Now THIS is what I call a slow week! It's so slow there are only two real titles I even recognize, and one of them is a reprint at that! This month, volume two of the Viz Big Dragonball Z hits. The new debut series for the week are Song of the Hanging Sky, and a 2nd printing of Aluria Chronicles. If you like your manga without pictures, the first volume of the novel Faust debuts this week as well.
*Sigh* Another week of slim pickings if you happen to be a manga fan. Maybe the Americomics killed so many trees, that they had to halt production on all the big manga titles this week? Lame jokes aside, this week we get new releases from Blood Plus, Peace Maker, One Pound Gospel, and Zatch Bell. Some brand new manga debuts include Too Long, Black Lagoon, and Warcraft Legends. Although I don't think that last one completely counts.
The first volume of Yen Plus finally hit bookshelves everywhere last week, and I was fortunate enough to snag my own copy. Aiming to tackle the monopoly that is Shonen Jump, Yen Plus tries something new by mixing in Korean and American made manga to their monthly publication.
Here are the top three reasons to be reading Yen Plus this month:
Jack Frost
Sumomomo Momomo
Higurashi
Is it worth it? Do they give Shonen Jump a run for their money? What the hell does "Maximum Ride" even mean? Check out my breakdown for each title and overview for Yen Plus as a whole after the jump.
It's the beginning of the month, so you know what that means! Yard sales! Oh, and manga. Lots of manga. This week, we see new volumes of Hell Girl, Initial D, Bobobo, among a ton of others. Viz also releases a special hardcover version of the first Bleach book. I'm not sure what's so special about it. Maybe if you spill soda on it, it just rolls off the spine? Il Palazzo's getting the new D. Gray Man and Rosario Vampire for his reading pleasure. What are all the other cool kids getting this week?
Yup, it's a day late this time (I only got the book yesterday), so my apologies if you were looking for my Shonen Jump breakdown yesterday (and YES, this will be a monthly article). This month, we finally get the American debut of Stan Lee and Hiroyuki Takei's Ultimo right alongside all the regularly scheduled manga. I'll be breaking it down just like last time, using PK's patented review system!
Here are the top three reasons you should pick up Shonen Jump this month:
First, take the Angry Video Game Nerd. Now replace video games with comics, and replace angry with cute and you have the Gay Comic Geek. Ok, maybe not exactly, but you see where I'm going with this. Recently spotted at Comic-Con with some hot makey-outey Shazam action, the Gay Comic Geek has several videos dedicated to highlighting or reviewing certain comics. He does the obvious things like Young Avengers and the current Secret Invasion, but he also focuses on more...lesser-known risque gay comics too. The amount of censored bars in those videos is always pretty hilarious. The video here is his review for recent Will Smith epic, Hancock(so far, my favorite out of the lot). Most of the others are nice recaps of what have been going on in certain series. If you have a boyfriend (or girlfriend, if you're into that sort of thing) that want to get into comics, let them watch a couple of the Gay Comic Geek's videos and get caught up. You can check out his YouTube page for all the other videos.
Oh, hello. Wassat? What do you want? Oh, manga? Well, that's a shame. I don't have any. Oh. You wanna know what's coming out this week. That's too bad. Well, Del Ray has new Air Gear and Wallflower volumes coming out, if you kids are into that sort of thing. There's some of them newfangled first volumes of books like Sola and Pathos(whatever those are). Other then that, not a lot going on around here....
You youngins can get your big list of manga books after the jump.
Does this ancient relic of times past look familiar? If not, then get off my lawn, you damn whippersnapper! Ah, I remember the old days. My mom would take me to the grocery store, and while she was out buying corn for 39 cents a can, I would promptly look for that one shining beacon of hope in the eternally boring place that was Ford's Food Center: The sign that almost seemed to beckon "Hey kids! Comics!"
See, back in the early 90's, my mom actually got me into comics by giving me an Archie book after I got a good grade or something. Immediately, I fell in love with Jughead and friends, and would go tackle the comic racks first chance I got. When the X-Men cartoon debuted, I quickly became a child obsessed. It was like an entire new world opened up to me. Like with most kids, I was restricted to just getting one book per grocery store run. Naturally, I would pick my favorite and spend the rest of my time just reading the rest in-store.
Eventually, the weekly grocery store runs became the weekly Wal-Mart runs (which could turn into a whole mom-and-pop versus big business post I won't get into here). I immediately missed our local grocery store when I realized Wal-Mart didn't have quite the selection of comics Supervalu or Ford's Food Center did (oddly enough). And over the years, I noticed the selection slowly dwindle to just a couple of the main X-Men or Spidey books until....*poof* the comics just disappeared. Now, even my local grocers don't even bare the beloved "Hey kids!" rack.
It makes me wonder what happened to the industry exactly. As superhero movies got more and more popular, I started seeing less and less comics in mainstream places. These days, I find myself lucky to see a Naruto book laying around in Wal-Mart. I know there's the argument that a LOT of comics aren't marketed toward children anymore, but it still makes me sad to see that part of my childhood disappear completely. Although, sometimes I walk into a comic book store, and see an old rusty spinning rack with that old display on it. Then I smile a little.
Who's the newest person to jump on the internet webisode bandwagon? None other then scary-clown creator Stephen King. In a collaboration with Marvel Entertainment and CBS Mobile, one of King's short stories, simply titled "N" is finally seeing the light of day in animated-comic form. The website doesn't really say anything about the story, but that doesn't really matter since there's already a trailer up. In fact, if you sign up for e-mail updates, you can go watch the first episode now!
I interrupt your regularly scheduled spandex filled Comic-Con coverage to bring you a little bit of manga news. And this news is a bit overdue, in my opinion. Lucky Star is finally getting translated into English! That's right, the four-panel slice of life comedy is coming stateside. Recently announced on Bandai's website, the manga-wait...Bandai publishes manga now? Since when?
Anyway, if you're a fan of books like Azumanga Daioh or Strawberry Marshmallow, Lucky Star will be right up your alley. I prefer the anime a little myself, but that may just be because there's no Lucky Channel in the manga. We'll see if the book can work as well without Kogami and Shiraishi ending each chapter.
They're back! The Ray Wall Band, with their own genre of "comic book rock," returns with a fresh track hot on the heels of the new movie "The Dark Knight." Entitled "The Joker" the song is naturally about the ups and downs of Mark Hamill's career. I kid, I kid. The Joker is actually a little heavier then The Fantastic Four song was, which works very well. It's nice to see a band show a little range. The song itself is a crazy number about Batman's most famous villain. Go give it a listen. You'll be singing along by the second chorus. You can find "The Joker" on Ray Wall's Myspace page, and it's coming soon to iTunes.
This week is a little bigger then the last few have been. It's still pretty slow (The first of the month seems to be manga's time to shine it seems), but there are some pretty good choices this week. The first volume of Yen Plus finally makes it's debut, and yours truly will definitely try to snag a copy. Other highlights include the new volume of Berserk and a new installment of School Rumble. Unfortunately, I'm not current on either. Have Harima and Tenma married each other yet?
Moment Of The Week #6
Well, I was expecting Dark Willow to trounce the competition with her godlike powers, but last week the winner was none other than the Authority, for the touching moment between Apollo and Midnighter in this apocalyptic world that Wildstorm has become. This week we take a look at scenes from Fantastic Four, Runaways/Young Avengers, Captain Britain, Green Lantern Corps, Secret Invasion, and Final Crisis: Revelations. (whoo that's a lot!) So join me after the jump, and be warned. Spoilers lie beyond. So if you still have to pick up any of these books, don't read ahead because it'll ruin the surprise!...
