Manga

Can there ever be enough Jiro Taniguchi? Not really -- and a new book is on its way for Comic-Con:

The indestructible beat of NARUTO led the way.

While not generally included in lists of comics book movies, OLDBOY most certainly is one -- the tale of twisted vengeance is based on a manga by Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya (published in the US by Dark Horse.) Turned into an acclaimed film by South Korean director Chan-wook Park in 2003, it won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes in 2004. Now Spike Lee will take a shot at making an American version to match the first filmed version. he's signed to direct the remake, his first film in three years, from a script by Mark Protosevich. Steven Spielberg and Will Smith were once attached to the film, but no longer. OLDBOY involves a man who wakes up in a room where is confined for 15 years. When he learns of his family's death via the TV in the room, he plans an escape and a grisly vengeance on those who imprisoned him.

There's been a bit of a blog tour about Josei, or manga for grown women of late. A podcast with Johanna Draper Carlson, David Welsh and Melinda Beasi can he heard here and includes lots of links.

A growing body of comics observers have jumped on the bandwagon for Naoki Urasawa as the best genre cartoonist currently working with his layered, dynamic storytelling. But not everyone has gotten the religion! His 21st CENTURY BOYS is currently coming out from Viz, but with 15 volumes in print it could be a bit daunting to jump into. For those who prefer a video introduction, MONSTER, based on the manga of the same name, just began streaming from Netflix. The 74-episode series deals with Dr. Kenzo Tenma and his efforts to stop an insane killer whose life he saved as a boy.

Industry analysis site ICv2 has just released a new industry report card for Q1 '11, and while sales were a bit patchy, it wasn't a disaster. This article contains links to a bunch of category analyses, but perhaps the most interesting is that non-Big Two, non-superhero titles are beginning to take up a bigger part of the market share:

Lots of book news today as the BA, the biggest domestic book show of the year, has kicked off this week. Here's the announcement for part 2 of TWILIGHT: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL. Illustrated by Young Kim, the first part of the adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's sensational vampire tale sold 66,000 copies in one week and had a 350,000 first printing. Yen Press has provided us with a sneak peek at the cover to Volume 2, featuring dreamy Edward Cullen, as portrayed by Kim.

Toyko prefecture's law restricting sales of material deemed "harmful" to minors under the age of 18 has selected its first list of titles to be considered for the ban, Anime News Network reports. The law, which has been revised a few times and goes into effect July 1, has been met with an outcry from publishers and creators.

A few years ago Dark Horse made a splash by announcing an all-new project with CLAMP, the insanely popular supergroup of manga-ka behind such hits as CHOBITS, CARDCAPTOR SAKURA, and CLOVER. Since then, little has been heard as CLAMP was busy with other projects and scheduling was not possible. However, DH has just announced that GATE 7 is finally coming out in October and released the cover image.

Tokyopop is closing down its manga line. Not long ago, this company and others like it were sometimes pointed to as the future of comics publishing. I suppose they still might be.

Via The Comics Journal

The comics publishing culling of 2011 claimed its most prominent victim as it was announced today that Tokyopop is shutting down its US operations, as of May 31. The German office will stay open to handle publishing rights and the film division will continue. Founded in 1997, Tokyopop and its founder Stu Levy were at the forefront of the manga revolution in the US, introducing such hits as SAILOR MOON, CHOBITS, and LOVE HINA to the US market in the "unflipped" format for the first time. Sales surged as the manga bookstore revolution took over in the early part of the last decade. An ambitious program of publishing original manga by creators from around the world -- many of them barely out of the teenaged readership years themselves -- proved controversial and ultimately saw only a handful of successful franchises but introduced a new generation of creators to the comics scene.

It's the title that broke manga in the US -- no comic has had a bigger influence than SAILOR MOON, the manga/anime that kicked...