Comic Book Resources

Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Stuck in the Middle

Libraries | There is, of course, follow-up on the decision by the Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to remove the anthology Stuck in the Middle: Seventeen Comics from an Unpleasant Age from middle-school libraries. Local CBS affiliate KELO reports on the reactions of parents and highlights some of the better-known challenged and banned books.

As we noted yesterday, teachers will still have access to the 2007 collection of stories about life as a teen-ager (by such contributors as Gabrielle Bell, Daniel Clowes, Joe Matt and Dash Shaw). That's because, in the words of School Board President Kent Alberty, "There is value in the book. One of the subjects addressed is bullying, something the district is very interested in making sure is handled appropriately, and the book does address that." [KELOLAND.com]

Publishing | Japan's NHK television network reports that publishing giant Shueisha, a co-owner of Viz Media, plans to develop plans to sell manga via mobile phones in the United States beginning in spring 2010. [Anime News Network]

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Send Us Your Shelf Porn!

Here I was at Shelf Porn Central, thinking "you know, we haven't had a big manga-themed post in a long while," when who should appear in my in box but one Emily Snodgrass, with a manga collection to beat the band.

Remember though, you don't have to be an uber-collector to submit your pics to Self Porn. Large or small we'll gladly accept and and all submissions. Just send photos and commentary to cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet and we'll take care of the rest.

And now heeeere's Emily ....

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Off-topic: The theme from Cowboy Bebop, marching band-style

During halftime of its homecoming game against the University of Delaware on Saturday, Towson University's marching band took to the field to play something a bit unexpected: Yoko Kanno's Tank! -- the theme from Cowboy Bebop. Seriously!

The camera work is shaky, but the sound quality is good.

Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Legal | Anime producer and distributor Funimation Entertainment issued a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notice to the webhost of AnimesFree demanding that the fansub site remove more than 1,000 infringing episodes of more than 40 series. The site's administrator complied, and then complained about the company enforcing its copyrights: "AnimesFree.com will continue just as STRONGLY as it has been these past three months. Meeting everyone new on the website was great and I don’t intend for it to stop anytime soon. So we’re not going to quit just because of a few dozen series. There’s two things that you can do when a bully pushes you down. You either stay down and cower, or you stand back up and fight until you can’t walk anymore. There are just some things that the ‘Anime’ corporate giants will never understand about how people rely on online Anime communities." The commenters on the post aren't particularly sympathetic to the administrator's plight. [AnimesFree, via Deb Aoki]

Rich Hafstead

Retailing | Heidi MacDonald reports that Rich Hafstead, partner in the Jim Hanley's Universe chain in New York City, passed away Oct. 9. He had been semi-retired since suffering a heart attack in 2006. [The Beat]

Retailing | A 10-year-old girl is in a coma after she was trapped Tuesday under shelves that collapsed in a bookstore in Sapporo, Japan. The girl's 14-year-old sister also was injured. The store, Daily Books, sells secondhand manga and video games. [The Japan Times, The Mainichi Daily News]

Legal | In light of recent legal moves by the heirs of Jerry Siegel and Jack Kirby, Christopher Murray and Paul Iannicelli consider the termination provisions of the 1976 Copyright Act. [ Mondaq]

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Alaska flag

Legal | Alaska legislators are considering introducing a bill that would expand the state's child-pornography laws to include cartoons and computer-generated images (anime is mentioned specifically in the article).

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that cartoons depicting minors in sexually explicit situations are legal because real children are not involved. Congress responded the following year by expanding obscenity laws to include digital images and cartoons. In June, a federal appeals court upheld the conviction of Dwight Whorley, a Virginia man sentenced to 20 years in prison in part for possessing child pornography. However, the Justice Department also prosecuted him under the PROTECT Act for receiving cartoon (manga/anime) images via email depicting the sexual abuse of children. Whorley's conviction was the first under the 2003 statute that was not based on photographs of children.

Simon Jones has commentary. [Anchorage Daily News, Icarus Publishing]

Creators | Todd Klein reports that longtime letterer Joe Rosen has passed away. He was 88. Rosen began his career at Harvey Comics, and later worked on countless titles for Marvel and DC Comics, including The Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil, Fantastic Four and Power Pack. [Todd's Blog]

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Dragon Ball, Vol. 3

Manga | Wicomico County Public Library in Maryland is conducting an "internal reconsideration" of Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball after the popular series was removed from a combined elementary/middle school library last week due to depictions of nudity and sexual situations. The public library has pulled the manga while it decides in what section the T-rated series should be shelved. [The Daily Times]

Publishing | Deb Aoki gets more details from Viz Media Senior Editor Eric Searleman about the publisher's relaunched original comics initiative, which began accepting submissions last week: "We're hoping to publish a wide range of comics by a diverse group of creators. A lot of people are expecting Viz Media to publish manga (or comics that look like manga) but we don't plan on limiting ourselves, in any way. It doesn't matter to us if you draw like Tite Kubo or Darwyn Cooke. If you've got an awesome idea for a comic book, we want to see it." Simon Jones provides commentary. [About.com, Icarus Publishing]

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Library War: Love & War, Vol. 2

Publishing | Deb Aoki rounds up the license-acquisition announcements from last weekend's New York Anime Festival. If Library War is half as awesome as it sounds -- a fearless squad of librarians fight censorship! -- I can't wait to read it. [About.com]

Conventions | Now on to the Small Press Expo, and convention recaps from David Welsh, Alert Nerd and Samuel Rules. Johanna Draper Carlson reports on the Critics' Roundtable panel, while Sean T. Collins provides the audio. [SPX]

Publishing | Arthur de Wolf comments on the debut this week of Mickey Mouse & Friends under the BOOM! Kids banner, noting that the 10-part "Wizards of Mickey" story was told in weekly installments in Italy. In the United States, it will be published monthly: "When Gladstone and Gemstone printed long Don Rosa stories in their original three parts (meant for the European weeklies), readers complained about the stories being spread out over three months. It’ll be interesting to see if readers will have the patience to follow Mickey’s wizardry adventures for nearly a year before its conclusion." [Disney Comics Worldwide]

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Police search for missing Crayon Shin-chan creator

Crayon Shin-chan, Vol. 1

Anime News Network has word that Japanese police are searching for Crayon Shin-chan creator Yoshito Usui, who has been missing since Friday.

The investigation began on Saturday in Usui's hometown of Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture, and has expanded to other jurisdictions. According to reports, neither Usui's family nor his publisher Futabasha has had contact with the 51-year-old mangaka.

Debuting in 1990, the popular Crayon Shin-chan follows the adventures of a rude, crude and rambunctious 5-year-old boy in Kasukabe who's obsessed with bodily functions and older girls. The manga was adapted as an animated television series in 1992, and has spawned 17 anime films.

The manga is published in North America by DC Comics' CMX imprint.

Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Marvel

Publishing | Kim Masters casts a spotlight on Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter, who stands to make about $1.5 billion in the Disney-Marvel deal: "Perlmutter is a man of mystery in Hollywood and beyond — go ahead, try to find a picture of him. He’s so committed to keeping things secretive that a studio source says Perlmutter attended the premiere of Iron Man disguised in glasses and a moustache — though it’s unclear how anyone would have recognized him if he’d just come as himself. In Monday’s conference call with investors about the deal, Perlmutter’s voice was never heard." [The Daily Beast]

Publishing | This announcement, made over the weekend, was nearly lost amid the Disney-Marvel mayhem: Japanese publishing giants Shogakkan and Shueisha, co-owners of Viz Media, have purchased two European distributors of anime for an undisclosed amount. Paris-based Kaze and Berlin-based Anime Virtual will be merged into Viz Media Europe in September. [Variety]

Publishing | The shutdown of anime distributor and manga publisher A.D. Vision appears to be complete, as the company announces the last assets of its ADV Films division have been transferred to other companies. [Anime News Network]

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What Are You Reading?

The Harvey Girls

Welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading. We had a bit of a scare this week at WAYR Central, as our planned special guest fell through at the last minute due to a lack of proper communication on my part and a sudden illness on his. Quickly becoming panic-striken, I turned to the person I always turn to in such matters -- my wife, Evelyn, who handed me a paper bag to breathe into and said she'd fill in this one time as long as I promised never to ask her to do something like this again.

So without further ado, let me present our very special all-nepotism edition of WAYR! Click on the link to find out what delightful comics we're currently reading ...

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Twilight

Conventions | Retailer Christopher Butcher, organizer of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, surveys the comics-convention landscape and wonders where the comics are. He also comments on the Twilight "controversy" at Comic-Con International: "... The 10,000 Twilight fans at the con really were a problem for the show, but a lot of the reasons that got floated came from a sexist, xenophobic, bullshit fanboy place. I actually feel bad even writing this, but truly, legitimately, 6,000 people at the show just for Twilight means 6,000 people that weren’t spending money at the show means 6,000 people that might’ve wanted to go that had an interest in dropping a few bucks at the various vendors? Shut out." [Comics212]

Publishing | Where have all the great comic-book hucksters gone? [Comiks Debris]

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Have you met my new girlfriend Queen-size?

Nisan and his 'girlfriend'

Before you start moping in your Corn Flakes again about what a lonely, lonely comics nerd you are, consider this: At least you're not as bad as some of the people profiled in this recent New York Times story about a growing subset of men and women in Japan who fall in love with and attempt to have real relationships with cartoon characters. Take "Nisan" for example, whose girlfriend is an anime character printed on a body pillow:

Nisan told me that not long ago he had a real girlfriend, but that she dumped him. He carries Nemutan almost everywhere he goes, though he is more self-conscious about it than he may seem at first. “Some people don’t find this funny,” he said, “and it also takes up a lot of room.” He treats her the way any decent man would treat a girlfriend — he takes her out on the weekends to sing karaoke or take purikura, photo-booth pictures imprinted on a sheet of tiny stickers. In the few hours we spent together, I watched him position her gently in the restaurant booth and later in the back seat of his car, making sure to keep her upright and not to touch her private parts. He doesn’t take her to work, but he has a backup body pillow with the same Nemutan cover inside his desk drawer in case he has to work late at his tech-support job. “She’s great for falling asleep with on an office chair.”

See? Feel better now, doncha? (link via Cartoon Brew)

Thin wallets, fat bookshelves: A (short) publishing news round-up

Starting Point by Hayao Miyzazki

Three items of note. First of all, Viz will be publishing a new collection of essays, interviews, memoirs and manga by the one and only Hayao Miyazaki. Entitled Starting Point: 1979-1996, the book goes on sale Aug. 4.

The book will cover the first-half of Miyazaki’s legendary career, during which he rose from humble beginnings to create some of the most seminal animated features ever made, including Nausica Of The Valley Of The Wind, Castle In The Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service and Porco Rosso, as well as his launch of Studio Ghibli. A fitting introduction is offered by John Lasseter, the Chief Creative Officer at Pixar and Walt Disney. Ponyo is Miyazaki’s newest feature film and will be released by Walt Disney in North America this August.

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Five things an anime/manga fan should do at SDCC

Ponyo

Editor's note: Today we kick off a series of lists aimed at fans attending the San Diego Comic-Con next week. Watch for more of them each day up until the con begins.

Anime and manga make up a vital but ultimately small cross-section of the San Diego Comic-Con. That being said, there are still plenty of ways for the average Naruto (or Bleach, or Sailor Moon, or what have you) fan to get their otaku on without too much trouble. Here are but five suggestions:

1) See the great Hayao Miyazaki in person. The finest animator ever (take that Windsor McCay!) and quite possibly one of the greatest filmmakers alive today will be at Friday's DisDisney: Animation Panel to preview portions of his latest film, Ponyo On a Cliff. Pixar's John Lasseter and Patton Oswalt will also be there, but who cares about them? This is the chance to see the master in person. I think you have to turn in your Pocky and start reading Ultimates 3 if don't go to this one.

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Rine-Ne

Publishing | Viz Media has announced the October launch of Shonen Sunday, a new imprint that will publish content from the Japanese weekly magazine of the same name. The imprint's debut title will be Rumiko Takahashi's Rin-Ne, which Viz has been serializing online for free each week as it's released in Japan. More Shonen Sunday titles will be announced during Comic-Con International. David Welsh offers some background and commentary. [press release]

Publishing | U.K. entertainment company Chorion Limited has been appointed by Dan Dare Corporation to represent the international licensing rights of sci-fi hero Dan Dare, which suggests we'll likely see a resurgence of the Frank Hampson character. [Broadcast, press release]

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