“Boys over Flowers”: Inspiring, but with distracting flaws

By Kory Cerjak

Title: Boys Over Flowers (Hana Yori Dango)
Author: Yoko Kamio
Publisher: Viz Media

Boys Over FlowersIn 1992—one year removed from what is possibly the biggest shojo sensation ever, Sailor Moon—Boys Over Flowers (known in Japan as Hana Yori Dango) was first published in Margaret by Shueisha in Japan. Eleven years later, Viz Media published it here in North America. These are two of the most influential shojo manga of the 1990s (alongside Fruits Basket and Kare Kano, among others). And while Sailor Moon might be the franchise that’s survived after all this time, it’s Boys Over Flowers that’s the top selling manga of all time, according to ComiPress. I’ve talked about Kare Kano already, and now I’ll talk about HanaDan, as the fans call it.

HanaDan is about Tsukushi Makino, a middle-class high school student, going to a high-class private school. Her father is stuck at his position and Tsukushi’s parents hope that she can meet people who will elevate their status and make a better life for them.

Fans nowadays may see the premise and relate it to Ouran High School Host Club (also published by Viz), but its story and ultimate goal could not be more different from Ouran. From the get-go, author Yoko Kamio works to establish not just a strong female Continue reading “Boys over Flowers”: Inspiring, but with distracting flaws

#370 Greeks bearing comics: “Falling for Lionheart” and “Amala’s Blade”

lionheart-amalaGreek comics creators are taking the English-speaking world by storm! … well, OK, maybe not. But Eugenia in Athens has pointed out there are at least two recent examples of comics by Greeks that have been released by American publishers. This week she talks with Tim about two of them: Falling for Lionheart by Ilias Kyriazis, and Amala’s Blade by Steve Horton and Michael Dialynas.

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Critiquing Comics #052: “Super Inc, Villians’ Edition”

Super Inc

Listener Aghori Shaivite asked us to look at his comic, Super Inc. Villians’ Edition, which explores the lives of the villians he has created for his superhero comics. Unfortunately, Tim and Mulele have identified a number of problems with the writing…

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#369 “Krazy Kat”: Show me the bricks

Krazy Kat

One of the most highly-regarded English-language strips of all time is George Herriman’s “Krazy Kat,” featuring the odd love/hate triangle of Krazy, Ignatz, and Officer Pupp. Why was Krazy so gender-ambiguous? How did Herriman’s (somewhat mysterious) racial background influence the strip? Tim and Kumar discuss this and much more.

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Critiquing Comics #051: “Black Alpha”

Black AlphaIn Deconstructing Comics #303, Tim talked to Tom Rasch about how he was monetizing his comics project Black Alpha, a superheroes-in-space story. Now he’s asked Tim and Mulele to critique the first issue. They find that, while it’s a nice-looking comic, it has some issues…

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#368 Sweating the details with “Cursed Pirate Girl”

Cursed Pirate GirlWaaay back in episode 250, Tim talked to Thomas Negovan about the Kickstarter project for a comic called Cursed Pirate Girl. Negovan was the publisher of the single issues of the series, and was handling media inquiries while the comic’s creator, Jeremy Bastian, put all his time into the comic’s insanely detailed art.

The first three issues are now out in a fancy hardcover from Archaia, and this time Jeremy himself comes on the show to talk to Tim about what’s happened since the successful 2010 Kickstarter project, and what to expect from here.

Plus, Tim and Brandon review the book!

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Urasawa’s classic “Monster” to return to print

By Kory Cerjak

Title: Monster
Author: Naoki Urasawa
Publisher: Viz Media

monster2Naoki Urasawa is one of the most prolific mangaka in Japan and his manga have won two Eisner Awards (specifically “Best US Edition of International Material – Asia” in 2011 and 2013 for 20th Century Boys). The award puts him alongside greats such as Kazuo Koike/Goseki Kojima, Katsuhiro Otomo, Shigeru Mizuki, and Osamu Tezuka. And the accolades for Monster aren’t just from the west. Monster has won the Excellence Prize in the Japan Media Arts Festival in 1997, the Grand Prize of the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize, and won the General category in the 46th Shogakukan Manga Award. But the manga stands on its own and hardly needs accolades to prove to anyone of how good it is.

Unfortunately, the manga and anime haven’t done any groundbreaking numbers here in the US and the anime’s license has lapsed (which was stated by Viz’s own Charlene Ingram on ANNCast on July 17). Fortunately, rumors of a new HBO series helmed by Pacific Rim and Pan’s Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro (comic book fans may know him as the director for Blade II and the Hellboy franchise) have kickstarted the Continue reading Urasawa’s classic “Monster” to return to print

Critiquing Comics #050: “Shattered with Curve of Horn”

shatteredwithcurveWhat happened on that night eight years ago? An experimental drug was tried by four friends, leading to widely contrasting outcomes for each. That’s the premise of Shattered with Curve of Horn, by Max Miller Dowdle. Tim and Mulele critique.

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Critiquing Comics #049: “Utopiates”

utopiatesA near-future scenario where contractor-employed soldiers are administered a certain drug before going into battle… Tim and Mulele take on Utopiates by Josh Finney and Kat Rocha. Will they get addicted, or have a bad trip?

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#367 Cartooning! Or, is it “Comics Drawing”?

brunettiIt’s a 15-week comics course in 78 pages! Ivan Brunetti’s Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice is about comics creation, but it’s less about technique or how-to than about shoving aside any preconceived notions and looking at the very basic pieces of sequential storytelling – or even boiling down an entire novel into a non-sequential single panel. Tim and his brother Paul use the book as a launching pad for discussing various comics-philosophy ideas, like: is there a difference between a “cartoonist” and a “comics artist”? What can you learn from a “bad” artist? Is it valuable to learn comics creation, or anything else, the old, low-tech way before digging into the modern, digital way?

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