Links: The politics of Archie, Vertical picks up new manga

Is Archie comics pushing a liberal agenda? An editorial at Comic Booked says yes, but a more articulate rebuttal by T Campbell points out the true agenda of Archie Comics: To make money, something that brings people of different political stripes together. I interviewed Archie writer Alex Segura at Robot 6, and he also was the guest on the latest comiXologist podcast.

Vertical, the publishers of Chi’s Sweet Home, announced two new manga licenses this past weekend at MangaNEXT: Heroman, a kid-gets-powers series for teen and pre-teen boys that is based on a plot by Stan Lee, and The Limit, a story about bullying from Keiko Suenobu, the author of Life (a manga about cutting that was published by Tokyopop).

Royden Lepp discusses his all-ages graphic novel Rust, a strange story about a boy-like robot soldier who shows up on a small farm—pursued by a giant android.

Also at Graphic Novel Reporter, Faith Erin Hicks discusses her new YA graphic novel, Friends With Boys.

I wrote about reading Viz manga on the Nook at MTV Geek.

Reviews

Young Readers (Ages 4-8)

Greg McElhatton on Benjamin Bear in Fuzzy Thinking (Read About Comics)
Greg McElhatton on Chick and Chickie Play All Day! (Read About Comics)
Brigid Alverson on First Graphics: Healthy Snacks, Healthy You and First Graphics: The Incredible Vegetable Group (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Brigid Alverson on Nina in That Makes Me Mad (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Greg McElhatton on Silly Lilly in What Will I Be Today? (Read About Comics)
Johanna Draper Carlson on six different Toon Books (Comics Worth Reading)
Greg McElhatton on Zig and Wikki in The Cow (Read About Comics)

Pre-Teens (Ages 9-12)
Michael Buntag on vol. 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender (NonSensical Words)
Matthew Horowitz on Hades: Lord of the Dead (Spandexless)
Drew Friedman on Jurassic Strike Force 5 #1 and Jackie Rose: The Amazing Eddie Ripcord (Comic Attack)
Richard Bruton on Lucky Luke vol. 23: Rails on the Prairie (The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log)
Anna on vol. 1 of Princess Knight (Manga Report)
Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith on vols. 1 and 2 of Princess Knight (Manga Bookshelf)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1 and 2 of Princess Knight (Manga Xanadu)
David Gromer on vol. 3 of Sailor Moon (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Sam Kusek on Spera (Spandexless)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Sugar Sugar Rune (Blogcritics)
Joy Kim on Twin Spica (Joy Kim)
Aquafortis on Zita the Spacegirl (Finding Wonderland)

Teens (Ages 13-16)
David Gromer on vol. 11 of Bamboo Blade (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Michael Hicks on Batman: The Black Mirror (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1-5 of Dazzle (Manga Xanadu)
Sterg Botzakis on Friends With Boys (Graphic Novel Resources)
Kevin Hodgson on Government Issue: Comics for the People 1940s-2000s (The Graphic Classroom)
Carlo Santos on vol. 55 of Naruto (Anime News Network)
Joy Kim on vols. 56-60 of One Piece (Joy Kim)
Anna on vol. 6 of The Story of Saiunkoku (Manga Report)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 8 of Toriko (A Case Suitable for Treatment)

Filed under: All Ages, Manga, News, Young Adult