Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
I’m so glad to see more josei manga titles becoming available. These are books aimed at women, skewing older than the better-known shojo books for girls. And you’ll know that Walkin’ Butterfly by Chihiro Tamaki is for an older reader (it’s rated 16+) from the first page, which is a full-body nude image of the protagonist glowering at the reader. It’s an appropriate choice, since it sums up the core conflict of the story. Michiko is very tall, and as […]
Read moreColleen Doran talks about the danger of blind items [link no longer available] and points out the major problem with them: The tricky thing about writing blind items is some people guess the blind item is about the wrong person. Every time you mention a “woman in comics” the assumption is that you are talking about Jill Thompson, someone I don’t really know very well. The people I know always guess, confusingly, Colleen Doran. Perhaps the best-known example in recent […]
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I hadn’t paid much attention to Papercutz’s Classics Illustrated line revamp. Although a wonderful idea, doing classic works of literature in comic form, it never seems to work out quite as intended. (This is at least the third attempt at the idea with that name.) I suspect kids can tell that what they’re getting is supposed to be good for them, and adaptations, even of great books, don’t inspire quite the creative achievement that more original work does. Given my […]
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I was honored to be asked to participate in the Publishers Weekly Comics Week Critics’ Poll for the second time. Here are my choices for the best graphic novels of 2007, with commentary. Doctor 13: Architecture & Mortality by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang Cairo by G. Willow Wilson and M.K. PerkerThese two books surprised me most this year. The first presented an up-to-date yet completely new take on forgotten superheroes, reassuring me that there were still imaginative things to […]
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I keep forgetting the Tokyopop Manga magazine even exists until a new issue arrives. I got one yesterday. It’s cover-dated Summer 2007, so either my mailman is REALLY slow or plans got derailed, just like with the previous issue (promised February, delivered May). It continues to shrink, with 64 stapled pages. (Previous installments were squarebound.) This issue also has ads sold to outside companies (which might explain why it came out this late instead of being canceled — paid ads […]
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A typical shojo plot — young woman desperate to get a boyfriend as she starts high school — is made highly entertaining through dynamic characters and art in High School Debut by Kazune Kawahara. Haruna is used to working hard to get what she wants. She’s a softball player (and girls’ manga fan) who thinks that slavishly following teen magazines for fashion and behavior suggestions will gain her a guy. She doesn’t understand what works specifically for her body type […]
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Publishers are currently preparing their giveaway titles for Free Comic Book Day (FCBD), which will be on May 3, 2008. Three planned webcomic-related titles won’t be included, though, because even though their publishers participated in previous years, they were rejected for 2008. I’ve interviewed Chris Crosby about his reaction to this decision. How many years have you participated in Free Comic Book Day, and with how many titles? I represent three separate publishers. I’m co-CEO and co-owner of Keenspot Entertainment, […]
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I look to comics to show me experiences I haven’t had and get me thinking about new perspectives, with bonus points for unusual, interesting settings. Cairo has all of the above. It’s written by G. Willow Wilson, a journalist who lived and worked in the area, which gives the fantastic events verisimilitude. It starts with a drug smuggler, but it quickly sprawls out through his connections and those he meets through chance (or more likely, destiny). His sister is friendly […]
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