Links: News and Reviews

The big news in the comics blogosphere this past week was the demise of DC’s Minx imprint, which was aimed at teen girls (but seems to have fallen wide of the mark, although 20-30-year-old men seemed to like the books quite a bit). There’s lots of commentary going on, gathered here, and I’ll also point you to a sampling of comments at the old site if you want the quick course. There’s a lot of critiquing of marketing and the general DC attitude toward girls, but some writers are also raising the question of whether comics for girls can survive at all. Rivkah Greulich has an essay that draws on her experience as a creator and has some useful suggestions for future publishers. Tania del Rio also weighs in with a somewhat more optimistic post; of course, as she is the writer and artist of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, she is already creating comics for girls.

Meanwhile, over at The Comic Book Bin, Leroy Douresseaux interviews Jim Rugg, the artist of Janes in Love, one of the last Minx offerings, and reviews the book as well. (Via Journalista.)

And David Welsh takes a look at the alternative, shoujo manga, which continues to sell quite well, perhaps because it’s not as unrealistic as you might think.

Comic Book Junction looks back at another failed line of comics for young people, the Acclaim Young Readers line. (Via The Comics Reporter.)

Nominations are open for the Cybils, the bloggers’ graphic novel awards. Since these are bloggers, nominations are made in the comments thread, and already there’s some interesting reading there.

Last month, Image Comics announced a new all ages graphic novel imprint, Silverline. Their first few offerings look kind of interesting, but I was particularly struck by the one announced yesterday: Missing the Boat, the story of an animal who was too lazy to climb aboard Noah’s Ark. The imprint is so new that they don’t have any previews or catalog info up yet, but they do have five books scheduled for the fall season, so keep an eye out.

Newsarama has a preview up of the second issue of Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam.

Noah Berlatsky turns a critic’s eye on issue 2 of Spider-Man Magazine.

Matthew J. Brady checks out Scott McCloud’s Zot! The Complete Black and White Collection.

At Comics Village, Sabrina reviews vol. 1 of Rave Master by Hiro Mashima, the creator of Fairy Tail.

Billy Aguiar, a.k.a. Ferdinand, enjoys vol. 1 of Real at Prospero’s Manga. Real is a sports manga about wheelchair basketbal by Takehiko Inoue, creator of the shonen basketball manga Slam Dunk. Of the two, Real is the more mature work, with more depth to both the story and the characters. Chris Mautner has a good overview of Inoue’s work at Panels and Pixels.

Meanwhile, in Viet Nam, adults worry that manga are leading youth astray.
Over at the Diamond Bookshelf, Peter Gutierrez, spokesman for the National Council of Teachers of English, talks about the use of graphic novels in the classroom. Bookshelf also presents the winners of Toon Books’ lesson plan contest.

J. Caleb Mozzocco posts an admittedly long and rambling review of Prince of Persia.

Filed under: Uncategorized