The Shipping News, 2/24/10
To borrow a lyric from Stephen Sondheim, this week’s list features “something familiar, something peculiar, something for everyone,” from the latest volumes of Future Diary and Me & My Brothers (Tokyopop) to the new Mega Man Megamix (UDON Entertainment). My top picks for this week include the seventh volume of Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys (VIZ), a complex sci-fi thriller that remains fresh and compelling, in spite of the time leaps and crazy plot twists; the tenth volume of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Dark Horse), for which David Welsh makes an eloquent case at The Manga Curmudgeon; and the newest addition to the Blood+ franchise, Kowloon Nights (Dark Horse). I wasn’t blown away by Blood+ Adagio — my inner Slavophile spent too much time cataloguing the gross historical errors to totally abandon myself to the plot — but the latest installment has two things going for it: first, everyone’s favorite cello-playing badass is the star attraction, and second, Kowloon Nights sounds like an exotic cocktail, and really, what’s not to like about beverages served with umbrellas and fruit garnishes?
The other title that caught my eye is Hanako and the Terror of Allegory (Tokyopop), a series with a god-awful cover but a premise that sounds right up my alley: the protagonist is a self-described “folklore detective.” (Call me crazy, but don’t we usually refer to “folklore detectives” as “anthropologists”?) Actually, “Urban Legend Equalizer” might be a more apt description of Hanako, as he’s the guy you call when you discover an angry spirit living under your bed or a faceless woman stalking you on the subway. The always-dependable Bill Sherman likens Hanako to Marvel’s Monster comics of the 1970s, a mixture of cheeky laughs and cheesy thrills that won’t astonish, but will entertain. Sounds like a perfect airplane read.
What else is arriving in your local comic book store? Here’s a run-down of new releases, via the Midtown Comics website. For a more complete list of Wednesday’s new arrivals, visit ComiXology.
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It seems like a while since the last Kurosagi, I’m looking forward to this one. Future Diary, on the other hand, seems to come out once a month thouh I’m not complaining.
20th Century Boys 7 really anchors the plot and setting shift back to the original story for those who felt it was a little arbitrary. I think I mentioned before that 6 on its own can be a little jarring.
Speaking of cheeky, was, ‘thrills that won’t astonish,’ intended?
I know — I thought Tokyopop had been spreading out its releases, but it seems like they’re really pushing a few series aggressively. Volume one of Alice in the Country of Hot Guys was released on January 27th, so I was really surprised to see volume two in this week’s list. Wish I could persuade someone at Viz to release volumes of 20th Century Boys on that schedule!
Yeah, that line was intentional, though re-reading it, I’m not sure it makes sense. Wanna be my copy editor? I could pay in chocolate bars!
[...] Welsh, Brad Rice, Gia Manry, and Kate Dacey look at this week’s most promising new [...]
Haha, considering my penchant for meandering babble, I need to stay far away from editing anything. I’m having trouble telling people how to roll dice and add numbers in a clear, succinct manner.
Ah, by the way! Most of these books are slated for a March 2nd release from Amazon and other newer releases seem to be running pretty thin. I’d venture a guess that the nasty weather delay is catching up with western distribution now.