– Artist Shepard Fairey, who designed the “Hope” Obama poster, tells Boing Boing he’s pleased as punch to have his work parodied by Mad Magazine: “I consider a high point in my career for pop culture recognition.”

– Laura Hudson talks to James Kochalka about the 10th anniversary of his diary strip, American Elf.

– Hudson also interviews librarian and comics advocate Karen Green, who has a column over at Comixology.

– Doug Wolk looks at Bill Willingham’s upcoming plans for Fables, which include a prose novel.

– Bookslut talks to Phoebe Gloeckner.

– I hadn’t heard about this — cartoonist Carol Lay has a book coming out entitled The Big Skinny, about her lifelong battle with her weight. Wendy Werris has more details.

– Geeknerd’s annual Halloween Costume Bingo is up.

– Frank Santoro takes a look at the new Bat-Manga! collection and declares it good.

– Kristy Valenti takes time to remember the 1986 graphic novel Greenberg the Vampire, one of Marvel’s early entries into the graphic novel market.

– Noah Berlatsky thinks superhero comics are at their best when they don’t take themselves too seriously.

– Everyone and their uncle seems to be talking about Inio Asano’s Solanin, now in stores courtesy of Viz.

I’ve written enough about Halloween-appropriate books over the past couple of weeks, so I won’t highlight titles like Bernie Wrightson’s Frankenstein, or Screamland, or Cthulhu Tales #7, or Hellboy: The Chapel of Moloch.

Instead, I’ll focus on a Batman manga twofer: the collection of Yoshinori Natsume’s Batman: Death Mask, and the much-anticipated Bat-Manga! The Secret History of Batman in Japan.

If Batman, or manga, isn’t your cup of tea, there’s Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns, which further lays the groundwork for DC’s next big events. For those in a more political mood, there’s American Presidents and more biographies of John McCain and Barack Obama.

Or, while we’re on the subject of biographies, there’s always Bill Schelly’s Man of Rock: A Biography of Joe Kubert.

To see what other titles Chris Mautner and I think are worth mentioning, just keep reading. As always, let us know your choices in the comments below.

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The tenure of new Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has been dealt its first political casualty: his comics-reading time.

The self-professed otaku, elected last month after the surprise resignation of Yasuo Fukuda, complained Sunday in a stump speech that, “It’s hard to read comic books as my time is now restricted.”

“This is already Sunday this week,” Aso told a crowd in Tokyo’s famed Akihabara district. “I’ve read Sunday and Magazine of the last week but haven’t got to Jump and Morning.” (He was referring to three major manga anthologies for boys, and one for men.)

It’s no coincidence that Aso chose the pop-culture paradise as the backdrop for his first street speech since taking office on Sept. 24. He used it as a platform from which to hail manga and anime as key exports.

“Japan’s subculture of animation has been overwhelmingly accepted in the world,” he said. “Japan’s culture is not only kabuki or no play. Comic books, our subculture power, have been widely read in not only Asia but Europe, the United States, Latin America.”

Here’s some excellent publishing news for fans of the indie manga scene: Ryan at Same Hat announced that Top Shelf will be publishing a 400-page anthology culling work from the seminal bimonthly underground magazine AX:

This gigantic book was co-edited by author Sean Michael Wilson and AX co-founder Mitsuhiro Asakawa. Sean is a comic book writer from Scotland, now an ex-pat living in working in Japan. He’s published a number of books, nine graphic novels, and his first English-language manga was published this past summer. Asakawa-san is an author and current editor of AX, and worked in the 90s on the staff of GARO, along with writing a number of books on alternative manga and gekiga.

AX was formed when the seminal underground geikga magazine Garo closed its doors several years ago, and has published work by such influential manga-ka as Suehiro Maruo, Shinichi Abe and Usamaru Furuya. Yusaku Hanakuma’s Tokyo Zombie, recently published in the U.S. by Last Gasp, was intially serialized in AX.

According to Ryan, Wilson will be at APE, hosting a panel on the magazine and its history and giving away a 16-page sampler. And here’s where I curse myself for living on the East Coast.

• Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki‘s Skim has been shortlisted for the Canada Council for the Arts’s 2008 Governor General’s Literary Awards in the Children’s Literature-Text category. [Xtra]

• An Italian prosecutor claims that a vampire manga — which one, I don’t know — inspired Raffaele Sollecito to kill Meredith Kercher in 2007. The defense calls the theory “stupid.” Curiously, earlier this year British tabloids tried to link the bloody murder to Akira. [BBC News]

• Designer and author Chip Kidd talks briefly about Bat-manga! The Secret History of Batman in Japan: “”It was a labour-of-love project, an act of graphic-novel reclamation, if you want to call it that.” [National Post]

• Suzan Colón of The Advocate is encouraged by the promise of two non-heterosexual characters in James Robinson’s new Justice League series: Batwoman and the alien Starman. She also rattles off a list of “seven of the most memorable queer heroes.” [Advocate.com]

• If you’re thinking about starting a blog, don’t. Paul Boutin says the Age of the Solo Blogger is over: “Scroll down Technorati’s list of the top 100 blogs and you’ll find personal sites have been shoved aside by professional ones. Most are essentially online magazines: The Huffington Post. Engadget. TreeHugger. A stand-alone commentator can’t keep up with a team of pro writers cranking out up to 30 posts a day.” [Wired]

A librarian in Brooklyn, N.Y., has been fined $500 for promoting his daughter’s graphic-novel adaptation of Macbeth in a newsletter he distributes at a local high school.

According to The New York Times, Robert Grandt listed Shakespeare’s Macbeth: The Manga Edition, which his daughter Eve Grandt co-created for John Wiley & Sons, as “Best New Book” under the heading “Grandt’s Picks.” He also displayed copies on a library table at Brooklyn Technical High School with a sign that read, “Best Book Ever Written.” The book was given for free to those interested.

On Monday the city’s Conflict of Interests board announced that it had settled its case against Robert Grandt, who agreed to pay a $500 fine and admit he had violated the city ethics code by promoting his daughter’s work.

Needless to say, Grandt isn’t pleased by the decision. “It’s unbelievable,” he told The Times.

There are certain comics stories that appear again and again and again in the mainstream press: “comics aren’t just for kids,” “the kids love the manga,” AK Comics’ line of Middle Eastern superheroes, and those “And he still lives in Coatsbridge!” profiles of Mark Millar in UK newspapers.

Add to that list articles about Kami No Shizuku (“The Drops of the Gods”), the manga that spawned a wine craze in East Asia. As near as I can tell, the story originally surfaced in April 2007, and has bobbed about like a cork ever since. This is the fifth time I’ve blogged about it here — and that’s with ignoring the articles that appeared last month.

So, why am I blogging about it again? Because The New York Times this morning profiles the manga’s creators, Yuko Kibayashi and her brother Shin, who write under the pseudonym Tadashi Agi:

The comic — which appears every Thursday in Japan in a magazine called the Weekly Morning and has been compiled in 17 books so far — rapidly became a hit in East Asia, where people are still learning to drink wine and may feel insecure about it. Even in Japan, the region’s oldest and biggest wine market, annual per capita consumption is around 2 liters, compared with nearly 9 liters in the United States or 56 liters in France, according to the California-based Wine Institute’s figures for 2005.

In Japan, wine sellers grab copies of the magazine as soon as it comes out on Thursdays, quickly showcasing a featured wine in their stores or on their Web sites. According to Enoteca, a large chain, men in their 30s to 50s tend to ask for wines from the magazine, especially those priced around $30.

In related news, supermarkets in the United States are still waiting for that Martian Manhunter series so they can feature it with the Oreo display.

Papillon Vol. 1
by Miwa Ueda
Del Rey, 192 pages, $10.95.

Papillon is the type of Cinderella, “ugly girl cleans up nice” story that seems to be de rigueur for a lot of shojo manga these days, at least the ones I’ve read (apart from all the “mousy girl stumbles into fantastic other dimension where only she has the power to save the universe” thing I mean). It’s not a genre I can work up a lot of enthusiasm for since it seems to assume that a good makeover and learning to play the arm candy role are all that’s needed for today’s woman to feel fulfilled (the original Sabrina with Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart being my one exception). (more…)

Charities have realized that comics characters are an effective way to get money and attention, but for every authorized use — such as the Met’s superhero fashion exhibit or Diane von Furstenberg’s Wonder Woman collection — there are countless other examples of charities using comic-book icons without permission. Every so often, a publisher clamps down on one of these initiatives–and their reward is typically negative press. Just this month, for example, DC Comics was criticized for not giving the Heroes Initiative permission to include pictures of DC properties in The 3-Minute Sketchbook.

Singling out DC is a bit unfair — Marvel has had its own share of charitable controversy, and DC has allowed its characters to be used for other charitable projects — but the broader question raised by such incidents is not unreasonable. After all, if the money is going to a charity, why shouldn’t a publisher just let its characters help a good cause?

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– The marketing juggernaut continues: Sam Thielman talks with Art Spiegelman about the latter’s new book, Breakdowns.

– The comic strip Rhymes With Orange has a new Web site.

– Chris Arrant profiles Faith Erin Hicks and her new comic The War at Ellsmere.

– Eddie Campbell guides you through Comic Book Morality 101.

– Todd Allen looks at some of the new Webcomic offerings from Shadowline, Liquid and Marvel, and smells trouble … for them.

– Chip Zdarsky shares his ideas for Marvel Comics and it’s totally NSFW (hat tip: Heidi).

– Brigid Alverson writes about plans for the upcoming Haruhi Suzumiya manga.

– Spurious has an interesting essay on Charles Crumb, Robert’s late, tragic older brother.

– Erin Finnegan looks at Tokyopop’s release of Otsuichi’s Goth novel and manga.

– Richard O’Connor blogs about working on an animated They Might Be Giants video with Kim Deitch.

After a couple of somewhat slow weeks, Marvel and DC return to their summer event comics with new issues of Secret Invasion and Final Crisis — plus a pair of tie-ins, of course.

They don’t stop there, though. DC’s Vertigo imprint rolls out collections of Northlanders and Y: The Last Man, and re-releases Paul Pope’s Heavy Liquid as a hardcover. Not to be outdone, Marvel brings out their dead, and undead, with omnibus editions of Frank Miller’s Elektra, and The Tomb of Dracula.

Elsewhere, Blank Slate Books debuts Trains Are Mint and We Can Still Be Friends, Rebellion revisits The Ace Trucking Co., Viz delivers the penultimate volume of Naoki Urasawa’s Monster, and Del Rey and Dabel Bros. unleash The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle.

To see what other titles Chris Mautner and I think are worth mentioning, just keep reading. As always, let us know your choices in the comments below.

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Mike Lynch shares a 1953 book of Japanese children’s stories.

– The Lego enthusiast known as oxcrew has decided to retell the origin of Two-Face using … well, you figure it out. (hat tip: The Ephemerist)

– So Time Magazine is doing gag cartoons now? That’s interesting.

– David Welsh examines Jiro Taniguchi’s The Quest for the Missing Girl.

– Paul Hornschmeier has an amusing new T-shirt available for puchase.

– DJ Coffman and Scott Kurtz go at it on the Internet, and everyone wins.

– Spot the Frog creator Mark Heath has a new Web site up, promoting his gag cartoons.

For a while now, Viz’s movie division has been releasing their ongoing slate of live-action films (almost all based on popular manga and anime titles like Nana or Love.Com) as one or two-night showings in select theaters across the country, the better, one imagines to gather j-pop faithful in one spot, thus creating more of an blessed event than an average night out at the movies.

So imagine my delight when I found out that a special screening Death Note II: The Last Name would be occurring at a theater only a mere 40 minutes from my humble abode! Being a fan of the original 12-volume manga by writer Tsugumi Ohba and artist Takeshi Obata (at least up until volume nine or thereabouts) this seemed like too good an opportunity to miss. No waiting for the DVD or Internet piracy for me bucko! Perhaps there would even be cosplay at the cinema! Should I get my hand-made Ryuk costume (lots of duct tape and boa feathers) out of the mothballs? (more…)

– 20 things Every Superhero Comic Collection Needs.

– Laura Hudson talks to Brian Azzarello about his upcoming Joker graphic novel.

– Seth is curating a series of films from the National Film Board of Canada. Drawn! has the details.

– The Mindless Ones look at the work of ero-guru artist Suehiro Maruo (note: some images are probably NSFW).

– Peter Sanderson looks at the new edition of Patrick Rosenkranz’s seminal history of underground comix, Rebel Visions.

– Fantasy.fr has an interview with Devilman creator and manga-ka Go Nagai.

– Judith Rosen checks out the Comics and Classics store in Jacksonville Beach, Fla.

– Craig Fischer has a short interview with alt-cartoonist Ben Towle.

– Evie Nagy looks at all the political comics coming out this month.

– Ooooo, I’m a Johnny Storm!

– Noah Berlatsky did not like David Heatley’s new book. Like, at all.

With slightly more than two weeks to go, publishers are ramping up their Halloween-themed releases, from superheroes battling the supernatural to a boy dreaming of becoming a vampire.

Shadowline kicks off its Silverline all-ages imprint with Dear Dracula just as The Hulk slugs it out with Frankenstein’s monster, and Superman and Batman team up to tackle vampires and werewolves. Plus, there’s a Hack/Slash special, and another installment of Ben Templesmith’s Welcome to Hoxford.

If pre-Halloween chills aren’t for you, there’s always the second issue of Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds, Art Spiegelman’s Breakdowns, or the third issue of Jeff Smith’s Rasl.

To see what other titles Chris Mautner and I think are worth mentioning, just keep reading. As always, let us know your choices in the comments below.

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IcV2 has a big two-part interview with Tokyopop Associate Publisher Marco Pavia about the company’s recent reorganization and their plans for the future:

Drilling down into Tokyopop-specific questions, you mentioned earlier about cutting back on the number of titles.  Can you tell us where you are on that in terms of monthly output, and what are you looking at for 2009 for release flow?

We’ve adjusted our publishing program.  We had been publishing around 40 or so volumes each month, and we cut that down to closer to 25 volumes per month.  We adjusted the release frequency of certain series, so instead of publishing bi-monthly or every three months, we’ve been stretching them out a bit to maybe every four to six months so we’re not shoving so much product out each month.

Just to be clear (I know there have been a lot of Internet rumors), we have not cancelled any series; we’ve really just adjusted the release pattern of certain series.  This allows us to have a more narrowly focused and fiercer list. I was just looking at the BookScan report from last week and we had a pretty healthy growth over the prior week with titles like Loveless,+Anima, and .Hack and even some of our more niche-y products, some of our yaoi, books like Junjo Romantica have charted in the top 50 in BookScan and we’re seeing great success with our Warcraft and Starcraft programs.  Our Gothic and Lolita Bible has really taken off; it’s something a bit different for us, but through our various marketing efforts we’ve really been embraced by the Gothic and Lolita community.

Pavia goes on to state that the company is pulling in a profit, and that they plan to publish two new series by Fruits Basket creator Natsuki Takaya in the coming months: Phantom Dream and Tsubasa: Those With Wings.

– Tom Spurgeon interviews Bill Schelly, who’s new biography of Joe Kubert, Man of Rock, should be out in stores any day now.

– In more depressing newspaper news: Acclaimed editorial cartoonist Chip Bok is taking a buyout and leaving The Akron Beacon-Journal. The number of full-time, on-staff cartoonists at daily papers gets smaller and smaller. Of course, so does the number of editors, reporters, photographers …

– On the BBC, they’re talking about comics.

– The Daily Cross Hatch begins a multi-part interview with Art Spiegelman.

– Go! Comi are so excited about their new 07-GHOST series that they’ve set up a whole Web site for it.

– Cool things to bookmark: Elizabeth Conley, Elena Diaz, Pancha Diaz, Andrew Farago, Shaenon Garrity, Konstantin Pogorelov, Jason Thompson, and Leia Weathington have formed a new group blog, titled The Couscous Collective.

– Steven De Souza, who wrote the screenplay for the 1987 Spirit TV-movie (remember that?) offers his thoughts on the upcoming Frank Miller film.

As Americans brace themselves for tonight’s presidential debate, it’s fitting that tomorrow marks the release of IDW Publishing’s heavily promoted biographies of Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama.

In a similar vein, Wednesday also will see After 9/11: America’s War on Terror, Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon’s follow-up to their celebrated adaptation of the 9/11 Report.

But if politics and war — and the politics of war — aren’t your bag, you’ll also find the first issue of the new Marvel Zombies miniseries, the third installment of Grady Klein’s The Lost Colony series, oversized editions of Hellboy and I Luv Halloween, and an Owly collection. Those are just for starters, though.

To see what other titles Chris Mautner and I think are worth mentioning, just keep reading. As always, let us know your choices in the comments below.

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Jason Thompson, author of Manga: The Complete Guide, makes a cameo in a chapter of Hiro Mashima’s Fairy Tail as Jason, a reporter for the Weekly Sorcerer. Thompson explains on his blog how it came about.