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Friday, November 25, 2005
November Previews
I no longer work in comics retail, but I've been asked to continue to advise the store on manga-related matters. So, I went through Previews today.
Remarkably, other than the 1,000 or so titles that Tokyopop is pushing out, there were relatively few manga titles scheduled to ship in January. The second volumes of the very well-put together Go! Comi titles were listed (which reminds me, I really do need to go pick up a copy of Cantarella...), the first Kamikaze Girls book is listed from Viz's Shojo Beat line (though I was under the impression that it was a stand-alone book, not a Vol. 1), and Tokyopop seems to be following Marvel's lead on genre over-saturation (i.e., if one horror/western/war title sells, dozens of horror/western/war titles will sell even better ! see also: Spider-Man, X-Men), by pushing even more yaoi/bishonen/shonen ai titles out. Dark Horse has a Umezo Kazuo title coming out, which is a big deal if you're a fan of thirty year old Japanese horror comics. I've not been terribly impressed with the work of his that I've seen before, and it is terribly dated looking. And it's been my experience that older manga titles, while they do have a small cult audience in the states, tend not to interest the majority of contemporary manga fans.
I was vaguely under the impression that gay porn was scheduled to be shipping in January, but the only thing I found listed was Genus Male.
And I kept forgetting to mention up to this point Amazing Adventures of the Escapist #9, because I wanted everyone to know that it's slightly mind-boggling to come across a mention of someone you've known for years as a "hot new artist," namely my friend Jed, who is drawing a Luna Moth story written by Howard Chaykin. But he's extremely talented, so I expect you all to make sure to order this issue.