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Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

links

Lunchtime Link-blogging

March 12, 2010 by MJ 14 Comments

There have been some great articles and bits of news posted over the past few days (and I promise they aren’t all Fantagraphics-related). Time to share!

Just to get the Fantagraphics stuff out of the way, here are a few choice links: First of all, The Comics Journal has now published all four parts of Matt Thorn’s 2005 interview with Moto Hagio online (previously only available in print or on Matt Thorn’s blog). Click for parts one, two, three, and four.

While we’re at TCJ, you should also check out Shaenon Garrity’s recent post about Moto Hagio, I also like her creepy vampire kids. Meanwhile, Deb Aoki interviews Fantagraphics’ president Gary Groth at About.com.

One last piece of related info: Regarding all the press floating around about Shimura Takako’s Wandering Son, I was very gently informed by a transgender reader …

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Filed Under: NEWS Tagged With: links, manga

Did someone say xxxHolic?

January 22, 2010 by MJ 4 Comments

Okay, I’ll be the first to admit I’ve been a little obsessed with the xxxHolic Roundtable at The Hooded Utilitarian. I’ll get around to that a bit more in a moment, but first I’d like to point you to our latest roundtable at PopCultureShock in which I join Michelle and the rest of the gang for a discussion on manga gift-giving. It was an entertaining exchange for all of us and I hope it will be for you too!

So, back to the Utilitarians, guest participant Kate Dacey wrapped up the series with her take on the first three volumes of the series, offering up exactly the kind of pithy brilliance I’ve come to expect from her. Also, since a few whiners (and by “whiners” I mean me) made a fuss about the roundtable being limited to the series’ first three volumes, Vom Marlowe posted an explanation (and unnecessary apology) for the roundtable’s breadth of discussion, offering interested parties a chance to open up the topic to the series as a whole. …

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Filed Under: NEWS Tagged With: links, manga, xxxholic

Monday Morning Links. Again.

January 18, 2010 by MJ 7 Comments

I’ve come to the conclusion that Monday is link-blogging day, so I’m just going to go with it. I’ll begin with a couple of links to my own offsite reviews. First, last Monday, I reviewed volume 22 of Fullmetal Alchemist for PCS’ Manga Minis. By now I’m sure everyone knows what a huge fan I am of the series, but I find myself needing to talk about it again and again in an attempt to sway the unconvinced. At 22 volumes, this series has still not lost even a crumb of its original appeal. Wonderfully drawn and well-plotted–if you haven’t yet given this shonen epic a try, this is the time to start.

Secondly, I have a review in today’s installment of PCS’ On The Shojo Beat, for volume nine of Yuu Watase’s Fushigi Yûgi: Genbu Kaiden. Better than a prequel has any right to be, this series is much more than a rehash of Watase’s original shojo classic, …

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Filed Under: NEWS Tagged With: links, manga

Monday Morning Links

January 11, 2010 by MJ 2 Comments

Good morning! First of all, a reminder not to miss today’s installment of Manhwa Monday! Secondly, since Google Reader greeted me this morning with several wonderful gems, I thought it would be a crime not to pass them along to you!

Reverse Thieves offer up an interview with Ed Chavez, head of marketing for Vertical, Inc. and all-around manga expert. Ed discusses his background, his thoughts on manga, and goes into quite a bit of detail regarding Vertical’s highly anticipated (at least by me) 2010 manga releases, including Twin Spica, Peepo Choo, 7 Billion Needles, and the endlessly adorable Chi’s Sweet Home (insert happy sigh). The interview is long, but it’s a great read, so I recommend going in for the long haul.

Over at the newly-renamed Manga Curmudgeon, David Welsh writes the most delightful review of Yen Press’ Time and Again ever, in which he compares …

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Filed Under: DAILY CHATTER, NEWS Tagged With: links, manga, manhwa, yaoi/boys' love

A Little Morning Link-Blogging

September 2, 2009 by MJ 10 Comments

Various life complications have kept me from posting as much content as I’d like here lately, but there have been some posts out in the rest of the world that have gotten my mind going. First off, Kate Dacey talks about fabulous Boston comic shop Comicopia in her blog this week. Despite living only a couple of hours away, I have only visited Comicopia once, though it honestly blew my mind with its huge manga selection. What’s most heartbreaking about this, is that my single visit was quite early on in my association with manga, so I am sure I failed to appreciate the store fully, even then. Hopefully my life will calm down enough soon to let me take more trips into Boston!

Secondly, fantasy author Sarah Rees Brennan made a post in her livejournal recently regarding readers’ views of women in fiction that really struck a chord with me. A quote from her post:

Let us think of the Question of Harry Potter. I do not mean to bag on the character of Harry Potter: I am very fond of him.

But I think people would be less fond of him if he was Harriet Potter. If he was a girl, and she’d had a sad childhood but risen above it, and she’d found fast friends, and been naturally talented at her school’s only important sport, and saved the day at least seven times. If she’d had most of the boys in the series fancy her, and mention made of boys following her around admiring her. If the only talent she didn’t have was dismissed by her guy friend who did have it. If she was often told by people of her numerous awesome qualities, and was in fact Chosen by Fate to be awesome.

Well, then she’d be just like Harry Potter, but a girl. But I don’t think people would like her as much.

Having read numerous posts on the evils of Ginny Weasley (Chosen by The Author to be both awesome and loved by the awesome hero), I would be honestly shocked if anyone could present a believable argument against Sarah’s point here. I would also be surprised if anyone could believably argue against the fact that the great bulk of those who dislike female characters in fiction are women themselves! Sure, there are women (I like to think I’m one of them) who love awesome female characters in fiction. Maybe there are even a lot of us. But I am constantly disturbed by the evidence suggesting just how many of us actually despise female characters, both the fabulous, kick-ass ones and the ones who are deeply flawed, which is not, by the way, mutually exclusive (see both of the main characters in NANA, for instance). Misogyny among women is probably my single greatest ISSUE with certain subsets of fandom. It makes me cry. And you can go on and on about how poorly women are written in fiction but there are plenty of fantastic female characters receiving hate from female readers at any given moment, so that argument really doesn’t fly with me.

Anything I could say on this subject, however, is better said by Sarah. Witness her conclusion:

My point is, people will enjoy books and movies and shows more if ladies are in them being awesome. (I know I will.) And people will enjoy them more if they maybe take a step back, examine their prejudices, and relax into accepting that they’re awesome. Even if some girl characters are missteps, even if some of them you just will never personally like because tastes are subjective, it’s worth doing to have them, and it’s worth trying to love them.

Amen. Read her full post here. Please. Especially the section in which she talks about readers’ reactions to the characters in her own books.

There were more links in the works, but I’m out of time! Later, friends!

Filed Under: NEWS Tagged With: fiction, links, manga

News: Children of the Sea, NANA contest, & more!

July 15, 2009 by MJ 2 Comments

Beginning with a bit of link blogging, here are a few items for the day:

First of all, Kate Dacey is holding a NANA contest over at Manga Critic! Click here for details on how to win a copy of NANA volume seventeen! If you’re unaware of how fantastic I think this series is, check out my post, Why You Should Read NANA. Then go get yourself a book!

Secondly, my cohorts over at Manga Recon have a new Roundtable up for your reading pleasure: The Manga Kingdom. The conversation is awesome and it’s already continuing in comments, so don’t miss out!

Speaking of Manga Recon, I had a review in this week’s Minis, for volume four of Del Rey’s series Kamichama Karin Chu, a trippy, over-the-top magical girl drama I had a lot of fun reading. For something completely different, check out my review of volume two of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei: The Power of Negative Thinking here at PAD. I loved the second volume at least as much as the first, and something I didn’t get to mention in the review is that there is even a tiny Hikaru no Go reference in this volume! Warmed my heart, it really did.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughtful, revealing comments on Getting Our Geek On: What Our Symbols Mean to Us! I’m really enjoying the discussion.

…

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Filed Under: NEWS Tagged With: links, manga

Links, links, & Wish volume 1

August 13, 2008 by MJ Leave a Comment

First off, a few interesting links from the non-manga portion of my blogroll (yes, I do care about things other than manga):

Wil Wheaton says we should try to stop MTV from remaking The Rocky Horror Picture Show. W. T. F? I agree. Sign the petition here. AmyM has posted a list of writing contests of many kinds. Very cool, and also a strong reminder that none of us have an excuse to be sitting on our asses. Neil Gaiman is not blogging but links to the Coraline promo video-a-day. Coraline is one of my favorite books, and though I’ve been a little suspicious of the way it’s being put on the screen, I remain cautiously optimistic.

Okay, this is actually from my LJ friends-list (and *is* about manga), but ashura-sama has posted her translation of this week’s xxxHolic spoilers, and I admit I’m a bit giddy. Her cut tag jokes that “-This- should be chapter 104” and okay, yes, I ‘ship Doumeki/Watanuki, what can I say? Note: Link contains spoilers for xxxHolic chapter 163. Click at your own risk.

On other CLAMP-related subjects, I am still catching up on older series, and finally picked up volume 1 of Wish from the used shelf at my local comic shop (Modern Myths, by the way, a lovely store indeed*), and read it last evening. …

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Filed Under: FEATURES Tagged With: coraline, links, manga, wish, writing, xxxholic

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