him know Yuki said he is reliable.

3. Hatori Sohma – Hatori, the quietly suffering woobie. How I love him. There are no shortage of sad characters with painful backgrounds in Fruits Basket, but the first such story we learn about in detail involves Hatori and Kana, a special, optimistic woman who loved Hatori and accepted him, curse and all. What she couldn’t accept was the guilt after Akito reacted violently to their relationship and severely wounded Hatori, putting him in the dreadful position of eventually wiping all of her memories of their time together in order to ease her suffering. Because this revelation occurs so early in the series, everything Hatori does from that point on is tinged with sadness as we know what he’s gone through. He’s also the only one who can reign in Ayame’s enthusiasm or dare to talk with Shigure about his schemes.

So, while I wouldn’t exactly call this my favorite Hatori memory, it’s certainly an indelible one.

MJ’s 3 Favorite Fruits Basket Characters

1. & 2. Arisa Uotani & Saki Hanajima – Like David, I’m a sucker for great female friendships, and no friends could be greater than Fruits Basket‘s Uotani and Hanajima. Though they are each fantastic characters in their own right, nothing beats them as a team, looking after (and being looked after by) their dearest treasure in the world, Tohru Honda. They’re happiest as a trio, of course, but fiercest as a deadly duo that doesn’t take crap from anyone. Not that Takaya limits them to a life of badassery, mind you. They’re also just as kind, broken, and unexpectedly vulnerable as anyone else in the series, and that’s saying quite a bit. I would happily read an entire series chronicling the lives of Uotani and Hanajima, their adventures, loves, and triumphs as young adults and beyond. They’re just that awesome.

Still, I admit I love them best when they’re kicking ass. Don’t you?

3. Momiji Sohma – And should one require more evidence that David and I share a brain, my third favorite character in the series—and my very favorite Sohma—is little rabbit Momiji. We meet Momiji as a hoppity, cheerful boy, but it isn’t long before we learn that he’s one tough kid. Having watched his own mother beg to have her memories of him erased, he lives as a stranger from her, keeping a brotherly eye on his little sister from afar, whom he hopes he might one day be allowed to spend time with. He’s also the first person to put himself between Akito and Tohru—a favor Tohru returns in kind.

Though Momiji is at his best when he’s happy (and awesomely brave when he’s being rebellious), one of my very favorite Momiji moments is this scene from volume eleven. After standing up to Akito, against the grain of their supernatural bond, and watching Tohru, in turn, stand up for him, he finds himself suddenly overcome by being just a kid, unable to hold back his tears. It’s a rare glimpse at the most vulnerable side of Momiji, and I dare you not to tear up when reading it in context.

Readers, which three characters from Fruits Basket do you love best? Let us know in comments!

3 Things Thursday: Out of my dreams

July 14, 2011 by MJ 8 Comments

Though my commute to work is too short to allow the consumption of podcasts in a timely manner, over the past few days, I’ve been slowly working my way through the latest installment of Ed Sizemore’s Manga Out Loud, featuring Takako Shimura’s Wandering Son. I still have a ways to go, but one of the topics that has engaged me deeply so far has been discussion of Shuichi’s nightmares in the book, and what they reveal about his fears and his state of mind as he works through his discomfort and disconnection with his biologically assigned gender.

I rambled on a lot about this in comments to the entry, mainly because the harshness of his later nightmare in the volume resonated so strongly with me personally and the nature of my own worst nightmares.

The truth is, I’m pretty obsessed with dreams and dream worlds (pleasant or otherwise) and always have been, and while many works of fiction use dreams as a narrative device, it’s not all that often that they use them in a way that really rings true to me. Obviously, what “rings true” to me in a dream sequence is going to be largely informed by my own dream experiences and may not reflect the experiences of others, but this is an area in which Shimura’s vision of her character’s dreams really shines. I’ll probably have more to say about this as I discuss the series further, but in the meantime, let’s have ourselves a 3 Things Thursday!

3 manga series that heavily (and effectively) make use of dreams

1. After School Nightmare | Setona Mizushiro | Go! Comi – One of my greatest regrets will always be that I could not find the time to participate in the Manga Moveable Feast for this title, because I have a lot to say about it, not the least of which would be regarding its use of shared nightmares as its primary plot device. In these students’ nightmares, they each appear as manifestations of their darkest secrets, and while, as Erica Friedman points out in the Wandering Son podcast, these secrets tend to come from a place of self-loathing, the line between what we fear about ourselves and what we fear other people think of us is often a pretty difficult one to draw. It took me a long time to realize that the horrible things people say about me in my nightmares are less often what I fear they think of me and more what I secretly fear about myself. It’s me writing the script, after all. This is a distinction that After School Nightmare completely gets, and that has a lot to do with why I found it so effective as a dream-based manga. Furthermore, it uses its nightmare setting as a metaphor for the state of being a teenager, when emotional vulnerability to one’s peers is more terrifying than anything else the subconscious mind could possibly dream up.

2. Please Save My Earth | Saki Hiwatari | Viz Media – Probably I’ve already talked this one to death in my recent discussion with Michelle at The Hooded Utilitarian, but moving to the happier side of dream fantasy, nothing can possibly beat Saki Hiwatari’s Please Save My Earth, in which a group of teenagers discover through a series of shared dreams (is there a theme here?) that they are the collective reincarnation of a group of alien scientists sent to study Earth from the Moon. Unlike After School Nightmare, this series resonates more strongly with the best dreams of my youth and the sense that our dream worlds might be just as real as our waking lives. This was a recurring theme in my childhood, and Please Save My Earth is in many ways a perfect representation of my own deepest pre-teen fantasies. Interestingly, like After School Nightmare, this series also touches on questions of gender identity, though it fails to dig as deeply, and of course neither approach the subject with the same kind of maturity as Wandering Son.

3. xxxHolic | CLAMP | Del Rey Manga – Though this is a manga that hooked me long before its use of dreams as a major narrative device, there are few examples that I love more. From Watanuki’s frequent dream-based encounters with Doumeki’s grandfather to his complete inability to maintain his waking consciousness throughout some of the later volumes, CLAMP’s use of dreams in this series is emotionally and narratively spectacular. This series goes further than either of the others in questioning the concept of reality vs. dreams, as it plunges Watanuki from waking to dreaming and back again, leaving both he and us disoriented as to which is which much of the time. It’s revealing and immersive, which is what makes it so effective for me. Also? Kinda gorgeous.

Readers, do you have favorite dream-based manga?

3 Things Thursday: Characterization & Emotional Truth

June 30, 2011 by MJ 13 Comments

Though I rarely wax nostalgic over flame wars, I’ll admit that searching for the comment I quoted in yesterday’s “Soapbox” post led me to revisit the material that inspired it. I won’t reiterate the entire argument here, or even my entire premise, but here’s a brief excerpt that I think expresses quite well what my purpose is in experiencing and writing about fiction:

“My focus as a reader/critic/human being is now and always will be discussion/analysis of a work’s emotional content. That is what I know about, and that is what I’m most interested in and qualified to write about. That is what my background prepares me for. That is what I care about in the world. The real purpose of fiction in my life is that it gives me the opportunity to interact directly with someone else’s inner life. This is not only what I find most compelling about other people, but I’d even go so far as to say it’s the way I best connect with the human race as a whole. It’s is a delicious smorgasbord of humanity. It’s where people communicate what’s most important to them, often even within formulaic structures and “fluff” pieces. It is, on a very basic level, a window into another person’s soul.”

Let me elaborate just a little on that. Like a lot of voracious readers, I’m a fairly introverted person. One of the side-effects of this is that I spent the vast majority of my growing years appreciating and cultivating my own inner life to a much greater extent than the one I physically shared with other people. This does not mean that I don’t like other people or don’t enjoy interacting with them. It does mean that I often find I understand other people more easily when I’m given the opportunity to examine their inner lives, and since I think understanding other people is a pretty vital part of life, I spend a lot of time doing that.

It is this, along with a number of other factors, that led to me spending most of my youth and a large chunk of my working adulthood as a singer and stage actress. As immersive as reading or watching fiction can be, there is nothing more revealing (and, frankly, thrilling) than exploring someone else’s inner world by actually becoming a player in it. It’s a transformative experience in every way, and I recommend it heartily, if not as a way of life, at least as an enlightening pastime.

I bring all this up, because I’ve previously mentioned that I think my approach as a manga critic is deeply informed by having been an actor, but I’ve never really explained what that means. What I mean when I say that, is that I think being an actor gave me some specific tools for understanding storytelling, particularly in terms of characterization and emotional truth (the two main elements I’m referring to when I mention “emotional content”), both of which are essential to effective, believable fiction, regardless of medium.

Now, to the point! All this has been a fairly long-winded introduction to this week’s 3 Things…

3 critical elements of characterization in storytelling I learned from The Theater:

1. Intention. I’m not here to argue acting technique, and frankly, I think a lot of it is pretty hit-or-miss, but I will say that out of all the various techniques I encountered during my years of study and professional work, the thing that consistently worked for me was a focus on intention. What do I want, and how do I get it? Nearly everything we do as human beings is motivated by intention, and this is true of fictional characters as well, at least the ones that are written effectively. One of the things I most enjoy looking at when I’m analyzing comics, is the intention of each of the story’s characters, and how consistently the author is able to maintain those intentions throughout the work. Certainly a particular character’s intention may change over the course of a series (and even within that, there is an intention in every moment that may actually, realistically conflict), but a strong writer will discover that her characters’ intentions are more important than her own when it comes to writing a believable story. Which brings us nicely to…

2. Truth. When asked if he preferred playing good guys or bad guys, Willem Dafoe is famously quoted as having said, “Ain’t no difference. Everybody thinks they’re righteous.” This is absolutely so, and a failure to recognize this fact is why so many stories that feature the concept of “good vs. evil” fail to ring true. People are masters of self-deception, and all of us will do what we convince ourselves is right, even if “right” translates as “right for us” or “the right way to avoid having to do things we don’t like.” Even if we say we did something we know is wrong, we’ve still justified to ourselves why we were “right” to do it anyway. That’s just what we do. It’s how we continue to go on. While humans as a society may strive (mostly unsuccessfully) to identify common truths, it’s clear to anyone who has spent five minutes watching the evening news that trying to lay out universal concepts of “good” and “evil” is beyond futile.

What’s not at all futile, however, is determining individual truth, and when it comes to characterization, this is vital. The best writers know how to separate their own personal truths (which may influence things like theme) from the individual truths of their characters, allowing each of them to exist truthfully and independently in the story. When something reads as out of character, most of the time it’s because the writer has forgotten this, or has tried to use a character as a shortcut to the writer’s own truth. This really never works. For an actor, this kind of writing is deadly, because it means she must take actions that are at odds with her intentions. This is no less deadly for a comic.

3. Show, don’t tell. But don’t “show” either. “Show, don’t tell,” is a pretty fantastic mandate. It instructs writers of all kinds to let both their own ideas and their characters’ intentions be revealed through action instead of narration or inner dialogue, and often an adherence to this directive is what makes the difference between a story that doesn’t work and one that does. But one thing actors learn pretty early on, is that sometimes “showing” can be just the same as “telling.” What I’m talking about here is what we’d refer to in high school acting class as “indicating.” When an actor is “indicating,” instead of doing something, she’s trying to show the audience that she’s doing something, essentially telling them what she feels by using familiar gestures or visual cues. For instance, instead of thinking, “I’m really sad,” and acting on her whatever her intention is from that point, she’s thinking, “I have to show the audience that I’m really sad,” and actually trying to make that her intention. You might think this works, but it doesn’t, because instead of watching the character, the audience is actually watching the actor, which is not the same thing at all, and will never read as true.

Comics creators can fall into the same trap, essentially using “showing” as “telling,” even without narration or dialogue. A writer may think he is carefully revealing his character’s thoughts and intentions in the manner of “show, not tell,” but because he’s so worried that the audience may not get it, he’s inserted some extra visual cues and emphasis, just to make sure, and before he knows it, he’s actually telling instead, even without using any words. This pulls us out of the character’s truth and into the author’s process, making the character less believable.

With a character’s truth and intention in place, any comic can be believable, whether it’s a deep look at the psychology of mountain climbers or a cracktastic boys’ love epic. Any type of story can be believable if it is rooted in emotional truth, and it is through these stories that we continue to understand and learn from each other as we struggle with the realities of our lives. Creating, distributing, and experiencing/interacting with art is the most powerful method we have for establishing human connection.

And that’s what I learned from the theater.