Manga

Okay here is a thing which is cool: PEPITA: TAKEHIKO INOUE MEETS GAUDÍ a hardcover travel diary comprised of prose, sketches, and artwork by Takehiko Inoue, creator of SLAM DUNK, REAL, and VAGABOND. Inoue, whose sensitive pen and ink drawings are gorgeous by any standard, went to Barcelona and became entranced, as so many do, by the imagination and beauty of the architecture of Antoni Gaudí which lies over the landscape of Barcelona like a surreal lace scarf. culminating in the still unfinished Sagrada Familia, the famed twisty, turny cathedral that unites the gothic and the modern in one stunning building.

Brigid Alverson shows us how it's done in this comprehensive report on the state of the US manga market. The big shock is that despite sales shrinkage since the boom years, it's still a relatively stable market:

It's called Makankosappo, and it involves real life Japanese youngsters reenacting scenes from Dragon Ball Z and posting the results on Twitter.

Once again, it’s that time of year again!  Sports geeks speculate who will make the Big Dance, who got snubbed, and who will be...

by Lea Hernandez - My long-time friend Toren Smith has passed away after a protracted bout of ill health, and I'm heartbroken. I worked for him over the course of seventeen years as part of his elite Studio Proteus team; doing retouch on adult comics, and rewriting titles like 3x3 Eyes, What's Michael? And Oh! My Goddess!. If Toren had lived another year, I would've known him for exactly half my life.

It came in the night like an earthquake or a car crash: JManga, the digital manga portal set up by 39 of Japan's migegst publishers, is shutting down. As of last night you could not make any more point purchases, as of the 26th you will no longer be able to purchase manga and as of May 30th the entire site goes away -- taking all of the manga you bought with it.

The 90-year-old creator of NonNonBa, Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, and such yokai masterpieces as GeGeGe no chows down with relish. As recounted in...

As if creating the manga blockbusters Love, Hina and Negima weren't enough, manga-kaKen Akamatsu is launching a new manga this summer according to Japanese news reports. No details on the contents -- his previous hits were harem manga but in 2010 he declared that genre passé, so maybe we'll see something more genre busting from him. Akamatsu is notable for (in translation at least) being a little more focused on the business aspects of manga:

In a troubling case, a Missouri man bas been sentenced to three years in federal prison after pleading guilty to possession of obscene images of children.

§ Viz evp of Publishing Alvin Lu has left the company after 13 years, ICV2 reports.

Where were you when Challenger blew up? When the towers fell? When Bieber kissed Selena? Just as with these defining moments, millions of nerds experienced a moment yesterday that they will never forget, a galvanizing, life-changing moment. There is before and after, and only those two states.

by Melinda Beasi Manga creator Moyoco Anno is best known in North America for her smart commentary on affairs of the heart, both in adult...