Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
You’ve likely seen at least some mention of the idiotic idea of the fake geek girl, since responses have been going on around the internet since the summer. Although I thought this was merely fanboy paranoia, I just found a classic example of the type. Let me back up. I’m still unpacking the various boxes of books arising from our move in August. (When you have over a dozen bookcases and need more to hold all the volumes, it’s not […]
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Warner released the Fleischer Superman cartoons from the early 1940s on DVD three years ago. Now, they’ve put these restored versions online on YouTube — Cartoon Brew has the links, if you want the full list. Here’s the first one: They have some great, distinctive animation, and they’re lots of fun to watch.
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Seven Seas’ decision to release this series by Kaoru Shintani in double-sized omnibus form seems even smarter now, since the first half of this book is taken up by one long story, that of “The Hound of the Baskervilles”. It’s one of the classic Holmes stories, but frankly, all I remember of it is that it includes a giant dog. That’s on display here, so I’m satisfied. It’s a fun reread, and the manga design suits the character types well, […]
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Given the wavering state of the manga market these days — the difficulty of selling long series (and thus the lack of publisher willingness to release them), the dropping sales for print overall, the fallback to safe sellers (which tend to be of less interest to me, with their fight manga, panty shots, or fantasy elements) — it’s a pleasure to find a new series that leaves me thinking “I’d like to read more of that, please”. Missions of Love […]
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Even if I don’t immediately warm to the subject matter, I have a fondness for works that play with formalism and make me ponder how we define comics. Neil Dvorak’s Easy Pieces is the latest example. Eschewing the paneled page, he’s posted a set of short pieces that ask philosophical questions, executed as single line-art images symbolic of his text ponderings. It’s all rather mind-boggling, yet certainly, as a combination of art and words to convey a message, it’s all […]
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Most will see this as a very bad sign, an indicator that business isn’t going well, but at least the company is being open about the announcement. Digital Manga has posted a message from their president that says … effective January 1st 2013, the print editions for our DMP, June Manga, DokiDoki, and 801Media imprints will be placed on a temporary hiatus. Please be advised that none of our licenses are cancelled, simply postponed. We will be resuming the distribution […]
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Although it’s quiet, without any particular gimmick to set it apart, I enjoyed reading this tale of first love. Ninako hasn’t ever been in love. One of her classmates, Daiki, is friendly towards her, so the girls tell her they should be together, but Ninako only gets those butterflies when she sees Ren, the aloof, popular, older boy everyone has a crush on. After a chance meeting on the train, Ninako gets to know Ren a little bit. There’s also […]
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If you liked volume 5, volume 6 continues the story of Rin as a teenager. Me, I already have enough shojo school stories to read, so I still miss the tales of life with a little girl. I suppose this feeling can be reinterpreted as an accurate portrayal of how life is really like when you have a kid, that they all grow up eventually and don’t stay cute forever. I don’t want to read about that part, though. Now, […]
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