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There’s no question but that in American culture the predominant view is one that is rich, white, male, straight and Christian. And while “The male gaze” is pretty well known, we’re getting to learn about the “white gaze” as well. Have you ever wondered what it looks like? Now we know. Except it’s from New Zealand AND America.

Shocking isn’t it? Here is some more of that toxic white gaze:

The gaze in question is Mahou Shounen Breakfast Club a newish webcomic by New Zealander Katie O’Neill and American Toril Orlesky. Or rather it WAS, because despite praise and anticipation, the duo pulled the plug on the comic after a mere 13 pages after it was accused of cultural appropriation because it was a comic set in Japan with Japanese story lines that was by two white kids from across the globe. And also because one of them responded to a troll on Tumblr in a way that the Tumblr police deemed inappropriate. Here’s that crime again.

Deb Aoki has heroically (and I mean it HEROICALLY) compiled the entire saga, which played out on Twitter, in one epic epic Storify. Normally I would embed it, but it’s so huge and epic it would crash your browser. Anyway I cannot recommend enough that you read the whole thing because the wise Aoki takes this molehill and tackles an entire mountain of the question “Do You Have to Be Japanese to Make Manga?” which is a huge one that this Storify doesn’t answer…but it does raise more and more questions.

For the digest version, shortly after MSBC began running, an ANONYMOUS questioner on Tumblr asked on O’Neill’s tumblr:

Anonymous asked: God damn this is why I hate it when ignorant white people like you try to make stuff about Japan just because it’s trendy. Learn how to write kanji that isn’t so awkward before you even think about making a story set in the place the language is from. 嫌なら自分の文化を使え　それとも世界で他の文化が色々があるんだろう。

Hey! I actually have a BA in Japanese and speak it with some fluency (though it’s been a few years since I graduated), and the kanji in the logo is based off a font I got from a Japanese website! Thanks for your concern, but if you’re basically saying that white people should only write about white people that’s kind of messed up. We’re always going to be open to criticism and concerns, so if we get something wrong let us know!

O’Neill’s answer was deemed to be flippant and somehow racist (even when other people pointed out that ANONYMOUS wasn’t that great with Kanji either.)

Things intensified on the twitter and tumblr of cartoonist Iasmin Omar Ata, theirself the author of a well-received webcomic Mis(H)adra:

Anonymous asked: oh my god thank you for calling out msbc i’ve been side-eying that project since forever….

 

hey! i’m glad you’ve noticed the issue, too. honestly, i’m shocked at how people haven’t really called out the creators for a) their blatant cultural appropriation, and b) the awful “it’s fine” response to that ask. the whole thing is garbage and unfortunately is just another reminder of how toxic the ever-present white gaze is. i hope that soon we can do away with this kind of thing in comics because i for one am up tohere with it.

Orlesky and Ata also hashed it out on twitter:

@shoujoshitlord this is so god damn transparent and shitty I can’t even believe you’re serious right about now

— ☆IASMIN OMAR ATA☆ (@DELTAHEAD_) March 3, 2015

And even if they had a point, Ata was definitely being a jerk about it. The response did not fit the crime.

While some people—even Japanese people—said they saw nothing wrong with MSBC, unfortunately, O’Neill and Orlesky decided to pull the plug on the comic even though it is not clear from anyone anywhere aside from anonymous trolls what they did wrong:

Note on Mahou Shounen Breakfast Club

As I’m sure you’ll know, last month we launched our webcomic, Mahou Shounen Breakfast Club! We were very excited about it, however we absolutely do not want to hurt anyone with it and we are concerned that this is unavoidable. From the outset we tried to be aware of issues such as cultural appropriation, fetishization and stereotyping and did our best to avoid them and write in a nuanced manner. We hoped that extensive research and experience living and working in Japan would be enough to make a portrayal that wasn’t hurtful. We can see now this was incorrect and not possible, and we don’t wish to create a comic that will hurt people, so it seems the solution is to simply stop. We sincerely apologise to anyone who was upset by it.

Thank you everyone who had faith in our comic skills before we even started, and who has given us kind feedback about the art especially! It means a lot to us that people feel this strongly about us as creators, and we will absolutely be working together again in future! Feel free to keep following the strangestarcomics blog if you’re interested in our other projects!

Now I’m willing to write part of this off as young, insecure cartoonists who are still figuring things out and not really being able to take possibly faulty criticism well. There are lots of tweets around that subject on the Storify above. I know we live in a time of identify politics where cultural appropriation is a terrible crime. Of course that didn’t stop Osamu Tezuka from culturally appropriating Walt Disney and Robert Louis Stevenson to invent manga in the first place, or Naoki Urasawa from drawing a manga about half English half Japanese insurance inspector, or any of a thousand other example of the cross pollination that makes cultural exchange a wonderful thing. Culture isn’t a bag of potato chips —you don’t chomp it up and then it’s gone. It’s an ocean that flows and ebbs and freezes and evaporates and becomes different things everywhere.

Which isn’t to say that, YEAH, people from one culture can misunderstand and fetishize people from other cultures. And it’s good to point that out.

But did Mahou Shounen Breakfast Club ACTUALLY DO THAT???? Japanese-New Zealand Cartoonist Jem Yoshioka wrote about this and this is possibly the most well meaning and infuriating document I’ve read this month.

Yoshioka runs down a FAQ of why she agrees with O’Neill and Orlesky shutting down the strip, but fails to explain any reason why the critics were correct. For instance.

In the case of MSBC too much hinged on the Japanese setting, so they have decided it’s best to stop making it.

WHAT NOW? Because a story is set in Japan and that setting effects the story it is bad? God forbid she ever watch Lost in Translation.

Also, here’s a great straw man:

Isn’t this exactly the same as when Japanese people write about western countries or white people?

 

No. Western countries and white people occupy a significant place of power within our global world, economically and culturally. To put it simply, the whole world is drowning in white culture, so it’s not culturally appropriative to write a story about white people or set in a western country. There’s a strong power imbalance in favour of western countries and white culture(s).

If anything I find this attitude MORE dismissive of Japanese culture than a wee tribute. Hundreds of millions if not billions of people are influenced by Japanese culture, billions more by other Asian cultures which are strong and thriving and, yeah, ignored by Westerners who think that US culture is the be all and end all of world culture. That just isn’t true. Posing Japanese culture as a timid weak hothouse flower before American aggression is just an insult to Japan, as American children clutch their Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers cereal spoons while playing with their Transformers.

But then we get to the meat of the matter:

What are the issues with MSBC specifically? It seemed fine to me. I’ve seen way worse stuff get made.

 

MSBC doesn’t necessarily look like cultural appropriation. The kanji is correct, the landscapes are representative of real Tokyo landscapes, and while there were a couple of inaccuracies around the reality of the voice acting industry, that’s an acceptable leap to make for the sake of storytelling purposes (see all movies ever that feature computers, science, engineering or hacking as plot points).

OK so aside from being an actually awkward story, nothing wrong here.

However, even though it was respectfully well-researched and executed, MSBC did personally make me feel a bit weird. MSBC intentionally draws on anime and manga tropes, which can be problematic and reductive in their representation of women, gay men and often focus on specific elements of Japanese culture. There is also a lot of white western readers of this material who are still early on their journey of understanding the difference between respect and appropriation, often with a heavy side of racial fetishisation and overly romanticised ideas of Japan.

Now what tropes would those be that were revealed in the 13 pages of Masou Shounen Breakfast Club? The TROPES that CAN BE problematic and reductive.

CAN BE

Not were. It isn’t shown that MSBC used these tropes in any problematic and reductive way. Just that they COULD HAVE BEEN.

It’s fine to use these tropes, but it’s important to take the overall environment into account when writing them as a white westerner. While Katie and Toril were obviously aware of this when working on MSBC and worked hard to make sure they didn’t fetishise or stereotype, the genre itself and the wider effect it has within the community makes it difficult to achieve that.

Get that now? Because other people fucked it up, Katie and Toril probably would too, so they had to shut things down after just 13 pages before they did it. Once again, no actual crime, we’re talking total pre-cog here.

For a lot of people MSBC won’t be considered anywhere near appropriative or fetishistic, and that’s just where you are on your own journey. For me personally it does approach a line that makes me uncomfortable. I would have kept reading anyway because I enjoy the storytelling and illustrative style, but I think that feeling would have stayed with me the whole way through. The weird thing is that if they had kept going I likely would never have said anything about how I felt, because I would have been too scared of being instantly shot down about it, feared I was being silly and felt I’d never be able to properly articulate my issues. I am overjoyed to know that Katie and Toril are the kind of creators who are respectful and listen to this kind of feedback this seriously.

Yoshioka seems like a very nice, reasonable person, and I totally dig her art, but…what exactly is the crime here? The comic made Yoshioka feel uncomfortable because…feelings.

And eventually someday she would have been upset by it.

Got that? She was sure that someday she would get upset by the way that these two were sure to fuck things up. Two non-Japanese people—even with knowledge of Japan—doing a comic set in Japan was fetishistic no matter what the context or content. Just the concept was enough to ensure that lines would be crossed.
If O’Neill and Orlesky decided to pull their comic because they didn’t want to hurt even one person’s feelings, well then, okay. I get it. Hurting feelings is bad. I also suggest that they get out of any creative endeavor in the future because all great art hurts feelings, causes feelings and in general shakes things up. It isn’t safe and it isn’t afraid. Under these rules that Yoshioka lays out, no great comic would ever have been completed because some element of its creation MIGHT have been used incorrectly in the past.
If you have been reading my writings for any amount of time, you know that I’m a fan of multicultural diversity, and of multiple viewpoints and creators of every sex, religion, creed, race and sexual orientation getting a chance to tell their stories.
I’m also a huge fan of cultural context for stories that examine how the preconceptions of a work of art are reflected in the execution. But I never want to see these criticisms used to PROACTIVELY SILENCE ART.
The problem with a lot of the sociological criticism that we’re seeing now is that it sets up a Zeno’s Paradox race against some kind of Platonic ideal that has never been proved to exist. Nearly all art has a cultural context that insults SOMEONE. If I take all the anti-MSBC arguments above and reduce them to a fine gravy, it DOES come out that no one should ever write or draw a story about a culture or place other than their own because they might get it wrong. White people should stick to white people (aka the status quo), black people should stick to black people and Japan should never write a story that takes place in another culture (because I’ve read plenty of manga that fetishized some bizarre element of American culture.)
Fetishishing is wrong, orientalism is wrong, appropriation for cool points (Hey Iggy) is wrong. But absorbing the rich cultural stew of the entire world and trying to express it in your own art and comics is not wrong. And as far as I can tell, that’s the crime that O’Neill and Orlesky were convicted of in tumblr court, and that’s a shame.

Concept art for Mahou Shounen Breakfast Club.

[The first version of this post misidentified Toril Orlesky as being from NZ rather than from the US,  and Iasmin Omar Ata as male. I regret the errors but it doesn’t change a thing I think because I judge people on their behavior not their identity.]

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Title: Assassination Classroom Genre: Comedy Publisher: Shonen Jump (JP), Viz Media (US) Story/Artist: Yusei Matsui Serialized in: Weekly Shonen Jump (volume one reviewed) Translation: Tetsuichiro Miyaki Original Release Date: December 2, 2014 Review copy provided by Viz Media Sometime in the past few years, the hosts of the American Weekly Shonen Jump stated on their podcast that Assassination Classroom was never going ... Read more

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Title: Phantom Street (Mugengai) Genre: Romance Publisher: Enix (JP), Manga Reborn (JP) Story/Artist: Yusuke Mizusawa Reviewed: 4 chapters out of 35 translated Original English Release Date: January 22, 2015 Manga Reborn is literally the hub of titles translated from the 90’s. At least, ones you might have never heard about. Have you ever heard about ... Read more

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May Contain Spoilers

Review:

Occasionally confusing presentation, but I loved the art, so the book gets props for that.  This is a revenge story.  Gracie’s brother Steven runs off with a million of his employer’s euros.  Rocco De Marco isn’t amused.  If news of this leaks to the public, it will ruin his company.  When Gracie shows up looking for Steven, he makes a brash decision; he’ll keep her in his penthouse until Steven turns himself in.  Gracie, after putting up a fuss, realizes that she has nowhere else to stay.  She’s just been fired from her job, and after her landlord made a pass at her, she packed her suitcase and moved out.

Rocco accuses Gracie of helping Steven steal his money, and at first he doesn’t believe that they are siblings.  Gracie decides to prove that he’s wrong, and to make the best of a bad situation.  Rocco’s housekeeper just quit, so he offers Gracie the job.  Thinking that she can keep an eye on Rocco and learn if his people find her brother, she accepts the position.

Despite his belief to the contrary, Gracie and Rocco have a lot in common.  Both come from humble backgrounds, and both were treated horribly by a parent.  While Gracie is still struggling to find success, as well as keep a roof over her head, Rocco has made a fortune, all in an effort to get back at his father, who treated him like trash.  The final feather in his cap, marrying a socialite with a sterling pedigree, will seal his revenge.  Too bad he’s falling for Gracie, a woman with no social cred and someone he doesn’t even trust.

While this wasn’t a complete win for me, the art more than made up for some of the plot’s shortcomings.  Rocco is handsome, whipcord lean, blessed of gorgeous hair and a face to stop the hearts of ladies the world over.  Gracie is sweetly tomboyish, though stunning later in the book when she attends social outings with Rocco and she’s decked out in beautiful dresses. 

The ending wraps up a little too quickly, but I recommend this fast read if you have Scribd account.

Grade:  C+

Review copy read on Scribd

From Amazon:

Her little brother, Steven, has disappeared with a million euros in tow? Gracie, seeking a more detailed explanation of what happened, rushes to the company where her brother works. The president of the company, Rocco De Marco, meets with her to explain that her brother has stolen money from them and disappeared. Furthermore, they are also questioning her as if she is an accomplice to the crime. “You are an important person in relation to the incident. Until Steven appears, we would like you to stay in the company penthouse on the top floor of the building.” Isn’t this imprisonment?

The post Manga Review: The Legend of De Marco by Abby Green and Sae Nanahoshi appeared first on Manga Maniac Cafe.

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Review:

What a happy day!  I discovered a plethora of Harlequin manga on Scribd!  I love reading these, but I don’t like buying them, because I can read one in less than an hour.  Needless to say, my subscription at Scribd just became even more of a value.  There are tons and tons of these there, so I’ll be contentedly squeezing them into the review schedule.  Just as an FYI, the site just added comics from Marvel, IDW, Dynamite, and others, so if you enjoy comics, check out their selection.  I’m not a collector (anymore), I just want to read them, so the subscription based system works great for me and takes up less room in my house!

After browsing the Harlequin manga, I settled on One Hot Texan because, well, why not?  I was hoping for cowboys and horses, and I kind of got that, just not how I expected.  Cole McCallum hasn’t had an easy life.  His mother walked out on Cole and his father, and then his father was convicted of crimes and sent to jail.  Cole was sent to Texas to live with his grandmother, but he hated the small town and the gossip that followed him everywhere.  He couldn’t wait to leave it all behind him, and when he turned 18, that’s just what he did.  He packed up, left the grandmother who always loved and believed in him, and made it big in real estate.  But then trouble found him again, and brush with the law costs him his fortune.

Back in Texas, he needs to find a wife pronto of he’ll lose the ranch that his grandmother left to him.  While marriage of convenience stories aren’t my favorite, I did enjoy this one.  Cole meets shy Virginia, and he offers her a business deal.  She’s struggling to pay off bills since her mother passed away, so if she’ll marry him for the time required to inherit the ranch, he’ll give her a cash settlement that will pay off her bills and allow her to follow  her dream of attending college.

Ginny has been brow beaten by her mother her entire life, and as a result, she’s quiet, introverted, and longing for a change.  She wants to do something with her life, but her mother’s hateful words haunt her.  She was constantly told that men were evil, and they only wanted one thing, and worse, that she wished Ginny had never been born.  Obviously, Ginny’s mother needed counseling, and so does Ginny!  She keeps Cole at arms length, reminding him time and again that theirs is strictly a business arrangement.  As time passes, she begins to care about him, and she begins to wonder if maybe, just maybe, they can make this into a permanent arrangement, but then reality intrudes, and she sees that it’s impossible. Cole just wants the ranch, so he can sell it and start over with his real estate career.

Overall, I enjoyed One Hot Texan, but I thought that Ginny’s issues were far too complex to believably resolve in such a short comic.  Cole, too, has his trust issues, but he doesn’t really acknowledge them.  I did like how tender and protective he could be, but then he blew that by treating Ginny horribly when he thinks she purposefully did not take her birth control.  Dude!  You have a responsibility to help make sure she doesn’t forget to take them; the fact that she has a prescription does not absolve you of your due diligence.  How did you run a successful business? Oh, wait…you had a lapse of judgment there, too!

Except for the temper tantrum mentioned above, I did like Cole.  He just needed a kick in the pants to help him realize what was important in life. 

Grade:  C

Read on Scribd

From Amazon:

After spending his whole childhood being raised in an unhappy home, Cole McCallum turned rebellious, dating nothing but superficial women and gaining a bad reputation. He was the most despised person in town, except for those women smitten with him. Now, Cole needs a partner for a marriage of convenience and he picks the town’s latest bloomer, Virginia. He’s looking forward to giving this inexperienced virgin girl a night she’ll never forget. After their simple wedding ceremony, Cole kisses her deeply in their shared hotel room while caressing her body—and is met with an unexpected response!

The post Manga Review: One Hot Texan by Jane Sullivan and Masako Ogimaru appeared first on Manga Maniac Cafe.

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Title: Millennium Snow Genre: Romance Publisher: Hakusensha (JP), Viz Manga (US) Story/Artist: Bisco Hatori Serialized in: Lala in 2001, Lala DX in 2013 Original Release Date: June 3, 2014 Review copy provided by Viz Media Bisco Hatori’s name may not be well-known in the west but her most famous work, Ouran High School Host Club, still finds new ... Read more

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Title: Hoshi no Samidare: The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer Genre: Action, Drama, Romance, Slice of Life Publisher: Shonen Gahosha (JP), Crunchyroll (US) Story/Artist: Satoshi Mizukami Serialized in: Young King Ours Reviewed: Volume 1 & 2 of 12 Review copy provided by Crunchyroll. The Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer holds a dubious honor in the US manga publishing world for being licensed ... Read more

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A week’s worth of reading:

§ Has Manga Become a Niche Category? Johanna Draper Carlson examines some opinions on this, and quotes comments by Vertical’s Ed Chavez that I missed:

The fact that shonen continues to be the only category that is consistently strong, and that moe has kinda catching up to shojo for second is interesting. Knowing that seinen still lacks, even though vocal fans ask for it, kinda tells me that readers either grow out of manga or only stick with a specific type of it… Essentially pigeonholing it (turning it into a niche). Having talked to some comic/media critics I think it is becoming harder for them to get into manga also. Will kids still consume the stuff? Sure. I mean, most manga pubs are seeing growth while stores are cutting manga shelves. But unlike the 00’s, where a shojo boom introduced a whole new demographic to manga, there hasn’t been a culture shifting movement recently to break manga out of this current position it has settled into.

I think Manga has become a “mature” business as they say, but it’s still chugging along, if not at the heights of the 00s. On the other hand, even in Japan where sales have long been in decline, there was a 1% uptick last year. Not exactly enough to make people knock over cars with joy, but at least it isn’t a decline:

According to the recent report by Research Institute for Publications, which is operated by AJPEA (All Japan Magazine and Book Publisher’s and Editor’s Association), the manga sales in Japan for year 2014 was 1% up from the previous year. The modest growth was supported by new top sellers including Haruichi Furudate’s Haikyu!! and Io Sakisaka’s Ao Haru Ride, both had very successful TV anime or live-action film adaptations last year, in addition to the continuously popular series like Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece and Hajime Isayama’s Attack on Titan.

Manga is hanging in there in the US, but it has competition from actual American comics. If you look at Bookscan’s top 20 from ICv2 for November 2014 you see six manga in the list. The list from November 2013 has eight, a number more typical of what I’m used to seeing. OTOH in actual numbers, a lot of things we thing of as successful are niche.

§ Whit Taylor talks to Chuck Forsman about Revenger his new action comic:

Charles: I think the inspiration for Revenger is a combination of things. First are the comics that I read when I first started reading them at 10 or 11 years old. This was during X-Men’s heyday with Claremont and Jim Lee and the launch of Image Comics. The second are movies. I got back into watching John Carpenter movies like Escape from New York and Assault on Precinct 13. And even new movies like The Guest which came out a few months ago. The Guest actually made me scrap the first completed version of Revenger #1 and I started over almost from scratch. That movie reminded me that what I wanted to do was something much leaner without any fat. My original version of Revenger had a much larger world. I was worrying too much about the made-up world politics and trying to make an interesting mystery with the story. Sometimes after experiencing someone else’s work that connects with you it makes what you want much clearer.

§ Darling sleeper quizzes Sean Ford and Leslie Stein.

§ Zainab Akhtar reviews the new US edition of Hugo Pratt’s Corto Maltese and falls under his languid spell:

His name are the very first words of the text and Pratt goes on to declare him a ‘man of destiny,’ but more than any other quality, here he imbues cool. The closes iconography I’m reminded of is the coiled looseness of heroes in westerns- the hint of swagger but an assumed relaxed pose: quietness, cockiness, and surety all hinted at simultaneously. Take a look at the composition and body language here: head and torso positioned centrally in the panel, feet up, cigarette in hand, cap and hair shielding his eyes. He’s watchful perhaps lost in thought. The immediate next panel is a close-up side profile, and the narration is semi-admiring, semi-mocking him as he lights up ‘as if he were performing for an invisible audience.’  In fact for the whole first page he doesn’t say anything -until he’s interrupted by a drunken brawl-, an interaction that involves the reader just looking at Corto, feeling the atmosphere, the presence of the man,  serving to set him up as this strong and silent type, in the know, someone cool, someone to be admired, someone to beware of.

§ This fellow, Indian artist Hetain Patel, has made a sculpture of Spider-man covered with words.

§ Ng Suat Tong has Best Online Comics Criticism 2014 and declares it a bad year for onlien comics criticism. There are some cracking good pieces there, however, including many I missed first time out. Click through! Also this:

Apart from the perennial issues of racism and sexism in superhero comics (or maybe in general?) there weren’t many critical controversies in 2014. I can’t say that this failure to engage with fellow critics and their ideas is a positive sign of health; especially if this reticence is symptomatic of intellectual torpor or a lack of breath in comics thinking.

But I think that will kick off an entire post at some point.

§ And speaking of the perennial issues of racism and sexism, Marvel Has A Serious Problem Merchandising Its Female Characters

But when you look at the merchandise for those properties, it feels like they barely exist. Despite being introduced in Iron Man 2, it would take until The Avengers for Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow to get an action figure: even then, she was shortpacked in the third wave of figures that came out months after the movie hit, with the prime first wave spots going to Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and The Hulk. It took until The Winter Soldier last year for Widow to show up in both Hasbro’s Marvel Legends Infinite 6-inch line and Funko’s wildly popular range of Marvel Pop Vinyls for the first time, a whopping four years after the character first appeared. Fast forward to Age of Ultron today and she’s once again seemingly missing — she doesn’t show up at all in the new action figure playsets. She’s not in the first set of Pop Vinyls, and neither is Scarlet Witch, another prominent female member of the cast. She appears in one of the six new Lego sets for the film (Cap’s in three, Iron Man is in four). She doesn’t appear in the team shots on the boxes of merchandise (to be fair, neither does Hawkeye. Poor Hawkeye.). Hell, the first action figure we’ve seen for her for AoU specifically is Diamond Select’s, and even then, that was revealed in a way that still, almost hilariously, managed to avoid showing an actual figure of the character.

§ Finally, as part of a piece on second acts for publisher personnel, Calvin Reid catches up with Joan Hilty.

Hilty, who is also a member of 5E, teamed with Pete Friedrich, a cartoonist and designer, in 2011 to launch Pageturner, a packaging house that develops “comics projects outside of the comics industry.” Pageturner develops projects with and for a variety of institutions, among them the ACLU, which created a comics series about the Bill of Rights. “Now we’re getting lots of interest from nonprofits and arts organizations,” she said. Pageturner has worked on projects with Chronicle Books and TBS/Turner Networks. As a freelance contractor, Hilty has worked with comics publishers like Boom! and Dark Horse Comics, and with Forbes magazine, which published the Zen of Steve Jobs in 2011, a webcomic and print graphic biography of Jobs that examines his 30-year pupil-teacher relationship with a Zen Buddhist monk.

§ Finally, after 15 yearsAndrew Sullivan has announced he’s giving up blogging. (He did it once before.) I could only nod my head in agreement at his reasons—he wants to spend time with actual humans and the toll of always being on call impacted his health. Now tat Sully’s done, the rest of us can quit with our heads held high!

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If you have room on your shelf for ONE MORE omnibus series, make a little room for Dark Horse’s just announced omnibus series for The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. Eiji Otsuka and Housui Yamazaki’s manga is a dark humored tale about five college students who form a special team to help spirits move on. It’s a readily accessible and enjoyable series that even non manga experts can get into.

The first volume drops in August, with 640 pages for only $19.99.

Dark Horse has mad a lot of success with their various omnibus lines—those Star Wars collections are still available!—and manga editions for Lone Wolf and Cub and more. The problem is finding room for them all by digging through those longboxes for the older, smaller editions.

What Omnibii do YOU collect?

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Title: Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou Genre: Slice of Life Publisher: Shonen Gahosha (JP), Crunchyroll (US) Story/Artist: Ruri Miyahara Serialized in: Young King Ours Reviewed: Volume 1 of 6 Review copy provided by Crunchyroll. As I mentioned last time, there are many different kinds of slice of life manga out there. Some rely on character growth to move the story along and ... Read more

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Streaming anime service Crunchyroll is getting into the original webcomic game with a new “Crunchyroll Originals” program, and it kicks off with  HYPERSONIC music club by artist Hiroyuki Takahashi, with a story by Patrick Macias . The story line involves world of tomorrow young cyborgs fighting a mysterious conspiracy led by monster girls. Just a day at the office. Takahashi’s work is a mix of manga and music influences, and his work has a colorful explosive effect just right for HD computer screen.

According to Crunchyroll GM, Japan Channels, Vincent Shortino, “The Crunchyroll Originals line represents an opportunity to develop new and compelling content for users in addition to our licensed anime and manga offerings. Combining forces with artists like Hiroyuki Takahashi underscores Crunchyroll’s commitment to Japanese pop culture and pursuing innovation in the digital media space.”

The comic will be free to read and launches this Friday, January 30th. You can follow along on tumblr here and see more of Takahashi’s work here.

 

 

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by Zachary Clemente

Way back in the early 90s, Nintendo Power published a serialized run of The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past limited comic series. Viz announced today that they’ve acquired the rights to the comic and are reprinting it in a full-color volume, available on May 5th. With story and art by manga master Shotaro Ishinomori of Kamen Rider and Cyborg 009 fame, this is a real treat for a fan of either the video game franchise or manga creator.

Widely considered one of the best games in the Legend of Zelda franchise, A Link To The Past saw life on the SNES, Gameboy Advance, and Virtual Console. Ishinomori’s comic following the overall arch of the game while expanding on certain characters and adding new plot twists.

This isn’t anywhere near a new adventure for Viz, however. They also publish a Legend of Zelda manga based off of other games in the franchise by Akira Himekawa (the collaboration of two women, A. Honda and S. Nagano; the first 10 volumes of which are available in a boxed set.

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Title: Joushi Kausei Genre: Slice of Life Publisher: Futabasha (JP), Crunchyroll (US) Story/Artist: Ken Wakai Serialized in: Manga Action Reviewed: 15 out of 26 chapters Review copy provided by Crunchyroll. These days savvy anime and manga fans will be fairly familiar with the slice of life genre and the various subgenres in it. Everyday school stories, cute girls doing cute things, ... Read more

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Diamond released a bunch of year end charts yesterday including the top 1000 comics and GNs. I may load those up at some point but here are some charts that won’t make headlines. First a piece count:

Title counts

Publisher	Comics	GNs	Magazines	Total
DC COMICS	1107	340	6	1453
MARVEL COMICS	953	387	3	1343
IMAGE COMICS	717	151	0	868
IDW PUBLISHING	515	257	0	772
DARK HORSE COMICS	432	260	0	692
BOOM ENTERTAINMENT	354	82	0	436
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT	367	57	0	424
RANDOM HOUSE	14	203	0	217
AVATAR PRESS INC	130	29	7	166
EAGLEMOSS	0	0	150	150
OTHER NON-TOP 10	1063	1520	291	2874

BTW if you wonder, like every normal human, just who the heck is Eaglemoss, Comics Alliance has the answer.

And here are manga, small, and indie publishers.The difference between small and indie is explained here.

Top 100 Manga:

QtyRank	RetailRank	index	DESC_1	PRICE	VendName
1	1	8.35	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 01	$10.99	RAN
2	4	5.23	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 02	$10.99	RAN
3	5	5.06	YU GI OH 5DS GN VOL 06	$9.99	VIZ
4	7	3.99	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 10	$10.99	RAN
5	8	3.94	ATTACK ON TITAN BEFORE THE FALL GN VOL 01	$10.99	RAN
6	9	3.86	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 03	$10.99	RAN
7	10	3.85	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 11	$10.99	RAN
8	12	3.65	ATTACK ON TITAN NO REGRETS GN VOL 01	$10.99	RAN
9	14	3.55	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 12	$10.99	RAN
10	15	3.30	NEW LONE WOLF AND CUB TP VOL 01 (MR)	$13.99	DAR
11	13	3.27	BATMAN THE JIRO KUWATA BATMANGA TP VOL 01	$14.99	DC
12	29	3.08	NARUTO GN VOL 64	$9.99	VIZ
13	19	3.06	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 13	$10.99	RAN
14	18	3.03	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 04	$10.99	RAN
15	20	2.89	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 09	$10.99	RAN
16	39	2.86	NARUTO GN VOL 65	$9.99	VIZ
17	42	2.70	NARUTO GN VOL 66	$9.99	VIZ
18	25	2.65	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 14	$10.99	RAN
19	3	2.62	SAKAI PROJECT HC 30 YEARS USAGI YOJIMBO	$29.99	DAR
20	46	2.60	NARUTO GN VOL 67	$9.99	VIZ
21	24	2.59	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 05	$10.99	RAN
22	28	2.53	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 07	$10.99	RAN
23	32	2.43	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 08	$10.99	RAN
24	34	2.42	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 06	$10.99	RAN
25	11	2.40	ATTACK ON TITAN JUNIOR HIGH GN VOL 01	$16.99	RAN
26	51	2.35	NARUTO GN VOL 68	$9.99	VIZ
27	37	2.31	SAILOR MOON TP KODANSHA ED VOL 01	$10.99	RAN
28	41	2.21	ATTACK ON TITAN BEFORE THE FALL GN VOL 02	$10.99	RAN
29	45	2.15	ATTACK ON TITAN NO REGRETS GN VOL 02	$10.99	RAN
30	57	2.09	DEADMAN WONDERLAND GN VOL 01 (MR)	$9.99	VIZ
31	23	1.96	USAGI YOJIMBO TP VOL 28 RED SCORPION	$17.99	DAR
32	47	1.94	NEW LONE WOLF AND CUB TP VOL 02 (MR)	$13.99	DAR
33	65	1.89	YU GI OH ZEXAL GN VOL 05	$9.99	VIZ
34	21	1.87	LONE WOLF & CUB OMNIBUS TP VOL 04	$19.99	DAR
35	66	1.85	YU GI OH ZEXAL GN VOL 04	$9.99	VIZ
36	70	1.81	BLEACH GN VOL 60	$9.99	VIZ
37	22	1.80	LONE WOLF & CUB OMNIBUS TP VOL 01	$19.99	DAR
38	71	1.78	BLEACH GN VOL 59	$9.99	VIZ
39	68	1.74	LEGEND OF ZELDA GN VOL 01 OCARINA TIME PT 1	$9.99	VIZ
40	110	1.71	HELLO KITTY GN DELICIOUS	$7.99	VIZ
41	79	1.70	ONE PIECE GN VOL 70	$9.99	VIZ
42	80	1.68	ONE PIECE GN VOL 71	$9.99	VIZ
43	27	1.66	BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL TP VOL 28 RAINING CHAOS (MR)	$19.99	DAR
44	56	1.62	NEW LONE WOLF AND CUB TP VOL 03 (MR)	$13.99	DAR
45	30	1.61	LONE WOLF & CUB OMNIBUS TP VOL 05	$19.99	DAR
46	63	1.61	ATTACK ON TITAN BEFORE THE FALL GN VOL 03	$10.99	RAN
47	31	1.61	HATSUNE MIKU UNOFFICIAL HATSUNE MIX TP	$19.99	DAR
48	87	1.60	BLEACH GN VOL 61	$9.99	VIZ
49	36	1.58	BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL TP VOL 29 BEYOND GOOD & EVIL (MR)	$19.99	DAR
50	89	1.57	ONE PIECE GN VOL 72	$9.99	VIZ
51	55	1.47	SWORD ART ONLINE FAIRY DANCE GN VOL 01	$13.00	HAC
52	35	1.47	DRAGON BALL FULL COLOR TP VOL 01 SAIYAN ARC	$19.99	VIZ
53	38	1.43	SHONEN JUMP PACK 2014 #1	$19.99	VIZ
54	61	1.43	BLACK BUTLER TP VOL 16	$13.00	HAC
55	99	1.41	LEGEND OF ZELDA GN VOL 03 MAJORAS MASK	$9.99	VIZ
56	17	1.39	AKIRA KODANSHA ED GN VOL 01 (MR)	$24.99	RAN
57	44	1.39	BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL TP VOL 30 VIGILANCE (MR)	$19.99	DAR
58	109	1.38	BLEACH GN VOL 62	$9.99	VIZ
59	73	1.31	KINGDOM HEARTS 358 / 2 DAYS GN VOL 02	$12.00	HAC
60	123	1.31	NISEKOI FALSE LOVE GN VOL 01	$9.99	VIZ
61	119	1.30	DEATH NOTE GN VOL 01	$9.99	VIZ
62	126	1.29	DEADMAN WONDERLAND GN VOL 02 (MR)	$9.99	VIZ
63	50	1.29	ATTACK ON TITAN JUNIOR HIGH GN VOL 02	$16.99	RAN
64	131	1.28	BLUE EXORCIST GN VOL 11	$9.99	VIZ
65	86	1.28	SAILOR MOON TP KODANSHA ED VOL 02	$10.99	RAN
66	2	1.26	ATTACK ON TITAN COLOSSAL ED TP VOL 01	$59.99	RAN
67	69	1.22	BLACK BUTLER TP VOL 01 NEW PTG	$13.00	HAC
68	53	1.19	LONE WOLF & CUB OMNIBUS TP VOL 06	$19.99	DAR
69	67	1.17	DEATH NOTE BLACK ED TP VOL 01	$14.99	VIZ
70	74	1.16	RANMA 1/2 2IN1 TP VOL 01	$14.99	VIZ
71	147	1.16	NARUTO GN VOL 01	$9.99	VIZ
72	221	1.16	HELLO KITTY GN SURPRISE	$7.99	VIZ
73	148	1.15	ONE PIECE GN VOL 01	$9.99	VIZ
74	26	1.15	ATTACK ON TITAN GUIDEBOOK SC	$24.99	RAN
75	97	1.14	GANTZ TP VOL 30 (MR)	$13.99	DAR
76	48	1.13	SWORD ART ONLINE GN VOL 01 AINCRAD	$20.00	HAC
77	58	1.12	SAMURAI EXECUTIONER OMNIBUS TP VOL 01	$19.99	DAR
78	54	1.12	THIS ONE SUMMER GN	$17.99	ST.
79	81	1.11	ALL YOU NEED IS KILL 2IN1 MANGA GN	$14.99	VIZ
80	155	1.09	LEGEND OF ZELDA GN VOL 02 OCARINA TIME PT 2	$9.99	VIZ
81	169	1.06	DEADMAN WONDERLAND GN VOL 03 (MR)	$9.99	VIZ
82	542	1.06	POKEMON XY GN VOL 01	$4.99	VIZ
83	96	1.04	MONSTER MUSUME GN VOL 02 (MR)	$12.99	ST.
84	177	1.04	FOOD WARS SHOKUGEKI NO SOMA GN VOL 01 (MR)	$9.99	VIZ
85	129	1.04	OH MY GODDESS RTL TP VOL 46	$12.99	DAR
86	60	1.04	MONSTER TP VOL 01 PERFECT ED URASAWA	$19.99	VIZ
87	108	1.03	GANTZ TP VOL 31 (MR)	$13.99	DAR
88	2613	1.03	YGGDRASIL GN VOL 01	$10.99	GO
89	114	1.02	KINGDOM HEARTS 358 / 2 DAYS GN VOL 03	$12.00	HAC
90	175	1.01	BLUE EXORCIST GN VOL 01	$9.99	VIZ
91	102	1.01	SOUL EATER TP VOL 18 (MR)	$13.00	HAC
92	91	0.99	DEATH NOTE BLACK ED TP VOL 02	$14.99	VIZ
93	187	0.98	VAMPIRE KNIGHT GN VOL 18	$9.99	VIZ
94	132	0.98	TERRA FORMARS GN VOL 01 (MR)	$12.99	VIZ
95	40	0.98	UZUMAKI 3IN1 DLX ED HC	$27.99	VIZ
96	104	0.97	SOUL EATER TP VOL 19 (MR)	$13.00	HAC
97	201	0.96	MAGI GN VOL 04	$9.99	VIZ
98	151	0.95	DRIFTERS TP VOL 03 (MR)	$12.99	DAR
99	136	0.95	GANGSTA GN VOL 01 (MR)	$12.99	VIZ
100	205	0.95	BLUE EXORCIST GN VOL 12	$9.99	VIZ

Top 100 Indie Comics

Overall QTY RANK	QTY RANK	RetailRank	Index	DESC_1	PRICE	VendName
1	267	91	50.36	LIFE WITH ARCHIE COMIC #36	$4.99	ARC
2	437	141	42.77	LIFE WITH ARCHIE COMIC #37	$4.99	ARC
3	443	285	42.57	SABRINA #1 (MR)	$3.99	ARC
4	504	254	39.95	DOCTOR WHO 11TH #1	$3.99	TTN
5	544	295	38.45	DOCTOR WHO 10TH #1	$3.99	TTN
6	775	497	31.07	DOCTOR WHO 12TH #1	$3.99	TTN
7	936	707	27.43	TUROK DINOSAUR HUNTER #1	$3.99	DE
8	944	776	27.19	RAI #1	$3.99	VAL
9	989	1124	25.91	AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE #5	$2.99	ARC
10	1055	1189	24.52	AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE #6	$2.99	ARC
11	1056	1166	24.49	AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE #3	$2.99	ARC
12	1085	840	24.01	BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA #1	$3.99	BOO
13	1088	849	23.98	AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE #7	$3.99	ARC
14	1111	1214	23.66	AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE #4	$2.99	ARC
15	1165	921	22.53	MAGNUS ROBOT FIGHTER #1	$3.99	DE
16	1220	980	21.59	BOBS BURGERS #1	$3.99	DE
17	1230	1147	21.38	GEORGE PEREZ SIRENS #1	$3.99	BOO
18	1256	1001	21.08	NEW VAMPIRELLA #1	$3.99	DE
19	1413	1168	18.86	THE VALIANT #1	$3.99	VAL
20	1446	1228	18.41	LUMBERJANES #1	$3.99	BOO
21	1463	1195	18.19	CHAOS #1	$3.99	DE
22	1487	1229	17.73	SOLAR MAN OF ATOM #1	$3.99	DE
23	1650	1398	15.51	SONIC BOOM #1 HERE COMES THE BOOM PT 3	$3.99	ARC
24	1668	1796	15.19	RAI #2	$3.99	VAL
25	1684	1321	15.04	DOCTOR WHO 10TH #2	$3.99	TTN
26	1713	1441	14.65	ADVENTURE TIME #30	$3.99	BOO
27	1720	1364	14.54	DOCTOR WHO 11TH #2	$3.99	TTN
28	1735	1594	14.21	BEE AND PUPPYCAT #1	$3.99	BOO
29	1738	1512	14.16	DJANGO ZORRO #1	$3.99	DE
30	1741	1526	14.11	ARMOR HUNTERS #1	$3.99	VAL
31	1747	1651	14.03	WOODS #1	$3.99	BOO
32	1752	1510	14.00	BUNKER #1	$3.99	ONI
33	1754	1522	13.99	BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA #2	$3.99	BOO
34	1769	1434	13.83	DOCTOR WHO 12TH #2	$3.99	TTN
35	1783	1557	13.68	DOCTOR SPEKTOR #1	$3.99	DE
36	1784	1560	13.64	ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK #1	$3.99	BOO
37	1807	1580	13.37	ADVENTURE TIME #24	$3.99	BOO
38	1809	1469	13.35	DOCTOR WHO 10TH #3	$3.99	TTN
39	1824	1482	13.21	DOCTOR WHO 11TH #3	$3.99	TTN
40	1831	1603	13.13	JOHN CARTER WARLORD #1	$3.99	DE
41	1846	1616	13.02	BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA #3	$3.99	BOO
42	1850	1615	12.99	FLASH GORDON #1	$3.99	DE
43	1853	1612	12.97	LEGENDERRY A STEAMPUNK ADV #2	$3.99	DE
44	1856	1517	12.92	DOCTOR WHO 10TH #4	$3.99	TTN
45	1857	1343	12.90	ADVENTURE TIME #25	$4.99	BOO
46	1865	1528	12.84	DOCTOR WHO 11TH #6	$3.99	TTN
47	1883	1647	12.61	ADVENTURE TIME #26	$3.99	BOO
48	1894	1558	12.49	DOCTOR WHO 12TH #3	$3.99	TTN
49	1895	1646	12.49	CALIBAN #1 (MR)	$3.99	AVA
50	1911	1904	12.37	DELINQUENTS #1	$3.99	VAL
51	1915	1571	12.34	DOCTOR WHO 11TH #4	$3.99	TTN
52	1919	1676	12.29	ADVENTURE TIME FLIP SIDE #1	$3.99	BOO
53	1928	1685	12.18	BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA #4	$3.99	BOO
54	1933	1424	12.14	ADVENTURE TIME 2014 SPECIAL #1	$4.99	BOO
55	1934	1592	12.13	DOCTOR WHO 10TH #5	$3.99	TTN
56	1940	1749	12.05	LUMBERJANES #2	$3.99	BOO
57	1945	1702	12.01	DAWN VAMPIRELLA #1	$3.99	DE
58	1946	1703	11.99	ADVENTURE TIME #27	$3.99	BOO
59	1952	1447	11.93	ADVENTURE TIME 2014 ANNUAL #1	$4.99	BOO
60	1956	1617	11.90	DOCTOR WHO 11TH #5	$3.99	TTN
61	1958	1727	11.88	UNITY #3	$3.99	VAL
62	1962	1710	11.85	ADVENTURE TIME #31	$3.99	BOO
63	1982	1746	11.68	ADVENTURE TIME #29	$3.99	BOO
64	1985	1748	11.65	ADVENTURE TIME #28	$3.99	BOO
65	1994	1765	11.54	RED SONJA #7	$3.99	DE
66	2006	1782	11.33	RUSH CLOCKWORK ANGELS #1	$3.99	BOO
67	2014	1794	11.27	BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA #5	$3.99	BOO
68	2024	1804	11.18	CROSSED PLUS 100 #1 (MR)	$3.99	AVA
69	2025	1799	11.18	ADVENTURE TIME #32	$3.99	BOO
70	2027	1677	11.17	ANNIHILATOR #1	$3.99	RAN
71	2028	1797	11.17	SONS OF ANARCHY #5 (MR)	$3.99	BOO
72	2032	1819	11.11	GOD IS DEAD #6 (MR)	$3.99	AVA
73	2033	1817	11.10	JUSTICE INC #1	$3.99	DE
74	2034	1820	11.10	RED SONJA #8	$3.99	DE
75	2056	1840	10.93	CRYPTOZOIC MAN #4	$3.99	DE
76	2061	1846	10.90	UNITY #5	$3.99	VAL
77	2063	1843	10.87	ADVENTURE TIME #33	$3.99	BOO
78	2068	1849	10.84	LEGENDERRY A STEAMPUNK ADV #3	$3.99	DE
79	2070	1572	10.83	X-O MANOWAR #25	$4.99	VAL
80	2082	1894	10.71	X-O MANOWAR #0	$3.99	VAL
81	2096	1867	10.60	SONS OF ANARCHY #6 (MR)	$3.99	BOO
82	2097	1874	10.59	PURGATORI #1	$3.99	DE
83	2108	1881	10.55	TWILIGHT ZONE #2	$3.99	DE
84	2109	1890	10.55	RED SONJA #9	$3.99	DE
85	2111	1891	10.53	RED SONJA #10	$3.99	DE
86	2113	1893	10.52	GOD IS DEAD #7 (MR)	$3.99	AVA
87	2119	1261	10.48	GFT GRIMM FAIRY TALES #100	$5.99	ZEN
88	2121	1896	10.46	BOBS BURGERS #2	$3.99	DE
89	2128	1908	10.41	SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN SEASON 6 #1	$3.99	DE
90	2133	1913	10.38	SHAFT #1 (MR)	$3.99	DE
91	2142	1923	10.29	ADVENTURE TIME FLIP SIDE #2	$3.99	BOO
92	2143	1910	10.28	LUMBERJANES #3	$3.99	BOO
93	2146	1929	10.27	LIFE AFTER #1 (MR)	$3.99	ONI
94	2150	1935	10.23	TUROK DINOSAUR HUNTER #2	$3.99	DE
95	2151	1928	10.23	LUMBERJANES #4	$3.99	BOO
96	2154	1943	10.23	BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA #6	$3.99	BOO
97	2154	1942	10.23	RED SONJA #12	$3.99	DE
98	2167	1954	10.11	RED SONJA #11	$3.99	DE
99	2168	1952	10.10	ADVENTURE TIME #34	$3.99	BOO
100	2169	1995	10.10	CRYPTOZOIC MAN #3	$3.99	DE

Top 100 Small Publisher comics

Overall QTY RANK	QTY RANK	RetailRank	Index	DESC_1	PRICE	VendName
1	267	91	50.36	LIFE WITH ARCHIE COMIC #36	$4.99	ARC
2	437	141	42.77	LIFE WITH ARCHIE COMIC #37	$4.99	ARC
3	443	285	42.57	SABRINA #1 (MR)	$3.99	ARC
4	504	254	39.95	DOCTOR WHO 11TH #1	$3.99	TTN
5	544	295	38.45	DOCTOR WHO 10TH #1	$3.99	TTN
6	775	497	31.07	DOCTOR WHO 12TH #1	$3.99	TTN
7	944	776	27.19	RAI #1	$3.99	VAL
8	989	1124	25.91	AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE #5	$2.99	ARC
9	1055	1189	24.52	AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE #6	$2.99	ARC
10	1056	1166	24.49	AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE #3	$2.99	ARC
11	1088	849	23.98	AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE #7	$3.99	ARC
12	1111	1214	23.66	AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE #4	$2.99	ARC
13	1413	1168	18.86	THE VALIANT #1	$3.99	VAL
14	1650	1398	15.51	SONIC BOOM #1 HERE COMES THE BOOM PT 3	$3.99	ARC
15	1668	1796	15.19	RAI #2	$3.99	VAL
16	1684	1321	15.04	DOCTOR WHO 10TH #2	$3.99	TTN
17	1720	1364	14.54	DOCTOR WHO 11TH #2	$3.99	TTN
18	1741	1526	14.11	ARMOR HUNTERS #1	$3.99	VAL
19	1752	1510	14.00	BUNKER #1	$3.99	ONI
20	1769	1434	13.83	DOCTOR WHO 12TH #2	$3.99	TTN
21	1809	1469	13.35	DOCTOR WHO 10TH #3	$3.99	TTN
22	1824	1482	13.21	DOCTOR WHO 11TH #3	$3.99	TTN
23	1856	1517	12.92	DOCTOR WHO 10TH #4	$3.99	TTN
24	1865	1528	12.84	DOCTOR WHO 11TH #6	$3.99	TTN
25	1894	1558	12.49	DOCTOR WHO 12TH #3	$3.99	TTN
26	1911	1904	12.37	DELINQUENTS #1	$3.99	VAL
27	1915	1571	12.34	DOCTOR WHO 11TH #4	$3.99	TTN
28	1934	1592	12.13	DOCTOR WHO 10TH #5	$3.99	TTN
29	1956	1617	11.90	DOCTOR WHO 11TH #5	$3.99	TTN
30	1958	1727	11.88	UNITY #3	$3.99	VAL
31	2061	1846	10.90	UNITY #5	$3.99	VAL
32	2070	1572	10.83	X-O MANOWAR #25	$4.99	VAL
33	2082	1894	10.71	X-O MANOWAR #0	$3.99	VAL
34	2119	1261	10.48	GFT GRIMM FAIRY TALES #100	$5.99	ZEN
35	2146	1929	10.27	LIFE AFTER #1 (MR)	$3.99	ONI
36	2177	6398	10.05	VU HANDBOOK 2014 ONE DOLLAR DEBUT ED	$1.00	VAL
37	2207	2149	9.80	RAI #3	$3.99	VAL
38	2230	2021	9.60	UNITY #4	$3.99	VAL
39	2239	2161	9.54	ARMOR HUNTERS #2 MEGAPOSTER	$3.99	VAL
40	2308	2310	9.12	X-O MANOWAR #26	$3.99	VAL
41	2321	1977	9.06	TUKI SAVE THE HUMANS #1	$3.99	CAR
42	2340	2637	8.96	SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #256	$2.99	ARC
43	2364	2169	8.79	X-O MANOWAR #22	$3.99	VAL
44	2387	2196	8.69	X-O MANOWAR #23	$3.99	VAL
45	2408	2206	8.60	X-O MANOWAR #28	$3.99	VAL
46	2410	2211	8.58	RAI #4	$3.99	VAL
47	2411	2532	8.58	GFT OZ #6	$2.99	ZEN
48	2419	2216	8.55	ETERNAL WARRIOR #5	$3.99	VAL
49	2422	2734	8.53	SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #257	$2.99	ARC
50	2429	2398	8.51	UNITY #8	$3.99	VAL
51	2442	2245	8.39	X-O MANOWAR #21	$3.99	VAL
52	2446	2769	8.34	SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #259	$2.99	ARC
53	2452	2775	8.33	SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #258	$2.99	ARC
54	2453	2259	8.32	UNITY #6	$3.99	VAL
55	2456	1007	8.31	LIFE WITH ARCHIE #36 MAGAZINE FORMAT	$9.99	ARC
56	2462	2528	8.28	X-O MANOWAR #27	$3.99	VAL
57	2472	2277	8.22	BUNKER #2 (MR)	$3.99	ONI
58	2475	2270	8.21	LOLA XOXO #1	$3.99	ASP
59	2479	2815	8.20	SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #263	$2.99	ARC
60	2491	2305	8.14	ARMOR HUNTERS #3	$3.99	VAL
61	2499	2309	8.11	RAI #5	$3.99	VAL
62	2503	2839	8.09	SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #262	$2.99	ARC
63	2504	2314	8.09	HARBINGER #20	$3.99	VAL
64	2508	2307	8.07	SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #264	$3.99	ARC
65	2515	2845	8.05	SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #261	$2.99	ARC
66	2518	2847	8.04	SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #260	$2.99	ARC
67	2540	2339	7.92	X-O MANOWAR #24	$3.99	VAL
68	2543	2329	7.91	SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #265	$3.99	ARC
69	2558	2345	7.84	SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #266	$3.99	ARC
70	2566	2361	7.81	QUANTUM & WOODY GOAT #0	$3.99	VAL
71	2569	2356	7.79	LETTER 44 #3	$3.99	ONI
72	2573	2264	7.77	HARBINGER #25	$4.99	VAL
73	2578	2375	7.73	UNITY #7	$3.99	VAL
74	2586	2473	7.71	ARCHER & ARMSTRONG ARCHER #0.2014	$3.99	VAL
75	2597	2018	7.65	SIMPSONS TREEHOUSE OF HORROR #20	$4.99	BON
76	2601	2424	7.64	HARBINGER BLEEDING MONK #0.2014	$3.99	VAL
77	2604	2394	7.63	QUANTUM & WOODY #7	$3.99	VAL
78	2607	2400	7.62	X-O MANOWAR #29	$3.99	VAL
79	2609	2395	7.61	HARBINGER #21	$3.99	VAL
80	2614	2387	7.60	SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #267	$3.99	ARC
81	2617	2409	7.58	UNITY #10	$3.99	VAL
82	2620	2432	7.57	HARBINGER #22	$3.99	VAL
83	2621	2413	7.57	BLOODSHOT & HARD CORPS #18	$3.99	VAL
84	2625	2418	7.55	ARMOR HUNTERS #4	$3.99	VAL
85	2632	2796	7.53	UNITY #9	$3.99	VAL
86	2646	2746	7.46	X-O MANOWAR #30	$3.99	VAL
87	2658	2661	7.41	HARBINGER OMEGAS #1 VALIANTCRAFT	$3.99	VAL
88	2675	2561	7.33	Q2 RTN QUANTUM & WOODY #1	$3.99	VAL
89	2680	1962	7.31	SQUARRIORS #1 (MR)	$4.99	DEV
90	2691	2482	7.27	ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #18	$3.99	VAL
91	2695	2481	7.25	SONIC BOOM #2	$3.99	ARC
92	2700	2895	7.24	GFT WARLORD OF OZ #1	$2.99	ZEN
93	2703	2497	7.22	ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #17	$3.99	VAL
94	2708	2506	7.19	HARBINGER #23	$3.99	VAL
95	2709	2505	7.19	QUANTUM & WOODY #8	$3.99	VAL
96	2730	2581	7.11	BLOODSHOT & HARD CORPS #0.2014	$3.99	VAL
97	2735	2531	7.10	BLOODSHOT & HARD CORPS #20	$3.99	VAL
98	2739	2535	7.07	ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #19	$3.99	VAL
99	2741	2741	7.07	SHADOWMAN END TIMES #1	$3.99	VAL
100	2745	3163	7.06	SONIC UNIVERSE #60	$2.99	ARC

Top 100 Indie Graphic Novels (yes Pantheon is an “indie.”)

QtyRank	Overall QtyRank	Overall DollarRank	Index	DESC_1	PRICE	VendName
1	28	38	12.18	AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE TP VOL 01	$17.99	ARC
2	45	70	9.53	NEMO ROSES OF BERLIN HC (MR)	$14.95	TOP
3	46	203	9.46	MINECRAFT OFFICIAL MOJANG ESSENTIAL HANDBOOK HC	$7.99	SCH
4	47	208	9.40	MINECRAFT OFFICIAL MOJANG REDSTONE HANDBOOK HC	$7.99	SCH
5	56	31	8.42	BRYAN LEE O MALLEY SECONDS GN	$25.00	RAN
6	60	133	8.35	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 01	$10.99	RAN
7	107	165	6.38	MARCH GN BOOK 01	$14.95	TOP
8	119	173	6.08	ADVENTURE TIME TP VOL 04	$14.99	BOO
9	122	170	6.00	ADVENTURE TIME TP VOL 01	$14.99	BOO
10	124	259	5.98	ADVENTURE TIME ORIGINAL GN VOL 03 SEEING RED	$11.99	BOO
11	151	309	5.23	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 02	$10.99	RAN
12	155	484	5.06	YU GI OH 5DS GN VOL 06	$9.99	VIZ
13	227	204	4.06	ADVENTURE TIME FIONNA & CAKE TP	$19.99	BOO
14	233	304	4.01	MOUSE GUARD BALDWIN BRAVE OTHER TALES HC	$14.99	BOO
15	237	505	3.99	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 10	$10.99	RAN
16	243	511	3.94	ATTACK ON TITAN BEFORE THE FALL GN VOL 01	$10.99	RAN
17	256	516	3.86	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 03	$10.99	RAN
18	258	536	3.85	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 11	$10.99	RAN
19	276	383	3.70	DISNEY FROZEN CINESTORY	$14.99	JOE
20	284	586	3.65	ATTACK ON TITAN NO REGRETS GN VOL 01	$10.99	RAN
21	293	252	3.57	GOD IS DEAD TP VOL 01 (MR)	$19.99	AVA
22	295	614	3.55	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 12	$10.99	RAN
23	309	179	3.48	SCOTT PILGRIM COLOR HC VOL 05	$24.99	ONI
24	325	795	3.31	BATTLING BOY RISE OF AURORA WEST GN VOL 01	$9.99	ST.
25	336	257	3.26	NEIL GAIMAN GRAVEYARD BOOK HC GN VOL 01	$19.99	HAR
26	352	732	3.14	ADVENTURE TIME ORIGINAL GN VOL 04 BITTER SWEETS	$12.99	BOO
27	355	537	3.13	ADVENTURE TIME TP VOL 05	$14.99	BOO
28	368	983	3.08	NARUTO GN VOL 64	$9.99	VIZ
29	372	771	3.06	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 13	$10.99	RAN
30	379	751	3.03	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 04	$10.99	RAN
31	383	153	3.00	LOEG III CENTURY HC COMPLETE ED (MR)	$29.95	TOP
32	385	575	2.99	DEATH OF ARCHIE LIFE CELEBRATED TP	$14.99	ARC
33	395	233	2.93	SCOTT PILGRIM COLOR HC VOL 01	$24.99	ONI
34	404	802	2.89	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 09	$10.99	RAN
35	405	236	2.89	CROSSED TP VOL 01 (MR)	$24.99	AVA
36	409	572	2.87	ADVENTURE TIME TP VOL 02	$14.99	BOO
37	412	1091	2.86	NARUTO GN VOL 65	$9.99	VIZ
38	413	622	2.85	ADVENTURE TIME TP VOL 03	$14.99	BOO
39	422	226	2.82	GAME OF THRONES HC GN VOL 03 (MR)	$25.00	RAN
40	429	404	2.80	ADVENTURE TIME SUGARY SHORTS TP VOL 01	$19.99	BOO
41	431	220	2.79	GAME OF THRONES HC GN VOL 01 (MR)	$25.00	RAN
42	439	874	2.77	SONIC MEGA MAN WORLDS COLLIDE TP VOL 02	$11.99	ARC
43	439	840	2.77	SCOTT PILGRIM GN VOL 01 PRECIOUS LITTLE LIFE	$11.99	ONI
44	444	1123	2.76	WOODS TP VOL 01	$9.99	BOO
45	453	1181	2.70	NARUTO GN VOL 66	$9.99	VIZ
46	456	557	2.68	RACHEL RISING TP VOL 04 WINTER GRAVES	$16.99	ABS
47	465	937	2.65	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 14	$10.99	RAN
48	480	269	2.60	ESCAPO HC	$24.99	Z2
49	481	1236	2.60	NARUTO GN VOL 67	$9.99	VIZ
50	484	927	2.59	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 05	$10.99	RAN
51	499	472	2.55	ADVENTURE TIME CANDY CAPERS TP VOL 01	$19.99	BOO
52	503	967	2.53	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 07	$10.99	RAN
53	508	492	2.52	ADVENTURE TIME MARCELINE & THE SCREAM QUEENS TP VOL 01	$19.99	BOO
54	510	482	2.52	ANDRE THE GIANT LIFE & LEGEND GN	$17.99	ST.
55	520	479	2.49	UBER TP VOL 01 (MR)	$19.99	AVA
56	526	395	2.47	JOHNNY HOMICIDAL MANIAC DIRECTORS CUT SC	$21.95	SLA
57	536	1010	2.43	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 08	$10.99	RAN
58	538	1014	2.42	ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 06	$10.99	RAN
59	548	571	2.40	ATTACK ON TITAN JUNIOR HIGH GN VOL 01	$16.99	RAN
60	559	875	2.36	AMULET SC VOL 06 ESCAPE FROM LUCIEN	$12.99	SCH
61	563	1362	2.35	NARUTO GN VOL 68	$9.99	VIZ
62	564	374	2.35	CHARLES BURNS SUGAR SKULL GN	$23.00	RAN
63	575	1060	2.31	SAILOR MOON TP KODANSHA ED VOL 01	$10.99	RAN
64	588	664	2.28	BATTLING BOY SC GN VOL 01	$15.99	ST.
65	597	567	2.26	LETTER 44 TP VOL 01 ESCAPE VELOCITY	$19.99	ONI
66	605	876	2.25	REGULAR SHOW TP VOL 01	$14.99	BOO
67	606	1166	2.24	FILLER BUNNY COLLECTED WORKS TP	$11.95	SLA
68	608	884	2.24	CYANIDE & HAPPINESS PUNCHING ZOO TP (MR)	$14.99	BOO
69	621	1176	2.21	ATTACK ON TITAN BEFORE THE FALL GN VOL 02	$10.99	RAN
70	626	920	2.19	BONE COLOR ED SC VOL 01 OUT BONEVILLE	$12.99	SCH
71	632	1188	2.18	SONIC MEGA MAN WORLDS COLLIDE TP VOL 03	$11.99	ARC
72	644	1220	2.15	ATTACK ON TITAN NO REGRETS GN VOL 02	$10.99	RAN
73	647	1157	2.15	ADVENTURE TIME ORIGINAL GN VOL 01 PLAYING FIRE	$11.99	BOO
74	654	1183	2.13	SONIC MEGA MAN WORLDS COLLIDE TP VOL 01	$11.99	ARC
75	667	642	2.10	CROSSED TP VOL 08 (MR)	$19.99	AVA
76	669	1476	2.09	DEADMAN WONDERLAND GN VOL 01 (MR)	$9.99	VIZ
77	676	656	2.08	ROVER RED CHARLIE TP VOL 01 (MR)	$19.99	AVA
78	676	971	2.08	BRAVEST WARRIORS TP VOL 02	$14.99	BOO
79	697	661	2.04	RED SONJA TP VOL 01 QUEEN OF PLAGUES	$19.99	DE
80	709	677	2.02	CROSSED WISH YOU WERE HERE TP VOL 03 (MR)	$19.99	AVA
81	717	690	2.01	BUNKER TP VOL 01 (MR)	$19.99	ONI
82	724	907	2.01	BOJEFFRIES SAGA GN (MR)	$14.95	TOP
83	726	653	2.00	ATOMIC ROBO TP VOL 08 SAVAGE SWORD OF DR DINOSAUR	$18.95	RED
84	727	594	1.99	GOD IS DISAPPOINTED IN YOU HC	$19.95	TOP
85	730	625	1.98	SHAOLIN COWBOY TP	$19.99	BUR
86	748	1059	1.95	AMULET SC VOL 01 STONEKEEPER	$12.99	SCH
87	778	890	1.89	RACHEL RISING TP VOL 01 SHADOW OF DEATH	$16.99	ABS
88	779	1627	1.89	YU GI OH ZEXAL GN VOL 05	$9.99	VIZ
89	788	982	1.88	SQUEE TP	$15.95	SLA
90	791	533	1.87	LOST AT SEA HC	$24.99	ONI
91	794	752	1.87	SIXTH GUN TP VOL 06 (MR)	$19.99	ONI
92	802	1652	1.85	YU GI OH ZEXAL GN VOL 04	$9.99	VIZ
93	807	777	1.83	CROSSED TP VOL 09 (MR)	$19.99	AVA
94	808	260	1.83	FROM HELL TP (MR)	$35.00	TOP
95	814	776	1.83	SONS OF ANARCHY TP VOL 01 (MR)	$19.99	BOO
96	814	419	1.83	DISNEY ROSA DUCK LIBRARY HC VOL 01 SCROOGE SON OF SUN	$29.99	FAN
97	829	789	1.81	GOD IS DEAD TP VOL 02 (MR)	$19.99	AVA
98	830	1704	1.81	BLEACH GN VOL 60	$9.99	VIZ
99	841	258	1.79	MAUS SURVIVORS TALE COMPLETE HC	$35.00	RAW
100	842	709	1.79	NEIL GAIMAN GRAVEYARD BOOK HC GN VOL 02	$19.99	HAR

 

Top 100 Small Publisher graphic novels

QtyRank	Overall QtyRank	Overall DollarRank	Index	DESC_1	PRICE	VendName
1	28	38	12.18	AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE TP VOL 01	$17.99	ARC
2	45	70	9.53	NEMO ROSES OF BERLIN HC (MR)	$14.95	TOP
3	46	203	9.46	MINECRAFT OFFICIAL MOJANG ESSENTIAL HANDBOOK HC	$7.99	SCH
4	47	208	9.40	MINECRAFT OFFICIAL MOJANG REDSTONE HANDBOOK HC	$7.99	SCH
5	107	165	6.38	MARCH GN BOOK 01	$14.95	TOP
6	155	484	5.06	YU GI OH 5DS GN VOL 06	$9.99	VIZ
7	276	383	3.70	DISNEY FROZEN CINESTORY	$14.99	JOE
8	309	179	3.48	SCOTT PILGRIM COLOR HC VOL 05	$24.99	ONI
9	325	795	3.31	BATTLING BOY RISE OF AURORA WEST GN VOL 01	$9.99	ST.
10	336	257	3.26	NEIL GAIMAN GRAVEYARD BOOK HC GN VOL 01	$19.99	HAR
11	368	983	3.08	NARUTO GN VOL 64	$9.99	VIZ
12	383	153	3.00	LOEG III CENTURY HC COMPLETE ED (MR)	$29.95	TOP
13	385	575	2.99	DEATH OF ARCHIE LIFE CELEBRATED TP	$14.99	ARC
14	395	233	2.93	SCOTT PILGRIM COLOR HC VOL 01	$24.99	ONI
15	412	1091	2.86	NARUTO GN VOL 65	$9.99	VIZ
16	439	874	2.77	SONIC MEGA MAN WORLDS COLLIDE TP VOL 02	$11.99	ARC
17	439	840	2.77	SCOTT PILGRIM GN VOL 01 PRECIOUS LITTLE LIFE	$11.99	ONI
18	453	1181	2.70	NARUTO GN VOL 66	$9.99	VIZ
19	456	557	2.68	RACHEL RISING TP VOL 04 WINTER GRAVES	$16.99	ABS
20	480	269	2.60	ESCAPO HC	$24.99	Z2
21	481	1236	2.60	NARUTO GN VOL 67	$9.99	VIZ
22	510	482	2.52	ANDRE THE GIANT LIFE & LEGEND GN	$17.99	ST.
23	526	395	2.47	JOHNNY HOMICIDAL MANIAC DIRECTORS CUT SC	$21.95	SLA
24	559	875	2.36	AMULET SC VOL 06 ESCAPE FROM LUCIEN	$12.99	SCH
25	563	1362	2.35	NARUTO GN VOL 68	$9.99	VIZ
26	588	664	2.28	BATTLING BOY SC GN VOL 01	$15.99	ST.
27	597	567	2.26	LETTER 44 TP VOL 01 ESCAPE VELOCITY	$19.99	ONI
28	606	1166	2.24	FILLER BUNNY COLLECTED WORKS TP	$11.95	SLA
29	626	920	2.19	BONE COLOR ED SC VOL 01 OUT BONEVILLE	$12.99	SCH
30	632	1188	2.18	SONIC MEGA MAN WORLDS COLLIDE TP VOL 03	$11.99	ARC
31	654	1183	2.13	SONIC MEGA MAN WORLDS COLLIDE TP VOL 01	$11.99	ARC
32	669	1476	2.09	DEADMAN WONDERLAND GN VOL 01 (MR)	$9.99	VIZ
33	717	690	2.01	BUNKER TP VOL 01 (MR)	$19.99	ONI
34	724	907	2.01	BOJEFFRIES SAGA GN (MR)	$14.95	TOP
35	726	653	2.00	ATOMIC ROBO TP VOL 08 SAVAGE SWORD OF DR DINOSAUR	$18.95	RED
36	727	594	1.99	GOD IS DISAPPOINTED IN YOU HC	$19.95	TOP
37	730	625	1.98	SHAOLIN COWBOY TP	$19.99	BUR
38	748	1059	1.95	AMULET SC VOL 01 STONEKEEPER	$12.99	SCH
39	778	890	1.89	RACHEL RISING TP VOL 01 SHADOW OF DEATH	$16.99	ABS
40	779	1627	1.89	YU GI OH ZEXAL GN VOL 05	$9.99	VIZ
41	788	982	1.88	SQUEE TP	$15.95	SLA
42	791	533	1.87	LOST AT SEA HC	$24.99	ONI
43	794	752	1.87	SIXTH GUN TP VOL 06 (MR)	$19.99	ONI
44	802	1652	1.85	YU GI OH ZEXAL GN VOL 04	$9.99	VIZ
45	808	260	1.83	FROM HELL TP (MR)	$35.00	TOP
46	814	419	1.83	DISNEY ROSA DUCK LIBRARY HC VOL 01 SCROOGE SON OF SUN	$29.99	FAN
47	830	1704	1.81	BLEACH GN VOL 60	$9.99	VIZ
48	841	258	1.79	MAUS SURVIVORS TALE COMPLETE HC	$35.00	RAW
49	842	709	1.79	NEIL GAIMAN GRAVEYARD BOOK HC GN VOL 02	$19.99	HAR
50	852	1723	1.78	BLEACH GN VOL 59	$9.99	VIZ
51	858	493	1.77	HIP HOP FAMILY TREE GN VOL 02	$27.99	FAN
52	866	1683	1.74	LEGEND OF ZELDA GN VOL 01 OCARINA TIME PT 1	$9.99	VIZ
53	887	2165	1.71	HELLO KITTY GN DELICIOUS	$7.99	VIZ
54	900	1805	1.70	ONE PIECE GN VOL 70	$9.99	VIZ
55	908	1833	1.68	ONE PIECE GN VOL 71	$9.99	VIZ
56	911	613	1.68	SCOTT PILGRIM COLOR HC VOL 02	$24.99	ONI
57	927	1888	1.65	ETERNAL WARRIOR TP VOL 01 SWORD OF WILD	$9.99	VAL
58	934	1522	1.63	SCOTT PILGRIM GN VOL 02 VS THE WORLD	$11.99	ONI
59	971	658	1.60	SCOTT PILGRIM COLOR HC VOL 04	$24.99	ONI
60	973	1908	1.60	BLEACH GN VOL 61	$9.99	VIZ
61	987	626	1.57	ZENITH HC PHASE ONE	$25.00	POC
62	989	2319	1.57	SONIC THE HEDGEHOG ARCHIVES TP VOL 22	$7.99	ARC
63	989	1950	1.57	ONE PIECE GN VOL 72	$9.99	VIZ
64	1027	1689	1.50	MEGA MAN TP VOL 06 BREAKING POINT	$11.99	ARC
65	1033	725	1.49	SCOTT PILGRIM COLOR HC VOL 03	$24.99	ONI
66	1049	1455	1.47	SWORD ART ONLINE FAIRY DANCE GN VOL 01	$13.00	HAC
67	1055	243	1.47	THE INCAL HC NEW PTG (MR)	$44.95	HUM
68	1059	1018	1.47	DRAGON BALL FULL COLOR TP VOL 01 SAIYAN ARC	$19.99	VIZ
69	1081	946	1.44	ASSASSINS CREED BRAHMAN GN	$19.99	UBI
70	1089	1067	1.43	SHONEN JUMP PACK 2014 #1	$19.99	VIZ
71	1092	1542	1.43	BLACK BUTLER TP VOL 16	$13.00	HAC
72	1104	1082	1.41	WONTON SOUP TP COLLECTED ED	$19.99	ONI
73	1108	2042	1.41	LEGEND OF ZELDA GN VOL 03 MAJORAS MASK	$9.99	VIZ
74	1114	1118	1.40	MONSTER ON THE HILL GN	$19.95	TOP
75	1121	1802	1.39	SISTERS GN	$10.99	SCH
76	1125	2158	1.38	BLEACH GN VOL 62	$9.99	VIZ
77	1128	1367	1.38	NEMO HEART OF ICE HC	$14.95	TOP
78	1133	1145	1.37	SIXTH GUN TP VOL 07	$19.99	ONI
79	1143	2150	1.36	BEST OF ARCHIE COMICS BETTY & VERONICA TP VOL 01	$9.99	ARC
80	1158	679	1.34	WALT DISNEY DONALD DUCK HC VOL 05 TRAIL O/T UNICORN	$29.99	FAN
81	1169	2631	1.33	SONIC THE HEDGEHOG ARCHIVES TP VOL 23	$7.99	ARC
82	1170	1567	1.33	UNITY TP VOL 01 TO KILL A KING	$14.99	VAL
83	1194	1743	1.31	KINGDOM HEARTS 358 / 2 DAYS GN VOL 02	$12.00	HAC
84	1199	2264	1.31	NISEKOI FALSE LOVE GN VOL 01	$9.99	VIZ
85	1203	2190	1.30	DEATH NOTE GN VOL 01	$9.99	VIZ
86	1207	1219	1.29	HELHEIM TP VOL 01 WITCH WAR (MR)	$19.99	ONI
87	1214	923	1.29	I WAS THE CAT HC	$24.99	ONI
88	1215	2270	1.29	DEADMAN WONDERLAND GN VOL 02 (MR)	$9.99	VIZ
89	1220	2311	1.28	BLUE EXORCIST GN VOL 11	$9.99	VIZ
90	1226	1581	1.28	ATOMIC ROBO REAL SCIENCE ADV TP VOL 02	$13.95	RED
91	1244	2318	1.27	RAI TP VOL 01 WELCOME TO NEW JAPAN	$9.99	VAL
92	1248	1976	1.26	SONIC THE HEDGEHOG SELECT TP VOL 09 GAMES	$11.99	ARC
93	1257	1468	1.24	SONIC THE HEDGEHOG LEGACY TP VOL 03	$16.99	ARC
94	1263	1420	1.24	HEDGE KNIGHT TP VOL 02 SWORN SWORD	$14.95	BRI
95	1271	1439	1.23	RACHEL RISING TP VOL 02 FEAR NO MALUS	$16.99	ABS
96	1273	1429	1.23	JEFFREY BROWN KIDS ARE WEIRD OBSERVATIONS FROM PARENTHOOD HC	$14.95	CHR
97	1278	2609	1.22	LEGO LEGENDS OF CHIMA GN VOL 01 HIGH RISK	$7.99	NBM
98	1279	1688	1.22	BLACK BUTLER TP VOL 01 NEW PTG	$13.00	HAC
99	1284	2045	1.22	SONIC UNIVERSE TP VOL 07	$11.99	ARC
100	1284	893	1.22	GIRL GENIUS TP VOL 13 SLEEPING CITY	$25.00	STU

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Title: Cronos Haze Genre: Action Publisher: Futabasha (JP), Crunchyroll (US) Story/Artist: Takano Masayuki Serialized in: Manga Action Reviewed: 7 out of 11 chapters Review copy provided by Crunchyroll. Readers could be forgiven for looking at this series, which involves fights using sentient “jackets” and the original publication date, and thinking “is this a Kill la Kill rip-off?” Since this series is ... Read more

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Junji Ito! Junji Ito! Junji Ito!

Japanese horror master Ito has been avoiding the genre of his greatest triumphs—Uzimaki, Tomie, Gyo— for eight years, but he has a new book out, and Viz will bring it to the US next year: Fragments of Horror, a new collection of short horror tales to be published under the Signature imprint.

FRAGMENTS OF HORROR is the brand-new collection of delightfully macabre tales from the celebrated master of Japanese horror. An old wooden mansion that turns on its inhabitants. A dissection class with a most unusual subject. A funeral where the dead are definitely not laid to rest. Ranging from the terrifying to the comedic, from the erotic to the loathsome, these stories showcase Junji Ito’s long-awaited return to the world of horror.

“A long anticipated new offering of bizarre and disturbing short stories from the unique mind of Junji Ito awaits readers next summer,” says Leyla Aker, Senior Vice President, Publishing. “Ito adeptly creates scenarios that are at once surreal, unsettling, and often terrifying, and FRAGMENTS OF HORROR is sure to become a must-read for true horror aficionados and manga fans familiar with his prior works like GYO and UZUMAKI. We look forward to new as well as existing manga fans and readers discovering this potent forthcoming release!”

Not everyone converted to manga during the invasion during the last decade, and I can understand how high school romances and vampire dramas can be an acquired taste, but the greatest Japanese horror comics are pretty universal in their appeal, and Ito is among the genre’s greats: unsettling tales rendered with the solid draftsmanship of classic EC comics and the twisted imagination of…Junji Ito.

Both Uzumaki—the story of a town beset by an obsession with spirals that leads to death—and GYO—the story of a town overcome by fish bearing a “death stench”—are available from Viz. If you like truly unsettling stories, you need to get into Ito. (I should note that I treasure the two voumes of Museum of Horror that Dark Horse put out a decade ago as well.)

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I have been reading a lot of manga, but I haven’t had enough to say about each volume to write up a full review, so here are some brief impressions, starting with a new imprint Manga Classics.

Review:

I haven’t read Pride and Prejudice, and somehow I have managed to not see the many film adaptions of this classic, so I was thrilled when this turned up in my mailbox. I was a little leery that it would be boring, as some other novel to comics have been, but I was pleasantly surprised with everything about it.  The art is lovely, the script is engaging, and I spent an enjoyable hour savoring Udon’s well produced book, and I’m looking forward to reading more in their Manga Classics line. 

Grade:  B+

Review copy provided by publisher

From Amazon:

About the book:

Beloved by millions the world over, Pride & Prejudice is delightfully transformed in this bold, new manga adaptation. All of the joy, heartache, and romance of Jane Austen’s original, perfectly illuminated by the sumptuous art of manga-ka Po Tse, and faithfully adapted by Stacy E. King.

Now that the entire series has been released, I have a new goal – finish reading Vampire Knight.  I love this series, but I have to admit that half of the time I don’t understand what the heck is going on.  I read Volume 14 twice, and while I think I get it, the plot is still as clear as mud. 

When Yuki obtains Kaname’s memories, she learns about the woman he cared for.  She sacrificed herself to make weapons for the humans, so they could defend themselves against the vampires.  Yuki and Kaname spend most of pages apart, and when they are together, there is an emotional chasm between them, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to go away any time soon.  Kaname is doing some horrible things, nobody understands what he’s thinking or why he’s acting this way, and poor Aido is going to pay the price for Kaname’s behavior.

Aido is one of my favorite characters, so it was rough reading the last few chapters.  He has been a true friend to Kaname, and his repayment has been less than ideal.  Why, why, why?  I feel bad for Yuki, too.  Things aren’t any easier for her now that her vampire nature has re-emerged, and she’s lost Zero’s friendship.  Kaname isn’t offering up much support for her either.

Grade:  B-

Review copy provided by publisher

From Amazon:

About the book:

The Vampire Hunter Society has imprisoned Aido in order to interrogate him about Kaname’s connection to Sara Shirabuki. Meanwhile, Yuki wants a fresh start with Kaname, but circumstances arise that may force them apart.

Food Wars is a fun manga.  I didn’t think I’d like it at first, because Soma can be so abrasive, but that’s what I like about it now.  He’s a super confident guy who has complete faith in his culinary skills.  He’s under a lot of pressure at his exclusive cooking school, but he doesn’t even break a sweat at the thought of failing.  He has earned the wrath of the entire student body by declaring his intention to graduate at the top of the class, and oh yeah, have fun eating his dust as he blows by the competition and takes over the spot as number one student.  I love the cooking challenges; the food always looks so tasty, and the tension cranks up pretty high.  Just when it seems like he doesn’t have a chance of passing, he brainstorms and viola!  anything is possible, including beating the rich kids at their own game.  I’m looking forward to the fourth volume.

Grade:  B

Review copy provided by publisher

From Amazon:

About the book:

The “teamwork and friendshipbuilding” camp from hell begins! While most students are already petrified by the threat of instant expulsion for low marks, the unveiling of the teachers responsible for judging their dishes ratchets their fear to a whole new level! Just which anxiety-inducing teachers hold the culinary futures of Soma and the rest of the Polaris crew in their hands this time? Includes the one-shot “Your and My Romance Counseling”!

The post Mini Manga Reviews: Catch Up Post appeared first on Manga Maniac Cafe.

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Americans can’t get enough Tezuka!

Well sort of. The Japanese comics pioneer was as prolific as he was influential and recently we’ve recently seen a pretty ambitious attempt at getting a bunch of his works into print here in the US from DMP.

But a lot of primo Tezuka’s work was already published here via a series of very attractive volumes published by Vertical which ranged from Black Jack—perhaps his most accessible series and one of the best known—and standlone volumes like Ode to Kirihito. Sadly many of these books are out of print, but not to worry, Vertical is bringing them back in digital form:

are proud to announce the eBook rights to our entire Tezuka collection!

In the coming months expect to see all of our Tezuka titles available through the Apple iBookstore, Kindle, Nook, and hopefully Google Play. We will focus first on the series that are out of print – Apollo’s Song and Black Jack. Expect to see two to three books uploaded every two to three weeks.

Apollo’s Song – omnibus
Black Jack 1 through 17
Dororo – omnibus
Princess Knight 1&2
Ode to Kirihito – omnibus
MW
Ayako
Book of Human Insects
Buddha 1 through 8
Message to Adolf 1&2
Twin Knights

So glad this was finally confirmed. We have been working on this for more than a year now.

Oh and we also want to confirm simultaneous eBook and print releases of My Neighbor Seki also!

Digital reprint rights are not a gimme among manga-ka or their estates—where’s that digital Urasawa?—so having this sanctioned is a great step forward.

And yeah, check out Black Jack. The story of a heroic doctor who goes around operating on people to solve crime is as awesome as it sounds, and Black Jack’s mop of hair is a comics symbol as primary as Tintin’s cowlick.

Via sharp eyed Johanna Draper Carlson:

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Manga isn’t all awkward schoolgirls and giant robots. There has long been a very strong alternative and literary thread of manga, and two recent articles give you some perspective on it.

I would call Ryan Holmberg’s Proto-Gekiga: Matsumoto Masahiko’s Komaga a must read, but I have to confess, it is very long and involved, and I have set it aside for weekend reading. BUT the important thing is that he compares and contrasts Yoshihiro Tatsumi, who is kind of credited as the father of “gekiga” or realistic manga, with Matsumoto Masahiko, a figure who appears in Tatsumi’s autobiographical A Drifting Life under another name. Masahiko’s work went down a slightly different path than Tatsumi’s but Holmberg shows that it was equally important:

This is not really communicated in A Drifting Life. Without the resurrection of Tatsumi some ten years ago, it is doubtful that anybody other than diehard kashihon collectors and researchers would even know about Matsumoto. But it should also be recognized that Tatsumi, by coining the term gekiga and thus effectively (regardless of his intentions) taking the innovations for his own, did his share in obscuring Matsumoto’s central contributions to the medium. A few years ago I pointed out how Tatsumi was either forgetful or dishonest about his story sources. When it comes to the more important matter of Tatsumi’s visual aesthetic, again I think the autobiographical self-focus of A Drifting Life has skewed art history.

Anyway, you can love Tatsumi and Masahiko. But can you find their work? In another article, Josselin Moneyron rounds up some alternative manga publishing efforts in English from D&Q and Breakdown press, which published Matsumoto’s The Man Next Door, which was edited by Holmberg. WOW IT’S A CONSPIRACY.

Most of the alternative/literary manga I’ve read in English has been lively and accessible—Tatsumi, Sasaki Maki, Seiichi Hayashi, Shigeru Mizuki. There’s tons more of it waiting to be discovered.

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Manga isn’t all awkward schoolgirls and giant robots. There has long been a very strong alternative and literary thread of manga, and two recent articles give you some perspective on it.

I would call Ryan Holmberg’s Proto-Gekiga: Matsumoto Masahiko’s Komaga a must read, but I have to confess, it is very long and involved, and I have set it aside for weekend reading. BUT the important thing is that he compares and contrasts Yoshihiro Tatsumi, who is kind of credited as the father of “gekiga” or realistic manga, with Matsumoto Masahiko, a figure who appears in Tatsumi’s autobiographical A Drifting Life under another name. Masahiko’s work went down a slightly different path than Tatsumi’s but Holmberg shows that it was equally important:

The secret history of alternative manga was originally published on The Beat

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I know we’ve been slacking a bit with 31 Days due to the horrors of New York Comic-Con, but it’s full sped ahead to the pumpkins now. And here is the best thing you will hear today, tomorrow or possibly in a lifetime: Japanese Horror master Junji Ito Is doing a Pokemon collaboration.

Yeah that’s right. The creator of Uzumaki, Museum of Terror, the Long Hair in the Attic and much more, is doing POKEMON.

The news was announced in Japan as a “Collaboration,” you know, like Tokidoki doing Marvel, except terrifying and unspeakable. It’s called “Kowapoke,” which means “Scarypoke” and a single phone wallpaper image has been released thus far. That’s Banette, cute little Banette, admittedly not the nicest Pokemon, now all Kowapoke’d up. T-shirts are being given away in Japan now because life is unknowable and terrifying.

Ito is one of the greatest, most unsettling cartoonists alive. We’ve spotlighted him several times before. This is only the creepy icing on the scary cake!

If you’d like to read some Ito, or just get into his weird world, we strongly recommend Uzumaki, published in one volume late last year, the story of a town obsessed with spirals and the terror they bring. Connie C has a good round-up of his work here.

Source, via Tiny Cartridge

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by Zachary Clemente

While at SPX this year, I was able to grab a quick word with seven amazing cartoonists about their work in Hana Doki Kira, a Shōjo comic and illustration anthology released earlier this year after a rather successful Kickstarter campaign. Not only filled with gorgeous work inspired by Shōjo – a sub-genre of manga covering a wide variety of subjects, often with a strong focus on human and romantic relationships. As the anthology itself describes:

Shōjo is known for its distinctive use of flowery imagery, magical plot devices, and romantic themes. Out book takes its title from three key elements of the Shōjo world: Hana meaning flower, Doki echoing the sound of a pounding heart, and Kira – the impression of sparkling beauty.

Contributors to Hana Doki Kira in attendance at SPX were: Alice Meichi Li, Carey Pietsch, Kris Mukai, Megan Brennan, Rebecca Mock, Tim Ferrara, and Annie Stoll – who served as “art director” on the project. I asked each their introduction to Shōjo, how it has influenced their work, and what working on an anthology was like.

One of the most popular and influential Shōjo series, Sailor Moon was named as a gateway for many not only into the genre, but into comics in general.

When I was very young, one of my babysitters introduced me to Sailor Moon and at the time I had a serious need for stories about ladies and stories about girls who are fully-realized characters who got to be silly and dumb and got to express their wants and needs; but also be powerful and have agency in their own world. That started a life-long love affair. [...] I love stories about girls, about things girls love by women – it’s a wonderful thing. – Carey Pietsch

Megan Brennan: I wasn’t really into comics until some of my friends started reading Sailor Moon and other Shōjo comics and I realized that comics could be something completely different and I connected with it [Shōjo] really strongly. It was the only comics I read for a really long time because it was telling these stories I couldn’t get elsewhere; girls were the main characters, girl-things were important, and the things they cared would we life-changing and monumental; it was great. – Megan Brennan

Someone handed me Sailor Moon volume 10 in middle school at a school dance; I sat down, read the whole thing, my life was changed forever and I never looked back. – Rebecca Mock

It’s an understatement that there’s a drought in comics for stories starring or aimed at girls and it seems that many readers left wanted found what they needed in Shōjo such as Sailor Moon. Though he didn’t interact directly with Shōjo until later, Tim Ferrara remarked on how it informs his current work:

I didn’t actually grow up reading Shōjo; it was always a genre I thought should exist but I never knew that it did. [...] I’m glad it exists; it’s a needed genre – especially here in the States where we don’t have a lot of things that are representative for that demographic. – Tim Ferrara

Each artist is influenced or at least informed by Shōjo, many in the depiction of specific themes or use of ornate illustration.

There’s a lot of tropes that I use – a lot of decorative elements, lots of flowers, lots of sparkly things. [...] I also focus a lot on the clothing design and the hair. In Shōjo manga, there’s always beautiful, gorgeous, flowing hair. I love putting that in my art. – Alice Meichi Li

An untranslated copy of Candy Candy volume 10 was one of the earliest comics that I read and absorbed – and since I couldn’t read it, all I could do was look at their facial expressions and try to understand what was going on through the artwork alone. [...] One of the earliest things I learned from that was how to do was how to convey an emotion in a comic. – Kris Mukai

I think the themes and the beautiful linework have always been a big influence on me. My style is very sketchy and bold – you might think I would be more drawn to Shōnen, but there’s something beautiful about personal relationships as well as flowing lines that have always captured my heart. You may not think I’m a very Shōjo-inspired person, but I’m always thinking about beautiful lines and interesting stories. – Annie Stoll

It’s easy to latch onto the evocative beauty of how the work, but the influence Shōjo has had goes beyond that – granting an underserved readership access a necessary more.

It’s made me more conscious of writing all characters with agency; that’s something Shōjo manga does well – expanding beyond a traditional, mainstream narrative. I think some of the aesthetic seeps into my work too, I’m a fan of expressive faces and the ability to show emotion very clearly. – Carey Pietsch

It was a way for me to connect with comics. There’s a void in comics. [...] There’s comics for young kids and comics for young adults; but theres a gap there for pre-teens and young teens; there aren’t comics that speak to them and specifically not a lot of American comics that speak to girls. Shōjo fills that void, even if it’s cultural appropriation. These comics are coming from Japan – it’s an entirely different culture, we don’t really understand it, but even then there’s something there that we connect to viscerally and you can see how much they’ve caught on in a culture that they weren’t made for; there was such a hunger for that kind of comic. – Rebecca Mock

Lastly, I was happy to hear that all were pleased with the process of working towards an anthology and though many only had the responsibility of working on their own pieces, they came together and pulled off the project with aplomb, befitting an homage a spectrum of manga.

I do participate in a lot of anthologies; I take it as a way of making new friends. I love getting to know new artists and just getting to be part of that group is an honor. – Alice Meichi Li

It was so cool seeing the final book come together because everybody else’s stories fit together but they were all so different. You could see completely different perspectives of the same basic ideas. – Megan Brennan

It was at times exhilarating; we felt very powerful with all the possibilities available to us. At other times, it was very stressful because we were taking on a huge responsibility for no reason other than we sat down one day and decided we wanted to do this. We had to commit to this idea that you just come up with without any set due date, nobody backing you; it was really empowering to know that we were able to create something from nothing. – Rebecca Mock

It was so much fun; we really lucked out with Rebecca [Mock] and Annie [Stoll], and the Year 85 Group is so wonderful. It was so excited to get to see other artists talk about their themes and show sneak-peaks of their process along the way, and they did a wonderful job putting it all together. – Carey Pietsch

It was good having that initial group of six people who were really interested in helping out; everyone had a very unique job or position – it was a little bit like a Shōjo manga honestly. [...] It was a really good balance of personalities that all worked together – it never felt like a competition. – Annie Stoll

On the actual process of putting together the Hana Doki Kira anthology, Stoll described how it was born out of love for Shōjo.

There was a core six of us who hung out and drew and once we realized that we all loved Shōjo manga and started talking about making some kind of anthology. We ended up structuring it kind of like a pyramid scheme where each of us would invite two or three more people into it, so before you knew it, we had 26 amazing artists that were all making new friends and talking about Shōjo. – Annie Stoll

Stoll is a seasoned veteran in the world of comic anthologies, contributing in the astronomically successful Valor campaign, actively working on the second volume of Hana Doki Kira, and launching an extraordinarily ambitious project, 1001 Knights - a people-positive, feminist bent collection, aimed at making a tome of illustrations, comics, and unconventional art representing no less than 1001 characters.

Here is the full list of the Hana Doki Kira contributing artists: Aimee Fleck, Alex Bahena, Alice U. Cheong, Alice Meichi Li, Anna Rose, Annie Stoll, Becca Hillburn, Carey PIetsch, Catarina Sarmento, Catherine, Chelsie Sutherland, Elisa Lau, Endy, Janet Sung, Kaitlin Reid, Kelly / Hkezza, Kris Mukai, Lindsay Cannizzaro, Megan Brennan, Rebecca Mock, Sarah O’Donell, Shelly Rodriquez, Sloane Leong, Stefanie Morin, and Tim Ferrara. For more, check out their Facebook and Tumblr pages!

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I’m looking forward to reading this series. It’s the perfect time of year for to start a new supernatural romance!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

VIZ MEDIA MIXES SWEET PASSION AND DARK INTRIGUE IN THE NEW MANGA SERIES

HONEY BLOOD

A Beautiful Girl Falls For The Old-World Charm Of A Mysterious Vampire Romance Writer—With His Own Taste For Blood!

New Shojo Series Launches In Print And Digitally!

San Francisco, CA, September 25, 2014 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest distributor and licensor of manga and anime in North America, opens Fall with a fiery mixture of bloodthirsty romance and supernatural intrigue in Miko Mitsuki’s shojo manga series – HONEY BLOOD. Set for release under the Shojo Beat imprint, Volume 1 of the 3-part series launches on October 7th and is rated ‘T’ for Teens. Print volumes each carry an MSRP of $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN.

In the opening volume, everyone is on edge when a girl at Hinata Sorazono’s school is attacked by what seems to be a bloodsucking vampire. Hinata refuses to believe that vampires even exist, but then she meets her new neighbor, Junya Tokinaga, the author of an incredibly popular vampire romance novel. Dressed in a kimono with an old-world air about him, Junya has a taste of Hinata’s blood and tells her it’s sweet… Hinata can’t help but be drawn to Junya, but could it be that he’s actually a vampire—and worse yet, the culprit behind the attacks?!

“Junya Tokinaga is a mysterious and handsome man, so readers will swoon along with Hinata and become captivated by his complicated past and the bloodthirsty secret he hides,” says Amy Yu, Editor. “The stage is set for charged passion and love in this sultry series from Miko Mitsuki.”

HONEY BLOOD creator Miko Mitsuki hails from Kagoshima Prefecture in southernmost Japan and debuted with the manga title, Utakata, in 2003. She is currently working on projects for Sho-Comi magazine.

For more information on HONEY BLOOD, or other shojo manga titles from VIZ Media, please visit www.VIZ.com.

About VIZ Media, LLC

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, VIZ Media distributes, markets and licenses the best anime and manga titles direct from Japan.  Owned by three of Japan’s largest manga and animation companies, Shueisha Inc., Shogakukan Inc., and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions, Co., Ltd., VIZ Media has the most extensive library of anime and manga for English speaking audiences in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland and South Africa. With its popular digital manga anthology WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP and blockbuster properties like NARUTO, BLEACH and INUYASHA, VIZ Media offers cutting-edge action, romance and family friendly properties for anime, manga, science fiction and fantasy fans of all ages.  VIZ Media properties are available as graphic novels, DVDs, animated television series, feature films, downloadable and streaming video and a variety of consumer products.  Learn more about VIZ Media, anime and manga at www.VIZ.com.

The post [PR] Viz Media to Release Honey Blood! appeared first on Manga Maniac Cafe.

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May Contain Spoilers

Review:

Holy Cow!  Sometimes I just have to get that off my chest.  The 25th volume of Skip*Beat! ROCKED!  The drama was cranked up when Sho made a surprise appearance during the filming of Kyoko and Ren’s TV show and WOW!  He really knows how to stir up trouble.  And best yet, how to get under Kyoko’s skin.  Jealous when he thought that she was hung up on Reino, a rival singer, Sho wanted to make sure Kyoko knew what she was missing.  Delivering a huge bouquet brimming with all the things he thought she’d love, he throws down the gauntlet.   He’ll not be overshadowed by the Beagle or by smarmy Ren, either!

When Sho steals Kyoko’s first kiss, hilarity ensues.  She is distraught, Ren is quivering with rage, and poor Yashiro – he can only look on in horror as his client’s sense of well-being is shattered into a billion tiny pieces.  I didn’t know who I felt worse for – Ren, Kyoko, or Yashiro, who would have to deal with the fallout from Ren’s state of agitation.  Kyoko is traumatized, until Ren scoffs at her reaction to Sho.  If she wasn’t a willing participant in the kiss, is it really a kiss?  Besides, she’s an actress, and there will be times when she’ll have to kiss a co-star.  That’s not a kiss, either, it’s just part of the script, and part of the job.  Just when he’s made her feel better about the whole episode, Ren works in a little threat; she needs to be careful to never let Sho take advantage of her again, because she only gets one chance.  There will be no second chances.  Oh, dear!

Later, when Kyoko is alone in Ren’s dressing room, he does something to push Sho completely out of her mind.  Literally.  Suddenly, she can only think of Ren, and don’t think that doesn’t make him all smug and extremely self-satisfied.  Valentine’s Day was so much fun, I was sorry to see it end.  This has been my favorite volume of Skip*Beat! so far, and I wonder if it can be topped.  Even the art was kicked up a notch, but that impression might be due to the amount of illustrations featuring Ren.

Grade:  A-

Review copy purchased from Amazon

From Amazon:

Kyoko’s Valentine’s battle with Reino has finally gained her Sho’s attention—but now it’s the last thing she wants! Sho is determined to make her obsessed with him, and shows up on set with an over-the-top gift to taunt her. But when Kyoko explains her true relationship with Reino, Sho makes an inexcusable move. Has he undone her years of healing in one fell swoop?!

The post Graphic Novel Review: Skip*Beat! Volume 25 by Yoshiki Nakamura appeared first on Manga Maniac Cafe.

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There are a lot of talked about aspects when it comes to manga, but out of all of them, manga lettering is generally the one aspect that’s not talked about much. That’s mostly because the only time you would ever notice a letterer is if the manga they actually worked on has mistakes with the ... Read more

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