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Vertical Manga NYCC 2013

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imageOne of our favorite manga publishers, Vertical, Inc., had some announcements to make at New York Comic Con today, but Marketing Director Ed Chavez began by going through a number of their recent titles and talking about the company in general.

Quite a number of publishers have fallen over the past few years, and though some may have been skeptical about Vertical’s long-term prospects, Chavez pointed out that this is Vertical’s 10th year in publication, and that, far from struggling, they are “stronger, I think, than ever.” And this strength is certainly apparent when looking over their list of current releases.

A few highlights include Satoshi Kon’s Tropic of the Sea, which is doing very well for the company, Chavez reported, and they are “definitely looking into some more Kon.” He mentioned that Kon’s comic backlist is limited, and that they’d specifically be looking to “focus on just Kon being Kon,” rather than his collaborative work with other creators.

The hardcover Gundam: The Origin has also been a best-seller for the company. “We kind of wanted to build the ultimate manga machine, and thankfully, it’s been selling like hotcakes.” They’ll be publishing the series in its entirety, and they’re “definitely thinking about doing some more with Gundam,” said Chavez, though he had no announcements to make on that front at this time.

Shuzo Ashimi’s Flowers of Evil has been “a surprise hit for Vertical,” according to Chavez. “I keep on saying it’s a rom-com,” he said of the notoriously dark series, which elicited some laughs from the crowd. “A lot of their situations make me laugh.”

Humor aside, Chavez spoke admiringly of the series’ artistic progression. “It seriously gets better with age,” he said. “You will be shocked by this work, and it will be so satisfying.” Vertical has early copies of volume seven here at the convention, and is passing out postcards featuring the cover in their booth.

Another surprise success for the company has been Takahiro Seguchi’s Sickness Unto Death, which they partly licensed as a complement to Flowers of Evil. Early copies of volume two are moving quickly here at NYCC, and Chavez estimated that they might not have enough to last the weekend.

Some upcoming Vertical titles that we’re particularly excited about came up in today’s panel, including classic josei manga Pink from creator Kyoko Okazaki, Moyoco and Hideaki Anno’s autobiographical comedy Insufficient Direction, and Fumi Yoshinaga’s foodie drama What Did You Eat Yesterday?, which Chavez said he’s “stoked” about. We are, of course, “stoked” x 100 here at Manga Bookshelf.

imageNow on to the license announcements! Vertical saved these for the end of their panel, and they were well worth waiting for.

First, again from Moyoco Anno, the award-winning In Clothes Named Fat, a josei one-shot originally published by Shodensha, is due out here in summer, 2014. “The characters in this tale are gross,” said Chavez, “they are horrible people.” But I suspect that, once we’ve started, we’ll be unable to put this book down.

And on the light novel front, summer will also bring Attack on Titan: Before the Fall, which details the events leading up to the hugely popular manga series. This is an extremely fresh acquisition, and Chavez was not even sure of the author when questioned at the panel. Chavez mentioned that the company has been consciously licensing more manga with other media tie-ins (see last year’s 5 Centimeters Per Second and the recent Summer Wars). Given the enormous popularity of this franchise, it certainly seems like smart strategy. More details will be soon to come.

We’ll be covering New York Comic Con all weekend, so stay tuned!

NYCC 2013 – Day 0

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It’s been a bit harder to concentrate than usual, I will admit. It’s not every day nine episodes of Doctor Who thought missing are discovered. The Enemy of the World is now complete, and The Web of Fear only missing one episode. They were in Nigeria! You can get them now on iTunes! I can’t, as I’m at a con with no Apple devices. But that’s OK, as there’s much more to talk about.

My first panel was Women in Comics, in the much smaller than anticipated 1A15. (This does not bode well for Viz.) It was filled with librarians, always an excellent thing. Present were (sorry if I mangle names) Megan Kociolek as the moderator, with Becky Cloonan, Erica Schultz, Amy Chu, Emily Weisenstein, Claudia McGiven and Laura Pope-Rollins as panelists. The panel was wide-ranging and took up the whole hour. They started by mentioning those who had the most impact on then industry – Gail Simone, Larry Hama of GI Joe fame, Jennifer Holm (Baby Mouse) and Chris Claremont.

Things have changed a lot in 10 years – there are a lot more women at cons now, and discussion isn’t just about DC and Marvel. In fact, there was a discussion of the word “mainstream” in regards to those two publishers, and how it’s almost become a gut reaction to use them as the norm. Several of the panelists love manga, and Takahashi (and Ranma in particular) were mentioned as being influential – both here and in Japan. Becky also mentioned Tokyopop, and how despite their faults they were key in getting readers, particularly young girls, into the bookstores.

Demographics were mentioned – publishers aren’t sure how to market to adult women, so avoid titles that might appeal only to their interest. DC and Marvel pitch almost entirely to gujys, with female readers never being their primary target. There’s independent comics, but then distribution is hard – tough to get into the shops. Japan has readers that shift genres as they grow older – something the West might try learning.

Favorite characters came up. Rogue, Storm, Girl-Type Ranma, Utena and Chun-Li from Becky. Amy mentioned Kate Bishop, Buffy and Willow. Emily then mentioned Catwoman and Wonder Woman, which led into a discussion of her character and how her lack of a consistent, iconic backstory like Superman and Batman is an issue. There’s also the marketing tendency to idolize pretty princesses – Disneyfication. Girls should be shown more options.

Before Q&A, they discussed using comics in education, with manga as an example. Nausicaa and Barefoot Gen are both manga that can fairly simply and easily be added to a curriculum examining ecology or the aftermath of WWII.

Question time. They were asked to define ‘comic literacy’, a term used earlier, and Becky noted that her mother, a non-comics reader, had trouble moving from panel to panel without confusion. It’s something kids learn at a young age. E-culture was mentioned to the derision of one or two panelists, who notes the new “nerds” are the same people who used to bully them – it’s just nerd is cool now. Amy Chu got the line of the night: “You’re forcing me to pull out my Harvard MBA.” Learning marketing was noted to be incredibly important, particularly as DC and Marvel still tend to underestimate things. The panel was asked if they felt pressure writing for women, and noted they have some projects they feel more passionate about. Amy, in fact, noted she writes a lot of men in order to stretch herself. She’d also like to do children’s stories. Lastly, the words “Strong Female Character” were discussed. No one just thinks “Oh, I want a strong female..” They should be allowed to be emotional, and screw up, and have men LISTEN to her if she’s in charge.

I then walked around the dealer’s room and artist’s alley before going to the LGBT&A panel. This began with a 5-minute video showing LGBT fans naming their favorite “queeros”, which made me realize that I might have been lacking the superhero background this panel writeup needed. Indeed, there was a lot more Marvel and DC chat than the prior panel. Jude Biersdorfer from the NYT Book Review moderated, and the panel had Dan Parent, Marjorie Liu, Rich Bernatovech, Greg Pak, and Dan Ketchum.

Dan does Kevin Keller for Archie, and talked about a recent storyline with Kevin and his boyfriend kissing, and an irate mom at their school taking offense. He noted it’s Archie, so they can’t get too political – though the recent decision to avoid Russia in The Archies world tour made a few headlines. He tends to like normal, Archie-esque plots and wacky hijinks. He noes Kevin has gotten a lot of positive feedback from parents – he lets them open a dialogue with their kids without it sounding forced.

Marjorie writes Northstar and Karma, and here’s where my research fails me, as she also writes Docken? I presume this isn’t the 80s metal band Dokken . Northstar’s wedding, of course, was a major talking point, and we got the first of several mentions that NY legalizing gay marriage has led to a more open side to it at Marvel. Docken, whoever he is, is bi, which means a lot of fans get upset with him – as indeed many in real life do with bisexuals, who can get shot by both sides. She ended by talking about how she tries to subvert expectations.

Rich writes the Neverminds and Sentinels, and is the indie publisher of the group. He has a married, stable gay couple, something he’s quite happy to show. Writing and synergy were mentioned here – he had a character whose origin was around an African lake, and recent discoveries of fossilization are eerily close to the character’s powers.

Greg notes his half-Asian background, and discussed the similarities between this and LGBT content – as a kid, they’d all come running when a real Asian character was on TV. He writes Extreme X-Men, a title that already has a long tradition of minorities and queer representation. Her notes he had his most recent couple get together as “they just felt right”, and that it was best for their roles in the cast he’s writing. He also discussed a gay relationship between two stone-based gay aliens in Planet Hulk. Volcanic mating!

Dan Ketchum also writes X-Men, and Prodigy was mentioned. As noted beforehand, he now doesn’t always have to clear every single gay moment up the line to the editor-in-chief, which has only recently been the case. Young Avengers, whose gay couple are teenagers, is treated a bit more carefully – he was told at one point they couldn’t kiss. It’s also fun writing gays with superpowers – one character is the son of Scarlet Witch, and so we hve some “am I in love with you or are you warping reality to make it that way?” Even better, the addition of another gay character allows us to move beyond the “the two gay guys always have to pair up” cliche.

Trans hadn’t been mentioned much. DC recently crowed about Batgirl’s roommate being the first trans character in comics. Jude challenged the panel to think of a Marvel character who’d been there first. It was noted that Danger, though she appears as a woman now, technically has no gender. Sasquatch and Loki were also brought up. It was noted it can sometimes be hard to make the metaphor match the sexuality.

Jude then brought up the elephant in the room – the recent Batwoman decision, and Dan Didio’s followup that heroes shouldn’t be happy. They all disagreed strenuously, noting they felt DC was alienating readers and that it smacked of lazy storytelling – the complexity was removed. Greg felt he did understand the point, however, and noted the cyclical nature of superheroes – they’re soap operas, and a new creative team can always undo any happy ending the prior one did. He also talked about stereotyping, and how you don’t always have to jerk away from it if the stereotype fits your character.

Audience Q&A had one woman note asexuals are always left out of or diminished in comics – and also weren’t mentioned at this panel. The “A” in LGBTA was for “Allies”. The panel grew quite thoughtful, and admitted they didn’t have a really good response beyond thinking about it (though Dan Parent did jokingly name Jughead.) For the most part, though, it’s a heteronormative world in comics, and all the gay folks mentioned here are merely a drop inn the bucket among all the “white, straight males”. Things are looking up, however. Gay Marriage’s legalization has led Marvel to relax its standards a bit.

To end, the panel all agreed the best thing the audience could do was to keep discussing the issues, and vote for what they like and want more of with their money by buying the comics.

That’s it for today. Man, I took a lot of notes for just two panels. Tomorrow will be much busier. Now I go to bed and dream of Pat Troughton…

106 Reasons To Love Classic Who

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So there’s been a little bit of a kerfuffle over the past few days, one that might be puzzling folks who are unfamiliar with the history of the old Doctor Who show, and unaware of how much of that history is lost. It started when The Daily Mirror announced that all 106 missing episodes of Doctor Who had been recovered recently. I think you could hear the eyerolling all the way here in North America. Then the Radio Times said that *two* episodes had in fact been recovered, and were going to be put on iTunes this Wednesday. The RT is not an arm of the BBC, but even so this began to seem more plausible. The the RT corrected itself to say it was, in fact, two *stories*, not episodes…

Enemy_of_the_World

I’m not going to get into the history of the BBC junking their 60s and 70s TV shows here. Suffice it to say that at the time videotape was scarce and there was absolutely nobody thinking of how valuable they’d be for future generations. These programs were not meant to be rewatched. But around 1978, the Corporation began to realize that perhaps they might want to stop this, and since then, we’ve had a painstaking search to find what was once lost forever.

My first exposure to the missing episode phenomenon was in 1991, when The Tomb of the Cybermen was found, complete, in Hong Kong. This was big news. It was also the last story that would be found complete. As time went on, it became apparent that any missing episodes that remained out in the wild would be one-shots, each to be cherished but never quite completing the picture. Episode 1 of The Crusade was found in 1999, and Episode 2 of The Daleks’ Master Plan in 2004. For a while, that looked like it. Then in 2011, we got two more: Episode 3 of Galaxy Four (a biggie, as NONE of this story had been in the archive), and Episode 2 of The Underwater Menace.

It might seem odd that these episodes are so important to fandom, given they’re missing. But they’re only missing as TV episodes. Because Who fandom is what it is, we have far more. We have audio recordings of every single episode. We have ‘telesnaps’, where a camera took pictures of the TV screen every few seconds, for many of the series. And we have the Target novelisations, which for years were the only way most fans saw *any* Doctor Who, much less stories that were missing. This can sometimes be problematic – finding out that The Tomb of the Cybermen was somewhat racist and not as good as its reputation devastated folks for some time. But while the prints are missing, the episodes live on…. in our hearts. (Sorry, had to do it.)

Now we have this new story. The BBC are holding a presser this Friday, so clearly SOMETHING is happening. The current rumors that have everyone excited are that we have all of The Web of Fear except episode 3, all of The Enemy of the World (see telesnap above), the missing episodes to complete The Ice Warriors and The Crusade, and some Marco Polo. Naturally, I raise an eyebrow at this. First of all, it’s *always* The Web of Fear. Every time a rumor goes around that turns out to be nothing, it’s that The Web of Fear, an iconic Who story with the Yeti, has been found. It’s never The Myth Makers. It’s always The Web of Fear. Moreover, some stories said these Troughton stories were recovered from Ethiopia… which didn’t have Troughton stories sold to them in the 1960s.

That said, the inference from the presser is they’ve found more than 1 or 2 episodes here. Honestly, if this is true, I applaud the BBC for not letting it leak out (rumors early this year to the contrary.) And if the rumors are true… wow. One of the most iconic stories, almost complete. The Enemy of the World, which is not only the story that has gotten critical attention lately (once regarded as “the dull one” amidst the monster stories, it’s now beloved for being something different) but also has Patrick Troughton playing The Doctor’s evil doppelganger. The Ice Warriors introduces the titular monsters. The Crusade is a brilliant Shakespearean pastiche. And Marco Polo cries out for visuals, a real first series epic. One reason I am writing this now rather than after we know for sure what has been recovered is that the potentiality is always more interesting than the fixed point. It could be ANYTHING.

I want to see ALLLLLL of these. And I want more, of course. I want to see The Massacre, one of the bleakest Hartnells ever. I want to see The Highlanders, the last historical. I want to see The Power of the Daleks and The Evil of the Daleks. Heck, I even want to see The Daleks’ Master Plan 7, the least likely episode to ever be recovered. I want the Doctor to look into the camera and wish me a Merry Christmas. Because I am a Doctor Who fan, and I am greedy.

But honestly? I’ll take anything. Even if this whole rumor is a lot of nothing, and the BBC only have one episode, I want it. Because I’ve read the script, and read the novelization, and listened to the audio, and seen the reconstruction, and watched the animated episodes, and it’s NOT ENOUGH. The Doctor Who fan’s appetite can never be completely sated… but it’s usually satisfied with a few crumbs.

But man, a banquet would be lovely.

License Roundup – Pre-NYCC Edition

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There’s only 2 titles here, but I though I’d get them out of the way rather than include them with all the NYCC stuff. Plus they’re both excellent.

Prophecy

Vertical has added a seinen manga called Prophecy (Yokokuhan), which just finished its run in Shueisha’s Jump X. (For those wondering what Vertical’s doing with a Shueisha title, apparently this came via France and was somewhat convoluted… not sure of all the details, but don’t expect Vertical to license Medaka Box anytime soon.) The author seems to specialize in tense psychological thrillers, and this promises to be in that vein.

sasamekikoto

Meanwhile, One Peace Books has been a quiet player in the manga market so far, with a reissue of Crayon Shin-chan, and the forthcoming Black Bard in November of this year. But they really got the internet buzzing when their new license showed up on Amazon: Whispered Words, better known to yuri fans as Sasameki Koto. Running from 2007-2012 in Media Factory’s Comic Alive, Sasameki Koto tells the story of Sumika, a young woman in love with her best friend Ushio, but unable to confess her feelings as Ushio loves small, cute girls and Sumika is tall and a martial-arts prodigy in karate. It was adapted into an anime, and also featured Kiyori and her eating curry bread, something I dearly would read an entire manga of. The Amazon listing notes it’s 472 pages, so I suspect this 9-volume series may come out in 3 omnibuses.

And that’s just a taste! Wait till later this week for even more license madness!

Bookshelf Overload: September 2013

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Recently, I’ve mostly been able to limit myself to preorders and review copies when it comes to the manga that makes its way into my domicile. However in September I took advantage of some nice sales at Right Stuf to pick up some out-of-print or otherwise hard to find boys’ love titles. Other out-of print goodies that I acquired in September included the two volumes of Sin-ichi Hiromoto’s Stone and Mari Okazaki’s Sweat and Honey. I was recently re-reading Okazaki’s Suppli and wanted to read more of her work–Sweat and Honey is the only other manga of hers currently available in English.

As for some of the preorders that made me particularly happy in September–well, technically, the first Vinland Saga omnibus won’t be released until next week, but I got my copy early! I’m very excited that the series is finally making its debut in English. Expect a review soon! You can also expect reviews of Satoshi Kon’s Tropic of the Sea and the most recent volume of Takako Shimura’s Wandering Son in the very near future, too. Most people probably won’t be seeing Wandering Son, Volume 5 until later in October, but I ordered mine directly through Fantagraphics and so got it a bit sooner.

In addition to being a good month for manga, September was also a good month for me for comics in general. Archaia’s Cyborg 009, based on Shotaro Ishinomor’s manga, was an interesting project and physically a very handsome release. Gene Luen Yang’s Boxers & Saints was also published in September. It is one of the best comics that I’ve read this year; I highly recommend it. I also picked up some comics directly from artists that I follow online: E. K. Weaver, HamletMachine, and Kori Michele Handwerker.

Manga!
Arisa, Volume 11 by Natsumi Ando
Attack on Titan, Volume 7 by Hajime Isayama
Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, Volume 18 by Yukito Kishiro
Blade of the Immortal, Volume 27 by Hiroaki Samura
A Bride’s Story by Kaoru Mori
Chi’s Sweet Home, Volume 10 by Konami Kanata
The Day of Revolution, Volumes 1-2 by Mikiyo Tsuda
Fairy Tail, Volume 30 by Hiro Mashima
Genshiken: Second Season, Volume 3 by Shimoku Kio
GoGo Monster by Taiyo Matsumoto
Junk! by Shushushu Sakura
Lies & Kisses by Masara Minase
The Man of Tango by Tetuzoh Okadaya
Missing Road by Shushushu Sakurai
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, Volume 3 by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
Not Enough Time by Shoko Hidaka
Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, Volume 8 by Fumi Yoshinaga
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: Short Stories, Volume 1 by Naoko Takeuchi
Restart by Shoko Hidaka
Secrecy of the Shivering Night by Muku Ogura
Sherlock Bones, Volume 1 written by Yuma Ando, illustrated by Yuki Sato
Sky Link by Shiro Yamada
Sleeping Moon, Volume 2 by Kano Miyamoto
Stone, Volumes 1-2 by Sin-ichi Hiromoto
Sweat and Honey by Mari Okazaki
Tropic of the Sea by Satoshi Kon
Vinland Saga, Omnibus 1 by Makoto Yukimura
Virtuoso di Amore by Uki Ogasawara
Wandering Son, Volume 5 by Takako Shimura
Your Honest Deceit, Volumes 1-2 by Sakufu Aijimine

Comics!
Anything That Loves edited by Charles “Zan” Christensen
Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang
Cyborg 009 written by F. J. DeSanto and Bradley Cramp, illustrated by Marcus To and Ian Herring
Devil’s Dance by HamletMachine
Freelancers, Volume 1 written by Eric Esquivel, illustrated by Joshua Covey
Mail Order Bride by Mark Kalesniko
Nothing Is Forgotten by Ryan Andrews
Pervert Club, Volume 1 by Will Allison
Prince of Cats, Numbers 1-4 by Kori Michele Handwerker
Whisper Grass by E. K. Weaver

Novels!
Lonely Hearts Killer by Tomoyuki Hoshino
The Shogun’s Daughter by Laura Joh Rowland

Collections!
Monkey Brain Sushi: New Tastes in Japanese Fiction edited by Alfred Birnbaum

Nonfiction!
The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan by Ivan I. Morris

Anime!
Kick-Heart directed by Masaaki Yuasa
Michiko & Hatchin directed by Sayo Yamamoto

Manga Giveaway: Arisa Giveaway Winner

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Arisa, Volume 1Arisa, Volume 11And the winner of the Arisa manga giveaway is…Ana Death Duarte!

As the winner, Ana will be receiving copies of the first and most recent volumes of Natsumi Ando’s manga series Arisa to be released in English. (Namely, the first and eleventh volumes.) Because Arisa features a set of twins, for this giveaway I asked that entrants tell me a little about the twins that they’ve encountered while reading manga. Do check out the giveaway comments for all of the responses. And thank you to everyone who shared and participated!

Now, because I use giveaways as an excuse to compile lists, here are some of the manga licensed in English that feature twins:

Another written by Yukito Ayatsuji, illustrated by Hiro Kiyohara
Arisa by Natsumi Ando
Ax: Alternative Manga by Various
Basara by Yumi Tamura
Black Lagoon by Rei Hiroe
Blue Exorcist by Kazue Kato
Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love by Yaya Sakuragi
A Bride’s Story by Kaoru Mori
Cage of Eden by Yoshinobu Yamada
Deadman Wonderland written by Jinsei Kataoka, illustrated by Kazuma Kondou
Chobits by CLAMP
Clover by CLAMP
D.N. Angel by Yukiru Sugisaki
A Drunken Dream and Other Stories by Moto Hagio
Fushigi Yûgi: Genbu Kaiden by Yuu Watase
Ghost Hunt by Shiho Inada
Goth written by Otsuichi, illustrated by Kendi Oiwa
Grand Guignol Orchestra by Kaori Yuki
GTO: 14 Days in Shonan by Tohru Fujisawa
Hayate X Blade by Shizuru Hayashiya
Higurashi: When They Cry written by Ryukishi07
Jiu Jiu by Touya Tobina
Jyu-Oh-Sei by Natsumi Itsuki
King of Thorn by Yuji Iwahara
Knights of the Zodiac by Masami Kurumada
Mars by Fuyumi Soryo
Miracle Girls by Nami Akimoto
Monster by Naoki Urasawa
MW by Osamu Tezuka
No. 5 by Taiyo Matsumoto
Ouran High School Host Club by Bisco Hatori
Pandora Hearts by Jun Mochizuki
Papillon by Miwa Ueda
Pretty Face by Yasuhiro Kano
Revolutionary Girl Utena by Chiho Saito
Tokyo Babylon by CLAMP
Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle by CLAMP
The Twin Knights by Osamu Tezuka
Utahime by Aki
Utsubora by Asumiko Nakamura
Vampire Knight by Matsuri Hino
Vassalord by Nanae Chrono
xxxHolic by CLAMP
Zatch Bell by Makoto Raiku
Ze by Yuki Shimizu

The above list is mostly made up of manga that I have either read or that were mentioned by those participating in the giveaway. Although lengthy, it is by no means comprehensive; there are many, many more manga with twins (licensed and unlicensed) that could have been named. Thank you again to everyone who entered the giveaway! I hope you’ll stop by again when it’s time for the next one.

A Preliminary NYCC 2013 Schedule

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This year’s NYCC is even more vicious than last year in terms of competing events at the same time. And Friday will be busier than ever. But let’s break down what I’d like to cover, in an ideal world, and if I could split into multiple bodies:

THURSDAY:
3pm: Women in Comics
6:15pm: New York Times OUT and Geeks Out present LGBT and Allies in Comics

A fairly light Thursday, to give a warm-up to the event itself. Both of these panels are things I’ve taken an increasing interest in over the last few years, and I will be intrigued to hear what is said.

FRIDAY:
11:15am: Vertical Manga
1:45pm: Welcome to Night Vale: The Art of Weird Podcasting
2:45: From Light Novel to Anime/Manga: Presented by the Japan Foundation
3pm: Shonen Jump live podcast
3pm: Kodansha Comics
4:15pm: Viz Media Panel
5:30pm: Ranma 1/2 Panel
5:30pm: CLBDF: The Secret Origins of Comic Censorship!
7:30pm: Toughpigs.com Presents Jim Henson: The Biography

As you can see, this is my first “I need to be in three places at once” day, and also assures me that I will be having an early lunch and a very late supper. Most likely Kodansha will win out over light novels and Jump for having my actual presence. And there’s no way I’m missing the Ranma panel. (And yes, it is a panel, not a screening – the screening is Thursday night.) I also suspect Night Vale may have one of those “…you know, maybe not” long lines of death.

SATURDAY:
11:15am: 50 Years Of Doctor Who
11:15am: Yen Press Industry Panel
2:45pm: The Mary Sue Presents: Representation in Geek Media
3pm: Archie Comics: Zombies, Heroes, Cartoons and More!

This day hurts my soul, as it has four panels, two of which conflict with the other two. Being a manga blogger, I should see the Yen panel, especially as I had to leave LAST year’s panel early for a Jump panel that was scheduled at the same time. however, the Doctor Who panel is hosted by several folks from the online rec.arts.drwho days of the mid-1990s, who I have never met in person and deeply would like to see. So MJmay cover that for MB and let me know what happened afterwards. Remind me to grovel at Kurt and Tania later.

As for the afternoon, the Mary Sue panel sounds really really interest, but I haven’t missed an Archie panel at NYCC yet, and they really give great panel every year. I’m actually still undecided about this one.

You’ll note my schedule is empty after 4. There’s likely a lot to see that I may opt for… or, alternatively, if we want to do a massive dinner with friends away from the con, that would be great too. There is a Viz anime panel at 8pm, too.

SUNDAY:
1:30pm: Warner Archive Presents: Forgotten TV Heroes
2:30pm: CBLDF: Raising a Reader
2:45pm: Doctor Who: Big Finish Audio Dramas And More…

Believe it or not, this is a bigger Sunday than usual for me… Sunday has traditionally been the ‘relax and maybe go home early’ day of the con. I’m quite fond of Warner Archive, so may see some of the TV Heroes event. And while I’m more of a prose than audio Who spinoff fan, there is the promise of Colin Baker at the Big Finish panel to entice me…

So a very busy con. No matter what I may see, though, be aware that my primary purpose at the con is to do a swell job for you, my readers. Expect much talk of things! Happening! IN THE FUTURE! And I won’t even mentioned Medaka Box at the Viz panel this year. Much.

Manga Giveaway: Blood Lad Giveaway Winner

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Blood Lad, Omnibus 1And the winner of the Blood Lad Giveaway is…Olivia!

As the winner, Olivia will be receiving a new copy of the first volume of Yuuki Kodama’s Blood Lad as published by Yen Press. For this giveaway, I was interested in learning about people’s favorite vampires from manga. Be sure to check out the Blood Lad Giveaway comments for all of the details. There was a great turn out and a great variety in the responses–everyone from Hellsing‘s Alucard and Seras to the half vampire/half were-koala Paifu from Cowa! were mentioned.

And now, here is a select list of manga featuring vampires of different sorts that have been licensed in English at one time or another:

Blood Alone by Masayuki Takano
Blood Lad by Yuuki Kodama
Blood Honey by Sakyou Yozakura
Blood Sucker: Legend of Zipangu written by Saki Okuse, illustrated by Aki Shimizu
Blood+ by Asuka Katsura
Blood-C by Ranmaru Kotone
Bloody Kiss by Kazuko Furumiya
Canon by Chika Shiomi
Chibi Vampire by Yuna Kagesaki
Cirque du Freak by Takahiro Arai
Cowa! by Akira Toriyama
Crescent Moon by Haruko Iida
Crimson Cross written by Sakae Maeda, illustrated by Kyoko Negishi
Dance in the Vampire Bund by Nozomu Tamaki
Devil by Torajiro Kishi
Gantz by Hiroya Oku
Hellsing by Kouta Hirano
Hipira written Katsuhiro Otomo, illustrated by Shinji Kimura
How to Seduce a Vampire by Nimosaku Shimada
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure by Hirohiko Araki
Lament of the Lamb by Kei Toume
Midnight Secretary by Tomu Ohmi
Millennium Snow by Bisco Hatori
Pathos by Mika Sadahiro
The Record of a Fallen Vampire written by Kyou Shirodaira, illustrated by Yuri Kimura
Rosario + Vampire by Akihisa Ikeda
Trinity Blood by Kiyo Kyujyo
Until the Full Moon by Sanami Matoh
Vampire Game by Judal
Vampire Hunter D by Saiko Takaki
Vampire Knight by Matsuri Hino
Vampire Princess Miyu by Narumi Kakinouchi and Toshiki Hirano
Vampire’s Portrait by Hiroki Kusumoto
Vassalord by Nanae Chrono

The above list is by no means comprehensive. Vampires are very popular and make frequent appearances in manga; the list could have gone on for quite a while. But, if you’re looking for some vampire manga to read, it’s probably a pretty decent place to start. Thank you to everyone who shared their favorite manga vampires with me. I hope to see you again for the next giveaway!

Bookshelf Overload: August 2013

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Quite a few interesting things made their way onto my bookshelves over the last month. In particular, I had a bit of luck when it came to out-of-print manga in August. I was able to find nice, relatively cheap copies of Sake Jock, a collection of underground Japanese comics published by Fantagraphics in 1995, and Manga, another manga sampler released sometime in the early 1980s. (I first learned about Manga when Jason Thompson covered it as part of his House of 1000 Manga column.) As for preorders that I’m especially happy to have in my hands, Shigeru Mizuki’s Kitaro and Kyoko Okazaki’s Helter Skelter: Fashion Unfriendly were both released in August. I’m also thrilled that SuBLime’s license rescue of Youka Nitta’s Embracing Love has begun. (It’s one of my favorite yaoi series and it will finally be released in its entirety in English!) And speaking of yaoi: Guilt|Pleasure has released One of These Nights, the third prequel to its series In These Words. If you find In These Words too dark but love Jo Chen’s artwork (which is fantastic), do give the prequels a try; they have a different, lighter tone. Another book that I’m particularly excited about is Manga: Introduction, Challenges, and Best Practices, edited by MJ and presented by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. The guide’s general release will actually be in December, but you can pick up an early copy from CBLDF at various conventions or from its website. Manga is a great resource; look for a review of it here soon!

Manga!
Attack on Titan, Volume 6 by Hajime Isayama
Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, Omnibus 1-2 by Yukito Kishiro
Blue Morning, Volumes 1-2 by Shouko Hidaka
Bunny Drop, Volume 9 by Yumi Unita
Dorohedoro, Volume 10 by Q Hayashida
Embracing Love, Omnibus 1 by Youka Nitta
Eyeshield 21, Volumes 24-25, 35-37 written by Riichiro Inagaki, illustrated by Yusuke Murata
Fairy Tail, Volume 29 by Hiro Mashima
Helter Skelter: Fashion Unfriendly by Kyoko Okazaki
How Good Was I? by Yamatogawa
Kitaro by Shigeru Mizuki
Knights of Sidonia, Volume 4 by Tsutomu Nihei
Library Wars: Love & War, Volume 10 by Kiiro Yumi
Manga edited by Masaichi Mukaide
Nana, Volume 21 by Ai Yazawa
No. 6, Volume 2 by Hinoki Kino
Otomen, Volume 16 by Aya Kanno
Ring X Mama, Volume 1 by Joji Manabe
Sake Jock edited by Adam Glickman
Sankarea: Undying Love, Volume 2 by Mitsuru Hattori
Tough Love Baby by Shiuko Kano
X, Omnibus 6 by CLAMP

Comics!
Blue Is the Warmest Color by Julie Maroh
One of These Nights by Guilt|Pleasure
Strangers in Paradise Omnibus by Terry Moore
Smut Peddler by Various

Light Novels!
Fullmetal Alchemist, Volumes 2-3 by Makoto Inoue

Novels!
Mobile Suit Gundam: Awakening, Escalation, Confrontation by Yoshiyuki Tomino

Anthologies!
The Melancholy of Mechagirl: Stories and Poems by Catherynne M. Valente

Nonfiction!
Manga: Introduction, Challenges, and Best Practices edited by MJ

Anime!
Berserk: The Golden Age, Arc II: The Battle for Doldrey directed by Toshiyuki Kubooka
Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine directed by Sayo Yamamoto
This Boy Caught a Merman directed by Soubi Yamamoto
Tsuritama directed by Kenji Nakamura

License Roundup: Japan Expo

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Another weekend, another con with tons of new licenses. I’ll actually be at the next major con (NYCC in October), and hope they saved something for those panels, or else I’ll feel very foolish and East Coast-ey.

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Yen Press had a panel on Friday, and had several intriguing announcements. Including two that took me very much by surprise. Not the titles themselves, no, I am aware that both Sword Art Online and Accel World were very popular animes, and can see why the two Sword Art Online manga stories were announced. (That’s Sword Art Online: Aincrad and Sword Art Online: Fairy Dance for those following along at home). No, what surprised me was the announcement of the Sword Art Online and Accel World novels. Yen says they will release all the SAO novels (13+ volumes to date), and at least the first four Accel World novels. This is quite a light novel investment. Admittedly, Yen has had success here before, what with Haruhi Suzumiya and Book Girl.

Sword Art Online and Accel World are both by the same author, Reki Kawahara, and both are published by Dengeki Bunko (which also put out the SAO manga titles), and both have similar plotlines, as our heroes get caught up in online roleplaying world that turns out to be far more serious than they may have imagined.

Also from Yen, we have Bloody Brat, a cute comedic spinoff of the Blood Lad manga. And another Puella Magi Madoka Magica spinoff, The Different Story, which focuses on Kyouko and Mami, but promises to be just as depressing as Madoka Magica fans want and crave. (Kidding, kidding…)

Dark Horse’s panel was mostly a retrospective on the manga they used to publish, but they did announce a new Masamune Shirow artbook, Battalion. Given we’re unlikely to get any new manga drawn by Shirow, this is probably the next best thing.

Lastly, Viz Media had their Shojo Beat panel today, which had a few new announcements! First of all, expect more old-school shoujo titles returning digitally from the world of out-of-print, including the much-desired Basara! Skip Beat! is coming soon as well. And High School Debut will get a 3-in-1 release, which is cool enough on its own, but may have the extra chapters that came out after the manga was finished but weren’t collected in the first edition. Which is awesome.

KKJ1

We also had two brand new announcements today, one a license rescue. Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne was initially published over here by CMX back in the day. Viz has rescued it and will be republishing it with new translation and everything – I think they’re even using the thicker “bunko” editions. Jeanne is a fascinating title that combines both the ‘phantom thief’ and ‘demon hunter’ genres, and is also the breakout hit of Arina Tanemura, who has had much success over here with every other titles she’s released (Gentlemen’s Alliance Cross, etc.). It’s an absolute get when it comes out this March.

Viz has had success recently with licensing Petit Comic titles and marketing them as mature Shojo Beat titles over here. Indeed, Midnight Secretary, out next week, has gotten really amazing buzz. So much buss, in fact, that Viz has now licensed Tomu Ohmi’s current work for Petit Comic, Majo no Biyaku (released here as Spell of Desire). As you’d expect given Midnight Secretary, this too is a combination of the supernatural and highly erotically charged romance. There’s apparently a LOT of supernatural to it as well – magic, witches, unicorns, etc. (No vampires, as far as I can tell, but that’s why we have Midnight Secretary, right?) It should debut a year from now, August 2014. I approve of Viz reaching out to older female readers with these works.

What title excites you the most from this list?

Welcome, Ash!

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Hello, Manga Bookshelf readers! As most of you have probably gleaned already, we’ve added a new blogger to the Manga Bookshelf Battle Robot. I’m shamefully tardy with this official introduction, so I’ll get right to it!

Yesterday, Ash Brown and his blog, Experiments in Manga, officially joined the Manga Bookshelf family, and I’m thrilled to welcome him on board! I’ve long been a fan of his thoughtful, well-crafted commentary and reviews, and I think his voice will be a tremendous asset to the site.

If you’re not familiar with Ash’s writing (and even if you are), please head on over to his introductory post, and then take a moment to explore the rest of his blog. I’d also recommend this recent celebration of his third blogoversary for an overview of some of his best content over the past few years.

Welcome, Ash! We’re so pleased to have you with us!

Experiments in Manga at Manga Bookshelf

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Experiments in Manga has joined Manga Bookshelf! The site will no longer be updating at Blogger, so if you have bookmarks in place you may want to update them to http://experimentsinmanga.mangabookshelf.com/. Although I won’t be removing the old site, all of the content and comments have been moved to the new one. I’m hoping to make the transition as smooth as possible but I still have a bit of tidying up to do. I’ve tried my best to get everything to redirect properly, but if you notice anything missing or strange please do let me know. Thanks for your help and thanks for sticking with me! And now:

A huge welcome to new readers of Experiments in Manga and an even bigger thank you to returning readers!

My name is Ash Brown. I’m a musician by training, a librarian by profession, a blogger by choice, and a manga addict by nature. My interest in Japan and Japanese culture actually extends far beyond manga and includes other literature, art, music, language, food, and probably anything else you can imagine. I practice traditional Okinawan karate-do (specifically Shōrin-ryū and Shūdōkan) as well as kobujutsu. I also happen to be a member of a taiko ensemble. Oh, and I love riichi mahjong. I’m pretty bad at it, though.

My day job has absolutely nothing to do with manga (although once I did catalog a collection of underground and independent comics; that was pretty cool.) Experiments in Manga is a personal site that I write and maintain entirely in my free time. I would actually like to write more than I do, but unfortunately that free time is very limited. Besides, I like to spend some of my waking hours actually reading, too.

I started Experiments in Manga in 2010 (mostly for myself) as a way to interact with the manga blogging community to a greater extent and to help keep track of all the manga that I read. And I read a lot of manga. Depending on who you ask I either have a very eclectic taste or no taste at all. I’m extremely open-minded and difficult to offend. I read and enjoy manga from just about every genre and aimed at any demographic or audience.

What can you expect from Experiments in Manga? Typically, I release three or four posts a week, including the weekly My Week in Manga feature. I also write in-depth reviews, among other things. Not surprisingly, the primary focus of Experiment in Manga is on manga but I also cover Japanese literature and write about tangentially related subjects and other things that interest me as well. I currently hold a monthly manga giveaway which allows me to quite literally share my love of manga. It also gives me an excuse to make lists. I love lists.

I am absolutely delighted to be joining the Manga Bookshelf Battle Robot. I’ve been a devoted reader of Manga Bookshelf since I discovered the site and some of my most admired manga bloggers are associated with the group. I consider it a great honor to be invited to join. I’m truly looking forward to working with everyone at Manga Bookshelf and hope that readers (new and old) will find Experiments in Manga at least occasionally interesting or useful!

Random Musings: Three Years of Experiments in Manga

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Three years? Three years?! Three years ago today I began writing at Experiments in Manga in an attempt to share my love of manga and Japanese literature. Well, to be perfectly honest I started the blog for myself, but I am delighted that other people have on occasion found it to be helpful and interesting. It’s been a lot of work and I certainly have plenty of room for improvement, but I have largely been enjoying myself. I’m rather pleased that I’ve been able to keep the blog going this long.

So what am I particularly proud of looking back on the year? One of my biggest accomplishments was hosting the Moyoco Anno Manga Moveable Feast. I’ve been regularly participating in the Feast since December 2010, but this was only the second time that I acted as host. It wasn’t quite as nerve-wracking as the first time, but I was still very anxious about it. I like to think that it went well. Not as many people participated in the Feast as did in the first one I hosted, but the contributions were great.

I don’t tend to get very personal in my posts at Experiments in Manga, but I made one notable exception last year–Random Musings: A Note of Thanks for Wandering Son. This article was very difficult for me to write because it was so extremely and intimately personal. I had no idea what the response to it would be. Much to my relief, it was very well received. As nervous as I was, I ended up being very glad that I put myself out there writing it.

Another post from the last year of Experiments in Manga that seemed to go over well was Finding Manga: Right Stuf. Finding Manga and the closely related Discovering Manga are two features that I’ve really been meaning to update more frequently. I’ll have to make a point to try to do that over the next year. I tend to focus on reviews at here at Experiments in Manga, but it’s fun to mix it up every once in a while, too.

Two of my reviews from the past year have been particularly popular. My review for The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame: The Master of Gay Erotic Manga has been, by far, one of the most frequently visited pages at Experiments in Manga in the blog’s entire history. I was pretty excited about the manga–the first volume of Tagame’s work to be released in English–so hopefully the review has been useful. I was rather surprised to see how popular my review of Tomoyuki Hoshino’s volume of short fiction We, the Children of Cats proved to be. The review did receive some support from the publisher, so that probably helped. We, the Children of Cats is a difficult but very good collection.

And speaking of reviews: I continued my Blade of the Immortal review project. Every month I have been reviewing one volume of the series. Although Blade of the Immortal is still being published in English, I have just about caught up with Dark Horse’s release. I will continue to review the series as the new volumes come out, but I plan on taking on another monthly review project as well. I’ll be putting it to a vote, too, so look out for a poll in the near future if you’d like to help choose which manga I focus on next.

Over the last year I was able to consistently release at least two “extra” posts a month. This pace has seemed to work pretty well for me and tends to be manageable. I still run into the problem where there’s more that I want to write about but I simply don’t have the time. In general, my coverage of manga has increased and I post at least one manga-centric feature or review a week. At this point the balance between manga posts and non-manga posts is close to where I want it, but I may have over-compensated a bit. I miss reading and reviewing non-manga materials to the same extent that I used to do.

Oh! And some big news before I close: I am very pleased to announce that I and Experiments in Manga will soon be joining the Manga Bookshelf network of blogs. I was greatly honored and very excited to be invited to the group and after much careful thought and deliberation I decided to accept. Not much will actually change here at Experiments in Manga, but by being a member of Manga Bookshelf I’ll have even more opportunities to write about and discuss manga. More information about the move will be coming very soon. I am really looking forward to it and am delighted to be joining a group of manga bloggers that I sincerely admire.

Finally, but perhaps most importantly, I would like to thank everyone who has read and supported Experiments in Manga over the years. As I previously mentioned, I started Experiments in Manga mostly for myself, but I sincerely appreciate all of my readers. Whether you’re a regular reader or just drop by on occasion, thank you so much! I hope that I can continue to build upon what I’ve already done and make Experiments in Manga even better over the coming year.

Otakon License Roundup

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Another week, another con, and another passel of new manga titles coming your way. I’m also throwing in Seven Seas’ new titles, as they generally don’t do con panels, but simply announce their titles on social media.

So starting with them, we have a new yuri title from Morinaga Milk, author of Girl Friends and the Kisses, Sighs and Cherry Blossom Pink anthology. The premise sounds at first like it may have a bit of a Sukeban Deka series, but it looks quite light-hearted in tone, as a newly undercover police officer at a high school (a new recruit filled with justice) finds that her school already HAS an undercover police officer there, who insists this is her turf. It looks like a great cute title for those who loved Morinaga’s other cute titles.

A few weeks earlier, they also announced another four Alice in the Country Of titles, as it’s a series that has sold quite well for them, and there are still many titles available out there. (In fact, I suspect one of the main reasons for their license of the Crimson Empire series is that half the Alice volumes have CE side-stories in the back.) We get one volume for familiar harem protagonists Eliot March (the March Hare), Julius Monrey (whose first focus manga, The Clockmaker’s Story, is out this month), and Ace (whose series will hopefully focus a little more on the psychosis that makes him interesting.) We also get a volume devoted to Nightmare, the somewhat puckish ruler of dreams who sort of fills the caterpillar role in these books. This is honestly a whole lot of Alice, but I’ve found little gems interspersed among the more obvious cash-ins, so they’re worth checking out.)

whatdidyou

As is standard lately, the big announcement of the day came from our friends at Vertical, who have licensed the Fumi Yoshinaga manga Kinou Nani Tabeta?, aka What Did You Eat Yesterday?. This seinen slice-of-life manga runs in Kodansha’s Morning magazine, and tells the story of a longtime gay couple (one dour and the straight man, one carefree and outgoing). What makes it compelling is that the story is told around the edges, as each chapter is mostly about the two men eating and cooking food, and recipe tips are interspersed throughout. Yoshinaga is mostly known over here for two things: BL and food. This 7+ volume series combines the two of them, and has been a much coveted license for quite some time. It’s also a rare seinen license from Kodansha, which makes me very happy. I can’t wait to read this one.

Lastly, Viz mentioned that they will be re-releasing the Monster manga in omnibus format next year. This Naoki Urasawa title is quite dark indeed, involving a doctor who saves the life of a young child only to find he grows up to become an insane madman. It ran in Big Comic Original, one of the few licenses from that seinen Shogakukan magazine. It was intensely popular online with manga and comics bloggers, but didn’t really catch on as much in terms of sales – perhaps this new omnibus, which will be in a larger trim and 2-volumes-in-1, can give it the audience it deserves – I think fans of Death Note who have grown to want more mature stories would really get a kick out of it, as well as Urasawa fans who discovered him via Pluto or 20th Century Boys. Hey, if it sells really well, maybe we can finally see Yawara: A Fashionable Judo Girl! Or even Happy!, one of the most depressing sports manga ever written.

What appeals to you most here? My guess is the foodie title.