Thursday, March 15, 2007
TWO QUICK ONES: MANGA AND CAPTAIN MARVEL
It's been too long since I've posted, for various reasons. I do have some substantive posts planned, including more Fruits Basket translation notes, but for now I'll just post a couple of quick things.
I was up in the Chicago area a couple days ago, and went to pay a visit to Sanseidoh, the Japanese bookstore in Mitsuwa. I had a scare when I saw that the spot it had occupied was now empty, but it had only moved to another spot in the building: it's now opposite JBC, close to where the old Asahiya had been. I didn't buy much, though. Aside from a sudoku magazine, I just picked up three manga I had special ordered: the second and third volumes of Partner, and the first volume of Kiichi, which, like Jacaranda, was nominated at this year's Angouleme Festival. (The French version is entitled "Ki-Itchi," but in Japanese it's simply "Kiichi.") I plan to write about all these books eventually.
And at the other JBC, the one that's not in Mitsuwa and sells used books and manga, I picked up another volume of the anthology title Grimm's Fairy Tales, the Cruellest and Most Beautiful in the World. They also had still another volume, which featured modernized versions (as were a couple of stories in this volume), but I didn't buy it. Also, those copies of Kotobuki Shiriagari's A*su and Dying Essayist which were there in December 2005 are still there, though on a different shelf. So if you live in the Chicago area and can read Japanese, go buy them already.
Changing the subject, am I the only one who doesn't love Jeff Smith's Captain Marvel? Granted, I haven't read the two volumes that are out, just flipped through them in the store, and if I read them I might change my mind. But I don't like Billy Batson being turned into a pathetic abused waif, and I don't like Mary Marvel being six years old.
It's been too long since I've posted, for various reasons. I do have some substantive posts planned, including more Fruits Basket translation notes, but for now I'll just post a couple of quick things.
I was up in the Chicago area a couple days ago, and went to pay a visit to Sanseidoh, the Japanese bookstore in Mitsuwa. I had a scare when I saw that the spot it had occupied was now empty, but it had only moved to another spot in the building: it's now opposite JBC, close to where the old Asahiya had been. I didn't buy much, though. Aside from a sudoku magazine, I just picked up three manga I had special ordered: the second and third volumes of Partner, and the first volume of Kiichi, which, like Jacaranda, was nominated at this year's Angouleme Festival. (The French version is entitled "Ki-Itchi," but in Japanese it's simply "Kiichi.") I plan to write about all these books eventually.
And at the other JBC, the one that's not in Mitsuwa and sells used books and manga, I picked up another volume of the anthology title Grimm's Fairy Tales, the Cruellest and Most Beautiful in the World. They also had still another volume, which featured modernized versions (as were a couple of stories in this volume), but I didn't buy it. Also, those copies of Kotobuki Shiriagari's A*su and Dying Essayist which were there in December 2005 are still there, though on a different shelf. So if you live in the Chicago area and can read Japanese, go buy them already.
Changing the subject, am I the only one who doesn't love Jeff Smith's Captain Marvel? Granted, I haven't read the two volumes that are out, just flipped through them in the store, and if I read them I might change my mind. But I don't like Billy Batson being turned into a pathetic abused waif, and I don't like Mary Marvel being six years old.
Comments:
I can definitally see where your coming from on Shazam. I mean I'm enjoying the series, and the second issue does start to bring in some good old wackyness one would expect from a Jeff Smith book, but not nearly as much as I hoped for (the attempts at political jabs are pretty lame as well). It would almost seem like Smith is writing for the trade, which would make sense, but I still somewhat disapointing so far.
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