There’s lots of desirable material in the September 2010 Previews catalog.
Before we get to that, I feel I should note that Del Rey manga is still launching new series. Its latest is Ema Toyama’s I Am Here! It’s about a young girl who overcomes her shyness through blogging. I fell asleep halfway through typing that sentence, but there you have it. It originally ran in Kodansha’s Nakayoshi magazine. (Page 267.)
It seems like it’s been forever since the gorgeous hardcover collection of the first set of Linda Medley’s Castle Waiting stories. Fantagraphics will release 384 more pages of charming comics about the family-of-choice residents of a falling-down castle along the way. (Page 278.)
Ever since I read Glacial Period (NBM), I’ve wanted someone to publish more comics by Nicolas De Crecy. NBM obliges again with the first volume of Salvatore: Transports of Love about a successful auto mechanic who happens to be a dog. Congratulations, NBM, on joining the elite circle of publishers who have fulfilled one of my license requests. You may join Vertical and Fantagraphics in the Silver Courtesy Lounge. (Page 290.)
I’m generally not the target audience for books from PictureBox, but I love Renée (The Ticking) French, so I’ll be all over H Day. It’s a no-doubt surreal look at how French copes with migraine headaches. (Page 300.)
It also feels like it’s been a long time since Top Shelf published the first volume of Lars Martinson’s Tōnoharu. The second volume examining the life of a North American English teacher in rural Japan can be found listed on page 310.
Bless Yen Press for digging and finding unlicensed Fumi Yoshinaga, specifically Not Love but Delicious Foods, about a hard-working, hard-eating lady and her foodie friends as they restaurant hop through Tokyo. It originally ran in Ohta Shuppan’s Manga Erotics F, which is one of those magazines that seems to run whatever the hell kind of comics it pleases. (Page 321.)
The Manga Curmudgeon 
[…] Gaffney looks at this week’s new manga, and David Welsh checks out upcoming titles from the latest […]
Ugh, Del Rey’s new series have only been children’s shojo, why!? Kodansha has some of the most quirky, but often amazing reads, and it’s too bad they’re all lost on Del Rey’s poor licensing choices now. Where are the Genshikens? The Zetsubous? The Nodames? Instead we get Cardcaptor knockoffs. They’re certainly no longer in the running for top 2 publisher now.
I’m prepared to believe that Kodansha publishes as much good shonen and shojo as it does bad, but I’m baffled at some of the real stinkers they foist off on Del Rey. I have no idea what their foreign rights office can be thinking, aside from maybe that they want to save the good stuff for themselves should they ever actually start a serious English-language publishing effort.
Hmm? I was under the impression that it was Del Rey making the licensing decisions. They fired their main liaison person that nailed them the Negima and Tsubasa licenses, so it may be why their new licenses are crap.
Kodansha’s position is failing in the new manga market. Did they really think Kodansha USA was going to release all those titles they snatched back from T-pop? It seems anything to do with Kodansha goes the way of the Dodo. Why can’t they get decent representation in the West?
Well, Del Rey can only pick from the titles that Kodansha puts on the table, is what I’m suggesting. If they want to putatively stay in the licensed-manga business and have an existing, collegial relationship with Kodansha, they might not care that much that the pickings have become hideously slim.
Hmm, that changes things. Yet, if they’re saving their best licenses for Kodan USA, then what the heck is taking so long? Do you have any idea why they took back their licenses from T-pop? If it was because they wanted Del Rey to be the only representation of Kodan in the west, then why give them slim pickins? This situation just baffles me.
Perhaps they don’t intend whatsoever to release those precious licenses. Maybe they’re not too keen on the West? And the books that Kodan USA have released; they did virtually no work on them at all (retreads).
Castle Waiting! I was worried something had happened to the creator when her website vanished.