Drawn and Quarterly has re-released the four volumes of Showa, Shigeru Mizuki’s ridiculously detailed history of Japan from 1926-1989, translated by Zack Davisson, with snazzy redesigned covers. As I said when I previously reviewed the first volume, Although intimidating, with its doorstop size and historical focus, [it] is surprisingly readable. I found it fast-moving, with an inviting combination of personal reminiscence and an educational approach to cultural history. The price has gone up by $5 a book, but it’s been […]

Yen Press plans to make the out-of-print manga Thermae Romae available again. Mari Yamazaki’s Thermae Romae: The Complete Omnibus is due out October 18. The original books were published at $35 each ($40 for the third and final), so $75 for the complete hardcover is a comparative deal. The manga is the story of a Roman architect who falls through time via a bathhouse. He’s been told his ideas aren’t modern enough. When he emerges in present-day Japan, he learns […]

Long ago (2009), I wrote about Yokohama Shopping Trip (Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou). It was a scanted manga series where “sometime in the future, the world (or maybe just Japan) flooded. Fewer people live in smaller villages as a result, leading to a return to the simple life. The story follows Alpha, a robot (although you wouldn’t know it to look at her) who owns a coffee shop with almost no customers.” It’s a charming slice-of-life series that I adored because […]

The Summit of the Gods was a mountaineering manga published in English by Fanfare/Ponent Mon between 2009 and 2015. (I’ve previously reviewed Volume 2 and Volume 3.) The appeal for me was the amazing art by Jiro Taniguchi. I’ve just noticed that it was adapted into an animated film by French director Patrick Imbert and is now available on Netflix in the US. (It had previously been a live-action film in Japan in 2016.) From an interview with Imbert: In […]

Kodansha has announced that until August 2nd, you can get free digital copies of a number of their series. Additionally, second volumes are 99 cents, and third volumes are $1.99. Three volumes of these popular series for three bucks is a terrific summer reading deal! Check your favorite digital vendor for this offer. I recommend grabbing the first of any you’re interested in and reading them in the next two weeks so you can buy more if you like them. […]

Given that I don’t read Japanese, it’s rare I get to make direct comparisons between an original manga volume and its English translation. So I was excited to see how much I could find out about Sherlock: The Great Game. This is the third, concluding volume in the manga series telling the story of the BBC show Sherlock‘s first season. It was published in English by Titan in 2018. I have a copy of the original Japanese printing of the […]

Kodansha has announced today that they are unifying their “English-language publishing program” with a new website, kodansha.us (formerly KodanshaComics.com), and the elimination of Vertical as a label. Well, they didn’t exactly announce that last part, but that’s one of the results. The combined website “spotlights not only the Kodansha manga you know and love but also highlights all of Kodansha’s award-winning and fan-favorite English-language, novels, cookbooks, craft guides, historical/cultural literature, and more.” This includes what was formerly Kodansha Comics, Kodansha […]