Brody’s Ghost
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Mark Crilley returns with Brody’s Ghost (Dark Horse, MAR10 0018, $6.99), a short (96 pages) manga, part one of six. Brody is going to learn from a samurai how to unlock his powers, aided by a ghost girl. I’m glad to see Crilley continuing with new projects, but after being disappointed by Miki Falls, I wish there was some way we could get more Akiko. I miss it a lot. Whatever happened to publisher Siruis Entertainment, anyway?

A new volume of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service is something to look foward to. Book 11 (Dark Horse, MAR10 0089, $10.99) is due out at the end of July and promises a long story about a murderous schoolgirl.

Korea as Viewed by 12 Creators
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Nadeshiko Club (DC / CMX, MAR10 0319, $9.99) sounds like the love child of Otomen and Ouran High School Host Club. A girl, to catch a boy, decides to learn what they now call “domestic science” (home ec), only to find that a bunch of guys have taken over the club. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by many of CMX’s recent releases, so I expect this to be amusing as well.

Del Rey Manga is bringing the second volume of Moyasimon (MAR10 0898, $10.99) out in May. I got my fill of the college boys who can see germs in the first book, I think, but I know many enjoyed the humor and adorably biological art and have been anticipating this.

Neko Ramen
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Fanfare / PonentMon doesn’t release books casually or frequently, but their production value is such that their manga is worth waiting for. Their 2006 anthology Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators (available for reorder, MAR10 0946, $25) now has a followup, Korea as Viewed by 12 Creators (MAR10 0945, $19.95, originally planned for December 2008). Six European creators and six Korean comic makers contribute stories to present a picture of the title country. The results, if the previous book is anything to judge by, will be insightful and diverse.

This month, Tokyopop launches Neko Ramen, a manga about a cat that runs a noodle shop, told in a collection of four-panel (4-koma) strips. I think that sums it all up — if you’re tickled by the concept, this is for you. You can subscribe to get strips mailed to you or browse their website for more samples, plenty of “try before you buy”.

Afterschool Charisma Book 1
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The Viz Signature line of intriguing manga aiming beyond the typical teen audience continues with a new launch, Afterschool Charisma (MAR10 1174, $12.99), one of their SigIKKI online series. All of the students at this particularly odd school are clones of famous people, so the adolescent struggle to find oneself takes on a unique twist. Also out from the Signature line (my favorite manga imprint) are new volumes of 20th Century Boys (Book 9, MAR10 1176, $12.99) and Children of the Sea (Book 3, MAR10 1175, $14.99).

If you love food manga (such as Oishinbo) but think they need more adventure, then Toriko is for you. It’s the story of a Gourmet Hunter who fights to find delicious food. “Eat or be eaten” is the tagline, which sounds a little macho for me, but it could be fun!

Cavemen in Space (AdHouse, MAR10 0679, $14.95) is the newest graphic novel by Joey Weiser, whose The Ride Home I enjoyed. I’ll pick up his next work, plus the concept (as brilliantly captured in the title) reminds me of the long-ago Primitives comic I almost wrote for. Ah, memories.

Cavemen in Space
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You can now order the Archie Americana Best of the Seventies Book 2 (MAR10 0708, $11.95) announced in January. Also note that the prices are being raised on Archie single issues from $2.50 to $2.99. So now the only comics regularly priced under $3 an issue are promotional specials, dollar samplers and the like.

Diamond strikes again! A full-page ad for the barely covered Tarot appears smack in the middle of the Boom! Kids section, right between various Walt Disney comic listings. Someone couldn’t adjust that layout by a page? I guess that lack of detail-checking also explains why no one said to Dynamite Entertainment, “I think there’s a typo in your ad line, or did you really mean to print ‘One will dies!’?”

The Legacy
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Speaking of Dynamite, they’re bringing Howard Chaykin’s sex comic Black Kiss (MAR10 0871, $24.99) back to print in a remastered hardcover. If you enjoy Chaykin’s work, and you’re over 18, you should read this, because it’s the ultimate expression of his usual quirks, the fishnets and domination and Hollywood setting and porn and blow jobs. Oh, and vampires, too. Read this and every other Chaykin comic will seem like a pale copy.

The Legacy (Dragonfish Comics, MAR10 0912, $10.95) is by two guys, Andrew McGinn and David Neitzke, I’ve never heard of, and the sample at their website isn’t long enough to really get a feel for the work, but I love the concept. A young man inherits his father’s beloved comic strip, the kind of inoffensive pablum that’s been left to run much beyond the time it had anything to say. He decides that the only way to get back to his own work is to get the strip cancelled by making it outrageously offensive. There’s a risk that there’s nothing to the book beyond the shock value humor, and it’s slim (96 pages) to work out all the potential of the concept, but if you have a few extra bucks and an interest in newspaper strip history and inheritance, you may want to check it out.

Archie: The Best of Dan DeCarlo
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Ah, the benefits of being a sister company. There are four catalog pages, plus an additional ad, telling us that the new Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide (MAR10 0973 and following, $35 hardcover) is coming out. It’s due to release in July. The problem with this? Traditionally, the book comes out in April. That gives all the comic dealers time to find and analyze price changes and trends before summer convention season gets into gear. Now, in the middle of all that, they’re going to be asked to possibly reprice. That’s not a recipe for happy customers.

IDW honors the talented artist his home publisher ignores with Archie: The Best of Dan DeCarlo (MAR10 1052, $24.99). There aren’t many specifics on contents, number of stories, or high points — all we know is that this volume reprints stories from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s. The most exciting part for me is the “Volume One” tag, providing hope for more. (Actually, this material is licensed from Archie, so I have hope that the new era of leadership is more open to accurate credits and historical recognition.) DeCarlo’s lines are beautiful and his grasp of behavior impressive.

This isn’t a graphic novel, but Oni Press has an intriguing comic debut this month. Frenemy of the State (MAR10 1102, $3.99) is a mash-up: what if a globe-trotting socialite was really a secret agent? It’s James Bond as a modern woman, co-written by Rashida Jones, Christina Weir, and Nunzio DeFlippis. The limited art samples, by unfamiliar-to-me Jeff Wamester, are attractive, as they’d need to be, but the comparisons to Buffy and Chuck sold me.

Moving Pictures
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On the other hand, I wish I liked the art I’ve seen from JAM! Tales from the World of Roller Derby (MAR10 1103, $19.95) better, because I’d love to read more about this sport after seeing and enjoying Whip It. It’s written by actual participants, so reality! There’s a 17-page preview at that link, go check for yourself.

I wonder about people who write Previews copy. Do they realize that, once you’re in the back section, most of the people reading it know nothing about them, their company, or their comic? You have to write to educate people about why they’d want your comic, not simply spew out impenetrable sentences about your characters and their world. You’ve been living with them for years, but we have no idea who they are or why we should care that one is fighting another.

The Immonens collect their webcomic Moving Pictures as a book from Top Shelf (MAR10 1136, $14.95). Unfortunately, you can no longer read it online, since they took it down once they discovered it was being redistributed in a format they didn’t like. I understand that they’re the artists, it’s their work, and they can do what they want with it — but it seems to me counterproductive to react to copying by removing the original, thus ceding the field to the copier. It’s a free comic — wouldn’t you want the authorized edition to remain available as a superior alternative? Anyway, there’s a preview of the opening pages at the book’s link. The book’s about art stolen by Nazis and promises to be thought-provoking.

I was excited by the idea of Brightest Day. Like Marvel’s Heroic Age, it seemed to promise a return to what superheroes should be, inspiring and amazing fantasy figures. However, DC seems determined to piss in my cornflakes. Apparently, expecting “Brightest Day” to signify optimism or anything else positive is just plain wrong. The following excerpts from their promotional copy show what I mean:

“Is everything from here on out going to be bright and shiny? No.”
“There are no grey areas here — it’s black and white and red with blood all over.”
“first appearance of the most dangerous, most twisted new Birds villain ever”
“battle to the death … what horrors await the rest of the Justice League”

Oh, how silly of me to want heroes that act like heroes instead of wallowing in gore and mayhem and angst. Oh, well, more money saved in not buying any DC superhero comics until they are interested in serving me as a customer again.

I thought I might get excited about the return of writer Paul Levitz with the launch of Legion of Super-Heroes #1, but then I realized no one has any idea what a first issue means any more. It is promoted as following up an earlier storyline and serves as a Green Lantern Corps tie-in. That doesn’t sound like a jumping-on point to me. I want to feel like reading more because I’m excited and want to, not feel pushed into doing more research, like homework. The harder the sell gets, out of desperation, the less attractive it all becomes.

Wait, I am looking forward to Teen Titans #83, because of the new Coven backup, as I already mentioned, plus I’ll keep reading The Great Ten and The Unwritten. Otherwise… it’s a shame the publisher has moved so far away from me.

Marvel is teaming up its two biggest properties, those with successful movies, in the new series Astonishing Spider-Man/Wolverine. This is the kind of comic that makes me despair — there’s no reason for these two characters to be together. They don’t have similar motivations or story styles or even surroundings. (Spider-Man is a grumpy urban boy; Wolverine a world-weary globetrotter.) This smacks of “we don’t care about anything internal or story-based; we just care about making more money.” Which, yes, suits Marvel as a company and Disney subsidiary, I guess, but I’m picky enough to not want to read obvious cash-grabs. Even weirder, they’re planning on sending the two characters “to the edges of the Marvel universe”. Space-faring? Really? It’s almost enough of a car-crash-in-the-making for me to be curious about it on that basis, but then I remember they want $4 for a 32-page magazine, and I pass.

Thankfully, then I saw Rescue (MAR10 0478, $3.99), a new special issue by Kelly Sue DeConnick (Sensual Phrase) telling a story about Pepper Potts as Iron Man. That I hope to like, although it would be nice if Marvel bothered to tell us who the artist will be. Comics are both words and pictures, and I try to value both, but it’s difficult when the publisher clearly doesn’t.

Amadeus Cho (formerly of Incredible Hercules) gets his own miniseries? Neat! I like the super-smart kid. (Still miss the dog, though.) I’ll check out Heroic Age: Prince of Power (MAR10 0539, $3.99), although the title makes me giggle. It’s the same writers, which is a good sign Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente, and an artist, Reilly Brown, who’s drawn the character before. Should I be reading anything into the way Marvel is careful to mention that Cho is Korean-American in the solicit copy?

With ever-increasing prices, I appreciate cheap teaser attempts, but the dollar line “Marvel’s Greatest Comics” this month features Alias, Marvel Zombies, Agents of Atlas, and 1602. THESE are what Marvel wants to represent their company? Old series, horror parodies, impenetrable in-jokes?

The cover of the latest Power Pack miniseries, issue #2 of Thor and the Warriors Four, is the funniest thing I’ve seen out from Marvel in a long time. I love the sense of whimsy. I bet there’s nothing like it inside the issue, but it brought me a smile during the long slog through Previews.

I kind of wish I liked Spider-Man or the Avengers or the Hulk or the X-Men, because if I did, I’d have a lot more options from Marvel. On the other hand, I appreciate them making keeping a budget so easily.

Review by Ed Sizemore

Taisuke Kanou is still heading north, chasing after his childhood friend Yuichi Hirose, who kidnapped their mutual friend Megumi Ochiai. He is joined by Yuta Takizawa, a young boy searching for answers about his mother’s suicide and his powers. Taisuke and Yuta will be joined by Nami Kusunoki, who is looking to get revenge on her little brother’s murderer.

Alive: The Final Evolution Book 4
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Alive continues to be a gripping sci-fi suspense story. The series started out at a leisurely pace to allow us time to get to know Taisuke and this new reality he was trying to cope with. Beginning with volume 4, the pace picks up and increases along with the tension in the series. By volumes 7 and 8, I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to see what comes next.

Volume four introduces a new central character, Nami Kusunoki. Her appearance made me realize how much of an influence X-Men is for this series. Nami has the ability to create ice from any source of moisture. Her favorite use of this power is to create ice claws that hover above the back of her hand. Is this starting to sound familiar? She is also gifted in martial arts and has a gruff, no-nonsense personality. She is the Wolverine of Alive. (Just without the cigars and beer.) That realization made me reexamine the abilities of the other characters, and it’s not hard to draw similar connections between the cast of Alive and X-Men characters.

Alive: The Final Evolution Book 5
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This similarity to X-Men offers the chance for Alive to have crossover appeal to American comic book fans, especially superhero fans. Further contributing to this appeal, the artwork in Alive is also comparable to the art found in most American comics. However, even with a quickened pace, Alive would still be considered a slow read compared to the compressed storytelling used in the standard Marvel or DC comic. All things considered, Alive would be a good series for manga fans to use to introduce American comics fans to manga.

Volume five explains how these non-corporeal alien life forms are able to connect with a human host. When the aliens enter a human mind, they seek out the dark recesses of the soul/heart/personality. The manga talks about there being a hole in our heart that the aliens fill. However, that’s an alien explaining what they do in a polite way. What really happens is the alien exploits the host’s insecurities, weaknesses, or character flaws.

Alive: The Final Evolution Book 6
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So the aliens exploit Yuicihi’s feeling of helplessness and his jealousy of Taisuke, Nami’s sorrow over the death of her brother, and Taisuke’s guilt over this parent’s death. (You’ll have to read the manga to find out why he blames himself.) The aliens can completely control some people, like Yuichi, and these become comrades. Others commit suicide as a result of this manipulation, and a rare few, like Taisuke, are able to bond with an alien and remain themselves. People like Taisuke have yet to be explained.

The way the aliens operate explains why Kawashima has made sure to give us the background of all the characters we encounter. It brings some depth to each person and makes everyone sympathetic to some extent. We know that even the most ruthless of the comrades is being manipulated. On the other hand, the aliens now become the perfect villains. You despise them completely for the utter disregard they have for humans. We are tools simply to be used until they achieve their goals, then we are cast aside like garbage.

Alive: The Final Evolution Book 7
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Another emotional component to the manga is the tragic love triangle among Taisuke, Yuichi, and Megumi. All three have been friends since childhood. Now in their high school years, Megumi has begun to have romantic feelings toward Taisuke. Never the brightest bulb in the box, Taisuke hasn’t figured this out yet. Meanwhile, Yuichi is beginning to develop romantic feelings for Megumi.

As the series progresses, Yuichi has come to realize Megumi’s feelings, and this is one of the reasons he’s jealous of Taisuke. Given Yuichi’s personality, there is no way for him to accept Taisuke and Megumi as a couple without being severely hurt. This is the only situation that would make him hate his two dearest and oldest friends. You know this is going to end their friendship, and you hate to see it happen.

Adachitoka’s artwork has certainly improved over the course of the series. It is now reminiscent of the artstyle used by Takeshi Obata (Death Note). Adachitoka does a great job creating the proper atmospheres and emotions. When an alien takes over someone, the panels are eerie and convey how unsettling an experience that is. When we are given flashbacks to a character’s past, they are filled with sorrow or pain.

Alive: The Final Evolution Book 8
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Adachitoka is also adept at showing the emotions of a character, not just in their face, but in their body language, too. The fight scenes are fluid and draw you quickly in. Before you know it, you’re turning the pages furiously as the scene gets more intense. I am very pleased to see the art come up to the level of the storytelling.

It’s obvious that I find Alive to be a gripping read. In fact, I was so drawn into the plot that I whizzed through the last two books in no time. Now that I know what happened, I’m going back to re-read them to pick up nuances I missed the first time around. Thankfully, Alive rewards such second reads. Fans of good suspense stories will thoroughly enjoy this series, as will most sci-fi fans. I recommend the series highly to anyone looking for a great read. I’m certainly staying with this series until the end.

(The publisher provided review copies.)

She’s Out of My League opens on Friday, but I was lucky enough to see a preview earlier this week. I recommend it.

When it comes to R-rated comedy romances, I’m never sure what to expect. Some of them are raunchfests or expect you to find laughs in watching a bunch of potheads kill time. This one takes a different direction. While quite funny, it also has a sense of heart. Fundamentally, it’s an ugly duckling love story, the tale of how a nice guy learns he’s worthy of a relationship with a hot girl.

Jay Baruchel (previously in Knocked Up and Undeclared) is gawky Kirk. He’s still obsessing over Marnie, his ex-girlfriend who broke up with him two years ago. One of the reasons he can’t move on: his family has “adopted” her and her new boyfriend.

Jay Baruchel, T.J. Miller, Nate Torrence, Mike Vogel

Kirk and his high school buddies work at the airport. He’s still hanging out with the same people he did all his life, with a job going nowhere (ironic, right?). He’s well-spoken and thoughtful, and his dry wit shows he’s too smart for those around him, his family and friends.

Alice Eve is Molly, the “10″, a conventionally pretty blonde. She’s generically skinny but busty, with big white teeth in a nice smile. She’s not particularly distinctive in looks, but she also demonstrates personality, making her character more than a plot device.

You have to get through her introductory scene to realize this, though. Her first appearance attempts to be something like the introduction of Jayne Mansfield in The Girl Can’t Help It (only with less cartoony slapstick), where everyone in the room stops what they’re doing to notice how gorgeous she is. Frankly, her looks can’t live up to the expectation. Once past that, though, things settle down and the movie treats her beauty more reasonably.

The two, on their first date (which Kirk doesn’t realize is one), bond over hockey, which I found timely after the recent Olympics. Molly wants someone nice and different from her past boyfriends, while Kirk is paralyzed with fear and nerves due to his low self-esteem. His friends are the wrong guys to get advice from, while Molly’s best friend, Patty (Krysten Ritter, who’s making a career out of these roles), exists to advance the plot and spew profanity, which resulted in much laughter in the theater I was in. I don’t find a vaguely goth-looking foul-mouthed girl inherently funny, but apparently that’s just me.

The introductory scene does show that Kirk is the only guy who treats Molly like a person instead of sex on legs, since he’s the only one not distracted from doing his job. We’re supposed to take her harassment as comedy, something played from laughs, demonstrating the guy perspective that drives the plot. That’s why, later on, when we’re asked to understand how hard it is to be a hot girl, that scene doesn’t work. Up to that point, while Molly is a reasonably well-rounded character, we haven’t seen anything from her perspective. This is Kirk’s story, so suddenly switching to worrying about how hard her life is isn’t believable. The movie was complicit early on in the same behavior we’re now supposed to condemn. But that’s the only real misstep.

Otherwise, this film does a lot of things right. It’s not too long, and it moves well, keeping events going. It even makes Pittsburgh look like an attractive and fun place to be. And the idea of a Hall & Oates cover band called Adult Education is funny in itself; to see it is just icing. The film does deserve its R rating, though, due to language. There is copious use of both the F-word and saying “Jesus” as an expletive.

I must compliment Baruchel’s work, because he does a great job carrying this movie. His portrayal is nuanced, good-hearted, and sweet. He demonstrates an old-fashonied skill at handling both verbal and performance humor. Baruchel really rounds out Kirk to be a person instead of a walking joke, someone to care about, not just laugh at. His work with Eve creates a comfortable relationship you root for.

I’m guessing this was a relatively low-budget film, because the only other actors I recognized were Debra Jo Rupp, from That 70s Show, playing Kirk’s mom, and Marnie, Lindsay Sloane, whom I always remember from Grosse Pointe. Also notable is Nate Torrence (Get Smart) as Devon, one of the buddies. He’s naive, and unlike the other guys, married, and he makes weird allusions, including plenty of Disney movie references. He doesn’t curse, and his good humor and general ineffective niceness round out the guys’ gang well.

The movie isn’t too gross, although there are two scenes that will stick in your head. One involves a large dog and a guy embarrassed after getting too excited; another … well, if you ever wondered how someone could outdo Steve Carrell’s waxing scene in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, they found a way here. You can view the trailer at the official website.

Fantagraphics has announced that they will launch a manga imprint in September of this year.

Their first book will be A Drunken Dream and Other Stories, a collection of works by Moto Hagio, the shojo pioneer. Her work is historic but little of it has been translated in English so far.

The books will read right to left (unflipped), in the “authentic” fashion, but they will be hardcovers. Translator and editor Matt Thorn lists the stories that will be included in the Hagio book and praises the line as “drop-dead gorgeous and boast[ing] the finest production values”. That makes me wonder how much the books will cost, but no price information has yet been released, although Amazon information suggests somewhere from $19.99 – $24.99. They’ve been working on this project for at least four years, so I’m expecting great things.

The second release, scheduled for December, will be Wandering Son, the first volume in an ongoing series (10 volumes so far) by Shimura Takako exploring transgender issues. As described by the publisher, “these 5th graders struggle with only not puberty, but also severe identity issues; Shichi is a boy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino is a girl who wants to be a boy.” Sounds like fascinating material.

Christopher Butcher has more information and analysis.

The Amazon glitch over the weekend that priced just about every comic collection distributed by Diamond Book Distributors at $14.99 or less — a category that includes Marvel, IDW, Dark Horse, Top Shelf, and Image — has some additional fallout.

As reported by TechCrunch, those who had orders canceled have received email stating

We’re sorry for any frustration the issue may have caused, and have applied a $25 promotional certificate to your account. You can use it the next time you order an item shipped and sold by Amazon.com.

This excludes third-party sellers, who are the only ones who have books by the listed comic publishers right now. Publishers Weekly explains why:

Amazon has been forced to temporarily take down buy buttons for all titles supplied by Diamond in order to correct the problem. According to the source, Amazon has to do an audit to figure out which customers got books and at what prices. While the situation is temporary, the source said, “there is no timetable for when this will be completed.”

That explains an interesting phrase in the Amazon credit email. It said, “we completely sold out — we don’t have any in stock right now, and we’re not sure when we’ll be able to get more.” That “not sure” part confused me, although now I understand. They have to finish their calculations before they can restock.

Personally, I’m embarrassed to get the $25 credit. I ordered a Howard the Duck Omnibus that was already marked “out of stock” when I placed the order. I didn’t really expect to get it, and I didn’t. Getting paid for taking that gamble seems wrong to me. Anyone who thinks otherwise, who was claiming that Amazon “owed” them for their “poor” customer service in refusing to sell books at a loss, needs to read this.

In one other note, it appears that Rich Johnston isn’t making nearly as much money from his pimping of the sale as I thought. (Current article count he’s posted about the situation: 14.) That linked post says that he’s received credit for only 4 out of 5,572 Omnibuses ordered through his links. Although that doesn’t account for the status of the other 8,499 items he bragged about people ordering, and plenty of people have gotten some of the books…

Update: (3/11/10) Simon Jones lists additional publishers, including several manga companies, affected by Amazon removing all Diamond Book Distributor titles. He also pleads for “sanity”, as he puts it, in reminding us how this might negatively affect the small companies who put out comics and manga that we love.