The new Previews is out, with lots of offerings to get your mind off the gray chill.
The first product of DC’s partnership with Flex Comics arrives in the form of Daisuke Torii’s Zombie Fairy (CMX) which seems to start with a visit to a Japanese version of Antiques Roadshow and follows up with pesky ghosts (Page 100).
There seems to be a new global manga publisher in the Previews listings, Demented Dragon, or maybe I just haven’t noticed them before. There are solicitations for first volumes of The Phoenix Chronicles by Kenyth Morgan and Melissa Hudson, A Steel Wing Shattered by Chris Hazelton, and Stray Crayons by Yoko Molotov. Here’s their web site. (Page 265.)
Go! Comi goes global with the release of animator Aimee Major Steinberger’s Japan Ai – A Tall Girl’s Adventures in Japan. It’s a journal of Major Steinberger’s travels in Japan and her “passion for all things cute.” (Page 295.)
Houghton Mifflin, the publisher of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, offers Blue Pills: A Positive Love Story by Frederik Peeters. It’s a memoir about the creator’s relationship with an HIV+ mother and son. (Page 296.)
NBM releases the softcover version of Rick Geary’s ninth Treasury of Victorian Murder: The Bloody Benders. I’m crazy about these books, but I always wait for the paperback version. Yes, my love is cheap. (Page 312.)
Tokyopop drops the first volume of Kozue Amano’s much-admired Aria, with a new cover and “refreshed translation.” (ADV published it a while back.) It’s one of those books that’s always been on my “to try” list, and this seems like a good opportunity to start from the beginning. (Page 333.)
I just mentioned this book a couple of days ago, and voila, here it is in Previews: Fox Bunny Funny by Andy Hartzell (Top Shelf). I dug out my copy of The Book of Boy Trouble (Green Candy Press) to refresh my memory about Hartzell’s style, and his story is really funny in a mortifying, slightly perverse way. (Page 342.)
I’ve read a couple of chapters of Hinako Ashibara’s Sand Chronicles (Viz) in Shojo Beat and found them really effective and moving. The first collection is solicited in this issue. (Page 365.)
The Manga Curmudgeon 
Just to give you a heads up, Aria’s prequel Aqua should be out at the moment. Definitally a worthy buy, especially since there are virtually no examples of the slice-of-life genre available in English. Not quite at Yokohama Kaedeshi Kikou level (then again almost nothing is) but still an exellent experience.
Huff: I’d say it’s because slice of life is a hard sell; granted, Aria’s a blissfully pretty series of vignettes, but it’s a challenge to grip a reader with a series meant to flow like haiku.
Nonetheless, I’d be interested in seeing how “refreshed” that translation is; at the moment, it’d be more worthwhile to hunt down the ADV version simply to avoid the garish TP full spine logo…
Huff: I’m pretty sure I have Aqua on pre-order, but I’ll double-check.
Chloe: Good point about the shrieking spine. I remember seeing a copy of ADV’s version years ago and thinking that the cover was really nice in a restrained kind of way. I even think I remember trying to pre-order a second printing of the series from ADV, but I don’t think it ever materialized. Maybe I’ll check E-Bay.
Oh, I can understand why it’s an underrepresented genre in English, and I don’t necessarily think its a bad thing. “Pure” slice-of-life is probably a very, very difficult genre to write in, and I think only a handful of manga-ka can really pull it off (for instance, despite my love of Taniguchi I never got the kind of “meditative” experience from Walking Man that I get from YKK or Aria). I’d rather have more titles that incorporate slice-of-life elements into their stories (like Honey and Clover, Yotsuba&!, and hopefully Hanaotoko if Tekkon sells well) and only get the very best of the pure examples.
I could have sworn Aqua had an early October release date, but I’m sure your more up-to-date on release dates than I am.
I’m with you about the hard to pull aspect- it takes some mighty well planned and executed art to carry a breezy series like Aria through. I’m possibly more impressed that they managed to churn a multi-season TV version out based on it…
Amazon has the release date for Aqua pegged at Oct. 9th, and generally tends to get the street dates for these things pretty bang-on. Also on Amazon; buck-fifty versions of the ADV version, which further solidifies my theory that Amazon trumps eBay rather soundly.
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And BTW: the term “prequel” doesn’t quite fit the Aqua/Aria situation, IMHO (since Aqua wasn’t written after Aria, but before). It’d be more accurate to say that it’s only one series, just that the first two volumes are called Aqua and the volumes from three on are called Aria and start with a new numbering. There’s no break, no noticeable “restart” (only a brief recap), no repetition of story elements. The story just moves on linearly, so be sure to start with Aqua, if you can.
Thanks, Sebastian! I’ll take your advice.