The 13th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize winners have been announced, and for the first time…there was a tie! Fumi Yoshinaga’s Ōoku: The Inner Chamber, and Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s A Drifting Life. Yoshinaga’s science fiction examination of gender roles comes out from Viz in August; Tatsumi’s epic autobiography is out from D&Q any minute now.

Two other prizes were awarded. Hikaru Nakamura won the Short Work Prize for Saint Young Men and Suehiro Maruo won the New Artist Prize for Panorama Tōkitan. (One guesses that this is NOT the Suehiro Maruo who is already a well known horror/fetish artist?)

Xavier Guilbert makes the chart you all wanted , showing the original Tezuka characters from ASTRO BOY side-by-side with the Urasawa remakes from PLUTO. It’s mind-boggling the degree to which Urasawa has imbued Tezuka’s chipper, cartoony characters with a sense of sinister doom and unease, but you know, that’s why they call them great.

[Link via Johanna]

Noah Berlatsky sums up similar thoughts by David Welsh and Simon Jones on the dearth of manga titles and creators among the recent Eisner Award nominations:

Manga doesn’t need the Eisners. I do wonder, though, whether it’s true that the Eisners don’t need manga. Or, to put it another way — manga has opened comics up to some vastly underserved demographics. It’s inaugurated entirely new genres. It’s helped to change distribution models. It’s vastly changed what comics in America are, and who reads them.

So you would think, maybe, that the industry might want to celebrate that. Maybe comics might want to use their awards show as a chance to point out to the world how things have changed, to embrace new readers, to paint itself as dynamic and exciting and forward looking and inclusive.

But of course the Eisners aren’t all that interested in doing that.

Brigid comes back with a dissenting opinion, but from a more otaku POV:

Take a look at the Best Continuing Series nominations: All Star Superman, Fables, Naoki Urasawa’s Monster, Thor, and Usagi Yojimbo. One of these things is not like the others; Monster is so different in format and concept that I would have a hard time comparing it to All Star Superman. Also, to be honest, manga readers can be as provincial as the Wednesday crowd; I try to branch out a bit, but I haven’t read any of the other series. In fact, Robin Brenner is one of the few manga folks I know who reads superhero comics at all. If the rest of us were handed an Eisner ballot, we would probably just check off the manga, just as the superhero guys would just check off their comics.

To be honest, while Berlatsky stresses the “fresh new” aspect of manga, we’re surprised no one has pointed out that — as great as it is — most manga presented here in the US is reprinted from a wide period of time and has the advantage of presenting the “best of.” Pitting the best works of Tatsumi, Inoue, Urasawa, Tezuka, Taniguchi etc in their prime against SWALLOW ME WHOLE seems a great disservice to emerging voices and talents in the US, although it would certainly up the game a lot. The Eisners are pretty clearly devoted to honoring the best in contemporary *American* comics.

But in the future, all this will be moot. Brigid points to Deb Aoki’s commentary which, to us, has a more telling point—the infiltration of more manga-influenced comics among the nominees:

If we include manga-inspired works by international creators, then Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai and “Murder He Wrote,” Nina Matsumoto’s Death Note / Simpsons mash-up with by Ian Boothby and Andrew Pepoy, in The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror #14 from Bongo Comics bring the total to 10. Also worth noting is multiple nominations for Amy Reeder Hadley, the creator of Fool’s Gold from TokyoPop for her work on Madame Xanadu from Vertigo / DC Comics, and a nod for Jo Chen, creator of Other Side of the Mirror from TokyoPop for her beautiful cover art for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Serenity from Dark Horse.

Aoki also lists some overlooked manga, and we’ll reprint her entire list just to give it as much play as possible:

• Emma by Kaoru Mori (CMX Manga)- A beautifully drawn, elegantly told story of a maid, a young man of the gentry and their class-crossing romance in Victorian England.
• Disappearance Diary by Hideo Azuma (Fanfare-Ponent Mon) - Hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time, Disappearance Diary is the kinda true account of one manga artist’s adventures as a homeless person in Japan
• Real by Takehiko Inoue (VIZ Signature) - A subtle, masterfully told story about young men who maintain their passion for basketball, despite being wheelchair-bound.
• Astral Project by marginal and Syuji Takeya (CMX Manga) - Mind-bending, exciting metaphysical mystery from the creator of Old Boy.
• Black Jack by Osamu Tezuka (Vertical) - Eisner voters have already proven their love for the godfather of manga — so why not this medical manga series, which is one of his best?
• Black Lagoon by Rei Hiroe (VIZ Media) - With its guns, gals and high-octane action, Black Lagoon blows away most mainstream American action comics if only by sheer firepower, adrenaline and its wicked sense of humor.

Finally, we may soon have no choice in the matter: Japan’s PM, Taro Aso, who is well known for courting the otaku vote, hopes that manga and anime will lead Japan towards economic recovery:

While other countries bail out banks, slash interest rates and prop up struggling industries, Japan is pinning its hopes for economic recovery on a less likely source: manga comic books.

As part of 15 trillion yen of fresh stimulus measures unveiled today, Japan hopes to raise the percentage of its exports of “soft power” - manga, animated films, video games and pop music - from 2% of the total to 18% over the next decade, creating half a million jobs.

“Japanese content, such as anime and video games, and fashion draw attention from consumers around the world,” the prime minister, Taro Aso - a self-confessed manga addict - told reporters this week as he waved copies of magazines from China and Taiwan featuring Japanese pop stars on their covers.

“Unfortunately, this soft power is not being linked to business overseas. By linking the popularity of Japan’s soft power to business, I want to create a 20-30 trillion-yen market by 2020 and create 500,000 new jobs.”

Manga is on the march!

• ECCC news: The initial launch of the BOOM!/Fox Atomic partnership will be an ongoing 28 DAYS LATER comic:

Initial launch story will be firmly based in 28 DAYS LATER continuity with the first arc focusing on Selena. Bridging the gap between 28 DAYS LATER and 28 WEEKS LATER, a few key questions will be answered along the way: what happened to Selena after 28 DAYS LATER? How did Selena happen upon the machete she wields in 28 DAYS LATER?

The creative team wasn’t mentioned, but the Tim Bradstreet (Above) and Sean Phillips(Below) cover art that came with the PR is a good start.

• ECCC News: Writer/Artist Rick Remender has signed an exclusive with Marvel, where he’s writing PUNISHER. The article doesn’t mention any exceptions for his creators-owned books like FEAR AGENT and THE END LEAGUE, so one assumes those are on hold for now.

• Todd Allen continues his look at a post-direct market world with a survey of monetizing webcomics:

The first thing we need to do is acknowledge that the online readership of many print comics is larger than the paid physical readership. .CBRs are popular, as are torrents. No two ways about it. You have to accept you have a problem before you can deal with it.

The second thing we need to do is understand what revenue models work for webcomics and why. If the print publishers need to get into digital distribution, reinventing the wheel is folly, and potentially dangerous.

• Heed Japan: Masahiro Itabashi’s romantic comedy series Boys Be has come back as a comic for cell phones.

The new manga is called Boys Be 2009 1 and as far as I can tell is an updated version of the original 1991 manga, revolving around students dealing with both platonic and romantic relationships in their daily lives, particularly average-guy Kyouichi Kanzaki and his childhood friend Chihara Nitta.

• John Jakala catches that Tokyopop has raised the price of their GNs from $9.99 to $10.99:

I’m assuming the price increase won’t be accompanied by any additions to the manga volumes, like better paper stock or color inserts. It would be interesting if Tokyopop followed a page from DC’s recent playbook and offset the price increase with backup features. Like DC, Tokyopop could use the price increase as an opportunity to publish fan favorites that don’t sell well enough to justify individual publication. It’d be especially interesting if Tokyopop used such backups to complete the many OEL series stuck in publishing limbo. Of course, you’d run the risk of fans complaining about charging more for series they don’t want to read, but if the prices were going to go up anyway, I assume most fans would rather get something additional rather than nothing at all.

Every once in a while, a video crosses your path that changes how you view the world and makes you question the fundamentals of what you thought was true. Such a video is the above trailer for a 12-part CGI adaptation of the manga known, in the US, as APOCALYPSE MEOW, formerly published by ADV. In the rest of the world, it is known as CAT SHIT ONE. If you are not familiar with the series, we BEG YOU, just watch the video. The less you know going in, the better, but perhaps we can entice you with the phrase “Waltz with Bashir meets Kung Fu Panda.”

Have you watched it? Good! Now, it turns out that this trailer is not really a trailer, merely a teaser to raise funding for this PROPOSED series.

Please, to all of you reading this…this is crucial! If there is one cause which must unite the world — rich, poor, man, woman, black, white, Canadian — it is not global warming, not economic recovery, not eradicating rogue nation states. No, it is GETTING THIS CARTOON MADE! Please, please, please! Give, give, give until it bleeds …we’ve GOT to make this happen! We will be setting up a lemonade stand to raise money when the weather is a little nicer, and we implore everyone reading this to do the same. Together, we can make the world a better place, a place where cats kill bunnies in CGI slo mo.

[Thanks to Isaacada for the link!]

Uclick and Tokyopop are releasing Svetlana Chmakova’s DRAMACON #1 as a free app on the App store. The book was originally released as a trilogy of manga volumes by Tokyopop. The story of adventure and romantic entanglements among manga convention-goers has been one of Tpop’s best selling original manga since it was released.

“We’re making Dramacon 1.1 free because it gives us a chance to show off our panel-by-panel reading format with a very popular book from our lineup,” said Uclick CEO Douglas Edwards. “The Uclick comic apps offer the slickest and most intuitive comics reading experience on the iPhone and iPod Touch, and we offer the widest variety of titles and genres on the Apple devices.

“We want users to have the chance to try the reader for free and experience it for themselves, then check out our library of more than 100 titles and find more great comics.”

TOKYOPOP’s Senior Editor Lillian M. Diaz-Przybyl added, “As leaders in original manga and graphic novel creation, it’s been a real pleasure to work with Uclick, who are clear front-runners in mobile entertainment. Their understanding of the marketplace and of the structure of comics is second-to-none, ensuring that their mobile versions are perfectly constructed and paced, retaining the experience of reading the original graphic novel.”

The Dramacon Volume 1, Part 1 app is the first free application from Uclick and TOKYOPOP. Most of the Uclick comic apps are available for $0.99 (US) cents. Other popular comic app titles from Uclick include Bone, Ghostbusters, Pibgorn, GODLAND, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Garfield Minus Garfield.

Frank Santoro posts a few samples of the work of a little known but interesting manga-ka.

Both David P. Welsh and John Jakala take a crack at listing their favorite humor manga. Lots of good stuff mentioned — from Sgt. Frog to Slam Dunk to Club 9 Your and My Secret. We’d advise checking out both lists, but we can’t believe no one mentioned Akira Toriyama, (Dr. Slump) but, you know, humor is subjective.

We just got a copy of the first volume of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei by Koji Kumeta, and it does for girls schools what Cromartie High does for boys: Parodying the “heroic teacher” genre, the main character is a depressed, suicidal jerk and in each chapter he meets some dysfunctional student and instead of helping her become a better person, encourages her to join him in a suicide pact. There’s a lot of very specific Japanese social satire here, and Del Rey helpfully includes a lot of notes in the back. The art is striking, too.

§ Reed Exhibitions is hiring a marketing guru for their pop culture shows:

I am looking for someone to join our team here in Borwalk, CT as a Marketing Director to oversee all of our marketing efforts on New York Comic Con, New York Anime Fest and the new C2E2 (Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo). This is not an entry level job, this is not a fan job this is not an easy job, but it is a lot of hard work and a lot of fun.

§ICv2 sits down with Tokyopop CEO Stuart Levy in a wide-ranging and fairly candid for this sort of thing manner:

So in other words you were seeing declines in your sales that led you to believe that you had to prepare for a smaller market?

There were declines in sales, but there were also returns. The returns were the big things. We’ve seen declines in sales before. But the amount of returns that were coming back from retail was so significant. We saw that early first quarter and then continuing in second quarter.

We’d seen first quarter returns before, but continuing second quarter like that was the first time. It really shocked us and I said, “There’s something going on here.”

And Part Two:

What’s going on with the movie development of Tokyopop properties? That’s probably our most important initiative because it’s very clear to me that without a big movie, without a big TV show it’s very hard to have a significant blockbuster hit. And you can look at anything that’s selling in the comic book world, or the manga world, or the book world in general and it’s almost inevitably related to some kind of film or television.

§ Erin Finnegan has two excellent recaps of the recent ICv2 conference. Part 1, Part Two.

§ The Hibbs vs. Butcher debate vis-à-vis Viz backlist viability continues in this all-star comment thread.

§ Internet kerfuffle classic!

Step one: Val D’Orazio discusses the ongoing monetization dilemma:

Yes, it looks like the switch is on from paper to digital. But are people willing to pay for this digital media? For the most part — no. People are not willing to pay for it, unless you give them a damn good reason to. Damn Good Reasons To: 1) If I was DC or Marvel (or any other media company), I’d pinpoint what the top 5% webcomics are. Offer those web cartoonists competitive exclusive distribution deals that includes a health insurance component. Then make a subscription-based site offset by sales of hard copies and merchandise.

It’s a thoughtful post, although I’d quibble that a lot of what she’s talking about to happen in five years has already been happening — the big media blog buyout happened two years ago, f’r instance.

Step two: Joey Manley comes right out and says Occasional Superheroine’ is Wrong About Webcomics:

I can’t say that the post is plain wrong and belittle it with 70’s TV references without at least explaining why I think it’s wrong. There are all kinds of reasons, but here’s one fundamental one: D’Orazio sees a day when the “top” webcomics are bought up by Marvel and DC, and the rest are discredited as amateurs. Her comments section filled up immediately with “top” webcomickers declaring that they’re doing just fine, thank you, and that it would be a very, very expensive proposition to buy them out. Which is true. Another truth: there are new “top” webcomics launching every day. It’s a slippery and ambitious field, with new xkcds popping up at an alarming (or delightful) rate and proceeding to take over the world. I picked xkcd as my example on purpose, by the way: what DC or Marvel editor would have picked that one up? No DC or Marvel editor would have, especially if he or she only had the first month or two of strips to go by. And the people who discovered xkcd and made it a hit? Most of them, I’ll wager, weren’t comic book readers, and would have been immune to any “anti-amateur” campaign waged by Marvel and DC’s PR machines. (I mean, come on: it’s stick figures for God’s sake).

Step three: Val, who is always going on about how horrible the internets are and wishing people would be more civil, responds that Manley must be wrong about webcomics because…he’s an expert in webcomics:

Joey Manley wrote a post (which I am not giving the benefit of a link) that he says “isn’t meant to start a fight” — “But her recent post about webcomics, and how the business should (or will) evolve in the next five years, is just plain wrong.” Disclaimer: Joey Manley’s main business is in webcomics — including the running of sites that host web comic creators.

For a far better discussion of the business models involved, read the comments post of the original piece.

If you have never seen any of Fanfare/Ponent Mon’s books, you are missing out on some of the best comics being published today. Seriously. They publish some of the most intelligent/riveting manga available in English — by Jiro Taniguchi and Hideo Azuma among others — , and at NYCC they’ll debut an award winning European GN which you can preview here.

Fanfare / Ponent Mon debuts their latest release for 2009 at New York Comic-Con! “My Mommy is in America and She Met Buffalo Bill” by Jean Regnaud and Émile Bravo will be available for sale at Fanfare / Ponent Mon (Booth 2347), as well as previews of the rest of the exciting new titles that are on the schedule for 2009.

Fanfare’s edition of “My Mommy is in America and She Met Buffalo Bill” is the first English edition of this award-winning French graphic novel. Printed in glorious full-color in a hardcover edition, this story is a touching remembrance of a 5-year old growing up in rural France in the 1970’s. Jean lives with his father, his younger brother and his nanny. As he starts school, he’s troubled by a mystery: Where is his mommy?

(more…)

Over at Comics Worth Reading, Ed Sizemore reviews PLUTO: URASAWA x TEZUKA, Volume 1, the mash-up reimagining of Astro Boy by Naoki Urasawa, master of the psychological thriller. PLUTO is the first great comic we’ve read in 2009, and if you find the idea of Astro Boy cloying, don’t worry. Imagine David Fincher remaking Pinocchio and you get the idea.

Let me start by saying that this series is completely accessible to any reader. You don’t need to have read any of Tezuka’s works to enjoy Pluto. However, for fans of Tezuka, like myself, there is an added pleasure of seeing one master of the manga medium interpret another. And I confess to geeking out trying to imagine how Urasawa will draw such odd-looking Astro Boy regulars as Dr. Ochanomizu (he’s the one with a nose as big as his head).

It’s a vision of robots we don’t see really see here in the West.

Urasawa takes us deep inside a world where robots are considered persons with full legal and civil rights. He does it so simply; we follow Gesicht in his day-to-day investigation of the murder cases. As Gesicht goes about his inquires we discover that robots get married, go on vacations, go to the doctor for annual physicals, are permitted to adopt human children, etc. It’s fascinating to see robots and humans interacting as equals. To see a world where robots are treated as ordinary citizens and just another part of the population. It’s a vision of robots we don’t see really see here in the West.

Related: a three-part interview with Urasawa:

Q: Do you mean that from the start of your career you’ve looked at it from the standpoint of a “producer”?

Urasawa: That might be a close description. When it comes to graphics, I’ve had an abnormal sensitivity for it since I was a kid. For example when I was in elementary school and I watched the “Star of the Giants” cartoon, I somehow knew it was done by four or five teams. I’d worry about stuff like, “If I consider the rotation, next week’s work will be by that team. Next week’s going to have some good scenes, but can that team handle it?” I was an annoying kid (laughs).

Forbes reports on how the ASTRO BOY movie is squeaking through the tough times as Imagi Studios, the production company, searches for funding and so on:

Their boss, Douglas Glen, Imagi’s chief executive, had just come back from the American Film Market in Los Angeles, which was devastated by the gloom and doom spanning the globe. “If markets don’t return to some semblance of normalcy, it is going to be difficult to keep operations going,” an ashen-faced Glen told a visitor. Only two months before he had triumphantly secured $30 million in financing for his movie animation company. Then $20 million of it fell through.

Imagi wasn’t the only moviemaker in trouble–the whole industry was crippled by the credit crunch. In November at the Film Market “it was absolutely bleak,” says D. Jeffrey Andrick, managing director of Continental Entertainment Capital, a Beverly Hills company that serves as a merchant banker specializing in the movie industry. Continental brought to Citigroup (nyse: C - news - people )The Spirit, the $50 million-plus Frank Miller film that opened on Christmas Day. “It may have been the worst environment I’ve seen at the American Film Market.”

Ed Chavez begins a series of very detailed report cards on various manga publishers, and starts with Aurora Publishing, home of mostly female-focused manga, including josei.

Aurora Publishing tried to rectify that problem. Already a leader in manga for women in Japan, Ohzora’s catalog of josei titles cannot be rivaled. Their titles dominate the josei/ladies sales charts on a weekly basis overseas. And they have literally developed new genres of women’s comics on their own (ladies, young love, teen love, wedding…) throughout their 19 year history. With a pedigree like that I thought Aurora was taking their time to select the best of the best to bring to the American reader. Instead, Aurora turned their focus on how to best reach the North American market. Instead of hitting the ground running with big titles, Aurora launched in the fall of 2007 with three imprints; each focusing on a different sector of the women’s manga audience. The idea itself was quite timely considering the success Viz Media has had with their Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat lines. However, content should be the true measure of success for any publisher let alone their various imprints.

Check back at MangaCast for more report cards.

They’re all here.

Many reports going around this morning about Kodansha, the Japanese publishing giant, pulling its licenses from Tokyopop’s German arm. Simon Jones:

According to an official Tokyopop Germany newsletter, which has been reposted on their official BBS, Kodansha has not renewed its licensing agreement with the company, effectively cancelling all Kodansha-owned releases mid-run. The affected books include Beck, School Rumble, Hell Girl, and Cromartie High School. (Whoa, they can do that? So… why are we waiting for ADV to finish up Cromartie?) I’m going by a Babelfish translation here, but it appears that this was not due to any lapse on the part of Tokyopop Germany, who were caught by surprise… they held dicussions with Kodansha, but were neither able to convince them to reconsider, nor were they successful in coaxing an explanation.

And more from Chris Butcher:

This is also interesting news for industry watchers like myself who have been wondering what was going to shake out from all of the rumours of Kodansha setting up their own manga publishing arm here in North America. I had been assured that it was going to happen, but 2008 came to a close and no official movement was made. Maybe it was just a licensing waiting game? Tokyopop has been playing their cards very, very close to their respective chests in the last few months since the company’s very public difficulties, I’m wondering if we’ll get any word on the status of Kodansha’s english licenses any time soon. At last public statement, and pardon me for being too lazy to find the link, TP did say that they still had the BECK license (amongst others) but that was many months ago now.

Along with everything else in the world, the future of manga in the US is being examined — not that it’s going anywhere, but a few of the weaker companies may get picked off during the tough times ahead. Ed Chavez has a loooong list of manga titles from many, many publishers that are MIA, and examines part of the bigger picture:

One shocking trend of note is how many shoujo titles have been dropped. Shoujo appeared to be the safest demographic but with TOKYOPOP and UDON’s additions it is now showing much more weakness. Even titles from the Kings of Shoujo Hakusensha have found their way to the list. Hakusensha is by far the most popular choice for shoujo by publishers, as CMX, Viz, and TOKYOPOP have gone to their well in the past (Digital Manga and Comics One have as well for non-shoujo titles).

Ed notes that the charming and accessible YOTSUBA&! is one title that everyone would like to see come back — it was last published by ADV, who say they are eventually going to publish manga again, but no firm dates have been announced.

In other news, Johanna reports that at least one publisher is cutting out sending out review copies, although they will send them out if reviewers pay postage, which doesn’t sound all that encouraging. While we don’t know which company it is, the one that we’d guess it ISN’T — despite what one commenter guesses — is CMX. CMX is owned by DC and they are not very shy about sending out review copies, although where CMX is concerned, they prefer to send out galleys.

Please enjoy this brief satirical cartoon by BRIT Harry Partridge, showing what AKIRA, Katsuhiro Otomo’s classic cyberpunk vision of a future Tokyo, would be like had it been made in America. Of course, a live-action AKIRA is supposedly underway, with Leonardo DiCaprio, maybe, playing Kaneda. Maybe it won’t be as funny as this.

[Via Cartoon Brew.]

A few details are emerging about the troubling news that Steven Spielberg and Will Smith want to remake OLDBOY, the disturbing film about a man who is locked in a room for years and then released to take vengeance. Spielberg is producing, and Smith is starring. First, I AM LEGEND co-writer Mark Protosevich is on board to script, reteaming with Smith. Next, Smith told Film School Rejects that the film will not be a remake of the Park Chan-wook cult favorite, but is rather going back to the source; the OLD BOY manga by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi. Quoth Smith:

We’re looking at that right now. Not the film though, it’s the original source material. There’s the original comics of ‘Oldboy’ that they made the first film from. And that’s what we’re working from, not an adaptation of the film…,” said Smith.

Hm, is this Smith paying homage to the popularity of comics-based films? Anyway, it’s hard to imagine Smith making a movie with the sensibility of a manga or hardcore Asian action film, so by the time the US version comes out, it will probably resemble something based on an OLD BOY cereal box.

ICv2 talks more about the end of the US branch of manga publisher Broccoli:

In 2007 Broccoli launched Boysenberry Books, a shonen ai imprint that was an attempt to get a share of what at that time was a growing market for yaoi manga. According to interviews with retailers for the next ICv2 Anime/Manga Guide (#62), yaoi sales have leveled off and the market is oversaturated with new releases. The economic downturn has only exacerbated pressures on mid-level manga publishers caused by an over-proliferation of titles and a shift in sales to top tier releases. According to the latest “ICv2 Manga Survey” market conditions in 2008 caused publishers to reduce their projected output of manga volumes in 2008 by 22%.

Simon Jones has a nice eulogy for the company:

Broccoli’s manga list was always rather limited, but in my mind they’re most notable as one of the first post-Tokyopop publishers who demonstrated a complete understanding of print production… the visual fidelity of their books were simply second to none. And in raising the quality expectations of readers, Broccoli raised the quality of licensed manga across the board.

Gia Manry reports that Broccoli USA, the US arm of Japanese publisher Broccoli, is shutting down:

I got an anonymous tip that led me over to Broccoli’s website and eventually to this press release (Japanese PDF), which declares that Broccoli International USA is shutting down and cites the extensive competition in the manga and character merchandise fields here as the reason.

I can’t gather all the details from the release, but the liquidation is expected to be complete by February of 2009.

Sympathies to all Broccoli employees– I love you guys and I’m going to miss your awesome panels! Drop a line and give me a heads up on your plans!

Broccoli’s major titles include DiGi Charat Theater and the Galaxy Angel series. They launched a boys love line, Boysenberry, in 2007. Kai-Ming Cha profiled the company for PW in 2006.

Clearly, the manga market is tightening up, and it’s not just part of the general economic slump.

MovieWeb has some stills from next year’s Dragonball movie. Goku is played by Justin Chatwin, meaning he’s a young white dude. How is that possible? Oh right, colorblind casting. Whew! It’s so progressive to have a movie about one of the world’s most popular Asian characters played by a non-Asian.

Unfortunately, we must still get hot Asian chicks with guns, because everyone loves hot Asian chicks.

That’s Jamie Chung as Chi-Chi. Oops, Eriko Tamura as Mai. In the Beat’s feeble defense, MovieWeb misidentified them and we compounded the error, solidifying the idea that all hot Asian chicks are alike. We regret the error.

As mentioned in “Lying in the Gutters” this week, Vertical, best known for its manga line of Tezuka releases, but also a publisher of translations of various literary Japanese works, has had several layoffs. We can confirm that Steve Vrattos, Vertical’s marketing manager, has been let go. And another company joins the current holocaust in publishing.

Apparently, Vertical’s Black Jack release has had disappointing sales, which is sad, as it continues to get great reviews, including David Welsh at TCR:

He’s still a bit jarring to me, but in a good way. Or maybe it’s Tezuka who’s jarring, because I’m consistently amazed by the versatility of his skills as a cartoonist and storyteller. Instead of making Black Jack tough and leathery on the outside, sweetened oatmeal on the inside, he’s mostly an ass to the core. Tezuka doles out the doctor’s softer, more principled moments judiciously. He doesn’t feel the need to reassure the reader that Black Jack is the hero of the comic. Tezuka is comfortable with the fact that his hero is a jerk.

And io9’s Mangobot:

Mad scientists. Beautiful women who specialize in amputations. Supercomputers that threaten to starve an entire hospital full of patients. Tumors that take on human form. Sounds like a freakish B-list horror movie, right? Actually, these are all seminal elements of a classic cult favorite manga by Tezuka Osamu. Black Jack is one of his darkest yet most appreciated works, but it hasn’t had much exposure in the US market until now. This fall, Vertical Inc has started publishing this entire series, volume by volume, in English. It’s some of the best science fiction to ever come out of Japan.

It all started when Laura Hudson rounded up comments by Top Shelf’s Leigh Walton, Andrew Wheeler and Joe McCulloch about the fact that mangaka Jiro Kuwata’s name was not on the cover of BAT-MANGA, the very well-reviewed Chip Kidd-edited selection. Yours truly and various others of the comics pundit class also called shame on Kidd.

It escalated when Kidd responded to various comics-based blogs, including Chris Mautner and Chris Butcher in the brash fashion that Kidd is noted for, chiding bloggers for not doing more to rescue Kuwata’s reputation and explaining that since it was a heavily designed and edited archival book, the credits were as they were. Butcher jumped in with his own support for Kidd:

If this were a straight-up reprint, along the lines of what Vertical is doing with Tezuka’s work or D+Q is doing with Tatsumi, yeah, the author’s name should be front and centre. But this? These comics are being given equal consideration with toy photos, costumes, magazine covers, and other various ephemera. Chip Kidd, Geoff Spear, and Saul Ferris have opted to cover the phenomenon of Batman in Japan, with the comics being given the most weight in the collection. You can argue that the focus is different than you might prefer, but on the book’s own merits I think the consideration given to all parties is fair. As is the compensation, by all accounts.

Of course, this created a weekend teapot tempest; Butcher did what looks to be some ill-advised late-night blogging, and continued the brash tone:

I call bullshit on all of this, all of this fake fanboy outrage. I’m sorry, honestly, if this is an affront to your sensibilities? But. BULL. SHIT. You know who the legal author of those comics is? DC FUCKING COMICS. Kuwata owns or is owed nothing, because That’s The Way Comics Works. Kidd went out of his way to see Kuwata credited and compensated above and beyond the call of duty. If you can’t see that, then your naivete is like a fucking cyst in your eye.

We might have some sympathy for this attitude, except that Laura Hudson, Leigh Walton, Andrew Wheeler, Joe McCulloch, Chris Mautner and John Jakala are not fanboys by any definition of the word. They’re mostly critics, journalists and publishing professionals. In short, a responsible and respectable group who have every right to question the decision. Certainly, this is not a huge, huge deal, but it is a little odd, and Butcher and Mautner certainly were the brave ones who actually followed up in reportorial fashion. Following the escalating round, Hudson comes back with a roundup of the second wave of roundups:

I remain unconvinced, particularly because sequential narratives by Kuwata happen to comprise roughly 80% of that “chronicle.” To me, that’s where it crosses the line from Chip Kidd’s Cool Book About Japanese Batman Stuff to Jiro Kuwata’s Bat-Manga, edited and compiled by Chip Kidd. There are plenty of high-end, beautifully designed collections of sequential art that include additional materials, art, interviews, etc., and the editors and designers of those collections certainly deserve credit, but not to the exclusion of the actual creators.

as does Graeme McMillan (another non-fanboy), who reaches a slightly different conclusion:

I have to admit, I disagree; for the majority of people, Chip Kidd is the draw for this book - well, that or “Hey, look, it’s funny old Batman comics from Japan”. Kuwata doesn’t have the audience or awareness in the US to be the selling point for the majority of people who’ll be picking up this book, and while it would’ve been nice to see Kuwata’s name on the front cover, the fact that he’s not only credited for his work inside but also interviewed for the book makes me think that any outcry over usurping of authorship is slightly melodramatic… which, admittedly, seems kind of fitting for a book about Batman.

In the end, people seem to have been drawn out into way overreactive hissy fits, and time was wasted that could be spent reading or making or promoting better comics. Kidd is a great designer and if he wants to
take the credit, that’s how the publishing world world works. And, as Nisha Gopalan writes, BAT-MANGA is one of the most notable books of the year:

The fact that their collection, chiefly assembled from Kidd and Ferris’ EBay vigilance, is admittedly spotty, merely lends more exoticism to the collection. Take our hero’s dalliance with the dastardly, if fabulously named, Go Go Magician. Trapped in a block of ice, Batman fires up his “safe-cracking hand torch” to melt his way out of the chamber. One glitch: The torch’s flame sucks up all the oxygen before he can burn his way out. With the next issue nowhere to be found, it simply ends there with Batman like we’ve never seen him — foolish, collapsed, facing certain death.

As a special Halloween treat, we’d like to offer a COMPLETE story from Osamu Tezuka’s BLACK JACK Volume 1, “Teratoid Cystoma.” Black Jack is the world’s greatest surgeon but he’s also a dropout from society, giving him a “have scalpel, will travel” lifestyle. A brooding loner worthy of a Cure song, Black Jack faces humanity’s most appalling problems — some medical, some fantastic — but he also reflects Tezuka’s concerns with humanism in the face of evil.

As many know, “Doc” Tezuka went to medical school before becoming one of the world’s most influential artists and animators and was, in fact, a licensed doctor. Although the stories in BLACK JACK aren’t always “realistic” in the most obvious sense, the stories, and especially the detailed medical illustrations, have a great deal of realism.

In the present story, Black Jack is called in to remove a giant tumor from a woman…a tumor with….personality.

Thanks to Steve Vrattos and all at Vertical for arranging this preview. You can buy the entire BLACK JACK Volume 1 at Amazon. Volume 2 is due out November 18th.

REMINDER: read pages right to left!

(more…)

We know it is wrong to steal pictures from Facebook, but this photo from Tim Leong’s photo gallery from the event sheds much light on our previous karaoke woes. It also elicited this response from one Chip Zdarsky:

It’s weird that by simply looking at a photo of people singing I can tell that it sounds terrible.

In our defense, we’d like to note that this photo does much to prove the little-known “photo tracing” charge against both Eiichiro Oda and Akira Toriyama.