Another Blow to Josei Manga: Talking About Cancelled

During a discussion here last month about josei manga, David Welsh recommended a book called Talking About that was due out in June. Here’s the description: Meet Sarah, successful event planner by day… frustrated 30-year-old virgin by night. Actually, she’s not quite 30 yet. The night before the dreaded birthday, she vows to do something about it. Meet Gang-E, a 29 year-old graphic novelist. She only has one problem — she likes them young. Males, that is — especially her […]

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Little Nothings: The Curse of the Umbrella

Little Nothings reprints painted pages from Lewis Trondheim’s comic blog. He draws himself as a bird-headed man, with small, everyday observations: watching people at the train station, his failure at gardening, conversations with his kids, watching movies, travel. There’s a whole sequence about going on vacation to a tropical island. Instead of being jealous of him, though, it’s a comedy, as his paranoia about disease carried by mosquito prevents him from enjoying himself. The running gag becomes visual, with the […]

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The Wind in the Willows

Given that Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows is 100 years old this year, I suspect many youngsters only know it, if they know it at all, as a ride at Disneyworld, instead of the classic children’s book it’s reported to be. I’d never read it before, myself, so I appreciated the chance to learn about the adventures of these woodland creatures, especially with such lovely pictures. Papercutz has chosen this adaptation by Michel Plessix (originally published in English […]

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Honey and Clover Volume 1

Missing Genshiken now that it’s ended? Try Honey and Clover by Chica Umino. The characters aren’t as fannish, but they’re all distinctly odd personalities with complicated interactions at school together. The opening portrait of student life won me over, in which roommates can be bought with free food, griping all the while about the lack of meat in their diet. They’re familiar with each other, sharing living quarters, but they still have their own secrets and histories. Take, for example, […]

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Real Love

Real Love by Mitsuki Oda is the second release from the Luv Luv Press imprint. Like their first book, Voices of Love, this volume contains sexy love stories aimed at an adult female audience. (It’s rated Mature, for ages 18 and up, due to language, nudity, and situations.) Unlike the first book, the stories here are longer, which I hoped meant they’d have more depth, but I was disappointed. The first (title) story focuses on the love lives of twins, […]

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Happy Mania Volume 9

Now that the series by Moyoco Anno is winding down, things are happening rapidly again. Volume nine opens with Shigeta getting the news that Takahashi is getting married. Fuku expects her to be shocked, but Shigeta is the calmest I’ve ever seen her in this series. Takahashi’s faux-fiancee is the freaky one here. She hears “congratulations” and thinks “they’re plotting against me.” She refuses to leave, even when Takahashi tries to break up their non-existent relationship. Artistically, there’s a lot […]

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Happy Mania Volume 8

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about this series by Moyoco Anno, last covering volume two last month. I admit, the intervening books didn’t grab me as much as the first couple did, but I still want to find out if man-crazed Shigeta ever calms down and finds happiness. Volume eight opens with a recap of her motivations in an amusing visual parody of the samurai genre. She’s mid-20s, she wants true love but doesn’t know what it is, […]

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High School Debut Volume 2

Haruna thinks she’s in love with Fumiya, good friend of her “love coach” Yoh. As soon as she tells Yoh (and his sister Asami) about her feelings in High School Debut volume 2, they question her. It’s not pushy or inconsiderate, but they want to be sure she knows what she feels. Maybe she’s just reacting to someone being nice to her when she was feeling down. She’s got to be sure, or the results could get messy. Given that […]

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