The watch list is late because there’s just so much stuff on this week’s list:
Quite a few non-manga comic titles, some interesting art books (one on Degas & Japan, another on urban graffiti), a nifty reprint (and this year’s second-best book title) coming from Global Oriental, “The Diary of Charles Holme’s 1889 Visit to Kyoto, the West Coast of North America, and Mrs. Lazenby Liberty’s Pictoral Record of Japan” which has to be friggin’ gorgeous both for the Victorian language and the vintage snaps/sketches, though it probably suffers from the condescending attitude toward the locals that often colours such travelogues. That, and it’s $125, so I’m guessing I won’t be seeing a copy.

(the best damn book title this year — “Octopussy, Dry Kidney, and Blue Spots” — also came up this week, and in our academic books section)

With a few art how-to books to round out the list, even though I also spotted a pair of cookbooks (Sushi, & Japanese “light” cooking) heck, there’s so much other stuff I just skipped ‘em.

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Expected, but Missing In Action: Seven Seas’ translation of Mio Chizuru’s “The Pirate and the Princess”. While this might seem to be a normal action-adventure title, the twist is that the titular Pirate is a girl named Yuri. Let’s pause and remind ourselves that ‘titular’ means “as mentioned in the title” and that’s a pirate named Yuri, not a “Yuri” Pirate going after an innocent princess — though that would be a damn fine book. (And one I’d pay up to $20 for, depending on content.) This book is a kids’ title aimed at impressionable youth aged 8-10 or thereabouts.

So here’s the trick: with Seven Seas also introducing their new Strawberry Imprint (aimed, seemingly, directly at me… though of course it may also appeal to some other fans) they are wisely looking to partition their other main expansion — into the youth market — from this perfectly-fine-but-some-might-see-Yuri-manga-as-dubious effort. The new kids’ titles are so well differentiated that you can’t even find them on the main Seven Seas site.

Some links: Seven Seas’ sneak previews from July featuring the two new kids titles — Avalon and “the Pirate and the Princess” getting coverage on the Newsarama forums — Convention Reports: one, two, three; & a Diamond Books rep on kids titles

Any time they’d care to make the announcements official (or the volumes generally available) I’d love to link to the books. Heck, I’ll buy and review them. It’s hard to recommend vapor-manga, however. With a supposed deal with Scholastic already on the books, though, perhaps these titles will show up at a school bookfair near you even before they make it into stores…

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OK, quick survey: Should Vertical’s new Tezuka book be spelled “MW” or “Mw” ?

Pick of the week

MW. Tezuka. Vertical. Do I have to sell this to you? From the Publisher:

Comics god Osamu Tezuka’s darkest work, MW is a chilling picaresque of evil. Steering clear of the supernatural as well as the cuddly designs and slapstick humor that enliven many of Tezuka’s better-known works, MW explores a stark modern reality where neither divine nor secular justice seems to prevail. This willfully “anti-Tezuka” achievement from the master’s own pen nevertheless pulsates with his unique genius.

Michio Yuki has it all: looks, intelligence, a pedigree as the scion of a famous Kabuki family, a promising career at a major bank, legions of female admirers. But underneath the sheen of perfection lurks a secret with the power to shake the world to its foundations.

During a boyhood excursion to one of the southern archipelagos near Okinawa, Yuki barely survived exposure to a poison gas stored at a foreign military facility. The leakage annihilated all of the island’s inhabitants but was promptly covered up by the authorities, leaving Yuki as an unacknowledged witness—one whose sense of right and wrong, however, the potent nerve agent managed to obliterate.

Now, fifteen years later, Yuki is a social climber of Balzacian proportions, infiltrating the worlds of finance and politics by day while brutally murdering children and women by night—perversely using his Kabuki-honed skills as a female impersonator to pass himself off as the women he’s killed. His drive, however, will not be satiated with a promotion here and a rape there. Michio Yuki has a far more ominous objective: obtaining MW, the ultimate weapon that spared his life but robbed him of all conscience.

Sounds Dark. Maybe too dark for me.

First Alternate:

Nodame Contabile, vol 11. Back Cover Blurb:

French Connection!

Nodame and Chiaki are studying music in Paris–but the real drama is happening outside the classroom! As Chiaki’s life is about to take a surprising turn, Nodame makes a new friend, a homesick Chinese exchange student. And it’s not long before Nodame and her buddy land in a heap of trouble at the local Italian restaurant.

(for the musically illiterate: That’s a bassoon, not a bong on the cover. Though I doubt I’ve ever seen a young lady enjoy a bassoon quite that much before.)

Full List after the break; additional commentary after the list.
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Manga (& Manga-ish) Releases for 28 October to 3 November 2007

• 100% Perfect Girl vol 4 — Netcomics — $9.99
• Baby & Me — Viz — $8.99
• Basara vol 25 — Viz — $9.99
• Black Sun Silver Moon, vol 3 — Go! Comi — $10.99
• Bride of the Water God vol 1– Dark Horse — $9.95

• After School Nightmare, vol 5 — Go! Comi — $10.99
• Chronicle of the Divine Sword, vol 1 — Dramaqueen — $12.99
• Chun Rhang Yhur Jhun, vol 4 — Infinity Studios — $10.95
• Dear Myself, vol 2 — DMP — $12.95
• Dystopia vol 1 — CPM — $9.99

• E’s vol 4 — Broccoli Books — $9.99
• Flame of Recca vol 25 — Viz — $9.99
• Final Girl Pocket Manga vol 1 — Antarctic Press — $14.95
• Galaxy Angel II, vol 3 — Broccoli Books — $9.99
• Gon vol 2 — CMX — $5.99

• Hayate the Combat Butler vol 5 — Viz — $9.99
• Home on the Range — Iris Print — $12.95
• Illicit Contract — DramaQueen — $12.99
• Ka Shin Fu — DMP — $12.95
• Kitchen Princess vol 4 — Del Rey — $9.99

• Kyouhaku Dogs Volume 1 — Infinity Studios — $9.95
• Mammoth Book of Best New Manga 2nd Edition — Running Press — $15.99
• Manga Bible (New Living Translation) — Tyndale — $14.97
• Megami DX vol 1 — DMP — $19.95
• Mw — Vertical — $24.95

• Nambul War Stories, vol 4 — CPM — $9.99
• Night of the Beasts, vol 5 — Go! Comi — $10.99
• Naruto Box Set, volumes 1-27 — Viz — $189.95
• Nodame Cantabile vol 11 — Del Rey — $10.95
• Oh My Goddess, vol 7 — Dark Horse — $10.95

• Parasyte vol 2 — Del Rey — $12.95
• Passionate Two-Face vol 1 — Netcomics — $9.99
• Pichi Pichi Pitch vol 7 — Del Rey — $10.95
• Prety Road — CPM — $9.99
• Psycho Busters, vol 1 — Del Rey — $10.95

• Samurai Commando: Mission 1549, vol 2 — CMX — $9.99
• SM Hunter, vol 2 — Dramaqueen — $11.99
• Spirit of the Roses — Dramaqueen — $12.99
• Star Project Chiro, vol 1 — Udon — $11.95
• Stay Little Devil, vol 5 — DrMaster — $9.99

• Street Fighter Sakura Ganbaru! vol 2 — Udon — $12.95
• Togari vol 3 — Viz — $9.99
• Tomb Raider Tankobon vol 5 — Bandai — $9.99
• Train+Train vol 4 — Go! Comi — $10.99
• Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle vol 15 — Del Rey — $10.95

• Unbalance Unbalance vol 2 — Infinity Studios — $9.95
• Vita Rosa — Dramaqueen — $12.99
• The Yagyu Ninja Scrolls, vol 1 — Del Rey — $13.95
• Yakitate!! Japan, vol 8 — Viz — $9.99
• Yaoi Hentai vol 4 — Yaoi Press — $12.95

Not Manga But Noted

• Absolute Sandman, vol 2 — DC Comics — $99
• All the Rage: The Boondocks Past and Present, by Aaron McGruder — Three Rivers — $16.95
• Complete Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy — Idea & Design Works — $29.99
• Complete Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi — Knopf — $24.95
• Contraptions, by Heath Robinson — Penguin — $35

• Immortal Iron Fist vol 1 — Marvel — $13.99
• Last Laughs: Cartoons About Aging, Retirement… and the Great Beyond — Simon & Schuster — $22.95
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: the Black Dossier — DC Comics — $29.99
• Lisa’s Story: The Other Shoe, by Tom Batiuk — Kent State University Press — $27.95

• Marvel Vault: a Museum-in-a-Book with Rare Collectibles from the World of Marvel — Running Press — $49.95

• Mascots & Mugs: The Characters and Cartoons of Subway Graffiti — Testify Books — $39.95, limited edition hardcover for $150
• Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip, vol 2 — Drawn & Quarterly — $19.95
• Perry Bible Fellowship: the Trial of Colonel Sweeto and Other Stories, by Nicholas Gurewitch — Dark Horse — $14.95
• Showcase Presents: Teen Titans, vol 2 — DC Comics — $16.99
• Signal to Noise (Gaiman, McKean) — Dark Horse — $24.95

• Spy vs Spy 2: The Joke and Dagger Files — Watson-Guptill — $25.95

For Scholarly Otaku

• Lonely Planet: Japan — Lonely Planet Publications — $28.99
• Live and Work in Japan — Crimson Publishing — $21.95
• Time Out: Shortlist Tokyo — Time Out Guides — $11.95
• 501 Japanese Verbs — Barron’s Educational — $18.99

• Shinto, Spirits, and Shrines: Religion in Japan — Gale Group — $32.45
• Japan’s Network Economy: Structure, Persistence, and Change — Cambridge University Press — $36.99
• The War at Home: Japan During World War II — Gale Group — $32.45
• Samurai, Shoguns, and Soldiers: the Rise of the Japanese Military — Spinger-Verlag — $169
• Bushido: the Soul of Japan — BiblioBazaar — $9.99
• Designer’s Compact Shops in Japan: a Selection of 100 Projects — Gingko Press — $49.95
• The Diary of Charles Holme’s 1889 Visit to Kyoto, the West Coast of North America, and Mrs. Lazenby Liberty’s Pictoral Record of Japan — Global Oriental — $125
• Japanese Family and Society: Words from Tongo Takebe, a Meiji Era Sociologist — Haworth Press — $59.95

• Degas and the Art of Japan — Yale University Press — $24.95
• Relay of Gazes: Representations of Culture in the Japanese Televisual and Cinematic Experience — Rowman & Littlefield — $55
• Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School — Hotei Publishing — $120
• Japan Envisions the West: 16th-19th Century Japanese Art from the Kobe City Museum — Seattle Art Museum — $22.50
• Making a Home: Japanese Contemporary Artists in New York — Japan Society Gallery — $65
• A Life Adrift: Soeda Azembo, Popular Song, and Modern Mass Culture in Japan — Columbia University Press — $110
• Kabuki Handbook: A Playgoer’s Essential Companion — Columbia University Press — $144.50
• Octopussy, Dry Kidney, and Blue Spots: Dirty Themes from 18th-19th Century Japanese Poems — Paraverse Press — $30
• Woman without a Hole: and Other Risky Themes from Old Japanese Poems — Paraverse Press — $30
• Classic Haiku: the Greatest Japanese Poetry from Basho, Buson, Issa, Shinki, and Their Followers — Duncan Baird Publishers — $12.95

Art Technique/How-to

• How to Draw Noir Comics: the Art and Technique of Visual Storytelling (Martinbrough) — Watson-Guptil — $19.95
• Manga Pro Superstar Workshop — F+W Publications — $19.99
• Drawing Manga (Selina Dean) — Collins (HarperCollins UK) — $14.95

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Where to start this Week? There’s a lot to cover so I’m going fast:

- Manga Bible. 1216 pages of it. (That’s just 1.23 cents a page! Bargain!)

- Megami DX looks like a collection of fan art. DMP’s web page gives me close to no info on it. It might be interesting to flip through, though I don’t know if I’ll order a copy.

- Gaiman, twice over: Sandman (hardcover, in a box) from DC and a Signal to Noise reprint from Dark Horse.

- Lisa’s Story: that’s the cancer storyline from Funky Winkerbean, now available in this collection. It’s from Kent State University’s Medical School, with “resource material on breast cancer, including early detection, information sources, support systems, and health care.”

- Last Laughs: dark stuff this week. I don’t know if this is an official “New Yorker” comic collection, but it features a lot of their regulars. The New Yorker has an actual collection “Cream of the Crap” vol 2, featuring rejected gag panels that they never ran in the mag — Should they get any kind of credit for that?

- Boondocks. This collection is not just comics; it also includes a number of interviews from magazines and the like, and strips that never ran (due to content) with McGruder’s commentary.

- Mascots & Mugs. Graffiti art is *in* this year, if the number of new artsy books on the topic coming out is any indication. Good luck finding this one at your local; you might be better off if you live in NYC though.

- I just like saying it: Octopussy, Dry Kidney, and Blue Spots: Dirty Themes from 18th-19th Century Japanese Poems. Go ahead, say it out loud. Imagine seeing the concert poster that features that triple bill. It’s one of a pair coming out this week from Paraverse Press; the other is “Woman without a Hole: and Other Risky Themes from Old Japanese Poems”

- Classic Haiku is the obvious chaser to that — though the dirty poems are likely more fun.

- Live and Work in Japan — you know you all want to.

- Of the three art tech. books, the Noir Comics one actually sounds the most intriguing. While Dean’s manga art looks decent, I’m not sure if we need another manga how-to book.

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What am I buying? Yakitate Japan, Kitchen Princess, Train+Train, The Yagyu Ninja Scrolls, Bride of the Water God…

And that damn Naruto Box. Unless someone can talk me out of it.

I previously dropped Hayate, but might come back to it if I need something brainless this week — or Street Fighter Sakura Ganbaru, which might be interesting to read since I’m only vaguely aware of the Street Fighter characters: can they sell that on story & art alone? I’ll see if I can track down a copy of Kyouhaku Dogs as well.

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And my stack of manga to be reviewed is taller that I am right now. Hey, you guys remember when I used to post reviews for this site?