Upcoming 7/23/2008

In honor of Entertainment Weekly’s recent redesign, I’m going to start putting random phrases in boldfaced type. Okay, no, I’m not. Well, maybe just this once.

Now, on to this week’s ComicList:

Yen Press releases the first issue of its anthology, Yen Plus, featuring licensed work from Japan and Korea and original series from the likes of James Patterson and Svetlana Chmakova. (How often do you get to type phrases like that? Maybe I should bold it.) Is anyone else frightened by Pig Bride as a title? Outside of VH1’s slate of reality shows, how can a series live up to that name?

The thing about Rick Geary’s Treasury of Victorian Murder series (NBM) is that I’ll mention every book in the series every time it shows up on a shipping list, because Geary is just that good. This week’s re-release is the paperback version of The Murder of Abraham Lincoln, which I reviewed here.

Del Rey rolls out two new series this week. First up is Kasumi, written by Surt Lim and drawn by Hirofumi Sugimoto. It’s about a girl who can turn invisible, and Leroy Douresseaux liked a lot. Deb Aoki interviewed the creators for About.Com.

The other debut, Kujubiki Unbalance, created by Kio Shimoku and Koume Keito, is about as meta as it gets. Those who read Shimoku’s wonderful Genshiken will recognize the series as the oft-referenced touchstone property of a bunch of the characters in that book. (If you can’t be counted among those who read Genshiken, you might want to correct that.)

Last but not least is the second volume of Yuko Osada’s fun travel adventure, Toto. Sure, it’s got plucky ‘tweens with big dreams, but it also has an adorable, weaponized dog.

Upcoming 7/16/2008

Just a couple of items jump out at me on this week’s ComicList:

I’m not generally part of the natural audience for competitive athletics, fictional or otherwise, but I won’t let that keep me from taking a look at Takehiko Inoue’s Real (Viz – Signature), about wheelchair basketball. At MangaBlog, Brigid Alverson picks up an intriguing press release from Viz about a joint PR venture to promote another Inoue hoops book, Slam Dunk. If there were a competition for “most athletic person at Comic-Con International,” there’d be a clear winner. I also wish there was a manga out about professional cheerleading so those poor Laker Girls could feel a bit more purposeful. (Have I mentioned that I can watch Bring It On as many times as it airs on television?)

Milestone alert! Our long, national disappointment is finally over as Tokyopop releases the second volume of Ai Morinaga’s Your and My Secret. Given the publisher’s ongoing cost-cutting measures, I suppose it’s possible that we may not see the third volume from them, but progress is progress. If only they’d gone with the alternate version of the title, My Barbaric Girlfriend.

Upcoming 7/2/2008

If it doesn’t stop raining soon, I’m going to have to lease my back yard out for pasture. I will be reducing my dependence on fossil fuels and supporting sustainable production, and I will give all of the cows names and compost their manure.

And now, on to this week’s ComicList. You know what’s weird? I’m excited about a Marvel comic, and I am going to buy it, if the local shop orders any shelf copies. That comic would be Patsy Walker: Hellcat #1, written by Kathryn Immonen and drawn and inked by David LaFuente Garcia. Hellcat is one of those characters that I’ve always loved in spite of the fact that she’s been ill-used for the vast majority of her costumed career. So basically my attachment to the character is pure, masochistic sentiment, but Matthew Brady says it’s got “a fun, jaunty tone,” and it’s just so nice to see Hellcat claw her way out of the refrigerator and into a solo series that I feel strangely obligated to support the book.

Hm… it’s shaping up to be Women I Really Like Week, now that I delve deeper into Wednesday’s releases. I very much loved Kaoru Mori’s elegant, heartfelt Emma, so I can’t wait to read Mori’s Shirley (both books from CMX), which leaves the Victorians behind to explore the world of Edwardian maids. The uniforms may show more ankle, but I’m betting the meticulous angst will be just as plentiful.

It had its pleasures, but I didn’t enjoy the first volume of Gabrielle Bell’s Lucky (Drawn and Quarterly) as much as I did When I’m Old and Other Stories (Alternative Comics), but I’m sure I’ll pick up the second installment at some point.

I haven’t really thought too carefully about exactly which Tokyopop titles survive the coming purge, but I do know that I hope that Mari Ohazaki’s Suppli comes out on the other side. I don’t think any of us need to worry about Natsuki Takaya’s Fruits Basket, which is as heartbreaking as it is popular.

Viz keeps the estrogen flowing with new volumes of Ai Yazawa’s Nana and Kazune Kawahara’s High School Debut. You all know how I feel about Yazawa’s work by this point, so let me just say how much I love High School Debut. I’m not going to say it’s as good as Hinako Ashihara’s Sand Chronicles, but it shares a lot of that book’s positive qualities: great characters, nicely developed relationships, carefully observed emotional moments, and very attractive art.

And now, for the token shônen book of the week. Okay, that’s not really fair, because it would be a meritorious entry on any Wednesday, even when the comics industry wasn’t trying to drown me in tears. Like just about everyone else, I enjoyed the first two volumes of Hiro Mashima’s Fairy Tail (released simultaneously by Del Rey), about a whacked-out guild of magicians. The third installment arrives Wednesday.

Upcoming 6/25/2008

Some of the highlights from this week’s ComicList:

Sometimes a quantity and quality of hype make me abandon my normal standards. The latest example of this phenomenon is Oku Hiroya’s Gantz (Dark Horse), which promises much higher levels of gratuitous violence than I can usually tolerate. But it sounds cool.

Del Rey offers lots of goodies this week, but I’ll single out the third volume of Ryotaro Iwanaga’s excellent Pumpkin Scissors for special attention. It’s about a squadron of soldiers working on post-war recovery, and it’s a really successful blend of adventure, suspense, and comedy. Fans of Fullmetal Alchemist would do particularly well to give it a look.

Fresh manga from Osamu Tezuka is such a gimme for makers of lists of this sort, because it’s always, always worth a look. This week, it’s the second volume of freaked-out shônen quest Dororo (Vertical) about a guy trying to get his body parts back.

And before I forget, I wanted to point to a couple of reviews with which I agree entirely. At Manga Recon, Kate Dacey looks at Fuyumi Soryo’s smart and satisfying ES: Eternal Sabbath. In a recent Right Turn Only column, Carlo Santos asks this important question: “Why is [Kitchen Princess] not as popular as Full Moon or Fruits Basket? The level of drama is just as good, and this heartbreaking A- [sixth] volume proves it.”

Upcoming 6/18/2008

What evil lurks in the heart of this week’s ComicList? Plenty, thanks to Kazuo Umezu, but it’s the good kind of evil.

Viz drops two handsomely produced volumes of Umezu’s Cat-Eyed Boy. Fans of Umezu’s deadly roller-coaster ride, The Drifting Classroom, might be surprised at the almost leisurely way the horror unfolds in this series. (I know I was.) But it’s not an unpleasant surprise, and there’s some wonderful material in the first volume, which I received courtesy of Viz. I’ll definitely be seeking out the second. (I’d still heartily recommend The Drifting Classroom, if you haven’t read it yet.)

I’m such a fan of Yuu Asami’s A.I. Revolution (Go! Comi). I love the beautiful, old-fashioned art, the mix of character-driven stories and high-tech espionage, and the way that Asami’s yaoi donjishi roots show more and more with each successive volume. The hunky boy robots never quite make out with each other, but they always look like they’re on the verge, which makes me giggle. The fourth volume arrives today.

A new comic by Hope Larson? Yes, please, thank you. The creator of Salamander Dream (AdHouse) and Gray Horses (Oni) delivers Chiggers, via Simon and Schuster. It’s about shifting friendships at summer camp.

Upcoming 6/11/2008

Some noteworthy items from this week’s ComicList:

I should be over this by now, but I still think of Dark Horse as the blood-and-guts comics publisher with all of the widescreen licensed properties and seinen shootouts. This is narrow-minded of me, but it leads me to pay more attention when something counter-intuitive arrives. This week, it’s Simone Lia’s Fluffy, about an adorable bunny and his human father, and it looks super, super cute.

One of my favorite trashy, stupid movies of all time is Change of Habit, because describing it makes you sound like you’re inventing it while stoned. It stars Mary Tyler Moore as an undercover nun who moves to the ghetto to do good works and meets a doctor played by Elvis Presley. Any part of that sentence is insane enough to make you doubt its veracity, so I won’t even mention all of the other plot twists. Anyway, my love of that film and my fondness for the work of Rumiko Takahashi pushes me towards One Pound Gospel (Viz).

Sometimes all it takes is a kind word or two from Kate Dacey to make me want a book very much. This week, that book is Ume Aoki’s Sunshine Sketch (Yen Press). To be honest, calling it “a gentle, slice-of-life comedy” is enough to catch my interest.

Upcoming 5/4/2008

The rhythmic sound of the ocean has turned my brain to pudding, so I haven’t delved as carefully as I might otherwise through this week’s ComicList. And while they always say you should do something you wouldn’t do normally while on vacation, that’s been covered by “not stepping on dead jellyfish,” so I’ll stick with the old favorites.

This week’s highlights come from Viz. The first is the eighth volume of Kiyoko Arai’s very funny Beauty Pop, about a high-school club full of makeover artists. Its anchored by one of the surliest, most disinterested shôjo heroines I’ve ever seen, so naturally I love it.

The second is the second volume of Chica Umino’s also very funny Honey and Clover. If I’d been better prepared, I would have rented the live-action movie version to watch on the road. (Speaking of movies, I would recommend Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull if only for the pleasures of watching Cate Blanchett glare and Karen Allen making you wonder why they didn’t just call the movie Indiana Jones and We’re Really Sorry About Kate Capshaw.)

And holy crap, you guys, it came out a while ago, but the highlight of the big stack of wallow manga I brought with me is clearly the second volume of Hinako Ashihara’s Sand Chronicles. It’s funny and sad and beautiful and perfect, and everyone should read it.

Upcoming 5/29/2008

Some highlights from this week’s ComicList:

It’s a good week for fans of Ai Morinaga, with the fifth volume of My Heavenly Hockey Club coming from Del Rey and the first volume of The Gorgeous Life of Strawberry Chan arriving via Media Blasters. I’m a fan of Ai Morinaga, so it’s a good week for me. (In fairness, I don’t really know anything about Gorgeous Life other than that it’s by Morinaga, but that’s good enough for me. Seriously, Media Blaster’s web site bugged the crap out of me after about two seconds, so I stopped digging.)

She can even make dumb, old jokes work for me. In the fourth volume of My Heavenly Hockey Club, she even pulls off the “dimwits put on glasses before undertaking a studious endeavor” and pulls it off. I swear I giggled.

Other than those, it’s a light week for me, which is fine, as I’ve hoarded a stack of comics to take with me on vacation. Packing will be like a game of Tetris.

Upcoming 5/21/2008

There wasn’t much room for manga in the April graphic novel sales figures at ICv2. Only eight titles cracked the top 100, and only one (the 10th volume of Path of the Assassin from Dark Horse) cracked the top 50.

There isn’t the metric tonnage of new manga arriving in comic shops this week, which is kind of a relief, to be honest.

My personal highlight is the fourth volume of Yuki Urushibara’s Mushishi (Del Rey). Gorgeous, episodic fantasy stories about a wandering shaman who helps people cope with their environments and the powerful, primordial bugs that share them.

I’m glad I have a vacation coming up, because it means I’ll have time to catch up with series like Yuki Nakaji’s Venus in Love (CMX), which releases its third volume Wednesday. It’s a sweet, low-key romantic comedy about a boy and a girl in love… with the same boy. I think I’m going to fill a whole tote with “wallow manga.”

Skim by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood Books) has gotten some good some good early response, and I must say I’m intrigued by the premise: “Depression, love, sexual identity, crushes, manipulative peers–teen life in all its dramatic complexities is explored in this touching, pitch perfect, literary graphic masterpiece.” Now that’s the high school I remember.

And not to beat an undead horse, but if you must spend money on a comic by Jessica Abel this summer, go for the paperback collection of La Perdida (Pantheon). It’s about a young woman who tries to find herself in Mexico and ends up in dramatically over her head. No vampires, but lots of flesh-and-blood drama.

Upcoming 5/14/2008

This week’s shipping list isn’t as terrifyingly huge as last’s, which is a welcome development. There are still plenty of items of interest, though. (I’ll appreciate the distraction, because the phone has been ringing off the hook with enthusiastic college students trying to sing the praises of presidential candidates. I’m not used to West Virginia mattering during primary season. While it’s a nice change to be in the national spotlight for reasons not involving a deadly mine collapse or the annual legislative pork report, it’s hard not to by cynical about the intensive wooing underway. Anyway…)

There’s a long-ish wait between new volumes of Hitoshi Awaaki’s Parasyte (Del Rey), a retro-cool horror series about a boy and his murderous, sentient hand. It’s worth it, though, as this is a smart, twisty horror story. The art isn’t great, but even that shortcoming adds a certain charm to the proceedings. If your appetite for shape-shifting aliens plotting our downfall has been whetted, give it a look.

As Del Rey goes, I tend to favor their less easily categorized offerings like Love Roma, Genshiken and Mushishi to stuff that’s more in the mainstream shônen or shôjo veins. There have been a couple of recent releases that buck the trend, though. I thought Hiro Mashima’s Fairy Tail was charming, and I’ve really liked what I’ve read of Yuko Osada’s Toto! Brigid Alverson has a review of the first volume.

It didn’t exactly change my life, but I really enjoyed Takako Shigematsu’s Tenshi Ja Nai!! (Go! Comi). It was a great example of a certain kind of highly polished, amiably trashy, slightly mean-spirited romantic comedy that hit the spot. Shigematsu’s King of the Lamp (Go! Comi) struck me as a throw-away, but the manga-ka’s credit is still good with me. Hence, I’m looking forward to the arrival of the first volume of Ultimate Venus (again, Go! Comi). Bring the trashy, mean polish, Shigematsu.

Kamisama Kazoku (Go! Comi), by Yoshizaku Kuwashima and Tapari, sounds like it will be neither trashy nor mean, but I’m intrigued all the same. It’s about a boy who just wants a normal life, even though he’s the offspring of a pair of over-protective gods.

A four-panel comic about a tomboy who carries a coffin around and has a bat for a best friend? What kind of stone need I be made to resist such a thing? Yen Press offers the first volume of Satoko Kiyuduki’s Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro, and it will be mine.