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Junko Mizuno In Toronto This Week!

junko_toronto_this_week

I’ve known about this for a little while (was really trying to have it happen in conjunction with TCAF–no dice) but it slipped my mind that the date was upon us… Junko Mizuno will be in Toronto this week for the opening of her new show at Magic Pony’s Narwhal Gallery! It features ALL NEW paintings and work, inspired by Canadian folklore! Super awesome!

The opening is this Thursday evening, do NOT miss out! Details below, more info at http://magic-pony.com.

RED TRESSES AND FRECKLES: Junko Mizuno Solo Exhibition
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 18 from 7-10pm
Artist will be in attendance

Narwhal Art Projects (Near Magic Pony Gallery)
680 Queen St. West, Toronto, ON, Canada
647.346.5317

Exhibition Dates: June 18 – July 26, 2009

For more information, including a selected gallery of pieces, please check out http://www.magic-pony.com/gallery/2009_junkomizuno.php.

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See you there!

– Chris


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Manga Art in Japan?

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dscf4166One of the things I really enjoyed about my last trip to Japan was, in the Tezuka Museum, getting to see original art (manuscript) pages by Osamu Tezuka. I feel like I have a new perspective on his work, seeing the paste-downs, white paint, pencil marks, and changes that each page went through before going to print. I feel like I’ve learned something about his process, and maybe I understand his work a little better. Maybe I’m full of shit too, but it’s still a nice feeling. (Image from Tezuka Museum to left, click for larger.

I also got to see originals at the Kyoto International Manga Museum in Kyoto Japan, although surprisingly very few Japanese original pages as the installations that were up while I was there were primarily from other countries. Still, I do like me some original art, and it was pretty great. Unfortunately the Museum’s photo policy was incredibly strict, and so it wasn’t possible to get any photos for the blog. Them’s the breaks…

Perhaps the biggest “score” in terms of diversity of material was Nakano Broadway Mall, which had lots of “auctions” going on for original artwork, with many manga pages and anime cels on display. I actually didn’t see much “finished” work when it came to the manga–lots of sketches and autographed books–but it’s still a bit of a treasure-trove of process work. (Image from Nakano Broadway up-top).

For my upcoming trip (one week! eeee!) I do plan on, if possible, hitting the Tezuka Museum and the Kyoto Manga Museum again, but I’m wondering if there’s anywhere else I can go in Japan (we’re travelling A LOT this time) that I’d have access to Japanese original art? Whether temporary shows/exhibits, or permanent ones. 

If anyone has any suggestions or recommendations, particularly if there’s a website attached so I can parse it out and find the place, I’d really appreciate it! Thanks!

– Christopher

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I am going back to Japan!

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Oh, delicious assortment of Japanese alcoholic beverages.

So I am going back to Japan, with my darling and talented husband. As you might imagine I am quite excited about this, I’ve been wanting to go back to Japan since two days after my previous (and first-ever) trip ended. There’s something to be said for spending a night sleeping in your own bed, but any longer than that, I’d rather be in Japan. AND SOON I WILL BE!

We’re arriving in Tokyo on June 23rd, and staying for 3 weeks. 3 weeks! Just think about how much nerditry we’re going to get up to! We’ve done the preliminary planning for the trip and now it’s just down to fine-tuning the details. We’re going to do more traditional stuff on this trip, I think, for basically a full week. Nikko, Sapporro, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Shirahama, 7 days non-stop. Whoo! But that leaves two full weeks of hanging out in Tokyo too, which is awesome. I could be happy just wandering around Tokyo neighborhoods for days and days, and I’m looking for excuses to do so. Feel free to make recommendations about what I should see in the comments section!

Of course, the biggest nerd sight-to-see is the life-sized Gundam robot that they’ve built in the middle of Tokyo Bay. If you remember my last trip to the magical island of Odaiba, you’ll remember that it already features a scale-model Statue of Liberty, a Ferris Wheel, and a beach (seriously, don’t go in the water). Well it looks like that in recognition of some anniversary or something, they’re building a 60 foot tall Gundam that’s gonna move and shoot lasers. It opens while we’re there. It should be bitch’n. Here’s a picture ganked from DannyChoo.com:

 

Photo of life-sized Gundam on Odaiba, taken by Danny Choo.
Photo of life-sized Gundam on Odaiba, taken by Danny Choo.

 

Fried Rice Vending Machine
Fried Rice Vending Machine

So, yeah, I am going to have a seriously awesome time.

 

And of course I’m going to take pictures! Though honestly sorting and resizing and uploading a thousand photos last time was brutal, so I’m going to look into some sort of Flickr feed based thing that will show up in the sidebar, and I’ll post highlights here at the blog. And commentary.

Or maybe I’ll just slog through it again, who knows? I was checking the dates and I only got 3 updates done while I was in Japan last time, and I’d like to be updating at least every other day this time… I’ll see what I can do.

Actually, I was just going through my Japan photos, and I was reminded that I never actually posted any of the shrine/temple/castle photos from my trip. Like, you got a little bit from Himeji, but we took hundreds of photos that never made it online. Geez, Kiyomizu Dera alone is breathtakingly beautiful. Shit, alright, one more photo:

 

Shrine at Kiyomizu Dera
Building at Kiyomizu Dera Shrine

Huh, maybe I really should get those up on Flickr too…!

Anyway, JAPAN. JAPAN. Ask me if I’m happy?

Just kidding, you know I’m happy.

– Chris

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New: Key Moments from the History of Comics

And now, a word from my sponsor…

key_moments_cover_500pxKey Moments from the History of Comics
By Francois Ayroles
48 pages,  CDN$10.00
Published by The Beguiling Books
Available at Beguiling.com 

Published in conjunction with the 2009 Toronto Comic Arts Festival, The Beguiling has published it’s first book ever: Key Moments from the History of Comics! This witty chapbook collection of French cartoonist Francois Ayroles’ humour cartoons is a fantastic and funny read for alternative and literary comics fans. The book imagines–to humourous effect–the most poigniant and important moments in the lives of great cartoonists and comics institutions from around the world.

It’s funny stuff–the gag book collection is something that has largely disappeared from the shelves and racks of comic book stores, and this brings back the idea with a vengence. Admittedly it’s a little pricey for a 48 page book, but it’s… unlikely to be collected otherwise, given the nature of the material. I bought a copy and quite enjoyed it, particularly having met M. Ayroles and found him to be just as warm and funny in person.

This has yet to be solicited by Diamond and such a solicitation is at least 4 months away. I’d humbly recommend that if funny comics tickle your fancy, you give them a go. With that in mind, I’d like to share a few of my favourites from the book:

key_moments_gagsThe cartooning is lovely, chunky and filled with deep blacks but with a grace that’s appealing. And it’s sad and funny. My absolute favourite is the Chris Ware one, but I’ve left that out so you have something to discover for yourself.

So yes, if you’d like to support me by supporting an employer that allows me to blog from work, might I humbly suggest that you head over to http://www.beguiling.com/productview2a.asp?P_NUM=6535 and pick yourself up a copy of this fine chapbook? It’s actually only 8 bucks and change in U.S. funds. 🙂

Thanks very kindly, and sorry for this commercial interuption. We’ll see you soon.

Best,

– Christopher

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Update: DMP books still exclusive, sort of. – FINAL UPDATE

Update 2, Final: So I am flat out wrong. But it’s still really interesting. Check this: I received the following statement from Michelle Mauk, listed as production/graphic design at DMP, but is the acting PR person at the moment. This clarifies the situation immensely:

…I’m actually writing about your blog post today about DMP going direct and breaking off exclusivity with Diamond, and I’m hoping you can actually correct it a bit. We’re still exclusive with Diamond, and they are still our exclusive distributor. However, we are allowed to distribute direct to retailers returned books from Diamond which the rights have reverted back to us. So titles on DMD Direct are allowed to be distributed by us, since they no longer fall under Diamond’s exclusive contract. I apologize if the email from DMD Direct wasn’t clear enough-we will rectify that in the future.

If you could please clarify your blog post-I would very much appreciate it.

Thanks,

Michelle Mauk

So a few things:
1) That is the first time I’ve ever heard of that happening–Diamond returns no longer being considered exclusive releases. I didn’t even think this was a thing. So, this is kind of fascinating in and of itself. 

2) This contradicts earlier information I had received, which led to some supposition-making on my part. Since this is an official statement though and the previous info was unofficial, I’m going to go with what this one says. I apologize then if my earlier message caused any consternation at Diamond or DMP; I was acting on the best info I had at the time.
3) That said, the newest book that is available for sale from Digital Manga Direct was released in April 2009, which isn’t a very long time to have been on sale and then returned.

4) This is still kind of amazing. Publishers selling bookstore returns is nothing new, but liquidating inventory direct to retailers that Diamond is no longer stocking? Huh. This is a better situation than a few years back, where Diamond had signed Viz to an exclusive but hadn’t actually put all of Viz’s books into the star system so there were a bunch of books (mostly PULP stuff) that simply couldn’t be ordered. Now if Diamond isn’t going to stock a DMP book, at least there are options for Direct Market retailers to get a hold of them–and a discount that makes it worthwhile to keep them in stock. But I do think it’s fascinating that DMP is building up a relationship with direct market comic book stores and indy bookstores, outside of Diamond.
5) I still stand by my belief of an exclusivity sea-change in the next 6 months. 
– Chris
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Update: I’ve been informed that DMP hasn’t terminated it’s exclusivity arrangement exactly, but it still offering its books to retailers. Not sure what this means to be honest. Will let you know when I do.

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I’d been hearing rumblings that things were about to start changing with regards to Diamond exclusivity contracts, but the just-received e-mail I’m looking at still came as a surprise.

Without replicating the e-mail exactly, I can say that DMP/DMD/June Manga/Akadot Retail (they have about 10 different devisions I think) have seemingly cancelled or allowed to expire their exclusive distribution agreement with Diamond, and are now distributing/selling their work directly to established comics/book stores at discounts much higher than Diamond was offering on the same titles, and they’re doing so from a new retailers-only website, http://www.dmd-sales.com/. According to the website:

Welcome to Digital Manga Direct!!! We are now here to service your needs. We are an independent Manga publisher who has recently obtained the rights to distribute these titles on a ‘direct sales basis.’ This obviously eliminates “Joe Distributor,” thus affording us the luxury to offer you substantial discounts and savings. In addition, you can open an account and place an order right online. There are no minimum orders. 

This allows for fast processing and rapid shipping. Please browse through our great catalog of available titles.

It then directs individual buyers (i.e.: Non-retail accounts) to DMP’s online sales storefront.

I’m going to be honest here, I never understood why DMP went exclusive with Diamond. It’s just ridiculous–DMP has probably the best-developed online sales presence of any publisher in comics, let alone any manga publisher. They ship out thousands of customer orders a month, of all shapes and sizes. Why they would to cut-off retailer sales (which are usually easier orders to pull, bigger orders with more copies/volume means less overhead) when they’re shipping stuff anyway? I get why VIZ went exclusive actually, they were getting out of the shipping/fulfillment business entirely, letting their bookstore distributors Simon & Shuster handle everything. But DMP? I can only imagine the deal that Diamond offered them was really good–and that it’s no longer worthwhile.

Now here’s the big question: Do I think that other pubs will start doing the same? Hell yeah, but only if they’re not distributed to bookstores by Diamond Books… This is because they need the bookstore distro, and breaking a Diamond Comics Exclusive might seriously damage that relationship. I actually can’t think of any pub with a Diamond Book Distributors deal that isn’t also exclusive with Diamond Comics. Hm.

Anyway, fascinating change to the DM today, and just the start of what I feel will be many large changes to “the direct market” in the next 6 months.

– Christopher

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A Special Note From Fanfare, re: Jiro Taniguchi

summit_of_the_gods_vol1The Summit of the Gods vol. 1 (of 5)
by Yumemakura Baku and Jiro Taniguchi
328 pages, $25.00
 Coming this fall from Fanfare UK

85 years ago today, on JUNE 8, 1924 at 12.50pm, was the last time that George Herbert Leigh Mallory and his companion Andrew Irvine were seen alive. They were observed by the expedition geologist, Noel Odell, when the clouds parted briefly and allowed him a vision of the summit ridge and final peak of Mount Everest with the two tiny black specks moving towards the summit. Then the scene vanished and became enveloped in clouds once more. They never returned. There has been much speculation as to whether they ever reached the summit and were on their way down when disaster struck.

Almost seventy years later in 1993, with Mallory’s body still undiscovered on the mountain, a Japanese expedition photographer, Makoto Fukamachi, stumbles across a 1920’s Kodak camera in a Kathmandu bazaar which sparks a whole series of questions with few answers.

The Summit of the Gods is an epic story of man and his personal conquests against his own limitations. No mountain is too high, no peak too distant in his pursuit of this passion for achievement.

But Taniguchi’s realistic art and Baku’s tireless script will take you to such heights that mountaineers only dream about!

– Winner “Best Art” Award at Angouleme Festival, France (2005)
– Winner “Excellence Prize Manga Division” at Japanese Ministry of Culture’s Media Arts Festival (2001)
– George Mallory’s body is discovered on Everest’s North Face minus his Kodak (1999)
– Original novel, Kamigami no Itadaki, winner of the prestigious 11th Shibata Renzaburo Award (1998)

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It’s funny this was in my inbox this morning, as it was just this past weekend that I finished a previous release by Fanfare of Jiro Taniguchi’s work, The Ice Wanderer. A collection of nature-themed stories, including a few adaptations of the work of Jack London (Call of the Wild), The Ice Wanderer didn’t grab me on release the same way that other Taniguchi works have. I’m not much for the sort of man vs. nature, explorers and burly man stories, and so the prospect of reading manga versions of the same–even by one of my favourite mangaka!–was less than thrilling. Still, I was pleasantly surprised by the volume, enjoying the material I thought wasn’t to my taste, and loving the non-nature stories of first love and a lonely mangaka that were also included. It’s a great release, and if you can find it I recommend it.

Before this weekend my excitement over Summit of the Gods was at a low ebb, after having read The Ice Wanderer I’m definitely on board now… Though I have to admit my real enthusiasm is for another Taniguchi work that’s on the way, A Distant Neighborhood. I’ve been waiting for this one in English since we first received the (beautiful) French edition years ago, just after I started working at The Beguiling actually.

What I guess I’m saying is that we have an embarassment of riches for the next 6 months when it comes to great manga, go out and buy it so we get even more.

– Christopher

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Bad Book Design: Bandai takes top honours

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Sooooo…. I know that manga fans can be a little “finnicky” when it comes to the condition and design of their books. They want the sizes to match between editions. I appreciate that… I know a bunch of folks were caught way, way off-guard when Viz did a line-wide switch of the size and design of their books a few years ago, to keep up with Tokyopop. Heh, poor bastards, collecting Rumiko Takahashi’s Ranma 1/2 for 10 years, only to have the last 20 volumes show up in a new format… But it doesn’t stop there! So Viz switched from the big-size to the Tokyopop size, then they changed their corporate logo from the old downward-pointing-triangle VIZ logo to the new (current) VIZ MEDIA logo on the spine of all of their books… 6 volumes before the end of their release of Ranma 1/2, making it almost impossible to have a complete set of Ranma 1/2 with the same spine designs. The best though is that, since then, they’ve changed the spine design AGAIN removing the old “action” logo and replacing it with their new stylized ‘V’, but so far as I can tell not every volume is available with the same spine design, because of the differences between printings.

If you’ve got even a little bit of the old OCD, that’s gotta be killing you. If I didn’t think Viz were above such things, I’d ALMOST think they were doing it on purpose, just to make their readers crazy. Actually, the way in which that drives people crazy is one of my secret favourite things in comics…

But that’s a 36 volume series, released over 15 or 16 years. We’ll… we’ll cut them a little bit of slack. But seriously, what’s Bandai’s excuse for changing the design of a current series they’re releasing with almost every volume?

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So this is the CODE GEASS series of manga, based on the popular anime series. It features designs by CLAMP!, it’s pretty popular, you know? I bet it was a coup for Bandai to get this series. And what do they do with it? Well, geezus, look at it. Out of 8 books there, only 3 of them have the same trade dress. Code Geass: Suzuku changes entirely between volume 1 and 2. Code Geass: Lelouch actually matches up for 1 and 2, but the entire design changes for volume 3, including the logo for the book itself! The next two books are the novels, and they don’t keep a consistent trade dress with the line, or even with each other. I mean, things can be “off” in the design stage, but look at the way the Bandai logos (almost) match up but the STAGE x graphics don’t… The designer is just totally asleep at the wheel. Then we get the next manga, which is (I believe) the most recent in the series: Code Geass: Nunnally. It has a different logo treatment again, and the volume number is now IN the logo, rather than in it’s own graphic or matching up with anything. And the spine text is a different treatment too.

These books have been released monthly since October 2008. Either the designer is getting fired after every book and destroying all of his files and stealing all of the reference copies each time, or this is the single most unprofessional design and editorial team in manga.

But wait, it gets better. Let’s check out another Bandai release: Eureka 7.

eureka7_spines_1000px

No digital trickery here. This is actually the vooks in order. Volume 1 is clearly labeled volume one. Then volume 2 has a completely different spine design, and NO VOLUME NUMBER. I promise you, that is actually volume 2, we didn’t just grab like a random novel or something and slide it in there. Here, I’ll show you:

eureka7_vol2_600pxAt least they thought enough to, you know, put the volume number on the front of the book, even if it’s not on the spine. But that’s pretty powerfully stupid. But the best part?

Scroll back up to the previous picture. At the end of the volume 1-6, there’s a second series, “Eureka Seven: Gravity Boys and Lifting Girl”. It’s got a tiny little subtitle, but it’s there, and a clearly-placed “Vol. 1” And then right next to it? Why, that’s Eureka Seven: Gravity Boys and Lifting Girl Volume 2, except it’s missing the subtitle, making it look exactly the same as the regular series. 

eureka7_vol2_s2_600px

It’s really the second series volume 2, but because the first series volume 2 is fucked up AND this one is fucked up, this one looks like the first series volume 2… Which creates no end of problems for people looking for it on the shelf, or in the overstock. Again, these books are coming out more-or-less monthly, which means it’s really just a total lack of interest… and quality control… on the part of the folks at Bandai. They’re a major international publishing company working in a variety of media. This is kind of embarassing?

This was brought to my attention by Parrish, today, as he sighed drammatically about how fucked up this is. So I decided to blog his misery! Attention employees: your sadness is fodder for my blog. Thanks!

– Christopher