September 27, 2006 Johanna Tokyopop Manga Reviews 3 comments

The Dreaming Volume 1

In this original graphic novel by Queenie Chan, twin girls enter a remote boarding school in the Australian wilderness. From the beginning, there’s an air of something wrong. The girls are warned that they must pretend they’re not twins, only sisters, because of an odd prejudice on the vice-principal’s part. Their aunt, headmistress of the school, leaves as soon as they arrive. The quieter, more sensitive girl begins acting in a way that worries her more outgoing sister. Disturbing pictures, […]

September 27, 2006 Johanna Comic News 6 comments

Platinum Studios Snows NY Times

Platinum Studios must have a great press agent. Although they have yet to publish a comic, they’re written up in the NY Times, this time for being webcomic leaders. I can’t begin to count the inaccuracies and misleading statements in this piece. How about the first paragraph, which says that the webcomic audience is “limited to a niche group of comic book creators and their most ardent followers”? Webcomics are more widespread and have more outreach than print serial comics. […]

September 24, 2006 Johanna Drawn & Quarterly Leave a comment

The Revival

This one-shot interested me because there are relatively few comics out there that deal with religious faith in a mature manner, without relying on the stereotype of the crazy fanatic. The Revival is the story of a couple journeying to a revival meeting in Kentucky in 1801. The particular gathering dramatized here was, according to the author’s research, “the largest camp meeting [the United States] had ever seen…. Estimates of attendance ranged from 10 to 25 thousand.” This scope isn’t […]

September 17, 2006 Johanna Viz Manga Reviews One comment

Case Closed Volume 13

Like an episode of a good television serial, the latest edition of Case Closed by Gosho Aoyama may not be outstanding or unique, but it is entertaining in a fashion consistent with the series overall. (The most recent entry in the series I’ve reviewed was volume 11.) First comes the conclusion to the last case from the previous book. I do wish that they would divvy up the chapters better, or more prominently label the books — I would have […]

September 3, 2006 Johanna IDW / Top Shelf Leave a comment

BOP! More Box Office Poison

This slim volume is a great companion to the Box Office Poison phonebook. BOP! More Box Office Poison reprints Alex Robinson’s short stories from the SPX anthologies (there was a piece in each volume from 1997-2001), Private Beach #4, and the color special published by Antarctic. It also contains Robinson’s 24-hour comic and a new story showing how Caprice’s friends deal with her ex-boyfriend. Since most of these were written as stand-alone stories instead of chapters in the bigger graphic […]

August 31, 2006 Johanna Other Publishers Leave a comment

50 Reasons to Stop Sketching at Conventions

The immensely talented Stuart Immonen (Legion of Super-Heroes, Superman: Secret Identity, Nextwave) doesn’t draw sketches at conventions any more, and he’s not too fond of attending shows, either. This self-published mini-paperback collects his fifty reasons why, reprinting four-panel strips that originally ran as webcomics. Comic artists and their fans often have a love/hate relationship. The new eight-page introduction puts the strips into that context, explaining that these experiences, weird as they might seem, aren’t terribly unusual on the convention circuit. […]

August 30, 2006 Johanna Manga News One comment

More Tokyopop Reaction

Following up on yesterday’s reactions to Tokyopop’s online exclusives, here are two more and some further thoughts of mine. Dorian goes into more detail on why retailers make decisions to carry the manga they do and how this might start a declining spiral for the company: [Tokyopop has] always been a bit of a nuisance to deal with, from an ordering and budgeting angle. They put out too much at once, their section in Previews is a mess, and now […]

August 29, 2006 Johanna Manga News One comment

Reaction to Tokyopop Online Exclusives

I was going to post a pointer to the ICV2 interview with Tokyopop about why they’re now selling certain series online only, but I left to get dinner and the blogverse sprung into action without me! Christopher Butcher (link no longer available) tosses off a quick burst of anger over Dragon Head being pulled from retail stores, promising more commentary to come. Dave Lartigue (link no longer available) expresses his displeasure to Tokyopop, pointing out Moving to web-exclusive removes this […]

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