VIZ sent out a press release last night announcing that they’re going to work with Greg Oden (left)– who happens to be a member of my home team, the Portland Trailblazers –to promote literacy. They’ll be donating copies of their upcoming release of Takehiko Inoue’s classic basketball manga Slam Dunk to Oden’s charity of choice, Oregon Mentors.

Oden will be joined by a pair of the Los Angeles Laker Girls at San Diego Comic Con for autographs and fan-greeting, as well as early copies of Slam Dunk.

One thing that I got a press release about but for some reason never posted (…was I high?) is that VIZ has announced that they’ll be doing portfolio reviews at San Diego Comic Con. They’ll only be doing them on Sunday from 2-4:30pm, and the reviewers will be Marc Weidenbaum (Shonen Jump chief editor as well as VP of Original Publishing) and Eric Searleman, a VIZ senior editor.

That said: the full programming schedule for the con is up, as is the exhibitor list, and here are the people I’ll be stalking to try and get answers to your questions:

- Dark Horse (not sure if they’ll have any reps who can talk about manga really; they’re not having a manga-specific panel)
- Bandai Entertainment
- Del Rey Manga
- FUNimation
- Aurora Publishing
- Drawn & Quarterly
- Digital Manga Publishing
- Media Blasters
- VIZ
- Broccoli
- Fanfare/Potent Mon
- Tite Kubo
- Hiro Mashima
- Yen Press
- NETCOMICS
- CMX
- Seven Seas (!)
- Udon Entertainment

Special guests Tite Kubo (Bleach) and Hiro Mashima (Fairy Tail will be at the convention. I’m definitely going to their panel events; I’m also going to attempt to get interviews with them (but no promises).

I also know that Deb Aoki of manga.about.com is exhibiting her own comics, and Jason Thompson of Manga: The Complete Guide is hosting a couple of panels as well (though at least one of them is at the same time as Del Rey, so I can’t attend).

So, as always…leave me your questions for any and all of the above, and I’ll try to get ‘em answered!

Posted by gia in Con Reports, Features • Comments (8)

TomoPop reports on two anime figures being offered exclusively at San Diego Comic Con: a figure of Alucard from Hellsing (left), limited to 600 pieces, and Afro and Kuma from Afro Samurai (right), limited to 200 pieces. The figures are being brought out by Organic USA, naturally.

And hey, won’t that Alucard go great with my Hellsing Ultimate volume 4 on September 16th? ♥♥

Posted by gia in Anime, News, Toys / Swag, Western News • Comments (3)

I forgot to include this in the roundup, so I’m going to give you the full press release from Del Rey Manga under the jump. But the short version is, Del Rey Manga is really excited to be bringing Fairy Tail creator Hiro Mashima to San Diego Comic Con, and he’ll have a panel and two autographing sessions.

More details under the jump! Continue Reading »

Posted by gia in Cons, Manga, News, Western News • Comments (1)

Leave it to VIZ to wait until I’m on a plane to announce this. But finally, the “Kubo is Coming” mystery has been revealed: VIZ is bringing Bleach creator Tite Kubo to San Diego Comic Con. He’ll be panel-ing and signing and apparently VIZ is also declaring Saturday at SDCC to be Bleach day– people spotted in Bleach gear (their words– not sure if that includes merch as well as cosplay) will get a shot at winning some groovy prizes.

I’ve included the full press release after the jump, and the image above is apparently a Kubo self-portrait, btw, courtesy of VIZ!

Continue Reading »

Posted by gia in Cons, Manga, News, Western News • Comments (3)

So Digital Manga Publishing is bringing Vampire Hunter D creator Hideyuki Kikuchi and the artist for the new VHD manga, Saiko Takaki, to Anime Expo this year. Unfortunately, they’ll just miss crossing paths with another Vampire Hunter D name– Yoshitaka Amano, who illustrated the original VHD novels (and, yes, did character designs for Final Fantasy, and that one volume of Sandman, blah blah blah). Amano is a guest of Radical Comics at the convention. Radical is publishing Mateki: The Magic Flute, Amano’s take on Mozart’s popular opera; apparently they’re opening up a new line of comics created for the Asian market.

Meanwhile, Anime Expo just announced a new guest: Masahiro Ando, who’ll be there to pimp Bones’ new movie Stranger(/Sword of the Stranger/Mukoh Hadan), which we can probably presume will be announced for a US release at the con. Ando is also known for his work as animation director on Sailor Moon and various roles in Fullmetal Alchemist.

Posted by gia in Anime, Cons, News, Western News • Comments (3)

Same Hat! Same Hat! has announced that they and Last Gasp will be releasing Yuusaku Hanakuma’s manga Tokyo Zombie, an off-the-beaten-path/indie tale featuring characters from Hanakuma’s Meka*Afro-kun manga.

Tokyo Zombie is a horror-comedy manga about two blue-collar factory workers, Mitsuo and Fujio, whose plans for martial arts fame are sidelined when zombies take over Tokyo. In this gory and hilarious tale, the survivors of the zombie apocalypse have been enslaved by the wealthy ruling class, and must cater to their every depraved whim…or be thrown outside the city to fend for themselves. When some of the survivors are enlisted to fight in an undead gladiator arena for the amusement of the rich, Mitsuo and Fujio are locked in a battle for fame, freedom, and their very lives!

Years before Shaun of the Dead introduced Western audiences to the zombie comedy genre, Yusaku Hanakuma’s hilarious and outrageous manga was already a cult classic in Japan. Tokyo Zombie’s class-conscious storyline about the haves and the have-nots during a zombie uprising anticipated such films as George Romero’s Land of the Dead. Now English-speaking audiences will have the chance to check out the genre-mashing tale that started it all.

They’re hoping to have the book debut at San Diego Comic Con. If I hadn’t already been sold on it, the Shaun of the Dead reference would have clinched it. ♥

Posted by gia in Licenses, Manga, News, Western News • Comments (3)

The Beat has this year’s Eisner Award nominations, which include Japanese names in many of the categories (not always for manga, mind).

But Naoki Urasawa’s Monster was nominated for Best Continuing Series and Fumi Yoshinaga was nominated for Best Writer/Artist for Flower of Life (pictured). I dunno about you, but I’m throwing a goddamn party! It’s about time Yoshinaga got some real recognition here.

Here’s a full list of manga nominations:
- Best Continuing Series: Monster (Naoki Urasawa/VIZ)
- Best Publication for Kids: Yotsuba& (Kiyohiko Azuma/ADV)
- Best Archival Collection/Project: Apollo’s Song (Osamu Tezuka/Vertical)
- Best Writer: Fumi Yoshinaga for Flower of Life (DMP)
- Best Writer–Humor: Brandon Graham for King City (TOKYOPOP)
- Best Penciller/Inker: Takeshi Obata for Death Note (VIZ)
- Best Comics-Related Book: Manga: The Complete Guide (Jason Thompson/Del Rey)
- Best Comics-Related Book: Understanding Manga and Anime (Robin Brenner/Libraries Unlimited & Greenwood Publishing)
- Best U.S. Edition of International Material– Japan: The Ice Wanderer and Other Stories (Jiro Taniguchi/Fanfare)
- Best U.S. Edition of International Material– Japan: MW (Osamu Tezuka/Vertical)
- Best U.S. Edition of International Material– Japan: Monster (Naoki Urasawa/VIZ)
- Best U.S. Edition of International Material– Japan: Tekkonkinkreet (Taiyo Matsumoto/VIZ)
- Best U.S. Edition of International Material– Japan: Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms (Fuyumi Kouno/Last Gasp)

Also nominated (but not really ‘manga’ per se, from what I can tell): Yuichi Yokoyama’s New Engineering, published by PictureBox.

Posted by gia in Manga, Misc, News, Western News • Comments (3)

Comic Con has established its own magazine– which you can get a print copy via snail mail OR a PDF copy of via download; both are free –and the first issue is out.

Of interest to otaku-types: Jason Thompson talks about his current favorites (print p45, PDF p47), including Fumi Yoshinaga’s Flower of Life (another non-yaoi by Antique Bakery’s extremely talented creator), Honey and Clover, King of Thorn, Parasyte, Berserk, Hellsing, Mushishi, Phoenix, To Terra…, aaaand Golgo 13.

There’s also an article about fan costuming (print p43, PDF p45), which they date back to the first World Science Fiction Convention in ‘39, where author Forrest Ackerman cosplayed as a character from Metropolis (yes, true story: like many other things, Japan did not invent cosplay, they just started doing it better than anyone else). The article offers a bunch of tips for taking part in convention masquerades. My favorite: Surprise the audience, but don’t surprise the technical crew!

There’s also a preview of the upcoming convention (print p28, PDF p30) and a bunch of other info.