there it is, plain as daylight.

I’d like to take a moment to seek out some advice from comics artists who work with writers. I know there are at least a couple of you who read this blog regularly, and perhaps you can pass the question on to others.

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It’s a dim, cloudy kind of morning over here in western Massachusetts, and I can’t seem to shake the grogginess I woke up with today. It’s a perfect day for cozy blankets, grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, and manga.

Here are a few brief thoughts on new chapters of xxxHolic, NANA, Bakuman, and Bleach.

SPOILERS after the jump! Continue Reading »

Brigid Alverson is giving away sets of Vertical’s new edition of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack to a few lucky winners who will be randomly chosen from her blog. To enter, leave a comment in this entry, telling her about your favorite new manga in 2008. I left my own comment there yesterday, and as I was trying to figure out just what my favorite new manga from 2008 was, I realized that the answer is probably one I haven’t posted about here yet at all.

It was actually a pretty difficult answer for me to come up with, mainly because all the manga I’ve become really obsessed with in 2008 have been either older series, or current series that are still being released, but which began publication in English well before this year. In fact, I realized sadly that I have read almost nothing genuinely new this year. Still, as I poked through the books on my shelf, one new manga jumped right out at me. That would be Est Em’s Seduce Me After the Show, published in Japan in 2006, and released by Deux Press in English in May of this year.

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Hi there, all. Life is still pretty intense, but I expect I’ll be able to do some reading and/or writing tonight. Of course, “intense” may be a bit of an overstatement. Yesterday was my husband’s birthday, so we had a few friends over to celebrate, which was very nice. Paul’s activity of choice is games, so in this case, “intense” can be interpreted to mean “Melinda spent the evening losing at cards.” Hee. It really was a lot of fun. In any case, I extend additional birthday wishes to my husband, and to my dad whose birthday was also yesterday.

So now that I’ve made my excuses, a few quick links for the moment:

In my big NANA post, I recommended that people read Johanna Draper Carlson’s reviews of individual volumes. This is why. Perhaps it’s weird to fangirl reviews, but seriously, her review today of volume 11 brought back immediately everything I felt while reading that volume, and offered a great deal of insight into just why this story is so effective. If you love NANA, you should be reading Johanna’s reviews. It’s as simple as that.

Never have I wished quite so much that I loved games. Sadly, this will probably never be, but if you love games, and you love writing fanfiction, there could be a job waiting for you in Japan. Check it out.

This month at Comics Should Be Good, Brian Cronin (in conjunction with Prism Comics) is providing daily write-ups of comics with LGBT themes. Don’t miss out!

One last cool bit of news, my friend Deanna (who provided me with all those volumes of Fruits Basket), has set up an “Introduction to Manga” display at the library where she works! It is pretty awesome. Make sure to browse through the entire set!

I make this post with some trepidation, because I think there are at least a couple of people waiting anxiously to hear what I think of this series, and it seems completely wrong that the first thing I’m writing since I’ve finished it may appear a bit negative. So first of all, I want to be perfectly clear about one thing: I love Fruits Basket. I really love it. The characters in Fruits Basket have been permanently affixed to my heart, and I am thrilled about that. Oh what characters! I love every single one of them. (Note to Ysabet: Wow do I understand why you love who you love best now.) The series has so much charm and is filled with such wonder and sweet, sweet humanity. Really, I am very happily in love with it. There is exactly one thing that bothered me at all while reading the series (and really, “bothered” is a pretty strong word), but for whatever reason, that’s what I feel most moved to speak about right now. So here goes.

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I finally have a day off after the insanity of the past week. I’ll write about manga later (no, really), and I’ll be catching up on everyone else’s blogs too. But for the moment, I offer this.

It’s an old video, I know, and everyone saw it months ago. But I watched it again this morning, and ended up with tears pouring down my face.

I thought about apologizing for making such a blatantly partisan statement here, but then I remembered two things: 1) Hey wait, this is my blog! 2) It’s not actually a partisan statement. My support of Barack Obama has very little to do with party politics. I support him because I believe he has the intellect, the vision, the compassion, and the fortitude to be a truly great leader, and that he is the greatest hope we have for healing this broken nation. Continue Reading »

I’ve spent most of the week pretty much frantic and exhausted, any thoughts of potential blog posts withering as soon as they were born. I have a lot I’d like to talk about. I finished the volumes of Fruits Basket that Deanna sent me, and have also been keeping up with other series as new chapters have been released. I’ve seen a few other blog posts that have inspired thoughts too, particularly Sarah Rees Brennan’s post on female characters in fiction, which I hope to write a bit about when I’m able. I’ve even watched some anime I may wish to discuss. Unfortunately, my schedule has not relaxed at all, and it’s likely I won’t have a chance to write anything substantial until Tuesday at the earliest.

See you then?