I can’t believe how busy I’ve been in the past 2 weeks. I don’t think I’ve ever been as busy when I’m doing “The Dreaming”, even though I’m just doing promotion work right now. I also have to work on vol2 for “The Dreaming”, as well as a plethora of other things NOT related to “The Dreaming”. For some bizarre reason, the most common reaction I have towards overwork is to take on MORE work. That said, perhaps I’m just stressing out because I’m juggling so many smaller things at once.

 

Buying Binge: I finally got the orders from Amazon – may I pipe in for 3 books I’ll recommend about manga, especially in regard to its history and diversity. This will help me write future essays, so that is fantastic – except that it’s more to add to my reading stack. These 3 books are “Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics” and “In Dreamland Japan”, both by Frederik L. Schodt, and which I read a while back. The information for these two are a tad outdated, especially considering Tezuka did the forward for the former, but they are still a valuable resource for people looking for a one-stop insight into manga AND especially its role in Japanese culture. I bought these book on discount, which explains the third book, by Paul Gravett, called “Manga, 60 years of Japanese Comics”. I have not read this book, and I admit I bought it off Amazon for the pretty pictures, but here’s hoping it will be as good a resource as the former two books.

 

Comics/Manga shopping list: I bought “Bizenghast” this week, and “Van Von Hunter” too. I also bought a volume of “Ghost in the Shell” by Shirow Masamune, because for some bizarre reason, I don’t own anything by Shirow, though he does fantastically complex art and murky political-thriller type stories. I adored AppleSeed (the anime anyway), so hopefully I can get back into Shirow again after a long absence. This is despite hearing from other sources that he’s gone bonkers lately and is concentrating almost solely on CG art. Ah well, as long as he draws well (meaning his technical drawings, not so much his nubile women).

I also bought the Chinese version of “Death Note”, which I WASN’T dying to read despite it being drawn by my favourite artist Takeshi Obata, but it was for $8.00, so why not. The best thing about Chinese version manga is that it’s print quality is great, but the price is about 60% of English manga. A matter of print runs, so you can’t fault Western companies for that. Now if you can get more people reading manga. I also bought a random volume of “Preacher” from Vertigo – looks good to read.

 

On CMX: After my blabber on CMX in the last post, Love Manga had a different opinion and it was a good one.

This again is one of the things I think that CMX could succeed at. A handful of their titles are not modern works, and their wanting to pick good Manga from previous decades is a specialised niche to fill. In my case where I like to have as many options open to me as possible when it comes to picking my Manga, seeing past titles available is extremely cheering. Whilst that is a little black and white view of licensing, I would like to applaud CMX’s willingness to do this amongst all the less then happy press they have received, justly too.

Good point. I was looking at CMX purely from a money-making point of view, as was the article I read, so I didn’t take into account the historical value of what CMX is selling. I can’t speak for the other titles, but From Eroica with Love IS a seminal shounen-ai work, so the fact that someone providing a throwback to earlier manga is definately not a bad thing. They may not make as much money as the other companies, but perhaps that’s not their goal. If this is the route CMX has chosen, then I’m really surprised, but not ungrateful. But then again, I’m only speculating – but talking about older manga, you’ve gotten me interested. There is SO much good stuff in the older manga stables that would SOOOOO both worth translating. More of Tezuka’s work is a good start – there’s already his seminal works, but I really want to see Hyakkimaru, one of my favourite Tezuka heroes. Not his best work, but I LIKE Hyakkimaru. How about Doraemon, or Sazae-san, or even Tetsujin-28? Any more Leiji Mastumoto… especially Galaxy Express 999? When are we going to see “Candy Candy” by the way, which I love, and “Rose of Versailles” and other works by the Magnificent 49s? Now if only someone would translate “The Heart of Thomas” and “The Song of Wind and Trees” as well, at least in relation to the shounen-ai genre.

 

Artwork: I did a pic of Amber for “The Dreaming”, and an Opera Singer pic is required for the art exhibition coming up for Electrofringe next month. I’ll be posting the opera singer pic by stage, to see the progression of colour *weeps*, so watch this space.