The Shipping News, 1/20/10

When someone as smart and funny as Jason Thompson tries his hand at writing manga, the results are bound to be interesting. Advanced reviews for his freshman effort King of RPGs (Del Rey) have been mixed, with Melinda Beasi (About.com: Manga) characterizing it as “fast-paced, fun, and gleefully self-mocking” and Nick Smith (ICv2) suggesting that the humor goes so far over the top it yields laughs and “queasy moments” in equal measure. I’ll be honest: the story’s Three Faces of Eve-meets-BakeGyamon premise doesn’t really speak to a non-gamer like me. Still, Thompson is an uncommonly good writer who knows more about manga conventions than just about anyone west of the International Date Line, so I’m planning to pick up a copy on Wednesday.

For folks who haven’t a clue what the acronym MMPORPG stands for, there are plenty of other terrific options. Fumi Yoshinaga’s short story collection All My Darling Daughters (VIZ) has garnered plenty of praise for its witty dialogue and memorable characters. In his review, David Welsh gives Daughters high marks for the complexity and depth of the stories:

Everything is more complicated than it seems in Yoshinaga’s narrative universe. People are both nicer and meaner than they initially seem, and relationships are more quietly satisfying and functional than an observer might assume. Yoshinaga is deeply interested in the grace notes of interpersonal interaction, even in her slighter works. That’s the source of a lot of the pleasure for me – the apparently minor, digressive moments that get to the heart of her characters.

It’s a sentiment echoed by Johanna Draper-Carlson in her appraisal of Daughters. She declares it her “favorite of Yoshinaga’s works,” citing Yoshinaga’s ability to create a realistic family dynamic among a mother, her daughters, and her new, much younger, husband. “This is a very readable comic, with entertaining portrayals of conversation and interaction,” Draper explains, “but with immensely powerful emotions underneath, all the more potent for not being sledgehammmered at the reader.”

Other great choices include Natsume Ono’s not simple (VIZ), a complex thriller that unfolds backwards, a la Memento; the penultimate volume of Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto (VIZ); the eighth and ninth volumes of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack (Vertical, Inc.); and the first volume of Sirial’s One Fine Day (Yen Press), a sweet, atmospheric manhwa about a dog, a cat, and a mouse who… well, they don’t do much, but the series has charm to spare. (Highlights of volume one include a trip to the drug store and baking cookies.) The full shipping list is below.

NEW SERIES/ONE-SHOTS

• All My Darling Daughters (VIZ)
• Black Butler, Vol. 1 (Yen Press)
• King of RPGs, Vol. 1 (Del Rey)
• Laon, Vol. 1 (Yen Press)
• not simple (VIZ)
• One Fine Day, Vol. 1 (Yen Press)

CONTINUING SERIES

• Case Closed, Vol. 33 (VIZ)
• Cat Paradise, Vol. 3 (Yen Press)
• Cirque du Freak, Vol. 4: Vampire Mountain (Yen Press)
• Code Geass: Nightmare of Nunnally, Vol. 4 (Bandai Entertainment)
• Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 22 (VIZ)
• Oh! My Goddess, Vol. 34 (Dark Horse)
• Oishinbo A la Carte, Vol. 7: Pub Food (VIZ)
• Oninagi, Vol. 2 (Yen Press)
• Orfina, Vol. 7 (CMX)
• Pluto: Urazawa x Tezuka, Vol. 7 (VIZ)
• Real, Vol. 7 (VIZ)
• Rin-ne, Vol. 2 (VIZ)
• Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning, Vol. 10 (Yen Press)
• Sunshine Sketch, Vol. 4 (Yen Press)
• Swans in Space, Vol. 2 (UDON Entertainment)
• Tezuka’s Black Jack, Vol. 7 (Vertical, Inc.)
• Tezuka’s Black Jack, Vol. 8 (Vertical, Inc.)
• Tezuka’s Black Jack, Vol. 9 (Vertical, Inc.)
• Vagabond, Vol. 31 (VIZ)
• Vagabond VIZBIG Edition, Vol. 6 (VIZ)
• Venus Capriccio, Vol. 3 (CMX)
• Welcome to Wakaba-Soh, Vol. 2 (Yen Press)