The residents of a Mexican town start killing each other. A planeful of people simultaneously get amnesia. Strange happenings abound in Matt Kindt’s MIND MGMT volume 1. Tim and Brandon review.
Then Tim is joined by our new manga reviewer Kory to discuss Kiyohiko Azuma’s hilarious Yotsuba&!, a slice-of-life (yet slightly wacky) manga filled with memorable characters and the intriguing relationships among them.
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by Kory Cerjak
Life as a salaryman in Japan is already difficult enough. 30-year-old Daikichi works well past 7 p.m. each night and has way too much expected of him by higher-ups. Add in that he has to raise a child, who happens to be his grandfather’s love child, 6-year-old Rin. Such is Yumi Unita’s first (and so far only) manga, Bunny Drop (Yen Press).
What makes Bunny Drop so endearing is how Unita slowly, almost methodically, characterizes both Daikichi and Rin. There are little moments woven throughout each chapter that give us more and more insight into Daikichi and Rin. Arguably the biggest moment comes near the end of chapter one. Daikichi is Continue reading “Bunny Drop” Bypassess Josei Manga Tropes
The 2000s have been thought of as a “manga boom” in the US. Well, that’s true in comparison to the ’90s, but North American manga sales have never come close to the numbers in Japan. Sales of manga — and books in general — have dropped the past few years, but there are signs that the market has stabilized.
Deb Aoki, who writes about manga for About.com, joins us again this week to discuss the reasons why publishers hesitate to put out new manga titles, why Jmanga died and Manga Reborn’s business model is imperfect, and what bright spots there are for the future.
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Shotaro Ishinomori was a very prolific creator of manga, a number of which became staples of live-action children’s TV, such as the Power Rangers and Kamen Rider. Many of his series deal with the relationship between technology and humans, and this week Tim and guest reviewer Deb Aoki discuss two such series, Cyborg 009 and Kikaider — both recently released in English via Comixology.
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English-speaking manga fans are probably familiar with the name Deb Aoki. She covers Japanese comics for about.com, and is deeply into manga and anything remotely related to it. Deb made a manga geek pilgrimage to Japan recently, and Tim had a chance to sit down and talk with her about Japan, the changing manga culture in the US, and much more.
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Waaaay back in July 2010, Tim talked to David Steinberger of ComiXology about the emergence of digital comics. Since then, simultaneous release of digital with paper has become the norm. And, guess what – flying in the face of earlier fears of some in the industry, digital comics have actually helped, not hurt, the sales of paper comics. Tim talks to ComiXology co-founder John Roberts to find out why this is, and more.
Then we get the scoop on Mulele’s latest Web comic, a new version of Mindgator.
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We start the year off right with a critique of Irish creator Mark Egan’s comics statement about call centers, Back Office!
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FLASHBACK! On December 31, 2006, Tim visited the Tokyo Comic Market event, and gives his impressions. Also: A Mulele update, Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, and Brandon’s review of the movie Eragon! (Originally published January 8, 2007)
Photos below the jump (complete with admittedly goofy captions written in 2007)…
Continue reading #057 Tokyo Comics Market
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Up until the late ’60s, Japanese girls’ comics were mainly done by men, and could often be formulaic and sappy. But then several female creators broke into the field and revolutionized the genre. One of them was Moto Hagio, whose stories (even when they had science fiction aspects to them) dwelt on not fitting in, losing what you love, and other themes that could be depressing, but were usually expressed in innovative and compelling ways. Little of her work is available in English, but Fantagraphics released an overview of her work, A Drunken Dream and Other Stories, two years ago. Tim and Kumar review.
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In the early ’90s, girls’ comics in Japan took a superheroesque turn with the appearance of Sailor Moon. It was shortly followed by CLAMP’S Magic Knight Rayearth, featuring three 14-year-old girls in a world that reminded them of RPGs.
A few years later, Tokyo Pop and other US publishers took the risk of releasing girls’ comics stateside, with unexpected success. Yes, American girls WILL read comics!
Manga critic Shaenon Garrity joins Tim to talk about the ’90s evolution of shojo manga and its debut in the States, and the place of Magic Knight Rayearth part 1 in that mix.
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