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Posted on 02.20.10 by Dindrane @ 2:56 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  
Written by: Yozaburo Kanari Published by: Tokyopop The Graveyard Isle is another stand-alone mystery in the Kindaichi Case Files series by Yozaburo Kanari and Fumiya Sato, published by TokyoPop. Because Tokyopop wants to keep the story intact (bless them!), Kindaichi volumes tend to be a bit heftier than most manga volumes, making them a very good value. This volume has our intrepid, under-achieving genius hero taking a vacation to the south of Japan with some friends--and Miyuki, who Kindaichi hopes will soon become his girlfriend. Their explorations (and boredom) lead them to an offshore island, known as Graveyard Isle, which of course no teenager could resist. Once they get there, they learn the tragic history of the island: thousands of Japanese troops fought and died there during WWII, and the island is said to be haunted by ghost soldiers. The heroes meet up with some other teens--wargamers who are "fighting" in two groups. A very real threat soon appears, however, as Our Heroes stumble upon the second group, savagely torn apart. Categorized as: Comics and Reviews
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Posted on 01.23.10 by Dindrane @ 10:15 pm
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Written by: Tetsu Kariya The manga Oishinbo has been running in Japan since 1983 and has been collected in over 100 volumes. Now, Viz has collected various themes, such as sake or gyoza, into volumes of their own for an English-speaking audience. The basic story depicts the efforts of Shiro Yamaoka, a slacker newspaperman and brilliant food critic, to create the "Ultimate Menu" for his paper, the Tozai News. Shiro's fellow journalists aid him, but a rival newspaper, the Teito Times, has hired Shiro's renowned foodie father, also a living treasure potter, to create the "Supreme Menu." The manga revolves around learning about the history of foods; readers follow along on tasting trips and research along with the characters. Readers are even treated to a few key recipes now and then, especially if a given recipe is a plot point. There are, however, some background themes that appear now and then, such as the slow rebuilding of our hero's relationship with his father, estranged since Shiro's mother's death. We also get hints of a romance between Shiro and his coworker Yuko. Categorized as: Comics and Reviews
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Posted on 08.31.09 by Widge @ 7:34 pm
Comments on this: 3 so far. Add your own.  Words by Brian Reed; Art by IPH; see below for links to them and full pic. First we got Dixar, now we're looking down the barrel of Darvel. The long and short of it is that Disney is looking to buy Marvel for the low low price of $4 billion. There's other details, but that's pretty much what you need to know. Apart from the fact that, despite everyone acting like it takes effect this instant and is retroactive to the dawn of time (Marvel shareholders need to approve and there's that whole anti-trust thing to deal with) it's not yet. But it does look like it will happen. And I have had the agog and aghast reactions from everybody and their brother Bob on this this morning. And I'm not one to be optimistic (for reference, please see...) but I will say that it's not as bad as people might suggest. For one thing, this is the Disney machine but running with a Pixar engine. For those saying that Disney is still nothing but crap, Exhibit A: Bolt. For those saying Pixar has been blunted by the Disney thing, Exhibit 2: Up. So there is quality to be had. Will there still be some crap that leaks out? Sure, like with any studio. But Disney has me feeling pretty good about their intentions for the first time in a long time. So rather than get into what this is on about--this New York Times article does a good job of handling that, I think--I'd like to point out some things that, at least in my mind, we can expect to happen. Categorized as: Comics
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Posted on 08.04.09 by Sir Tuck @ 11:17 am
Comments on this: 2 so far. Add your own.  Widge Sez: Everyone please give a warm welcome to Sir Tuck, who thought he might expand our field of vision by talking about some manga for us. We say huzzah. And away we go... When you were little did you and your friends have a secret base? Or imagine scenarios where evil forces would try to destroy the world, and you would stand up and fight for justice? I sure did, often playing the scenarios out with action figures and Legos. 20th Century Boys shines a whole new light on childhood companions and the dreams of being heroes. 20th Century Boys, by Naoki Urasawa (creator of the popular title Monster), is a Science Fiction mystery manga that spans several decades, from 1969 to 2017. It makes many cultural references to rock (its name for instance), classic manga, movies, and comic books. The series itself opens in the late 1990s, and follows the life of Kenji, a convenience store owner, who find solace in his childhood memories as he works with his mother and takes care of his niece Kanna. Suddenly, his seemingly normal life takes a drastic turn, and Kenji finds himself involved in a series of mysterious events that are somehow connected to his childhood. Categorized as: Comics and Reviews
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Friends, please welcome Wolven to our cast of characters around here. He's constantly going off on various subjects on his Twitter account, including magic, so I invited him to come and deliver a thesis on pop culture and magic--and his first target is comics. Enjoy.  Hello, gentle readers. My name's Wolven. While you might have seen my name and linkage on a sidebar, or a random source attribution from our man Widge, there's a lot you probably don't know about me. Like the fact that my ribs are more cartilage than bone; or that some days I'm pretty sure that I'm a random government-funded genetic/social experiment; or that I freaking love comics. I love comics with a ridiculous love, and I have since I was a child. I am, by rights, a nerd. A geek. A person with intense interests less known and less understood than those of the so-called norm. And not only am I a geek, I am a geek with professional, academic, and personal interests in magic and the occult. So when Widgett approached me about doing a guest column concerning the Top 5 Comics That Get Magic Right, I damn near fell off of my couch. Luckily I was lying down at the time. Categorized as: Comics
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