November 17, 2011 Johanna Other Publishers 2 comments

Comic Book Comics #6

This self-referential series, a history of comics in comic form, ends with this issue. It’s a mixed bag, looking both forward and backward. The first chapter tackles the question of identifying the first graphic novel. As someone interested in comic history — that’s why I’m reading this comic — I’d already heard most of this information, so I found myself skimming. Various titles, including Gil Kane’s Blackmark and It Rhymes With Lust, are mentioned in a panel or two each. […]

November 13, 2011 Johanna Other Prose One comment

The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt

The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt is an odd but rewarding experiment, a “novel in pictures” that tells its story through captioned vintage images, over 600 pieces of memorabilia in all. The book’s trailer pretends to show the construction of the scrapbook. It’s about Frankie Pratt, an 18-year-old New Hampshire village girl in 1920 who wants to be a writer. As she grows up, she attends Vassar, struggles in Greenwich Village, and runs away to Paris to heal a broken heart. […]

November 12, 2011 Johanna Manga News 7 comments

Digital Manga Turns to Kickstarter to Bring Book Back in Print

Digital Manga published Osamu Tezuka’s Swallowing the Earth back in 2009, and once the initial run was sold, the book went out of print. Now, they’ve set up a Kickstarter drive asking for money to reprint the book. If they raise $3,950 or more (they’re well on their way after just a day of posting), then contributors will get copies, as well as bonuses of other manga, either print or digital. Their reasoning, as posted on the site, is this: […]

November 12, 2011 Johanna Movie News 3 comments

Warner Brothers Talks About Plans for UltraViolet, Flixster

Warner’s new digital movie scheme, UltraViolet, gets an article in the NY Times positioning it as a way for the studio to compete with rentals, especially Netflix. This strikes me as misguided. People who simply want to see a film for a buck or two for the night are not the same audience as those who want to own a copy. Wait, let me revise that — from the studio’s perspective, buying a plastic disc isn’t ownership, it’s just a […]

November 12, 2011 Johanna Comic Book Films One comment

X-Men: First Class on Blu-ray

Since I thought I remembered the movie pretty well, for my first home video viewing of X-Men: First Class, I chose “X Marks the Spot” mode, which interrupts the film with interview inserts (such as director/co-screenwriter Matthew Vaughn explaining his goals for the film) and behind-the-scenes footage (including some special effects tricks and the design concepts behind the credits). Other participants are production designer Chris Seagers, producers Bryan Singer and Lauren Shuler Donner, visual effects designer John Dykstra, and specialized […]

November 12, 2011 Johanna Comic Book Films 7 comments

Captain America: The First Avenger

I thought I’d already reviewed this movie when it came out in theaters this summer, but apparently not. I enjoyed watching Captain America: The First Avenger, but I didn’t have much to say about it. Since everyone’s moved on to wondering about Marvel’s The Avengers, this film feels a little like marking time, like a preview of the thing you really want to see, as indicated by the subtitle and the movie’s final “bonus” scene. The production company stuck closer […]

November 10, 2011 Johanna Vertical Manga Reviews 5 comments

The Drops of God Volume 1

I’ve been curious about The Drops of God since hearing that this legendary manga has been affecting prices in the wine market, especially in Asia. It seems that getting a bottle or vintage recommended in this comic can drive real-world international customer interest and thus industry economics. Additionally, I grew to love the Japanese food manga Oishinbo (which also did an alcohol volume), and I was eager to see more in that genre. Yet Drops of God left me with […]

November 9, 2011 Johanna Manga News 2 comments

Viz Announces SuBLime Yaoi Manga Line

The largest English-language manga publisher, Viz Media, has announced that they are launching a line (not an imprint, but a partnership) to cover the one genre of manga they haven’t yet tackled: yaoi (boys’ love). In partnership with Libre Publishing, the biggest Japanese publisher of boys’ love titles, and the largest anime store chain in Japan, Animate, SuBLime Manga will being publishing English-language titles digitally in December, with print titles to follow in Spring 2012. The website is just a […]

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