Yotsuba v. Yotsuba: What impact can a change in North American publisher have on a manga series? Check out this neat blog post comparing the original ADV Manga version of Yotsuba&! Vol. 4 with the new Yen Press version of the same volume, which was released this Wednesday.  (Via The Beat)

“Since it’s extra long, that means the other 30-odd pages are all stacks of rectangles, pages of them”: In the midst of his weekly excoriation of new comic books, Tucker Stone brings up an interesting point about the bland, static page and panel design you see in certain comics:

Because if you want interesting panel design, or you want interesting drawings, or you just would prefer—you know, comics that are trying to live up to something, as opposed to this safe ass pudding school—you can’t read these things. They don’t have it on a regular enough basis to make it any more reliable than a lottery ticket, and very few of them are drawn by somebody half as interesting as Goran Parlov. But if you just want to read something on a computer—or a PSP, or an iPhone—it’s pretty clear that DC & Marvel are getting you ready for it. All they have to do is give up completely, and they’re more than halfway there.

Damn. I never thought about that before, but he’s right, isn’t he? For more positive remarks from a member of the Stone family, check out Nina Stone’s glowing review of the latest Achewood collection.

Oh good, I’m not the only one who can’t seem to come to terms with a $4 Marvel comic: Here’s Vom Marlowe blogging at the The Hooded Utilitarian about checking out a recent copy of X-Men: Legacy out of curiosity the other day:

I picked it up and read it over coffee at the Squid Cafe, and I was….disappointed. First of all, this sucker cost me four bucks. It’s full of ads for cheesecake statues and Spiderman toothbrush holders. There’s a large excerpt in the back for some other comic. All of which is fine, except—there’s only twenty two pages of comic. For four dollars! That’s seventeen cents per page.

Well, it seemed a bit steep to me, considering I can get nearly two hundred pages of manga for 8.95 (or 5.37 if I have my Borders coupon).

This is the 600th installment of Linkarama@Newsarama: In his monthly look at Marvel’s periodical sales, Paul O’Brien brings up an interesting point about the dodgy math involved with anniversary issues that aren’t really anniversary issues:

And it gets better – because for August, Marvel solicited both HULK #13 and INCREDIBLE HULK #601. So apparently INCREDIBLE HULK #600 is the first issue of a new title which also doubles as HULK #12A. And that means the numbering of the new series is based on including issues of two completely other titles that are still being published.

So even if they’d got the maths right, this would still be perhaps the most artificial “anniversary” issue in history. And of course, on one level, that’s trivial. But anniversary issues generally sell rather well, because they’ve got an aura of significance about them. If you make a complete joke of them, as Marvel are doing with INCREDIBLE HULK, then in the long run that’ll undermine their drawing power.

Ha ha ha! “In the long run!” Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha! Like they’ve ever thought about “the long run” over the course of the last 70 years!

Got a few minutes?: Then you really ought to check out Tom Spurgeon’s long, extremely well-thought out (and entertaining) thoughts on Disney buying Marvel and DC’s restructuring.

Don’t click on this link if you’re feint of heart: At Comics Alliance, Laura Hudson presents the “The 21 Awesomest Superhero Mods for My Little Pony.” They are all completely terrifying, as is the Jack Kirby Mighty Mugg.

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