Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 31, 2011 in Comic Books, Tech
Kondansha’s Morning 2 Manga magazine will be released in a digital version for both the iPhone/iPad and Android devices. What’s shown in the illustration is just a mock up, but what’s interesting to me is that this looks to be a larger part of the book industry flocking to mobile. Of course my hopes are that Kondansha will start to directly sell translated manga to the American market directly in this way, but that may take some time. In the meantime you can download the app here (which is in Japanese).
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 29, 2010 in Comic Books, Tech
Pity us poor anime and manga fans who have to settle for mere Facebook for in Japan the social media service Mixi will be rolling out a series of premium manga themed new year’s cards for 2011. Included in the series is Nodame Cantabile (shown above) and Moyashimon (shown below). By the way sadly for us Gaijin signing up Mixi requires a Japanese cell phone.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 27, 2010 in Comic Books
On thing you can say about manga is that it hasn’t gone to the dogs — I’ve recently caught three cat items that got my attention in the manga world. Shown above is the cover of volume of On Thursday Furutto which is a cat gag manga that was just released. Below is another kawaii girl and her cute but slightly oversized kitty which is from a new manga series that will appear in IKKI magazine: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 26, 2010 in Comic Books, Tech
The tech fanboy in me loves this: Tta me! is a four-frame comic that’s been published as a proper full volume. The manga isn’t so much a Twitter how-to book but rather focuses on the social media service as a comedic/romantic plot device. Tta me! is written by Kawamura Kazuhiro and illustrated by Ajiko Kozima — and it’s available at Amazon.jp here. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 5, 2010 in Comic Books
The Devil is So Cute is a collection of the work of manga artist Takako Shimura. What I really love about this cover is not that it’s just a good manga cover, but that the fact that it’s a beautiful illustration and well designed. Honestly when was the last time you found an American comic book that featured the color combination of chartreuse, pale yellow and mauve with polka dots? And even though I can’t read Japanese the ultra thin typography in gray looks wonderfully elegant.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 5, 2010 in Comic Books
Could it be that maids are about to go out of style? Shown above is a promotional illustration for Military High School Joshi-Kouhei which will be a new manga series by Matsumoto Zirou in the monthly comic magazine Bunch. The series will harken back to the good old days of manga and anime and prominently feature sci fi themes in the tradition of Leiji Matsumoto (which I think is a good thing).
The minute I looked at this illustration it caught my eye right away as the lead protagonist in the image is surrounded by a sea of screen shots of roll playing videogames and an assortment of brightly colored baubles and baked goods. This artwork is a promotional illustration for a new manga series that’s running in the latest issue of Margaret magazine and from my crude translation the name of the series is Controller Prince. From what I can see the manga focuses of the romantic adventures of a young lady online who plays “a good game of love”. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 8, 2010 in Comic Books
One of my joys is to walk through a Japanese bookstore and to gawk at all of the beautiful cover illustrations — they’re always so inspiring as a designer. Although I should note that with this collection that these these illustrations aren’t all covers for comic books — but sometimes covers for books that are done in a manga style. Shown above is Hoshikawa Ginza 4-Chome which caught my eye due the wonderful use of pastel colors. What follows are ten illustrations from Japan that recently caught my eye: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 17, 2010 in Comic Books
Illustrator Shigeyuki Fukumitsu created this hamburger themed manga shopping bag for Village Vanguard, a bookstore chain in Japan. What’s funny about it is that the illustration reminds me a great deal of the character Wimpy from Popeye who unlike his vegan sailor pal loved hamburgers: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 5, 2010 in Comic Books
If you’re lucky enough to be in Japan this July do yourself a favor and make it a point to see an exhibition which will be honoring Machiko Hasegawa (長谷川町子) at the Sazae Setagaya Literary Museum (here’s an Adobe Acrobat file with details in Japanese). Machiko lived from 1920 until 1992 and her best known work is her comic strip Sazae-san (サザエさん) which focused on modern family life in Japan during the post-war era. The manga was one of the longest running comics series in Japan (about 10,000 strips!) and lasted from 1946 until 1974 when Machiko retired. But it wasn’t just the quality and the quantity of her work that Machiko Hasegawa stand out as she was one of the first women manga artists in Japan, which is why I wish that more otaku knew about her work. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 4, 2010 in Comic Books
This August 2010 cover of Monthly Shonen Rival caught my eye because of the very hungry looking cat who seems to be enjoying eating a watermelon. The cat and cat girl are from the manga Was in! Medium Teacher (ほんとにあった！霊媒先生) which just published its fifth volume: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 21, 2010 in Comic Books
Liquid City, Volume 2 looks like a must read item if you call yourself any kind of manga fanboy (or fangurl). This second volume in the series is due out at the end of September and features the work of a collection of artists from Southeast Asia. The beautiful cover shown above is by Shelly Wan and the book features work by Lat, Sonny Liew, Miel and Charlene Chua: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 14, 2010 in Comic Books
There was a magic moment in my life when I first ventured into Japanese bookstores here in New York City. Mind you that this was many moons ago, but as an art school student I knew that shows like Star Blazers came from Japan. Not speaking Japanese the first books that caught my attention were the Roman Albums, which were (and still are) published by Tokuma Shoten. These books were miniature coffee table guides to a series, but they left me with a hunger to see the comic books that inspired these amazing animated shows. Nippon Books was a tiny store (which went out of business a quite a few years ago) so it was with a great delight that I discovered the Kinokuniya book store. Read more…
In Japan there’s an amazing charity exhibition of Blythe dolls which take their inspiration from well known manga characters. Included in the exhibit are Blythe dolls dressed up as Tezuka’s Black Jack (shown above), Cardcaptor Sakura, Cyborg 009, Felix the Cat and Minky Momo: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 4, 2010 in Comic Books
Advertorials are those sponsored sections in magazines which are usually trying to give you the soft sell — so I was somewhat surprised to see that not only has this approach been adopted to manga, but used to sell beer in Japan! From my crude translation this is a special publication sponsored by Suntory premium malts and is a “celebration of father’s day” which is June 20th. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 3, 2010 in Comic Books
Manga Mad is a documentary made a few years ago that is now available on Hulu (seen above). The video is only an hour long and a bit flashy, however it does have quite a few good mini-interviews. I was quite impressed to see clips of Leiji Matsumoto, Japanese comic book shop owners, a publisher from Kodansha and best of all Yoshihiro Yonezawa the founder of the Comiket Market who passed away not long after the documentary came out. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 27, 2010 in Comic Books
As a creative professional one of my favorite forms of inspiration is to visit Japanese bookstores and look through the most recent manga and magazine covers. Unlike the United States there is still a strong market for illustration — and even better yet the variety of styles that you see is just amazing. So I’ve put together a gallery of covers that have caught my eye over the last few months to share these gems. Shown above is the cover for Gee Not which started life as a web comic. I love how the main character and her cats are surrounded by a colorful variety of colorful pachinko machines — another nice touch is how the typography is boxing her in as well. Below is the cover for Ctrl + T which is a book cover for a collection of manga by several artists: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 15, 2010 in Comic Books
It’s all too often that comic books are really about escapism, but every so often you see a book that tackles the issues of society. And one such manga is Hagane no Onna by Hukaya Kaoru which has touched a raw nerve in Japan — now up to its sixth volume (shown above) this manga focuses on a teacher who has to deal with out of control kids and their overly demanding parents. Apparently the book has been so successful that a live action television drama has been produced based on manga and will go on the air in late May in Japan. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 5, 2010 in Comic Books
Above: Gesture drawings by the illustrator Don Low.
I just took a look at a webcomic which almost had it all — slick photoshop coloring, a comic book font and an almost dead on faux anime style. Computers area great tool because with some talent you can make anything look pretty finished, but there’s always a stiff quality to aspiring comic book artists who haven’t taken a life drawing class. The reason is that in life drawing you start off with what are known as gesture drawings. The model warms up by changing poses quickly and the artists have to capture the essence of the model within seconds by drawing just a few lines. What’s brilliant about this technique is that it forces an artist to throw their style away and put all of their energy into representing a pose. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 29, 2010 in Japanese TV
This very strange Kirin Green Tea ad from 2003 features Nanako Matsushima (松嶋菜々子). Apparently the young lad is getting his romantic advice from a manga, so our fashion model hero knocks him to the floor and then gives him tea tips with the help of her panda puppet. The entire sequence is very strange to say the least, and yet making it even odder is that we never see the panda puppet or the tea in the establishing shot with Nanako: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 17, 2010 in Comic Books
Unless you’re willing to travel to Japan the odds are highly against you coming across vintage manga from the 60s — so coming across a collection is always a cause for celebration: Eico Hanamura dominated shōjo manga in the 60s, and on March 16th a new book titled Happigaruzukorekushon of Hanamura Eiko will show off some of her best work from that primordial era of girls comic books in Japan. This book includes reprints of Some Girl in the Fog, her 1965 series Madeleine Shouwanoto as well as various fashion illustrations. Here’s a gallery to give you a sense of Eico’s style — you can really so how much she inspired how shōjo manga looks today: Read more…
Ah yes we’ve seen it all before — the parade of countless sexy figurines from Japan aimed at fanboys who seem intent on scaring away any potential girlfriends. Well now figurine maker Alter in Japan is trying something new for a change: A new series of figurines for fangurls! The first in this series will be the character Takashi Natsume (夏目 貴志) and his mysterious feline spirit Nyanko-sensei (ニャンコ先生) from the manga series Natsume’s Book of Friends (夏目友人帳). In the manga Takashi has the ability to see spirits and spends his time working with them. A translation is available for the series from Viz and last year and an anime series was produced based on the title. As for our figurine, he’ll be out in October and available for ¥7140. Read more…
If you’re a neko loving manga fan you may want to get your hands on volume 8 of PoyoPoyo Observation Diary which includes a life-sized plush doll of the comic book cat hero Poyo Sato (who looks a bit hamster like to me). Here are some other images of the kitty in action (or maybe that’s inaction): Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 2, 2010 in Comic Books
Being a manga fanboy the release of Devil #1 immediately caught my eye: “Manga artist Torajiro Kishi (Maka-Maka) and blockbuster anime studio Madhouse (Trigun, Paprika, Ninja Scroll) love comics. So much so that they’ve decided to publish an original, Western-style comic exclusively with Dark Horse! Enter Devil, a thrilling, sci-fi take on the vampire genre.” Read more…
