§ A video interview with manga horror master Junji Ito (Uzumaki, Museum of Terror) from the SAME HAT! SAME HAT! guys:

Highlights from this fantastic and casual look into Junji Ito’s life & work include:

* Ito-san showing off his original script outlines and rough panel layouts, with descriptions of his process when creating manga.

* A long discussion of the influence of urban legends on Ito’s manga, how he got the idea and visual inspiration for Tomie, and how he became a manga artist.

* A tour of Junji Ito’s studio and art desk, process using mirrors and photo-references in his work, and much more!


§ Jeff Parker ponders reactions to the just-released MYSTERIUS THE UNFATHOMABLE #1 by Parker and Tom Fowler:

Yet, in the midst of all the high marks, I keep seeing comments and discussion as to WHY this book is being done at Wildstorm. The short answer is “because Senior Editor Ben Abernathy asked Tom and I what we would like to do.” But I don’t know how to address people who feel WS is supposed to do only post-Watchmen superhero stories. Maybe… they’d like to try other things? I think that’s it’s a question that doesn’t demand being asked- a publisher wants to expand their base beyond superheroes into other genres. Should we look a gift horse in the mouth or give it some carrots and encourage it to keep pulling?

I guess what I want to say here is- let’s stop putting everyone in boxes and be glad something like Mysterius can find a home (that provides nice coated paper stock to show off Dave McCaig colors).


§ Mangacast’s manga report cards continue with Dark Horse, which gets high marks:

Dark Horse was my pick for Publisher of the Year for 2008. Like Del Rey and Viz in the past, DH took care of business in 2008 by releasing great titles with good production values. By reinforcing their foundation of high quality seinen manga, DH not only did a fine job maintaining its core audience, with new A-level properties they reached out to new readers at a time when other pubs were struggling to find readers for their catalogs. Best of all DH continues to bring out challenging and unique titles to a market that needs to see more diversity.


A few links that we may have missed: Bandai Entertainment and BLU Manga.

§ Tim O’Shea interviews Mike Dawson on ACE-FACE and FREDDIE & ME:

O’Shea: How hard is it to try to promote a project as unique as Ace-Face when the sequential art marketplace seems to be redefining itself in many ways on a daily basis?

Dawson: Yeesh, I’m not sure… everything feels a bit out of sorts at the moment. I guess I’m going to find out how well things go. I’m really, really excited to be doing this book with Chris Pitzer at AdHouse. My Freddie & Me experience was great, but since Bloomsbury isn’t traditionally a comics publisher, I sometimes felt a little disconnected from the comics scene. I am really happy to have my book be a part of a full line of great comics and graphic novels this time around.

7 COMMENTS

  1. not sure about Dark Horse’s current manga output, but they definitely get high marks for the sheer diversity of comics that they put out year after year.

  2. Wildstorm was also the home of Astro City and Alan Moore’s America’s Best Comics. Why not Wildstorm, indeed?

    Thanks for the reminder that Mysterius is out. I doubt my local shops will carry it, but I’ll see if I can pick it up at one of the more urbane shop 20 or more miles away. (Ah, I miss big city comic shops…)

    I still think that Wildstorm should be leading the charge at DC for getting their output onto the web. They could be experiment with ways to put new WildCATS or Union or Gen13 stories out on the web while looking at ways to make it feasible for DC to get Justice League or Superman or Teen Titans out there next.

    Sorry. Didn’t mean to go OT. Carry on.

  3. >> Wildstorm [is] also the home of Astro City >>

    Fixed!

    And we’re still planning on more ARROWSMITH, and I have another creator-owned pitch in for after TRINITY…

    kdb

  4. Why not Wildstorm? Beeecause they don’t publish manga. They meant best -manga- publisher of the year. Personally, I think Wildstorm’s a shadow of its former self that’s been watered down by parent company DC. Why is it WS that gets whored out to do movie adaptations? Bah. I should save my complaining for some other time.

    Meanwhile, very interesting to see an interview with Japanese horror master Junji Ito .

  5. Whoops. Sorry. Missed you were talking about Wildstorm in terms of the Mysterious blurb. I skipped reading the comment it because the book’s still sitting in my to read pile. I really do wonder what DC is keeping Wildstorm around for and if it’s really being used or solicited in the best way.

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