Webcomic of interest alert – Christy Lijweski, creator of the recently concluded RePlay (published by Tokyopop) has put up the first few pages of her new webcomic, Samurai Host Club.
“Assassins, Mafia wars, gunfights, massive bleeding, hookers and hosts. Maybe a samurai or two thrown in for good measure. Mature content for violence, language, sex and other hot sh–.”
Not much there so far in its infancy but still well worth a look-see for those who enjoyed her gritty characters, sharp art style and well dressed guys with guns in past works. While I don’t personally read many web comics, I’ll definitely be keeping my eye on this one. You can also see more of Lijewski’s artwork on her DeviantArt page, including promotional images for Samurai Host Club.
Manga-ka: GooGoo Gong
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: November 2009
Synopsis: “Thrust in the middle of a family feud, Jae-Gyu reluctantly accepts Whie-Hwan’s proposal. For the next month, she’s agreed to pose as his live-in girlfriend and obey his every command! It’s been less than a week since she moved to Seoul, and already she’s in way over her head! And small-town life has done little to prepare her for the dark deeds of city nightlife. When Jae-Gyu’s ignorance lands her in a roomful of eager playboys with money to burn, will it be her millionaire “boyfriend” or her rock star admirer who comes to the rescue?”
Taking the path of so many girls’ comics before it, Sugarholic presents us with yet more complicated shenanigans that lead to two characters faking a relationship. Does it manage to overcome it’s clichéd plot? Fortunately GooGoo Gong does manage to squeeze some originality into this work, a fairly standard Korean shojo comic.
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BLU, the boys’ love imprint of Tokyopop, has posted information for those who may have received defective copies of the recently released one-shot, Croquis.
Some customers have found random portions of the book in German, an accidental overlap from an earlier edition Tokyopop published in Germany.
“This was due to a printing error — unfortunately, due to some technical and human errors, some German text from a previously published edition was not properly deleted, and therefore some editions were printed with German text in a few word balloons.”
Those who have a book with this issue can cut out and mail the bar code to Tokyopop and they’ll replace it with a new ‘clean copy’. It isn’t clear if this offer is open only to the United States or if international customers can do the same.
Yen Press has officially announced a handful of new 2010 titles on their website this week, including a Fumi Yoshinaga title (yay!) and another Haruhi Suzumiya property:
The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-Chan
“The first volume of the highly anticipated yon koma featuring all new adventures from Haruhi and the rest of the S.O.S. Brigade will debut in October 2010 to the cheers of Haruhi fans everywhere!”
K-ON – kakifly
“The four girls who make up their high school music club have set Japan on fire, and their fame is only going to grow when they take the stage for the first time in the states this fall!”
Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime – Mizuki Nomura
“BOOK GIRL AND THE SUICIDAL MIME is the story of Konoha Inoue, a gifted writer who’s lost his passion, who’s inducted into his school’s literature club by it’s only other member, the beautiful Touko Amano – a book goblin who literally devours the printed word! Trust us, you’ll want to eat this one up!”
Not Love But Delicious Food – Fumi Yoshinaga
“Yoshinaga Fumi fans are in for a rare delicacy in November 2010 when Yen publishes NOT LOVE BUT DELICIOUS FOODS, a manga chronicling Y-Naga’s love of food and eateries in Japan. There are some hardcore Yoshinaga Fumi fans on staff at Yen Press, and they are salivating in anticipation of this book’s release!”
Golidlocks and the Seven Squat Bears – Émile Bravo
“Readers young and old alike will delight in the misadventures of these dwarf bruins as they attempt to rid their home of the giant lady who’s fallen asleep in their beds. Expect to see lots of cameo appearances by some of your favorite fairy tale figures from your youth!”
Also, a thank you to all of my readers who e-mailed me regarding these new titles when they popped up on Amazon a couple weeks ago – you’re super eagle-eyed and very considerate! Though I had found the titles when they initially went live on retail sites I chose not to post about them by request from the publisher. Your e-mails were much appreciated and I hope noone feels slighted by the delay in the news posting. It’s more fun to hear from the publisher directly, officially and confirmed I think :)
Author: Raye Morgan
Author/Artist: Junko Okada
Publisher: Harlequin K.K./SOFTBANK Creative Corp.
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Synopsis: “The summer of her 22nd year. That was the last time Princess Karina experienced freedom. She is about to have a political marriage for the sake of her royal family. Before she is forced to marry a man whom she does not love, she wishes to experience love. It seemed her wish might just come true. The tall and handsome Jack Santini comes to live in the estate as a bodyguard. Karina falls for the talented and charming Jack, and wishes, just once, that she could kiss the man she fell in love with for the first time…”
Karina is blond, fluffy haired, doey-eyed and raised to trust everyone despite several kidnapping attempts. As a Princess she’s meant to marry another aristocrat as chosen by her family and this coupled with her having never had a friend before leaves her feeling a bit lonely. Then you have Jack – your tall, dark and handsome suit-clad, steely-eyed bodyguard with a tender stare. You know the type. Bitter after a recent suspension from his job as a police officer, he tries not to allow himself to get too close to Karina after his past relationship led to his troubles.
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Manga-ka: Makoto Tateno
Publisher: June
Rating: Mature (18+)
Release Date: November 2009
Synopsis: “Straight and macho Taki partners with feminine and gay Goh to form an expert team of bandits hired by the police to steal from the mafia. In July of 2005, DMP introduced one of the most popular creator & ground-breaking series: YELLOW to the yaoi industry, cementing Tateno as a yaoi fan favorite. Finally, Makoto Tateno has created a mini sequel series starring her two beloved characters, which have never been published in print, until now!”
Yellow 2 takes place three years from where the prequel series ended. Our two leads – Goh and Taki – now the equivalent of happily married and retired are called back to ‘duty’ by bequest of a friend. The two used to be one of the world’s best pair of ‘snatchers’ – a fancy word for thieves for hire who may or may not have morals playing into their cause. Their new job has them sleuthing for clues that’ll lead to the shipment of drugs they’ve been asked to find before someone else does.
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Author: Hikaru Yura
Manga-ka: Hirotaka Kisaragi
Publisher: June
Rating: Mature (18+)
Release Date: November 2008
Synopsis: “Tomoki Naruse has the strangest dreams. Every night, he finds himself waiting for a phantom lover – whom he has never seen. Unraveling the mystery of Tomoki’s dream lover leads him to discover the Depths of Dreams, a shadowy world hidden within the darkness, and the realization that he is one of the mythical Dark Walkers – a human born with the ability to “fall” from the Real World into the Depths of Dreams with his mind and body intact. Dark Walker is the sensual story of two boys who discover love in the midst of great danger.”
Tomoki has no idea what to make of these dreams he’s been having. He does know they aren’t something to be shared with his ribald classmates, though. No telling what they’d say to make fun of him if they knew. Strangely, he doesn’t seem to have the same worries about the new guy in class – handsome, tall, and flirtatious, Yugo. In fact, Tomoki is pretty sure his reaction to Yugo isn’t quite what he’s come to expect as ‘normal’.
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Author:: Jin Zhou Huang
Manga-ka: Hiromu Arakawa
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: October 2009
Synopsis: “Legend speaks of seven heroes, each one bearing the power of one of the stars of the Big Dipper. Two of these stars are constantly in conflict, destined to battle and throw the world into chaos… Not that Taitou has ever paid much attention to old stories. Headstrong and defiant, he is the last in his village to complete his coming-of-age ceremony – a fact his sister Laila incessantly teases him about. When he is finally deemed worthy, he is presented with the Kenkaranbu, an ancient sword that can only be drawn by a true hero.”
Successful manga-ka often undertake side projects, – from Rumiko Takahashi’s publication of Maison Ikkoku while publishing weekly chapters of Urusei Yatsura, to the multiple projects often undertaken by CLAMP. With Fullmetal Alchemist being one of the biggest hits in the past decade among anime and manga fans, Hiromu Arakawa has decided to add herself to a list of famous multi-taskers with her own side project, Hero Tales. Published simultaneously with her Fullmetal Alchemist work, does it live up to the hype of her more well known title?
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Yen Press has had submission guidelines on their website for some time now but in their most recent issue of Yen+, they’ve published a more specific call for proposals from artists:
“Are you a professional artist working in a style heavily influenced by manga? Then YEN PLUS wants to talk to you! One of the primary aims of a manga anthology is to help to develop talent at a professional level, and YEN PLUS is no different. Going forward, we are going to be featuring short stories commissioned from professional artists and developed with the YEN PLUS editorial staff in the magazine. The goal is to give creators a feel for working with us (and vice versa), a sense of the experience of serialization in a monthly anthology, as well as exposure to a broad reading audience.
It’s worth pointing out that this is not intended to be a “pitch” for a long-running manga series. This is simply an exercise. YEN PLUS would likely request, among other things, first serial rights for inclusion in the magazine, the rights to display the work on our website promotionally as well as the first option to develop the concept with you into a longer project in the event of an enthusiastic response to the work. (It may not be a pitch, but you never know…SOUL EATER started out as a short story just like this!
Interested? Here’s what you need to do: Send a proposal for a 30 page manga story along with 5 to 10 completed sequential renderings of that story to the editorial staff of Yen Press.”
Karen already sums up what makes this sound like a pretty sweet deal for up-and-coming artists over at Japanator. Though there isn’t a lot mentioned here contract-wise, it does sound like Yen Press is more open to allowing creators to maintain rights to their work plus the proposal length sounds great – a perfect size for the editors at Yen to get an idea of what you’re proposing without the artist needing to spend months of their life putting an entire finished piece together. Amen to that!
Yen Press is currently publishing Canadian-creator Svetlana Chmakova’s Nightschool in their Yen+ anthology alongside their continuously growing library of books from around the world.
Author: Debbie Macomber
Author/Artist: Ryo Arisawa
Publisher: Harlequin K.K./SOFTBANK Creative Corp.
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Synopsis: “When Hilary got a place on the San Francisco Symphony as a flute player, she decides to move into her own place to escape her restricted life with her over-protective mother. Although excited at her new found freedom, it doesn’t last for long. The next morning, the quiche she left in the fridge for breakfast was gone, her milk had been used and an unfamiliar bag was in the living room! As she stood confused, a handsome man she had never seen before appeared in front of her and says to her angrily “what are you doing in my house?”"
What begins as a classic bout for freedom turns sour when young Hilary discovers she has an unexpected addition to her new apartment – a male roommate named Shaun. Now living together due to a misunderstanding by their landlords, the two must overcome their differences and learn to make due. But don’t cry for these two young adults for they have the reader-expected romance to help smooth things over in this tidy 122-page package.
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Author/Artist: Nina Matsumoto
Publisher: Del Rey
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: November 2009
Synopsis: “Yokai are Japanese spirits, and young Hamachi is fascinated by them. Now he continues his quest deep into the Yokai realm in the hopes of finding Madkap, the kappa he believes has killed his grandmother. Armed with nothing but a sacred rope and a lucky kappa’s foot, Hamachi has made two friends to help him on his journey: Lumi the talking lantern, and newly awakened, the umbrella that once belonged to his grandfather! Their first stop is the home of the legendary fox spirit the Ninetails, who promises to help in Hamachi’s quest if Hamachi can retrieve three lost items. But can Hamachi really find them, or does the Ninetails just want Hamachi to fail so he can keep the human boy as a pet?”
This book of Yokaiden opens with a handy exposition for those who may be picking up this second volume prior to the first; told via a short comic. Though perhaps a little taxing to those already familiar with the story, it shows the artist’s attention to audiences of both sorts and does so in a manner more entertaining than a simple paragraph recap. Regrettably the new material doesn’t feel nearly as ingenious.
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