August 31, 2009 Johanna Comic News 9 comments

Disney Buys Marvel

When I saw this headline this morning, I had to double-check the calendar to confirm that it wasn’t April. But this press release is posted to the official Disney site. (At the time of this writing, nothing is available at the Marvel news site. And here’s Marvel’s post. (Link no longer available.)) DISNEY TO ACQUIRE MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT Building on its strategy of delivering quality branded content to people around the world, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) has agreed to acquire […]

August 30, 2009 Johanna Tokyopop Manga Reviews One comment

Bizenghast Wins! Last OEL Manga Standing

I was surprised to receive a copy of Bizenghast volume 6, since I’d thought Tokyopop had ended all of their OEL manga print plans. (OEL manga are comics created by non-Japanese creators in the English language but drawn in a manga style. I’m ignoring Princess Ai, of course, since it’s co-created by Stuart Levy, CEO of Tokyopop, so it gets special treatment.) Even though I’ve never read earlier volumes in the series, I figured the longevity deserved recognition, so I’d […]

August 29, 2009 Johanna No Starch Press Manga Reviews 3 comments

The Manga Guides to Calculus and Electricity

The Manga Guide to Calculus written by Hiroyuki Kojima; art by Shin Togami As I’ve read more of this series, I’ve come to appreciate better what they’re doing. I’ve found most of them fun ways to brush up on technical subjects. And the more imaginative and developed the framing story is, the more interested I am. A book that says “Girl student needs to study and here’s what she learns” isn’t as involving as, for example, “Princess needs to save […]

August 29, 2009 Johanna Tokyopop Manga Reviews 2 comments

CSI: Intern at Your Own Risk

My expectations, given that this was a spin-off tie-in, were low enough that I was pleasantly surprised to get a likable character and reasonably enjoyable story in CSI: Intern at Your Own Risk (story by Sekou Hamilton and art by Steven Cummings). Kiyomi is a student optimistically trying to cope with how badly the economy is treating her single father — the standard plucky manga schoolgirl type, in other words, who’s about to be given the opportunity to show how […]

August 26, 2009 Johanna Viz Manga Reviews 8 comments

20th Century Boys Volume 4

Review by Ed Sizemore **Warning: This review contains spoilers.** With this volume, the narrative jumps ahead three years to the summer of 2000. We finally discover what happened to Otcho since he disappeared twelve years ago in 1988. We also discover what happened to Professor Sikishima and his family. Remember, volume 1 opened with police investigating the Sikishima family’s disappearance. On a structural level, 20th Century Boys volume 4 is really about tying up some loose ends and reintroducing Otcho […]

The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb

August 25, 2009 Johanna Comic News Leave a comment

Crumb Comes to Richmond

To promote his Book of Genesis Illustrated (due out October 19), Robert Crumb will be appearing in Richmond, Virginia, on October 27. “A Conversation with R. Crumb and Françoise Mouly”, sponsored by the University of Richmond and local shop Velocity Comics, is one of only five appearances nationwide. If you will be attending and are available to report on the event for this site, please let me know. Note that an earlier version of this post got the school wrong. […]

August 24, 2009 Johanna Books About Comics 2 comments

The DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics

After a five-year gap, the DC Comics line of guides to creating comics has been brought up to date with the newest entry, The DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics. I was previously unfamiliar with author Freddie E Williams II, probably because he only began working for DC in 2006, and I cut back on my superhero reading around then. His best-known credits are Robin, The Flash, and Final Crisis Aftermath: Run. He works entirely digitally, providing him the […]

August 23, 2009 Johanna Motion Comics 7 comments

What’s the Point of a Motion Comic?

Last year (July 2008), Warner Bros. launched what they called “motion comics”, comic panels that had been “animated” through the addition of pans and zooms and a soundtrack with narration, voices, music, and effects. The best-known of such is probably the 12-episode Watchmen, which was released on DVD as well as online to tie in with the motion picture of the same name. Motion comics are a jazzy, buzzword-filled way to turn reading material into something you can watch, often […]

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