Posted by Guest Author on Jan 18, 2008 in Comic Books
Our Top Indie Cartoonists to Watch For in 2008: Keeping true to our “Anti-Superheroes in Tights” mood at fanboy, we took a look back at the comic books and graphic novels that caught our eye:
Being a gay teenager is tough. Being a punk teenager is tough. Both are marginalized by mainstream society, and put them both together and you have a minority-within-a-minority situation, because lets face it, anyone who’s spent time in Chelsea can tell you that queer culture and punk culture don’t overlap nearly as much as they should. But when they do, you usually end up with an explosion of creativity that brings us very very good things. Things like Liz Baillie’s My Brain Hurts, an outstanding mini-comic series, the first five issues of which have been collected by Microcosm Publishing why, just this last Fall!
Posted by Guest Author on Jan 17, 2008 in Comic Books
With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they’re not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don’t always get the attention that they deserve! So here’s one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:
Yubisaki Milk Tea
There once was a boy named Yoshinori whose face was remarkably similar to his sister’s. As a result, he once had to take her place in a modeling session, dressing in a bridal gown for a local photography shop. Ever since then he’s had a taste for both cross-dressing and photography, and Yubisaki Milk Tea follows his exploits both as male Yoshinori and female “Yuki.” Yoshinori winds up in a love triangle with his childhood friend Hidari, who doesn’t know about his cross-dressing, and a classmate named Minamo, who hates men and will only talk to Yoshinori when he’s dressed as Yuki.
Posted by Guest Author on Jan 16, 2008 in Comic Books
With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they’re not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don’t always get the attention that they deserve! So here’s one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:
Lunar Legend Tsukihime
A high school boy named Shiki is suffering from a life-threatening injury, and as a result he has started to see “death lines” on the people around him. He discovers that if he traces the lines with a sharp object he can kill people. He protects himself from his ability by wearing a special pair of glasses that prevent his ability to see the lines.
It’s the beginning of a new year and is starting to look like the last good batch of movies we will see in a while. The Writer’s Guild of America remains on strike and until that is settled Hollywood will be starting to look rather barren around the end of this year and the start of ‘09. Television is already beginning to feel the sting with the cancellation of 24 this year and a load of Reality Shows ready to hit the mid season lineup. So I thought I would take the opportunity to look ahead to 2008 and see what’s coming up for us in theaters this year:
Posted by Guest Author on Jan 15, 2008 in Comic Books
With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they’re not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don’t always get the attention that they deserve! So here’s one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:
Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service
Five university students with abilities that range from channeling spirits to dowsing (finding dead bodies) to ESP form a company called the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, an organization that communicates with the dead and transports their bodies to wherever they need to go in order to allow their spirits to move on to the next world.
Posted by Guest Author on Jan 14, 2008 in Comic Books
With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they’re not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don’t always get the attention that they deserve! So here’s one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:
Kodomo no Jikan (“A Child’s Time”)
This may seem like an odd choice for underrated manga, seeing as this series gained infamy throughout the English-language manga world when Seven Seas licensed it and then cancelled it because the content was too racy. Well, the problem isn’t just that the content is racy— it’s that it’s racy and it involves primary school students. It didn’t help that original creator Kaworu Watashiya wanted them to call it Nymphet.
Posted by Guest Author on Jan 11, 2008 in Comic Books
With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they’re not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don’t always get the attention that they deserve! So here’s one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:
Ouran High School Host Club
Haruhi Fujioka is the only scholarship student at the swanky Ouran High School, an unenviable role at a school full of kids so rich that they actually have a host club as part of their after school activities. A host club is a place where women pay large amounts of money to spend time with good-looking men, just chatting and flirting.
Posted by Guest Author on Jan 10, 2008 in Comic Books
With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they’re not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don’t always get the attention that they deserve! So here’s one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:
Bokurano
North American publishers seem wary of Mohiro Kitoh’s manga Bokurano— possibly due to the difficulty that Dark Horse had with Kitoh’s Narutaru, which began reasonably family-friendly before it took a serious turn for the dark side, preventing Dark Horse from even releasing later volumes. No one yet has licensed Bokurano.
Posted by Guest Author on Jan 9, 2008 in Comic Books
With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they’re not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don’t always get the attention that they deserve! So here’s one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:
Antique Bakery
Odds are good that if you’re not a fan of yaoi— boy/boy romance manga for women —you haven’t read Fumi Yoshinaga’sAntique Bakery, which is technically not yaoi (barely). Her series is part slice-of-life comedy and part drama about four men working in a bakery together. Primary among the men is Keisuke, the son of a wealthy family who has an odd fixation on sweets because a man who kidnapped him as a child fed him cakes.
Posted by Guest Author on Jan 8, 2008 in Comic Books
With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they’re not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don’t always get the attention that they deserve! So here’s one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:
Hajime no Ippo (“The First Step”)
George Morikawa’s boxing manga Hajime no Ippo is probably the longest-running underrated manga out there. A full 81 volumes have been produced since its inception in 1990, all of which remain bereft and unlicensed. Oh, and it’s still running, too.
Posted by Guest Author on Jan 7, 2008 in Comic Books
With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they’re not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don’t always get the attention that they deserve! So here’s one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:
Gintama
This actually is a combination underrated manga and anime— the anime, in fact, is unlicensed in spite of its immense popularity in Japan. VIZ has started releasing the manga in the U.S., but with so little marketing that many are barely aware of its existence. Which is a shame, since it’s a fantastic (and funny) series!
Werewolves are back in the movies! Underworld and it’s sequel have managed to make the wolf man a popular topic for film in the new century and the latest release in this genre is Skinwalkers. With a PG-13 rating and a pretty formulamatic plot Skinwalkers was perceived as another tired retread from a Hollywood in desperate need of originality. Yet as the movie progressed it showed itself to have a little spark and a cast of actors and characters that you found yourself caring for.
Every day Ian Stone starts his life, at some point during that day Ian dies a terrible death only to find himself in a new life with an unsettling feeling that he’s been through something horrific. Thus the plot setup for the Deaths of Ian Stone for the best movie to come out of Horrorfest in 2007.
Posted by Guest Author on Dec 28, 2007 in Comic Books
Our Top Indie Cartoonists to Watch For in 2008: Keeping true to our “Anti-Superheroes in Tights” mood at fanboy, we took a look back at the comic books and graphic novels that caught our eye:
OK, full disclosure time: I’ve been a contributor to House of Twelve since the second issue, and Michael said I ought to fess up to that if I were going to do a blog entry on it. And come to think of it, Vanguard Media alumni Chris Prynoski, now with Cartoon Network, was a founding member too. But that’s a small price to pay to bring the gospel of HO12 to the masses.
Comix with an x arent what they used to be, you may have noticed. The sex, drugs, and lots of laffs aesthetic of the undergrounds has been replaced by many an auteurs gentle musings on falling leaves and springtime raindrops, and the preciousness of their kitties, or babies, or relationships. The House of Twelve books seek to hearken back to a time when underground comix were crass, politically incorrect (though I think this would be a time before political correctness was a term) satirical, and funny. As a result of this and their monthly bar meetings to imbibe and draw, the House of Twelve collective is often regarded as a bunch of crazy drunks. Which is a tarnished badge of honor, for many a golden era cartoonist was a crazy drunk as well.
Each anthology features a different theme picked by founding member and publisher Cheese Hasselberger, which the artists then expound on in their own unique ways. Themes have included such heady topics as religion, obscenity, and in the most current release, war. If youre looking for a thoughtful assessment of the current war and what its done to our country, well, you should probably read World War 3 or something. But for a hilarious pisstake on humanity’s most violent impulses, this is the book for you.
To learn more about the books, comic jam, and other House of 12 related ephemera, visit houseoftwelve.com.
Jenny Gonzalez is a New York City cartoonist and punk rock singer. You can see her stuff at jennydevildoll.com.
As one of the Horrorfest: 8 Movies to Die For the film Mulberry Street takes place in a run down apartment building in Manhattan. Starring Nick Damici, Kim Blair, Ron Brice and Bo Corre. Mulberry is shot in a gritty, realistic low budget style in the vein of 28 Days Later.
The plot is simplistic, a disease runs rampant through Manhattan. It starts in the subway tunnels and back alleys. People are being attacked by rats. Those who are bitten become ill and the tension begins to mount as those who are infected begin to attack those who are healthy. As the movie progresses it veers away from the zombie movie feel by revealing that rather then the infected dying from their wounds they’re being transformed into rat like creatures.
It doesn’t take long for the film to pull back from the overall picture to the tenants of the apartment building on Mulberry Street. The retired boxer, his daughter, returning from the war, her face scarred from shrapnel. The flamboyantly gay next door neighbor who helped to raise the girl and the waitress and her son who live on the next floor up. Mix in a handyman who spends too much time in the basement and an old man who is bedridden and breathing off of an oxygen tank and you have an ensemble cast of blue collar and lower middle class people struggling just to get by day to day. It’s the perfect set up for an urban tale of terror and the struggle to survive.
Posted by Guest Author on Dec 27, 2007 in Comic Books
Our Top Indie Cartoonists to Watch For in 2008: Keeping true to our “Anti-Superheroes in Tights” mood at fanboy, we took a look back at the comic books and graphic novels that caught our eye:
“Fishtown” has an interesting story behind it, and not just because it’s a heavily fictionalized account of an actual incident. Creator Kevin Colden may be the first person to win a Xeric grant—and turn it down, in favor of distributing Fishtown for free on the internet, specifically the LiveJournal comics community Act I Vate. This doesn’t rule out the chances of Fishtown ever seeing print, but for the impatient of us there’s always the internet.
The story centers around teen brothers Keith and Adrian, whose main interests are both doing and dealing drugs. Keith’s other interest ishooking up with their clique’s token girl member, Angelica, a smack addicted, self-mutilating trainwreck who’s affections swerve between Keith, his friend Justin, and murder-victim-to-be Jesse. The story jumps back and forth in time between the aftermath of the murder and the events leading up to it, and shows how each of the teen killers has been affected.
Kevin renders his pages in a two-tone palette of muted yellow and blue, sickly hues which simultaneously evoke the dim lighting of an interrogation room or mental hospital and the haze of a drug trip, both of which are fitting for this story. The characters are often very distant looking, illustrating the facades they put up for each other and the authorities, with occasional flashes of expressiveness revealing their inner turmoil. Now, Act I Vate can be a little tricky to read through for a newcomer, what with over 20 different graphic stories being serialized on it at the same time, but fortunately there’s an archive of Fishtown.
Jenny Gonzalez is a New York City cartoonist and punk rock singer. You can see her stuff at jennydevildoll.com.
Posted by Guest Author on Dec 26, 2007 in Comic Books
Our Top Ten Anime and Manga Series to Watch For in 2008: It’s easy to find out about a Bleach or a Naruto once it’s being aired on Cartoon Network, but it can take years for an anime to be licensed, dubbed, and put on TV. So here’s our sneak peek at one of the ten manga or anime series that we feel are likely to hit it big in America in 2008:
Gantz (manga) Status: Still running in Japan; Licensed by Dark Horse
Although the anime was released in the U.S. in 2004, it took until 2007 for someone to finally license Hiroya Oku’s sci-fi/supernatural action manga Gantz. It even came out in Spanish as early as 2002! The long-overdue announcement was made at Anime Expo 2007 to overjoyed fans of the fantastic- and violent -drama.
Gantz‘s uniquely gripping story revolves around people who have already died. Specifically, two high school boys- Kei and Masaru -are run over by a subway train, only to awaken seemingly alive and well in an unfurnished apartment in Tokyo along with a number of other people who have just recently died. In the room is a sphere called “Gantz,” from which the characters acquire ability-enhancing suits, weapons, and instructions on how to play the game.
The game is a bit like playing a video game, but in real life: the players must find and destroy aliens secretly living in Japan. They can’t leave a certain designated area, and if they live through the mission they get sent back to the sphere in perfect health, regardless of how near death they had been. Those who don’t survive, of course, die- for real, this time.
Gia Manry is a Portland, OR-based professional writer specializing in pop culture/entertainment writing. Read up on more of her work at giapet.net or hire her at GiaManry.com.
Retro good fans will enjoy Maywa Denki’s 2002-2003 series of “oldie- but-goodie” interface revivals. On the left is the Zihotch. Apparently you dial 117 on the phone dial and “schedule” a wakeup call or you just dial to hear an automated time announcement. On the right is the Gachacon. It brings back the rotary switch as a means to change channels on your TV remotely. I doubt it’s fully compatible with all sets (but the packaging mentions what Japanese models it’s compatible with).
Nick Kent is a New York based artist who works with electronic media and is an occasional pop culture pundit.
Posted by Guest Author on Dec 24, 2007 in Animation
Our Top Ten Anime and Manga Series to Watch For in 2008: It’s easy to find out about a Bleach or a Naruto once it’s being aired on Cartoon Network, but it can take years for an anime to be licensed, dubbed, and put on TV. So here’s our sneak peek at one of the ten manga or anime series that we feel are likely to hit it big in America in 2008:
Romeo x Juliet (anime) Status: Aired in Japan; Unlicensed
You may think that since you read Romeo and Juliet in high school, you don’t need to read this description, but I guarantee that you do. Gonzo’s Romeo x Juliet is like no version you’ve ever seen before. Set on the floating island of Neo-Verona, home to many pegasi, RxJ is a fantasy take on the tale.
While the series is unlicensed, Gonzo has made noise against fansubs of the series via FUNimation, which has not announced the series as being licensed- leading fans to speculation on Gonzo’s release plans. In any case, the series features a rather strong, sword-fighting Juliet as the only remaining member of the house of Capulet, which was destroyed by the leader of the Montague house years before. Montague is now the Duke of Neo-Verona, while the Capulets lay in the dust.
Juliet, who frequently defends the townspeople using the name The Red Wind, is given the task of restoring the family honor by defeating Montague, but not until after she’s already met and fallen for Romeo. The decisions that she makes will alter the lives of those around her irreparably- and in more ways than any of them imagine.
Below: The opening titles for Romeo x Juliet.
Gia Manry is a Portland, OR-based professional writer specializing in pop culture/entertainment writing. Read up on more of her work at giapet.net or hire her at GiaManry.com.
Posted by Guest Author on Dec 24, 2007 in Comic Books
Our Top Indie Cartoonists to Watch For in 2008: Keeping true to our “Anti-Superheroes in Tights” mood at fanboy, we took a look back at the comic books and graphic novels that caught our eye:
Autobio is a tricky thing. It’s easy to become bland or self-important. And even an interesting life can suffer these fates in the hands of an inept storyteller. Or a once-entertaining autobio comic can degenerate into nothing but panel after panel of masterbation, both figuratively and literally. But take heart autobio readers, because there are also books like “Escape From Special” to take us out of the doldrums.
Miss’s protagonist “Melissa”, has an atypical childhood of counselors, special classes, and self-provoked angst as she questions her reality and the presumptions of all those around her,. She’s a sharp kid, and parents, teachers, and peers alike are not sure what to make of her. And neither will anyone looking for a trite, sentimental portrayal of childhood—this stuff is a real story about a real kid. I could relate to the somewhat progressive-yet in other ways conventional parents and the latter half of the book especially, where Melissa in her preteen years begins to question more her place with her peers, the needs to fit in and the burning question of whether she even wants to fit in with the typically lame suburban girls that plague her adolescence..And it’s all rendered in Miss’s unique and stunning grey marker style. This girl gets a range of depth out of a set of Pantones that few can match.
“Escape From Special” is available through Fantagraphics and a sequel is slated for sometime in 2008, possibly 2009. And if I haven’t convinced you to give it a try, check out the samples on her Comicspace page.
Jenny Gonzalez is a New York City cartoonist and punk rock singer. You can see her stuff at jennydevildoll.com.
Posted by Guest Author on Dec 23, 2007 in Animation
Our Top Ten Anime and Manga Series to Watch For in 2008: It’s easy to find out about a Bleach or a Naruto once it’s being aired on Cartoon Network, but it can take years for an anime to be licensed, dubbed, and put on TV. So here’s our sneak peek at one of the ten manga or anime series that we feel are likely to hit it big in America in 2008:
Ouran High School Host Club (anime) Status: Aired in Japan; Unlicensed
For reasons unbeknownst to anyone, FUNimation sat on this license for quite some time before announcing it; it actually aired in Japan in 2006. Nonetheless, the shoujo reverse harem series (reverse in that it’s one girl surrounded by many good-looking guys) is a big hit with both the ladies and the gentlemen for both its zany humor and it’s relatively subtle drama.
Haruhi Fujioka is the lone impoverished scholarship student at Ouran High School, a school for kids so rich that a group of boys started a Host Club to entertain their female schoolmates in. One day Haruhi stumbles upon the Host Club while seeking a quiet place to study and instead accidentally breaks an expensive vase- and becomes the club’s newest toy to pay for it. At first a mere gopher, Haruhi eventually is given a makeover and becomes a host…then, and only then, do the guys realize that Haruhi is actually a girl.
The real genius of Host Club, though, isn’t the switcheroo it plays on classic gender roles. The true brilliance is that while the comedy stems from poking fun at traditional shoujo romance archetypes, the drama comes almost entirely from watching the characters grow up and learn who they are, a refreshing change of pace from the usual soap opera anime.
Below: Opening titles for Ouran High School Host Club.
Gia Manry is a Portland, OR-based professional writer specializing in pop culture/entertainment writing. Read up on more of her work at giapet.net or hire her at GiaManry.com.
The third version of the classic Richard Matheson novel, I Am Legend tells the tale of a world wiped out by a plague that kills 90% of the human race and turns the rest into monsters. The first movie was the 1964 classic The Last Man on Earth and starred Vincent Price in the lead role as Dr. Robert Morgan. The second treatment was the classic The Omega Man with Charlton Heston taking the role of Dr. Robert Neville in 1971.
The current movie, after spending close to a decade in limbo features Will Smith (Independence Day, I, Robot, Men in Black) picking of the mantle of Dr. Neville in a Manhattan sealed off from the rest of the world. What starts out as being a miracle cure for cancer spins wildly out of control and becomes the ultimate super plague. In an effort to contain the virus a decision is made to seal off Manhattan and prevent the infected from leaving and therefore saving the rest of the world.
Three years later the world is a wasteland and Neville and his dog Sam are the only survivors in the city. They spend the day foraging for food and searching for other survivors via an AM radio broadcast. It’s during the night that they’re forced to go into hiding from the vampire like creatures that the virus didn’t kill but rather mutated into savage monsters.
Posted by Guest Author on Dec 22, 2007 in Animation
Our Top Ten Anime and Manga Series to Watch For in 2008: It’s easy to find out about a Bleach or a Naruto once it’s being aired on Cartoon Network, but it can take years for an anime to be licensed, dubbed, and put on TV. So here’s our sneak peek at one of the ten manga or anime series that we feel are likely to hit it big in America in 2008:
Darker Than Black (anime) Status: Aired in Japan; Licensed by FUNimation
Talk about a pedigree: Darker than Black was animated by BONES, the studio which produced, among other things, Fullmetal Alchemist, Wolf’s Rain, and Blood+. It was directed by Tensai Okamura, who directed the Cowboy Bebop movie and also worked on its TV series, as well as directing the Wolf’s Rain OVA. And perhaps greater than all of these is the music, created by none other than Yoko Kanno, the master who composed music for Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, various Macross series, and a dozen or so others. This collection of anime superstars pulled together a captivating series that is visually and musically stunning.
This week Rob Zombie unleashes his story of Michael Myers, when Halloween comes to DVD. When word of this ambitious project first came out there were three very different opinions on this film being made. One side was the basic ‘oh great another remake’ and expected yet another watered down and lame attempt from a Hollywood that seemed to be out of original ideas. The second was the purists who wanted nothing to do with the new Halloween because nothing could ever top the John Carpenter original. The third group (and the one I firmly belonged in) was They’re redoing Halloween… and they got Rob Zombie to do it? Holy cow this is going to rock!
