To all our readers –

There are now many people unjustly posting copies of manga on the internet. These unjust copies are inconsistent with mangakas’ feelings. They are also distorting the authors’ intentions of “I want the work to be read this way”. The actions of posting these unjust copies on the net, into which the mangakas have poured their hearts, are not only hurting mangakas in real life but are also against the law, even if done in a light-hearted manner. Every time we discover such “unjust copies”, we talk to the mangaka and consider every possible countermeasure. But the number of inconsiderate people is great, and at present we cannot deal with all of them. We have a request for all our readers. The unjust internet copies are deeply hurting the manga culture, mangakas’ rights, and even mangakas’ souls. Please understand once again that all of that is against the law. Also, the mangakas and Shueisha will severely deal with any unjust copies found on the internet. We ask that our readers please continue to support us.

~Weekly Shonen Jump editorial department

From: http://www.animevice.com/news/shonen-jump-asks-fans-to-stop-scanning-its-manga/4254/

– Chris

My brother-in-law Damon’s passions are photography and travel, two things I’m rather fond of myself that dovetail together nicely. Right now, he’s in Guatemala, photographing the countryside, the beautiful cities, and even the occasional wedding for people too. He’s been blogging his trip and uploading photos regularly, and it’s been a fascinating read. Although my own travel and photographic interests tend towards the profoundly nerdy, I’ve really enjoyed reading about his experiences… and you gotta admit it’s beautiful to see 🙂

You can find Damon’s site, with lots of photos, at http://www.nomadamon.ca/, and his travel blog at http://nomadicroad.blogspot.com/ .

– Chris

Heya, I just confirmed that I am in fact going to Comic-Con International: San Diego 2010. Pretty excited, I had to miss last year due to Japan trip (yeah, yeah, I know. Weep for me, etc.). Looking forward to seeing many once-per-year friends again.

So, just a public announcement. Feel free to put me on your panels and things. I am an expert in most fields and can comment effectively on most subjects. 🙂

– Christopher

Since typing on an iPhone is so awful, I will simply say that it is ridiculous that the suprheroes are upset about Green Arrow killing supervillain Hitler. Superheroes have jumped the shark.

– Chris

“But if there is a lesson here, it’s this. Comics are too expensive, You make them cheaper, much cheaper, and people will buy them. Buy lots of them. Buy them more than anything on Amazon.” – Rich Johnston

Actually, no. Comics are not ‘too expensive’ at all. Some of them are pricey, like $50-100 omnibus editions, but they’re very much in line with what everything else costs, particularly printed matter (trees, ink, and labour are not “free”, Johnston).

If automobiles were 90% off today, and people who liked automobiles and had a couple already and might like some more splurged on a bunch of cheap automobiles, we would not take home the message “well, automobiles are too expensive,” because that would be utterly stupid. We would take home the message that “people like a deal” and “90% off is a good deal”.

But comics go on a sale–admittedly one that is entirely in error according to Johnston himself–and the message he takes away from it is “well comics are just too expensive and ‘people’ would buy more if we sold them for less than it cost to print them, let alone pay the creators.”

Talk about the self-loathing of comics fans…

– Chris

Hey there, I know I’m not updating but there’s not much to be done about that at the moment. As it is I’m late for work because I was too exhausted to get outta bed this morning. 🙁

But! I am busy doing cool comics stuff for you to read… and to listen to…!

This weekend I was invited to sit in on Deb Aoki’s guest-roundtable for the podcast INKSTUDS, as host Robin Mconnel is taking a two week break from the show. It’s the “Mangastuds” edition, which is hilarious, and features myself, Deb Aoki of manga.about.com, David Welsh of the the Precocious Curmudgeon blog, and Ryan Sands of the Same Hat blog. All lovely people with stuff to say about manga.

The best part? It’s all about “indy manga”, or comics from Japan that might naturally appeal to the tastes of indy comics fans (and creators) here in North America. I think it turned out pretty neat, with lots of recommendations for great work to check out. If you visit the Inkstuds website you can listen to the podcast and get a recommended reading list based on the titles we described in the podcast.

I also wrote a review this week that should be going up any day, I’ll pop in here when it does.

Things should calm down around Saturday afternoon/Sunday, so I’ll likely start blogging in earnest again then.

Thanks,

– Christopher