Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
Earlier this year, Del Rey (in conjunction with Marvel) published Wolverine: Prodigal Son, a shonen manga take on the loner with a healing factor. I thought it wasn’t bad, but I was really looking forward to this take on the characters, also part of the deal: X-Men: Misfits is a shojo approach to the classic mutant superhero team. I’ve always wanted to like the X-Men more than I did. I like the characters, and I like the angsty approach (when […]
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The Middleman TV series finale has finally arrived, in print form, and it’s a fitting goodbye to the beloved show. Everyone makes an appearance — Lacey, Wendy’s boyfriend Tyler, Noser, Manservant Neville, Roxy the former succubi, giant robots — and the events are suitably amazing, huge, and touching. What really got to me, though, beyond the insane ideas and creative action was the spot-on dialogue. I’d missed hearing the characters talk like this, whether jokes about the costumes or the […]
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One of the best manga of 2008, Naoki Urasawa’s Monster, will debut in animated form on Syfy on October 12. The former Sci-Fi Network is running “Ani-Monday”, an anime programming block. After airing on Mondays on Syfy, the episodes will re-run on Chiller (a channel focused on horror and suspense) in the following week. The cartoon series is rated TV-MA and is promised to “remain true to the original story.” Neurosurgeon Dr. Tenma saved a child who then turned out […]
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At Robot6, Brigid Alverson interviews Marco Pavia, Tokyopop Director of Marketing, about the company’s plans to release completed OEL manga online. Much of it is typical marketing talk — and I wouldn’t expect anything else, since that’s his job, to present Tokyopop’s story in a positive light — but I found this section intriguing, in response to questions about how readers will find earlier volumes of the promoted series: [W]e will always have at least one chapter of these series […]
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The Big Kahn has an immediately gripping concept — at his funeral, a beloved rabbi is revealed to not be Jewish. He’s a con man who 40 years ago fell in love and decided to become what he was pretending to be. His long-lost brother appears to say his final goodbyes, telling everyone the truth. His family — the widow; his son Avi, a rabbi following in his footsteps; his daughter Lea, previously non-observant; and the youngest child, Eli — […]
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Followup to my review of The Manga Guide to Physics recommended this installment of the series because it featured a female instructor instead of the usual boy-helping-girl setup. The Manga Guide to Databases, written by Mana Takahashi and drawn by Shoko Azuma, is also more imaginative in its premise, going far beyond the usual “schoolgirl needs help in class”. The Kingdom of Kod sells its fruit, and in her father’s absence, Princess Ruruna is in charge. Various departments of the […]
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After Tokyopop reorganized in June of last year, word leaked out that they would not be printing any more of their OEL (original English language) manga, instead releasing them online. Finally, over a year later, comes the confirmation: Tokyopop is pleased to announce the release of a number of its original series exclusively on Tokyopop.com. Modernizing the magazine serialization made famous by Charles Dickens, today Tokyopop will debut Psy*Comm volume 3, with a new chapter serialized weekly for free until […]
Read moreWorld’s Finest has posted the back cover art for Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, coming in September, which reveals that the next direct-to-video DC animated movie, will be Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. Sounds good to me! The title suggests an opportunity to see lots of DC heroes. Unfortunately, the rest of the back cover copy promotes extras on Superman/Batman: Public Enemies as including “Behind the Scenes of Blackest Night” and “Explore 4 Other DC Universe Animated Movies”. That suggests that […]
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