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On Encouragement

My friend Rich Stevens (creator of Diesel Sweeties) posted some really sage words of advice over at his LiveJournal this week, about “The How and Why of Making Webcomics“, but it’s really about finding the drive and strength for any artistic pursuit. Rich is one of the 5 or 6 people making his living from being a webcomicker, and as such I find his opinions on the subject tend to carry a lot of weight.

He’s come up with seven… well, he probably wouldn’t call them “rules” but let’s say seven pieces of advice for folks that want to produce webcomics (or any kind of art). They’re good rules, in my humble opinion, and at the link he actually backs them up with examples and… you know, stuff. Sorry, my head’s not in the game today, but the info at the link is really good. Go check it out.

“You’re here for the audience. People should be able to count on your being there for them when you say you’re going to be there. Life is annoying, uncertain and full of problems. Comic strips exist to give comfort, make people think and generally help them get through their day/week/geological epoch.

“Stick to your schedule and do your best. Your audience will quietly appreciate you and help you out when you need it. If you work out some personal issues and make yourself feel better for creating something, all the better.”

– Richard Stevens

– Chris
 

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Comics Festival 2007 is in my hand.

Comics Festival - Photograph of printed copy.

Oh, oh man. It looks awesome. Two covers, 26 contributors, 32 pages of awesome comics.

Look for it at only the very best comic book stores on Saturday, May 5th 2007. Ask for it by name. In fact, ask for it now to make sure they’ll have it, because if not, that will give you plenty of other time to find a store that will.

Just Saying.

– Chris

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Bryan Talbot in Toronto Monday Night

Alice in SunderlandA Conversation with Bryan Talbot
In support of his new graphic novel ALICE IN SUNDERLAND
Monday, April 16th, 2007, 6PM
The Merril Collection (Lillian H. Smith Library, 239 College St.)
Free to attend.

Hosted by SPACE’s Mark Askwith

Bryan Talbot is coming to Toronto! The creator of One Bad Rat, Luther Arkwright, and the artist of The Sandman Special #1: The Song of Orpheus is touring North America in support of his massive new graphic novel, Alice In Sunderland.

Talbot will be doing a presentation from the work, and will be interviewed on stage by Mark Askwith from the SPACE channel.

We’re very excited to see such an esteemed creator visiting us all the way from the U.K., so save the date and make sure to come out for this rare appearance. Both The Tale of One Bad Rat and the brand-new Alice In Sunderland are available for sale at The Beguiling now!

– Christopher

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Catching Up: X-Files Movie?

Since my last “Catching Up” post went over so very, very well, I figured it was time for another. Here’s what the last 4 days of Google Reader have turned up:

x-files.jpg– Hollywood.com has David Duchovney confirming a new X-Files movie is in the works. According to Duchovney, “This week, they’re starting some kind of road towards doing it (the film). Gillian and I both want to be in it now. We’re happy to do it.” How about that eh? Time heals all wounds, as does a pretty thoroughly unspectacular post-X-Files career… On a related note, my employer has a ton of original X-Files art for sale by X-Files comics adaptation artist Sean Scoffield. There’s also art from the Queer as Folk TV Show, the movie eXistenZ, and the recent Underworld mini-series from Marvel Comics. Just Saying.

 

– Video Game website “Gameasutra” has an article up on being out and LGBT in the video gaming industry. The answers are very, very similar to what I hear from gays in the comics industry, so in lieu of any such articles on comics, I figured it was worth pointing out to the industry-watchers who watch this blog. Here’s a good quote from the opening:

Jeb Havens, probably one of the most visible and vocal LGBT developers, says, “It’s not like there’s only a handful” of gay people making games, “but there’s no presence or community. There’s no ‘gay’ face to it.”

I’d love to write a similar article about LGBT creators and industry folk in comics, particularly within the larger realm of blogging, but with no time to spare it’s not gonna happen. C’est la vie, but go read this one: it’s really well done. Thanks to GayGamer.net for the link.

 

– The best part about my job is selling good comics to people. There’s a special kind of magic to selling someone the first volume of The Invisibles, or giving them Scott Pilgrim for the first time. It honestly makes all of the other stuff, like selling Civil War, totally worthwhile. I was reminded of this by Matt Forsythe back in the comments to my Taiyo Matsumoto post, as it looks like just went out and dropped a bunch of coin on Matsumoto books. Nice! This is why I was so pleased to see this nostaligic remembrance of comics retail from Richard Bruton at the blog Fictions, about his time at Nostalgia & Comics in Birmingham:

“The rarest of prizes though, the really fun one was when a customer would come in and tell you that they’d read everything they wanted and could you suggest anything to read. That always made for a fun 10 minutes or so of chat and selling.

“I always sold the books to people with the promise that if they didn’t like them all they had to do was bring it back in and we’d refund the money, no questions asked. To me it seemed the only fair thing to do. After all, this wonderful customer is putting down good money for a book just because I’m telling them it’s wonderful. I’ve spent a little time asking all the pertinent questions to gauge exactly what sort of thing they’re after, but I could always misjudge their comic character and sell them something they hate.

“I’m very proud of the fact that in all my years of doing this, not a single copy has ever been returned. Not one.” – Richard Bruton, Fictions Blog

I don’t have that kind of track record, sadly, but I occasionally let what I think people should be reading get in the way of what they might enjoy reading. I’m doing my best 🙂 Tip of the hat to the Forbidden Planet Blog for the link.

 

I think that’s all for now. The contest details for the Garage Band contest are finished. They’re awesome. Posted later today.

– Christopher

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Shipping April 11th, 2007

Dragon Head Volume 6 CoverHi there folks. These are the comics that are scheduled to ship to The Beguiling Books & Art in Toronto, Canada this week. These books may not show up at all retailers at the same time, but if you see a title here it’s probably at least worth asking your local retailer about…

…Oh My Goodness, there are a lot of comic books coming out this week. It looks like all of the Tokyopop and most of the Viz (or vice versa?) in addition to a heavy week for comics and trades anyway. 65 manga! 200 line items! Who has money for all this stuff?

Here’s more than 5 picks for this week…

JAN073629 28 DAYS LATER THE AFTERMATH GN (C: 0-1-2) 17.99
The first release from “Fox Atomic Comics”, a comic company who exists to adapt movies into comics, and produce comics that could be adapted into movies. Funnily enough, I have absolutely no interest in this conceptually, or with the ‘products’ announced so far. Bleh.

FEB071900 AFTER THE CAPE #2 (OF 3) 2.99
The signing we had here at the store for After The Cape writer Howard Wong went really well, we completely sold out of the book! Which means I haven’t read it. But a few of the people guilted into buying the book because the guy was standing right there did add it to their pullfiles for issue 2, which is a positive sign. Congrats Howard.

All Star Superman 7 CoverOCT060165 ALL STAR SUPERMAN #7 2.99
DEC060188 ALL STAR SUPERMAN VOL 1 HC 19.99
Life is good again. This hard cover collects issues 1-6, a little bit of bonus material I think, and all in a lovely package. Also? Three cheers to whomever decided that a four issue hard cover was a stupid idea and gave us this much more intelligent, reasonable collection. It’s kind of fross how DC is making a grab for your wallet by breaking JUSTICE by Alex Ross up into three, four issue collections. Bleh.

JAN072436 CIVIL WAR TP 24.99
Oh, Civil War. You make no damned sense whatsoever. I honestly have no idea what anyone reading this mini-series is going to make of it, because as a narrative, it’s riddled with holes. There’s no conclusion, no finale. I don’t quite know what you have to offer to a reader besides lovely art… Disappointment, I guess.

FEB073454 COMPLETE PEANUTS VOL 7 1963-1964 HC (C: 1-0-0) 28.95
New Peanuts collection! Is anyone buying the single volume releases of these, or are they just going for the cheaper two-packs? I mean, you’ve gotta wait a little while longer and everything, and is that really worth six bucks, but? Just curious.

completedupuy.jpgFEB073684 COMPLETE UNIVERSE OF DUPUY & BERBERIAN TP (C: 0-1- 55.00
From the Previews solicitation:

A beautiful retrospective of the work of Phillipe Dupuy and Charles Berberian, best known for their Drawn & Quaterly publication Monsieur Jean. Over tewnty years of collaborations are featured here including their portaryals of everyday Parisian life, homages to Billie Holiday and Jacques Tati, and their commercial art for book jackets and CD covers.

I’ve greatly enjoyed meeting Dupuy and Berberian, and their work is just phenomenal. If you haven’t read their recent collections Get a Life, a new Mr. Jean book (as previously seen in the Drawn & Quarterly Anthologies), or their autobio book Maybe Later, you owe it to yourself to run out and pick them right up, they’re marvelous. If this book has the same lush production values and beautiful art as their comics, it’ll be tough not grabbing one for myself on Wednesday.

JAN073681 CONLUVIO TP 19.99
When is a comic not a comic? Ben Templesmith’s unused art and sketches get the Popbot treatment here, as a narrative is woven through a bunch of bitch’n art on the subject of “The International Part-Time Assassins Guild.” Will quite likely sell very well.

FEB073859 DEATH NOTE VOL 11 TP (C: 1-0-0) 7.99
Death Note! When I was in New York I had a good long talk with Viz VP of Publishing Alvin Lu about DeathNote. It seems that whenever their bookstore sales reps don’t “get” manga, they just hand them a copy of DeathNote and say “Just read this one.” They grab the rest themselves. It is to regular manga as crack is to cocaine. That should be on the SAT’s actually…

But anyway. This penultimate volume kicks the plot into overdrive, and I couldn’t be happier. I’m an idiot and went and spoiled the whole thing for myself on Wikipedia, because after reading the first 9 in a row I needed to know how it ended, but I’m looking forward to drawing my own nuances out of the last few volumes…

Dragon Head Volume 6 CoverJAN073862 DRAGON HEAD VOL 6 GN (OF 10) (MR) (C: 1-0-0) 9.99
Whoo! Life continues to be awesome. Did you read that fifth volume? Holy shit. Actually, I saw “Grindhouse” this weekend and it totally reminded me of Dragon Head (and manga like Drifting Classroom, Death Note, etc.). The rising action and the ridiculous chapter-by-chapter cliffhangers, the fact that it’s constantly raising its own stakes. The idea that you never really know what’s going on with anything, and that the whole world has gone completely to hell. Dragon Head manages to incorporate the best parts of disaster flicks, zombie movies, and tense teen coming-of-age tales into one fantastic manga. If you’re not reading it, I can only assume that it is because you are too afraid.

JUL061702 FELL #8 (RES) 1.99
Now this is the Ben Templesmith I can sink my teeth into. I gotta say, it’s probably a lot of fun for him to get the relatively complete creative freedom of something like Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse, but seeing him put into the service of an Ellis script is much more engaging for me as a reader. I’ve gone from being someone who could honestly say he didn’t much care for Templesmith’s work (and this is going back years and years, to when he was working with my friends Brad and Andrew) to someone whose work I anticipate. I think a lot of it is down to Ellis making him draw things that he normally wouldn’t. More subtlety of emotion, more realistic and consistant settings, and I’m sure the fact that the stories are all quite good doesn’t hurt either. Yeah, Fell is very close to the top of my list.

Ferro City TPB CoverFEB071891 FERRO CITY VOL 1 TP 15.99
Gotta give props to my fellow Canadians. This is Torontonian Jason Armstrong’s Image mini-series from last year, now collected in a handy little tpb. I liked the first issue but sort of lost track of the rest (sorry), but hey, at least now I can pick up the collection. Oh, it’s a crime noir thing set in a city with Robots. Sort of like a humourless Tezuka’s Metropolis, but erring more on the side of Sam Spade (with a little bit of Darwyn Cooke and Guy Davis on the art). Check out a preview of the first issue over at Newsarama.

JAN073848 FRUITS BASKET VOL 16 GN (OF 20) 9.99
It was sheer hell reading the first volume of this, and I will likely never read another volume if I can avoid it. Also? The “Animated Maquettes” from this series in the new Previews? They are without a doubt the ugliest fucking anime merchandise I have ever seen. Seriously, that’s downright embarassing. That said? I love Fruits Basket, it sells a ton. 🙂

DEC063997 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST VOL 12 TP (C: 1-0-0) 9.99
This, on the other hand, was a fairly fun read. The first couple of volumes are exactly what they purport to be, action adventure stories for kids and teenagers. I don’t quite understand the adult attachment to the series–there really isn’t anything here that’s not right on the surface–but this sells as much as Fruits Basket… Maybe more. So: Great!

FEB073470 GARAGE BAND GN 16.95
Oo! One I’ve read. I’m gonna have a contest for this, and a real review, but I will say in brief that it’s every bit as good as you might’ve heard, and just as beautiful. This new release from First Second Books and artist Gipi is alternately moody, energetic, and with a great soundtrack… just how I remember MY teen years. It’s probably a little too… European… to follow in Gene Yang and American Born Chinese’s footsteps to the literary awards trail, but it is pretty amazing and likely should. Details on the contest later.

FEB073404 LOOKIT VOL 2 YARG AND OTHER STORIES GN 11.95
Sort of badly titled, this one, because I actually got a copy of this from the author and it’s really pretty good. Cute kids stuff about a Penguin, and a pirate, I believe. Full colour too! I think that “VOL 2” will probably disuede more people than not since this one stands on it’s own, but yeah, if you’re into the library sales scene or you like the kids books, check this one out.

Actually, you can check out a preview from the book as well as webcomics and more at the publisher’s website, http://www.donteatanybugs.net/.

madman_01.jpgFEB071878 MADMAN ATOMIC COMICS #1 2.99
I like Mike Allred and Madman, but one of my friends read a preview of this (he loves the Madman) and was kind of unimpressed. I went and read Don MacPherson’s review of this issue and, while Don and I don’t ususally see eye-to-eye on the comic books, it seems like he saw the same things in it that my buddy did: it’s all recap. Apparently this really is a jumping-on point, bringing you completely up-to-date with the zany costumed adventurer through all of his zany costumed adventures. Sort of a Cliff’s-notes version of the forthcoming Madman Gargantua Hardcover, which will collect every issue of every series in one convenient package. For $147 more than this issue. I dunno, I’m kinda bummed now and I haven’t even read it… Stupid shipping list.

FEB072102 MARVEL ILLUSTRATED JUNGLE BOOK 2.99
Collecting the Gil Kane & Jo Duffy adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, under a new cover from P. Craig Russel. Incidentally, Russel did his own gorgeous adaptation of The Jungle Book, currently available from NBM. It’s worth tracking down, despite not being $3. This is apparently going to contain previews of all of Marvel’s forthcoming literary adaptations, which is an ambitious tactic for them… I shall reserve judgement.

mome-7.jpgJAN073618 MOME VOL 7 GN 14.95
Featuring the conclusion of Lewis Trondheim’s diary comic “At Loose Ends”, a collection of sketchbook material by Al Columbia, and new comics from Eleanor Davis, Tom Kaczynsk, David Heatley, Paul Hornschemeier, Anders Nilsen, Sophie Crumb, Kurt Wolfgang and Gabrielle Bell.

I’ve really been enjoying the Euro-Comix that Mome has been running here, the David B stories in particular were some of my favourite short stories from last year, but I’m not sure how promoting the book on the strength of established talent fits their mission statement, other than maybe goosing the sales a little (a noble pursuit). I’ll have more on this eventually and the success of the anthology, but I am still enjoying picking these up and tearing through all of the new work and ideas within.

opticnerve11.jpgFEB073427 OPTIC NERVE #11 (MR) 3.95
(I got to read a copy already) Wow, it turns out Ben Tanaka isn’t that much of an asshole after all. I mean, don’t get me wrong, he’s still an asshole, but his story ends a bit more complexly than it begins. Speaking of which, this serial began years ago, and I was surprised at how easily I slid back into the settings and conflicts. Despite explicity being a story about the Asian-American experience, the themes are universal (love, loss, stupid decisions) and I think it might be one of Tomine’s strongest and most personal works… Perhaps the best part of the issue is that the letters column (remember those?) reveals a twelfth issue in the works. Geez, Madman and Optic Nerve out on the same week, how nineties is that? 🙂

FEB072145 PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #6 2.99
New guilty pleasure book.

JAN070379 SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE VOL 5 DR DEATH TP (MR) 19.99
Oh man, I’ve totally fallen behind in buying these. They’re so good too, beautiful little pulp adventures. Dammit. Bonus: Features a story called “Night of The Butcher”. I think it’s a sign.

FEB073471 SARDINE IN OUTER SPACE VOL 3 SC 12.95
Another very-good Sardine collection. Did you know that there are thousands of pages of these stories? I asked First Second how many we could expect, and they just sort of laughed and said “as long as it keeps selling”. Look for a review of this one as well, soonish.

FEB072112 SPIDER-MAN FANTASTIC FOUR #1 (OF 4) 2.99
Jeff Parker and Mike Wieringo do a fun, all-ages Spider-Man comic in which no one has to cry or argue about moral relativity. Holy shit. Congrats, Jeff! I hope no one notices and cancels the series before it’s over or forces a back in black crossover on you in the last issue. P.S.: I really liked The Interman and promise to order 50 copies if you do another one. Maybe more!

FEB072185 SPIDER-MAN REIGN PREMIERE HC 19.99
I still get better than 50 hits a month looking for Spiderman’s Penis. Thanks, Marvel! (Image was accidentally deleted in the move to WordPress, sadly. Maybe I’ll re-post it.)

wastelandtpb.jpgFEB073675 WASTELAND #8 (MR) (NOTE PRICE) 3.50
JAN073790 WASTELAND BOOK 1 CITIES IN DUST TP (MR) 11.95
Antony Johnston and Christopher Mitten’s post-apocalyptic sci-fi adventure story. I actually had a customer in last week, looking for post-apocalyptic comics. Now I can recommend him a good one! Heh. Actually, I got a little lost around the third issue… there’s a lot happening in this comic… and it might be one of the ones I need to invest a little more attention into. That’s what trade paperbacks are for! I think this will be Oni’s first full-size trade paperback in a little while too, as they’d mostly gone to digest-size for their releases. Hm.

Anyway, you can get an 8-page preview at http://onipress.com/display.php?type=bk&id=248.

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Whew. There are another 180 books out this week under the cut, enjoy!

(Note: For whatever reason, shops being served by Plattsburgh aren’t getting the new Viz Signature releases, so no MONSTER, GOLGO, or DRIFTING CLASSROOM for us. Boo! Hiss!)

Continue reading “Shipping April 11th, 2007”

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ATTENTION NEW YORK: PING PONG OPENS TODAY

pingpongmovie.jpg

Thanks to the heads-up from Matt Fraction in the comments section, we now know that PING PONG the 2002 film adaptation of the Taiyo Matsumoto manga we talked about yesterday opens in New York City. Edit: It might only be playing tonight?

The New York Times reviewed the film and mentioned where it’s playing, and they seemed to really like it. Maybe you will too?

Most interesting? It’s being released by “Viz Pictures”, which strongly implies a DVD release from Viz, and if that does well, who knows? EDIT: Who knew? Apparently, Viz Pictures has a website? Check it out at http://www.viz-pictures.com/ and see the info for more screenings, in Chicago and Seattle.

pingpongart.jpg

– Christopher

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Taiyo Matsumoto: Public Service Announcement

Tekkon Concrete

So it occurs to me that my enthusiasm for Taiyo Matsumoto a few days back may have been met with blank, questioning stares from much of my audience. I realise I haven’t been going on quite as incessantly about Matsumoto-sama as of late, and what with the recent upswing in visitors, well… context! So, here’s some background.

Background: Taiyo Matsumoto (松本大洋) is a popular manga creator in Japan. Matsumoto started as a manga creator later in life and was originally interested in professionally pursuing sports, and specifically soccer. He spent time in Europe in his early 20s where he picked up artistic influences from graphic novel creators like Moebius, Enki Bilal, and Prado. He’s cousins with manga creator Santa Inoue, the creator of Tokyo Tribes. Nearly all of his work is published in Japan by Shogakukan, one of the parent companies of North American publisher Viz Media LLC. It is unlikely that his work will appear in North America from any other publisher besides Viz.

English Works: Taiyo Matsumoto’s work generally falls into the category of “Seinen” or “Young Men’s” manga, meaning older than the Shonen manga that totally dominates the sales charts in North America. Besides that, it’s pretty ‘artsy’ for Seinen manga, thanks largely to it’s European influences, and you add it all together and it historically hasn’t sold very well at all in North America…

Matsumoto’s first work published in North America is Black & White, which debuted in the first issue of Viz’s monthly manga magazine Pulp, a magazine dedicated to showcasing manga for an “Adult” audience. Features two homeless street urchens who beat the tar out of people while their city crumbles around them. Black and White was collected, complete, in three trade paperback editions, all of which are thoroughly out of print. You can read reviews of Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3.

Matsumoto’s next English-language work is No. 5 (“Number Five”), released straight to graphic novel by Viz in a size closer to standard-format North American comics (mirroring the Japanese collections, it should be noted). It shows deep influences by European creators in its globe-spanning science fiction story setting, but is probably the most relentlessly creative work I’ve seen from him in any language. Only 2 volumes of the 8 volume series were released in English, and they’re both out of print too, making this series incredibly frustrating to read and/or collect, despite how excellent it is. You can read reviews of Volume 1 and Volume 2.

The most recent English-language collection of Matsumoto’s work is Blue Spring, a collection of short stories about the author’s teenage years. It’s an intense collection of work, with narratives that range from traditional to very experimental. It’s mostly very early work, but it’s really very cool and luckily still in print! Here’s a review of the book.

Last year, a short story by Matsumoto entitled “Kankichi” appeared in the anthology Japan: As Viewed by 17 Creators, published by Fanfare/Ponent Mon. It’s a short folktale and very different from most of his recent work, so far as I can tell. The book is great anyway though, and worth owning. Read Jog’s review.

Adaptations of Matsumoto’s Work: Despite being fairly commercially unpopular here, Matsumoto’s work really broke through to mainstream Japanese society thanks to a film adaptation of his manga Ping Pong (not to be confused with the raunchy comedy manga/anime Ping Pong Club). It’s sort of like the Frank Miller effect, actually, where a popular adaptation funnels a huge audience into the many existing works of that creator… Couldn’t happen to a better guy. There are several adaptations of Matsumoto’s manga available in other media.

Blue Spring (Aoi Haru): Based on two of the short stories from the Blue Spring collection, the 2001 film of the same name is dark and fucked up and doesn’t end on a happy note. As their high-school society crumbles around them, a gang of teenagers start to push at the limits of their despair. I really liked it, but I wouldn’t recommend it as an introduction to Matsumoto’s work… Apparently, this got a domestic U.S. release! Review.

Ping Pong: Based on the five-volume manga series, this 2002 film explores the changing nature of friendship and heroism. It asks the question whether it’s better to love something and try your hardest, or to be the best and not care? Utterly remarkable and wonderful film, the best movie I’ve ever seen about sports and competition, and utterly accessible to people who are afraid of Japanese film. This movie did get an official U.K. release but nothing in North America. Worse still, the manga that this film is based on are fucking awesome, but not available in North America. There are scans floating around if you look hard enough. Review.

Tekkon Concrete: A 2006 animated adaptation of the series Black and White. A malevolent outside force is remaking the city in its own twisted image, and only two ultra-violent homeless boys can stop it. Pure spirit, pure strength, beautifully animated! A U.S. DVD release is planned for the fall, and the film should be hitting a bunch of digital film festivals around North America this year.

Tekkon 2

Resources: Here’s a bunch of stuff about Matsumoto I was able to dig up on the internet:

Background:
Taiyo Matsumoto profile at Lambiek: http://lambiek.net/artists/m/matsumoto_t.htm
Taiyo Matsumoto profile/bibliography: http://users.skynet.be/mangaguide/au1128.html
There was a great interview with Matsumoto online at one point, but it looks like it’s gone forever. :-/. In this thread you can see Abhay Khosla and a few other creators freaking out over how good it was, which is better than nothing: http://www.comicscommunity.com/boards/pop/?frames=n;read=24575&expand=1

EDIT: Yeah! Thanks to commenter Matthew for finding this: http://web.archive.org/web/20040803161149/http://www.inter-g7.or.jp/g2/manga/HTML/GHTML/MATIN.html

Manga:
Shogakukan’s Taiyo Matsumoto Mini-site (J): http://www.shogakukan.co.jp/taiyo/
Taiyo Matsumoto Manga available in Japanese: http://www.s-book.com/plsql/com2_writer?isbn=4091882013
Taiyo Matsumoto Japanese Manga at Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/3aerp5
Taiyo Matsumoto Manga available in French: http://tinyurl.com/284wqc

Movies:
Taiyo Matsumoto at IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1137219/
Tekkon Concrete Movie Homepage: http://www.tekkon.net/index.html

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Hope you enjoyed this brief overview of one of my favourite manga-ka. Rush out and pick up Tekkon Concrete (Black and White) when the new all-in-one manga version is released this fall.

– Christopher

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Taiyo Matsumoto’s BLACK AND WHITE to return…

Black and White Movie - Tekkon Concrete

From an interview with Viz EiC Alvin Lu in today’s Publisher’s Weekly Comics Week:

“We’re looking to continue in other areas as well, like the Viz Signature line [a new line for older and more adventurous manga readers]. We’re looking to continue pushing that, and we’re looking to acquire titles this year and next. We’ve got Uzumaki and Gyo by Junji Ito and we’re excited about that. We’ve also got a new title this fall—a repackaging of Black and White [by Taiyo Matsumoto]. That’s the old title. The new title is Tekkon Concrete, which is [also] the title of the anime that will be coming out. That’s being released by Sony. It’s making the festival circuit now and will be released on DVD by fall.” – Alvin Lu.

Yes.

Alvin told me about this at New York and I (quite surprisingly) kept my big mouth shut about it. But yeah, a new edition of Matsumoto’s Black and White this fall and, if what we talked about is correct, it’ll be a single-edition, and probably in the “Phoenix” size rather than the standard-format manga size. Which is goddamned awesome. Buy it. Buy it. Buy it.

– Christopher
[Image from the Tekkon Concrete Japanese Movie Website.]

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Canadian Artists on Canadian Contest for Japanese Video Game System

udon-wii.jpg

Nintendo Canada is giving away 6 custom-painted Nintendo Wii’s, each by a different Canadian artist. Of note to comics fans? UDON Artist Arnold Tsang did a pretty sweet ‘street art in Super Mario World’ design (seen above), but they’re all pretty darned cool. Better still, our friends down the street at Magic Pony are sponsoring the event, which means, hopefully, that all of the designs will be on display there soon…? Hopefully?

Canadians can head over to http://theartofwii.nintendo.com/ to enter to win one of the custom Wii’s. Everyone else can go look at them, but YOU CAN’T WIN. BAHAHAHA. Finally, it’s Canada’s revenge for being locked out of every other damned contest.

– Christopher