Life’s been a bit of a blur since I came back from TCAF, but aside from a horribly messy post-trip bedroom, things are finally smoothing back over. This means – new comics! Before I take my weekly trip down to my favourite comic store, I had to do my usual romp-through of the new books available to buy once I get there.

My most-eager-to-buy books of the week are Sailor Moon (Vol.05) and Tyrant Who Falls In Love (Vol.06). You can see the complete list over at my On The Shelf article for Otaku USA. Buy and enjoy manga lovers!

This past weekend was Toronto Comics Art Fest – one of the best comic shows in North America for meeting and greeting comic artists and checking out their work. It was my second year to attend and I loved it. And who can possibly leave a show as magnificent as TCAF without an armful of comics? Certainly not I! The ability to buy directly from creators is an experience that blows my mind, I adore it and TCAF offers the perfect fix.

Bento Comics – a collection of artists whose works you can read online then have published print-on-demand – had a new anthology available: Peter Pan and the Language of the Dead. I was giddy to see it, as a fan of Bento Comics’ anthologies and a huge Peter Pan junkie. The theme combo was brilliant – it was so unnerving but at the same time fascinating. Wonderful!

Another anthology collection I picked up was Cautionary Fables & Fairy Tales which includes a story by one of my favourite artist/writer combos, Katie and Steven Shanahan. It’s a pretty hefty book with a bunch of artists new to me. I’m looking forward to discovering some new creators to follow.

Becky Cloonan premiered her new self-published short, The Mire, and I was quick to nab a copy. I haven’t read it yet but just the print quality and a quick flip-through shows it was worth each and every penny. Fellow Haligonian Jordyn F. Bochon also premiered a print collection of her comic, The Terrible Death of Finnigan Strap. Two other Halifax artists present whose works I couldn’t miss were Mike Holmes‘ – who had copies of his creative multi-style self-portrait art book, Mikenesses – and Kate Leth who debut her collected comic, Ultimate Kate or Die.

A lot of artists at the show were selling print editions of their web comics so I took the opportunity to buy a bunch. I don’t typically read comics on the web but when an opportunity to try them out via print arises, I go for it! I bought a book of Octopus Pie, Earthsong (Vol.01) and In The Air (Vol.01). Of the three I’ve read In The Air so far and it was great! I hope I enjoy the others just as much, and it’s fun knowing there’s more to read online should I be unable to wait for more to hit the printers.

There are a few web published comics that I read each week though, and of course I couldn’t possibly resist purchasing the print versions of those. The print editions of Starfighter (Vol.01) and Teahouse (Vol. 03) were both gorgeously reproduced and will now sit proudly on my BL shelves (once I’ve finished oogling them for hours). The colourist of Teahouse, Christina, was also selling hardcover books of her web comic (which I also follow regularly), Fox Sister.

Vertical Inc had a booth at TCAF and I was able to pick up a few volumes of manga from them too. For new volumes, I got Flowers of Evil (Vol.01) – very twisted! – and GTO: 14 Days of Shonan (Vol.02). An older book I’d been having trouble finding was Osamu Tezuka’s MW, which I’m now happy to have in my hands.

Outside of TCAF, I visited The Beguiling where I always know I’ll find a stack of goodies to buy. I was giddy to find a missing volume of One Thousand and One Nights (Vol.07) and an out of print copy of an old comic favourite of mine, My Faith in Frankie. Then it was boys’ love stock up time with Right Here, Right Now (Vol.01-02), The Desert Prince, Black Sun (Vol.02) and, in currently joint ownership with my awesome roommate, four volumes of bara manga. Not easy finding this stuff! Well… unless you’re at the Beguiling. Thanks, Chris!

Thus sums up my Toronto Comics Art Festival purchases for 2012 – all fantastic! It’s a great show that I look forward to attending again next year and I hope others do as well (and let me know!).

Manga time! …which as a statement is sort of redundant here on Kuriousity. New week means new manga and while I continue unpacking my goodies from TCAF, I took a break for my weekly round-up of what new books are on the shelf this week. You can check out the full list and some thoughts over at my On The Shelf article at Otaku USA.

Some notables this week are NonNonBa from Drawn and Quarterly, Flowers of Evil from Vertical Inc. and the FLCL omnibus from Dark Horse.

RightStuf - the mega-mecha online retail store of anime & manga goodies – made a surprise announcement last week when they revealed they had partnered with Tokyopop’s remains and Japanese publisher, Gentosha, to release the third volume of Hetalia. Along with the PR, they’ve also posted a 6-minute long video discussing the news.

Hetalia (Vol.03) is listed at $15.99/US cover price, but RightStuf’s current sale on it moves that down to $11.99/US. This first “limited edition” is set for release in June of this year and will sport eight colour pages for those who pre-order it. The kicker here is that the book will only be made available through RightStuf itself, which immediately puts it on the pricier side for international buyers who either need to pay the per-item shipping fee or, if you’re Canadian, reach that $150 free-shipping threshold. Of course, that doesn’t protect you from those hefty customs charges.

Along with the third volume of Hetalia, RightStuf is also making available new copies of the first and second via a print-on-demand system. Each of these will have the $15.99/US price tag as well. Volume three will be made available as a POD book once the initial run is depleted with the colour pages reproduced in black & white.

Tokyopop had already finished production work on this title months ago, around the same time the company ceased operations as a manga publisher (this of course followed by their sudden mind change). RightStuf’s involvement in the title right now seems to be mostly that as a distributor, though their role is likely larger when it comes to the funding and distribution of subsequent print-on-demand versions.

RightStuf representatives were lively on Twitter when the PR first went out last week and had some interesting things to say, particularly for those still holding out hope for a return of other titles that went down with the Tokyopop ship.

“If people buy the Hetalia vols, there’s a possibility of more Hetalia… & similiar arrangements for other titles. (No promises, atm!)”

“Because we know you hate it when you can’t find the manga volumes you want! So…”

“The scoop: We see your requests, & we’re making note of them. We’d love to expand this program…”

 Though I doubt I’ll ever be able to let go of my Tokyopop skepticism, it is great to see another opportunity for a fan-favourite title to return to print. Hetalia – a comedic series about personified versions of countries and nations playing out historical events – has been one of the most in-demand titles since Tokyopop announced their ‘end’. What I look most forward to is seeing what other series could come of this arrangement, especially if RightStuf’s manga-releasing program isn’t specifically tied to Tokyopop. With digital becoming a more common means of distribution, and print in turn having a more shaky looking future, print-on-demand has for a long time seen like  an inevitable route for some books. It means a bit more money for some books but that certainly beats no book at all.

Last week Digital Manga announced another six new print licenses! And I’ve long since run out of semi-creative ways to carry into that sentence, since it’s happened so much in recent months. Not that that’s a complaint in the face of so many new volumes of manga to anticipate for 2013. Yay for books! And now onto the good stuff:

A Century of Temptation – Kairi Shimotsuki (June, Summer 2013, $12.95/US)
Deflower the Boss – Ayan Sakuragi (June, Summer 2013, $12.95/US)
The Incredible Kintaro – Naomi Guren (801Media, Spring 2013, $15.95/US)
Ninth Life Love – Lalako Kojima (June, Summer 2013, $12.95/US)
Priceless Honey – Shiuko Kano (June, Summer 2013, $12.95/US)
Ray’s Days – RYOHZOH (Project-H, $17.95/US)

All of the titles above are one-shots so they’re a convenient one-book full package deal. None of them immediately stood out to me but we’ll see how appealing or ‘meh’ each looks as finished cover designs and plot synopsis’ appear between now and their release dates.

The Toronto Comics Art Festival is only days away now – how time flies! For those who’re going, or those simply curious, the event organizers now have the complete schedule, exhibitor list and map available on their website.

TCAF had several very worthwhile manga-related events last year and this year they’re welcoming the creator of Chi’s Sweet Home, Konami Kanata. On Saturday evening she’ll be giving a talk at The Japan Foundation:

Konami Kanata in Conversation
Saturday, May 5, 2012 (7:00pm-9:00pm) @ The Japan Foundation
“Please join us in welcoming manga author Konami Kanata, creator of The New York Times Bestselling manga Chi’s Sweet Home, to her first-ever North American appearance. Kanata is traveling to Toronto to attend The Toronto Comic Arts Festival 2012, and will be giving a special talk at The Japan Foundation where she will discuss her 30 year career making manga, and spread awareness of the plight of those in the Tohoku Region of Japan still severely affected by the March 11th, 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Konami Kanata-sensei will be interviewed on stage by Vertical Inc. Editor Ed Chavez, and will be autographing copies of her work for attendees.”

As with other TCAF events, Konami Kanata’s talk is free to attend but RSVPs were being taken for this one in advance to accomodate numbers. While closed now, a ‘rush line’ will be open at 6:30pm for those who did not RSVP with attendance dependent on the capacity.

Along with Vertical Inc., comic & manga publishers Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly will be at TCAF selling books as well. The complete list of exhibitors is an impressive array of publishers and artists; like any big event the only real downside is there likely won’t be enough time to visit all the ones you want!

I’m packing my bags and getting ready for TCAF but time was still made to make it to my comic shop of choice and stock up some new manga. Always time for new manga!

If looking for some new manga of your own, you can check out the most recent On The Shelf article over at Otaku USA for the list of what’s fresh in the bookstores this week.

Listings for the sequel to Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys were posted to retail sites late last week, acting as pretty good confirmation that Viz Media will be continuing on the story. The sequel is titled 21st Century Boys and will be released in November 2012. The last volume of 20th Century Boys is volume twenty-two and is scheduled for release in September.

21st Century Boys is two volumes long and continues right where the original left off as Kenji continues the fight against ‘the Friend’ while looking to his memories for clues that can help them.

21st Century Boys (Vol. 01)
21st Century Boys (Vol. 02)

Another listing of note is for a boxset containing two hardcover editions of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. The series, written and drawn by Hayao Miyazaki, is about our world in 1000 years when pollution has corrupted the planet. A young woman, Nausicaä, traverses this new world through forests and wars on a journey to discover what lead the planet here and what its future may hold. This edition will come with a bonus poster and interior colour pages.

To both of these releases I shout a resounding ‘yay!’ It seemed safe assumption that Viz Media would license a two volume sequel to 20th Century Boys but it’s great to see the listings for it. I’ve also never been able to read all of Nausicaä so an affordable, hardcover, extra shiny boxset offers the perfect opportunity!

Author: Isuna Hasekura
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: December 2011

Synopsis: “Lawrence and Holo take a respite from their travels north, but a true businessman never rests! It isn’t long before an opportunity for profit in the town of Lenos presents itself to Lawrence; one that could fulfill his dreams of owning his own establishment. But as always the promise of great reward carries with it great risk – and risk is never greater than when one plans to use a werewolf as collateral!”

Hey, remember me? I used to post reviews here? No? Well, I can’t blame you for that since it has been awhile. Definitely longer than I intended it to be. And there are a few reasons for that but the main one is that I was sent the fifth volume of the Spice & Wolf light novels to review and haven’t been able to finish it. And without finishing it, I can’t really give it a proper review. I can, however, review my inability to produce a review. Or something. Roll with me here, guys.

This isn’t my first encounter with Spice & Wolf. I’ve seen the first season of the anime and about half of the second season. I even reviewed volume one way back when. My struggles weren’t due to the common issue of not knowing what is going on. No, the problems I had come down to finding it a hard book to not put down – and not entirely for negative reasons.

Read more…

Almost missed this piece of news! One Peace books announced earlier this month that they’ll be releasing the comedy manga, Crayon Shin-Chan. CMX originally published the first eleven volumes before the company went kapoot, though the Crayon Shin-Chan manga itself is fifty volumes total.

Amazon.ca has listings for those three volumes which include the covers, page counts and release dates. Interestingly, all three volumes clock in at a hefty 360 pages each, suggesting they’re more than the usual single volume each. All three are scheduled to come out in October 2012.

Crayon Shin-Chan (Vol.01) | Crayon Shin-Chan (Vol.02) | Crayon Shin-Chan (Vol.03)

“Hes rude, hes crude, and adults tremble whenever hes around. His inappropriate comments and obsession with body parts and bodily functions make life stressful for his struggling parents. No one is safe from Shinchans verbal outbursts . . . and now, neither are you!” – Crayon Shin-Chan (Vol. 01) [CMX]

Potty-humour comedy isn’t my thing, so I won’t be giving Crayon Shin-Chan a second go. None the less I know there’s a fanbase out there for it so I’m happy to see those readers given a second chance to enjoy a series otherwise out of print.

Credit for the news goes to AnimeNewsNetwork

New comics’ day! Alas that Diamond Comics was a bit behind in releasing a number of the new manga released but I suppose that’s nothing new. If you’re ordering from online retailers or large bookstores though, you should be good to go, buy and read!

Top titles of the week for me are Air Gear (Vol. 25) and the last Tokyo Mew Mew omnibus. You can check out the full list and more of my thoughts over at my On The Shelf article at Otaku USA.

It’s another round of manga license time! With this many new licenses prior to the thick of convention season I hope it means good for the summer months. This time it’s Kodansha Comics who sent out a press release, which in itself came as a surprise considering the silence that usually comes from them outside of book releases.

Battle Angel Alita: Last Order – Yukito Kishiro
Danza – Natsume Ono
Missions of Love (Watashi ni xx Shinasai) – Ema Toyama

Battle Angel Alita: Last Order is a relicense, having been originally published by Viz Media. Viz released the fifteenth volume back in October 2011 and Kodansha Comics will continue from there with volume sixteen in December of this year. The series is currently in tournament mode as its character duke it out to win the Zenith of Things Tournament.

Danza is a title I was surprised to see on the list, if only because Viz Media pretty much has a monopoly on Natsume Ono’s work. It’s great to see more of her work published in English and I’ve always enjoyed her short story collections the most. Danza is a one book release with six different stories. You can read a synopsis of them in Kodansha’s PR if you’re curious for more details on the story specifics. The title is scheduled to be released in December 2012 as well, with an Amazon.ca listing already up.

Last up from Kodansha today was their confirmation of Watashi ni xx Shinasai - or Missions of Love, as it’s now been renamed. At last! I contacted Kodansha Comics about this over a month ago when the listing popped up on Amazon. Alas, I got no response, which is pretty standard from them (busy, understaffed bees over there I’m left to assume). Ema Toyama has had two other series published in English already – I Am Here! (Del Rey) and Pixie Pop (Tokyopop). Missions of Love is about a secret phone novel author who blackmails a popular classmate into performing  ”daring missions of love” to gain live-inspiration for her work. The first volume is currently scheduled for November 2012.

Viz Media treated us with a couple new licenses this week, announced first via their Shoujo Beat Twitter account and then very shortly after through a press release.

Strobe Edge - Io Sakisaka
Demon Love Spell – Mayu Shinjo

This is the first time Io Sakisaka’s work has been released in English.  Strobe Edge has already been published in French though, and was cited by Viz as “one of the most requested titles that our readers have asked to be licensed”. The series is about a teen named Ninako who is looking for love and may have found it with the school’s number one mysterious heartthrob. He already has a girlfriend, however, and Ninako must learn to cope with her first experience with love being her first with heartbreak as well. Currently the series is ten volumes in Japan and has been running  since 2007 (still going!).

Demon Love Spell isn’t Mayu Shinjo’s first title released in North America. Her series Ai Ore! is currently being published by Viz Media in omnibus format. Unfortunately Ai Ore! (Vol.01) very easily earned top spot as my Most Gag-Worthy book released in 2011 so my hopes aren’t very high for this new one. The plot, however – about a shrine maiden who finds herself the target of a lusty demon after sealing away his powers – does peak my interest enough to at least give it a try. My fingers are crossed it proves more palatable! Demon Love Spell (“Ayakashi Koi Emaki”)  is currently four volumes and on-going.

Both of these new titles will start print publication later this year.

It’s the return of Swag Bag! In this once-was-weekly article I give a quick rundown of the books I bought that week and some brief thoughts, be it itty-bitty reviews if I’ve read them or first impressions if I haven’t. Since it’s been a long while since I’ve written one, this one is going to recap all my April purchases instead of just one week’s… so it’s a bit long. As always I encourage readers to share their recent purchases in the comments section!

I continued a few of my on-going shonen series with Viz Media‘s Blue Excorcist (Vol.07), Bleach (Vol.39) and Bakuman (Vol.10), the latter of which has just ended in Japan. Much as I wish sometimes series I like would go on forever, it’s comforting knowing there’s an end in sight. Kamisama Kiss (Vol.08) and Dawn of the Arcana (Vol.03) gave me a Shojo Beat fix, though I’m still not quite sure if I even like Dawn of the Arcana. Maybe now I’ll find out? So tricky to tell.

Arisa (Vol.07) was a quick-to-buy volume. I really like this series, though it is going on far too long. Suspense is one thing but get to the reveals already! And I hope comatose sister wakes up soon… I suppose I shouldn’t complain much about suspense in that kind of story after I finish reading 20th Century Boys (Vol.20). If you want a master of comic suspense, you need look no further than Naoki Usawara. So much suspense, all the time, and while sometimes it’s almost painful how much the story plays on that, it’s completely worth it. Definitely one of my favourites.

Digital Manga and Yen Press are publishing some of my other favourite currently running series, the kind that nestle neatly between the genres of shonen and shoujo. Of those I bought Black Butler (Vol.09), Countdown: 7 Days (Vol.02), Replica (Vol.02) and Durarara!! (Vol.02). I was surprised to see Durarara!! has a shiny gold finish on the cover letters; pleasantly surprised, of course. It’s a neat addition that hopefully means well for the book’s sales. It deserves them too, this series is great and I’m really glad it’s been licensed so I can finally read what all the fuss was about.

Speaking of high quality releases, Yen Press’s English edition of A Bride’s Story – WOW. It always amazes me how good it looks, not to mention of course how gorgeous the artwork is. It’s a beautiful piece of work all around. I was thrilled this month to pick up a copy of volume three. I also bought Bunny Drop (Vol.04) which is the start of the series’ time-skip to cute little Rin now being a teenager. So far my opinion on it is very… meh. Actually it’s more like, ‘I wish I’d stopped at three’. So sad.

Continuingly getting better however is Sailor Moon! Kodansha Comics recently released the fourth volume and while it was a little painfully episodic (one character after another being kidnapped), it had a lot of good Tuxedo Mask character development that the anime barely scratched the surface of. It makes me really like him as a character and even his relationship with Usagi more too. On the opposite end of the likeability scale are the characters of Itazura na Kiss (Vol.08) – why am I still reading this series!? Classic shoujo or not, the cons of the non-existant relationship are far outweighing the funny moments. Bleh.

Thankfully there were other omnibus to buy that were able to almost completely wash the ick of Itazura away – Vertical Inc’s Dororo (by Osamu Tezuka! and over 800 pages!) and Viz Media’s Cross Game (Vol.07). Cross Game has easily become one of my favourite comic series I’ve ever read – I get completely engrossed reading every volume. It’s just so good! The ability to make the everyday incrediably compelling and interesting is a skill Mitsuru Adachi definitely has. Another series that makes rather boring activities still charming to read is Seven Seas‘ Blood Alone (Vol.06). Don’t let the word vampire turn you off this one, it’s really sweet and has some good action sequences that are pretty realistic in their execution. Nothing too over the top and thus refreshingly believable.

This past week I also purchased my first digital manga volumes after buying myself an iPad (oh my credit card, it weeps!). Printed-versions are still my much preferred, but with some publishers now offering titles we’ll only ever see legally available in English via digital, I’d rather read them digitally than not at all. The iPad’s big screen and crisp graphics also offers a really nice reading experience, which I hope to go into with more detail at a later date.

After looking through different manga purchasing options, including Yen Press, Viz Media and Digital Manga’s apps, the site that earned my money was SuBLime – Viz Media’s new boys’ love publishing arm. The company sells digital copies you can then either read through your web browser on their website or download as a PDF to read however you digitally-please. This flexibility plus the tidy $5.99 price tag won me over. I bought three one-shots – Devil’s Honey, Oku-san’s Daily Fantasies and The Bed of My Dear King. All three were enjoyable in their own ways and I plan to share how and why soon.

…and that was my manga buying for April! What was in your swag bags this month?