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Author Archive for Lissa Pattillo

Devils & Wolves – Digital Manga Adds 3 New Boys’ Love Titles

Digital Manga Adds 3 New Boys' Love Titles

Slipping in some under the radar news last week (unless you’re signed up with DMP’s handy newsletter), Digital Manga has added a few new boys’ love titles to their print line-up:

Devil’s Infirmary – Aco Oumi
(“Hokenshitsu no Akuma”)

Ambiguous Relationship – Masara Minase
(“Mijuku na Kareshi”)

Gentlemen’s Agreement Between A Rabbit & a Wolf – Oumi Shinano
(“Usagi to Ookami no Shinshikyoutei”)

Devil’s Infirmary is the second book Aco Oumi has had published by Digital Manga – the first being 801Media‘s Love Circumstances. Amibiguous Relationship‘s artist may look familiar to some also – they’ve had a couple works released by Drama Queen and were the artist for June‘s BL novel, The Lonely Egotist. Oumi Shinano hasn’t had any works released in English yet but they do have a one-shot titled Yakuza Cafe coming from June in October.

Digital Manga has also recently updated their website to include book releases up until September 2012. Some notable (and my most anticipated titles) include up to volume five of Tyrant Who Falls In Love and the Finder series, About Love (wedding planner yaoi? Must see!) and the long-awaited third volume of A Strange and Mystifying Story.

An important distinction to make is the licenses above are for print and don’t include Digital Manga’s growing list of one-shot titles being published through their Digital Manga Guild. This includes the recently released Tired of Waiting for Love. The DMG titles are digitally only and will be released on eManga.com as they come out. I recommend following Digital Manga’s Twitter account for guild news as it comes out.

*Image above is from cover of Oumi Shinano’s Gentlemen’s Agreement Between A Rabbit & a Wolf 


Otaku USA: On The Shelf – August 24, 2011

On The Shelf!

New manga day! Well… yesterday was anyway. Not much out this week but still some goodies. You can read the whopping list of four over at this week’s edition of Otaku USA’s On The Shelf.

My top pick this week is the new volume of Oh!Great’s Air Gear. Having just finished the new omnibus book of Tenjo Tenge, I’m ready for another similar dose of action! It’s also a relief knowing Air Gear isn’t as violent, sexual and over-dramatized. Sure it is all of those things too, but the years between the two series has made the art much more polished and the story tighter.


Swag Bag: Samurai, Incubus, Rabbits and Tyrants

Swag Bag

My bedroom is finally under control! A week of vacation as I transition to a new job plus a very release-heavy month, not to mention a few trips to my local library, have ensured every inch of my desk, floor and shelves were littered with material waiting to be read and watched. Upside to cleaning your room at least is there’s almost always something you’ll discover  you haven’t read yet, or perhaps just want to revisit.  Naturally among the now organized chaos are a bunch of the things I bought this past week:

For my birthday I received a gift card to Chapters. While I avoid buying from there in-store (too expensive!), their online prices are still pretty good, especially for the more niche material and some harder to find titles. Thus, it was just that I filled my digital shopping cart with.

Mister Mistress (Vol. 01)Boys’ love made up the bulk of my online purchase with my most eagerly awaited purchase being the hardcopy edition of Digital Manga‘s Rabbit Man, Tiger Man (Vol. 01). Second to that fun and charming tale of yakuza/doctor love, was Tyrant Who Falls In Love (Vol. 03). Never enough Hinako Takanaga on the bookshelves! Even Yen Press had some boys’ love to offer me with Tale of the Waning Moon (Vol. 02) and I picked up an older title I missed from Deux Press called Mister Mistress (Vol. 01). It’s almost unfortunate I enjoyed it so much since volume two is looking very tricky to find.

Using up the last pennies of my credit, I bought One Pound Gospel (Vol. 04) which is the end of the series. On the other end of series collection, I bought Descendants of Darkness (Vol. 01) which finishes off my collection of that series as well.

Next up it was into my local comic store, Strange Adventures, where I picked up the new releases (which if you’re curious about the complete recent lists for, check out my Otaku USA articles, On The Shelf). Viz Media dominated my purchasing stack, which I suppose by now should stop seeming like an anomaly.

I was really excited to get my hands on Kaze Hikaru (Vol. 19) – it’s one of my favourite series but there’s a long wait between books. It’s a really long series too so I’m always worried Viz Media will drop it. Everyone buy the series so this doesn’t happen! It’s really charming and wonderfully drawn.

Pokemon Adventures (Vol. 14)Also in the pile of awesome swag was 20th Century Boys (Vol. 16), Otomen (Vol. 11), Tenjo Tenge (Vol. 02) and Natsume’s Book of Friends (Vol. 08). A pleasant surprise was the size of Pokemon Adventures (Vol. 14). It’s notably thicker than past volumes and works really well with the content considering it’s the huge climax of all the plot lines coming together since volume one. Pokemon and trainers everywhere!

And lastly, to make my shopping bags all the heavier, a got a few volumes of manga from the library. Looking for something lighthearted and fluff-heavy, I borrowed Fall In Love Like A Comic (Vol. 01). A really fun discovery though was Saint Young Men (Vol. 01-03). I can’t read Japanese but that didn’t stop me from borrowing the books so I can oogle the amusing pictures and hope all the more someone licenses it. Buddha and Jesus living together in an apartment – how could you not be curious?

That was my Swag Bag this week – what about you?


Review: Otomen (Vol. 11)

Otomen (Vol. 11)

Manga-ka: Aya Kanno
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: August 2011

Synopsis: “Asuka engages in a battle with Suzuki Oji to see who will get the most Valentine’s Day chocolates! As Oji seduces girls left and right into giving him chocolates, Asuka wonders one thing – who will Ryo give her chocolates to?”

The opening chapter in this volume of Otomen finishes off the plot started in the previous, allowing us a fun second look at the cast dressed up as geisha and samurai. Seeing Asuka given a chance to really show off his decorative and cooking skills in front of his peers is refreshing, though it does feel a little sudden despite the fact he’s been revealing this side of himself more and more for eleven volumes. Changes are happening though and there’s only one more volume left to wrap it all up.

Read more…


Super Savings: Fumi Yoshinaga Edition

Super Savings: Fumi Yoshinaga

August’s Manga Moveable Feast – an assortment of articles from a variety of bloggers about a single manga topic – is about Fumi Yoshinaga, manga artist extraordinaire. There’re already lots of great posts for the MMF about her books, her art style and her storytelling methods so I highly recommend following the updates.

For my contribution, I’ve compiled sources where you can buy Fumi Yoshinaga’s books online. We’re lucky to have so many to choose from and collect  – just compiling this list was a great reminder. While there’re a variety of places online and in-store to purchase her books, I’ve tried to find the cheapest options to make it that much easier to start, add to or finish your Yoshinaga library.

Read more…


PR: Viz Calls Out To Artists To Submit Work For Art For Hope

VIZ MEDIA CALLS OUT TO DIGITAL ARTISTS TO SUBMIT WORK FOR ART FOR HOPE TO BENEFIT ONGOING JAPAN DISASTER RELIEF

Unique Art Book Project In Partnership With Autodesk Will Curate Digital Artwork Created With Autodesk SketchBook® Software

VIZ Media reaches out to visual, graphic and manga/comic-inspired artists to submit original work and participate in ART FOR HOPE, a special limited edition digital art book anthology, to be sold through VIZManga.com and the VIZ Manga App for iOS devices, with 100% of net proceeds supporting ongoing disaster relief efforts in Japan. Artists interested in submitting work to be considered for the collection can get the full details at www.viz.com/artforhope.

The unique project was launched in partnership with Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK), a leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software, and was initially announced at the 2011 Comic-Con International. All of the artwork for the ART FOR HOPE collection will be rendered using Autodesk SketchBook® digital paint and drawing software applications.

Read more…


Super Savings: RightStuf with Hot Deals on Hot Manga (18+)

Hot Deals on Hot Manga

RightStuf is back with more manga savings and this week it’s specifically for the adult readers out there! Until midnight tonight (August 18th), they’re offering sale prices on all books from Digital Manga’s 801Media imprint.

While their 801Media line-up is all the raunchier of their boys’ love, the RightStuf sale also includes titles from their recently announced hentai imprint – Project H. This is the perfect (and affordable) chance to try out the first of their titles which are due out later this month: Shocking Pink & Three P.

My top reccomendatin for this sale is Under Grand Hotel – it’s a two volume series and each book has over 300 pages. They’re a really interesting size book too, considerably smaller than the norm, but they’re still easy to read. They earn their 18+ rating and then some with violence, sex and rape so warning!

Coinciding neatly with this month’s Manga Moveable Feast about Fumi Yoshinaga, you can also buy her two-volume boys’ love series, Ichigenme: The First Class is Civil Law.

You can see the full list of titles available for sale on their website.


PR: Japanese Manga Portal Website JManga.com Launches

Japanese Manga Portal Website ­ JManga.com ­ Has Launched in North America

Japan¹s Digital Comic Association (*1), comprised of 39 prominent Japanese manga publishers, has launched JManga.com, the DCA¹s new manga portal website, in North America. The plan to launch JManga.com was also announced at a JManga panel and industry release reception held at Comic-Con International San Diego on July 22nd 2011.

JManga.com provides online manga for sale by chapter and volume, made purchasable using a monthly point subscription system, free previews available to be read by all, as well as information regarding manga currently published in North America. JManga.com also offers special feature content regarding manga culture, such as manga artist interviews, hoping to close the gap between the manga fans, authors and publishers.

JManga.com launches with a couple hundred titles including such diverse titles as; NARUTO, Kekkaishi, Crayon Shinchan, Devil King, Cigarette Kisses, Dragon Girl, Tujiurauri, Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru, Young-kun, ADEKAN, Manga Science, and many more new to the North American market. JManga plans to update their catalog every Tuesday, increasing to a few thousand titles within the next year and onto 10,000 by 2013.

The JManga Portal aims to become a hub to unite readers worldwide more dynamically than ever before providing readers and fans a platform to read manga, interact with one another via forums and other social features both within the site and on staple social networking sites such as Facebook, while at the same time providing a direct link to the artists and publishers that make manga a reality.

Read more…


PR: Viz Media Debuts The Art of Vampire Knight

VIZ MEDIA DEBUTS
THE ART OF VAMPIRE KNIGHT

New Hardcover Edition Features Captivating Artwork From The Bestselling Manga Series By Matsuri Hino

VIZ Media invites fans to savor the lavish, gothic-inspired illustrations of manga (graphic novel) creator Matsuri Hino in THE ART OF VAMPIRE KNIGHT, scheduled for release on September 6th. The new hardcover edition will carry an MSRP of $24.99 U.S./$28.99 CAN.

THE ART OF VAMPIRE KNIGHT is an ideal companion to the bestselling manga series, and contains your favorite images in color plus never-before-seen artwork in the United States. The new book features an extensive character gallery with author comments, a how-to tutorial, and an exclusive full-color VAMPIRE KNIGHT poster.

Cross over into this mysterious and dangerous world of vampires with the lush artwork of Matsuri Hino. VAMPIRE KNIGHT takes readers to Cross Academy, which is attended by two groups of students: the Day Class and the Night Class. At twilight, when the students of the Day Class return to their dorms, they cross paths with the Night Class on their way to school. Yuki Cross and Zero Kiryu are the Guardians of the school, protecting the Day Class from the Academy’s dark secret: the Night Class is full of vampires!

Read more…


Otaku USA: On The Shelf – August 17, 2011

Otaku USA: On The Shelf - August 17

Wednesday is upon us again! New comics time, it’s a beautiful thing. This week new manga releases are represented in full by Viz Media and Yen Press. You can check out the full list over in my On The Shelf article at Otaku USA.

My top pick for this week is Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys (Vol. 16) from Viz Media:

“Hands down the book I’m most eager for is 20th Century Boys (Vol. 16)—after the short epilogue-esque chapter at the end of volume 15, I’ll be diving atop that book as soon as it’s unpacked. A certain main character has some explaining to do amidst all the world-altering biological warfare.”


Take me back to the top!