Erica Friedman: Interview with a Manga Publishing Pioneer

Above: Rica ‘tte Kanji!? really proved to an American audience that manga didn’t have to be about magical girls or robots, but could tell personal stories about the real world. Currently an Rica ‘tte Kanji!? Omnibus is being produced.

When you are around manga and graphic novels a lot, one voice or genre might pop up, and that is the alternative press of gay and lesbian that is quite popular among readers and fans. You don’t have to even be a fan for this genre, but be open minded to know that it is there. Within the past couple of weeks, there has been an issue of censorship in graphic novels on Amazon Kindle. So this week we are happy to have an email interview with ALC Publishing and Yuricon founder Erica Friedman. Erica’s blog is called Okazu which are the wonderful Japanese bread with savory fillings. Read more…

Tags: Anime, censorship, interview, manga

The $#*!heads at the Parents Television Council

The amount of $#*! that William Shatner has to deal with mind-numbing! After waiting years for a decent payday he was left out of the reboot of Star Trek last year, and then just to rub salt in his wound they let Leonard Nimoy have a major role. Then Nimoy announces he’s retiring from acting which then scuttles the next film for Mr. Shatner. But William Shatner never says die! He manages to stick it to Hollywood and land the leading role in a television series Shit My Dad Says. But some people (the folks at the Parents Television Council) were unhappy with the title — so CBS changed the title to $#*! My Dad Says. But nooooooo that still wasn’t good enough for them: Read more…

Tags: censorship, William Shatner