Comicsgirl

I know this is kind of turning into all manga, all the time, but until other comic book companies do something interesting, this is what I’m going to be writing about.

The press release isn’t up on the Tokyopop website yet, but read here for manga of MirrorMask, Labrynith and Dark Crystal.

All are still more than a year away. The MirrorMask one won’t be written by Neil Gaiman, just plotted, and right now, no artist has been named for it. No creative teams have been named for the others.

(I don’t really think these can truly be considered “manga” but rather manga-style, but the discussion of what I think manga and anime is and isn’t is for another time.)

I want to make some kind of snarky comments about Hot Topic shoppers here, but honestly, I think this is a good thing. People (namely, young women) who wouldn’t read comics (or manga) would be likely to pick these up just by association with the films and maybe that would get them reading other comics.

Yeah, that’s just a maybe. But I feel the same way about this as I feel about Dark Horse’s stationery sets and journals. Maybe women and girls aren’t going to ever be a huge market for traditional comics. But they are still a market and it’s great to see things aimed toward them.

The Comics Journal has some content from is shojo issue online now, which tells me it’s possibly out in stores (so far, I haven’t been able to find it).

Dirk Deppery brings up some excellent points in his essay “She’s Got Her Own Thing Now” which goes beyond the “Look! Girls read manga!” thing and actually explains why girls read manga and not comics. I know I often lament the manga thing (and I more than likely will again) but I also understand it. Comics make women fight to like them. Manga doesn’t. Both those statements are generalizations, sure, but as much as I love comic books, I rarely feel like they’re aimed at readers like me. While it doesn’t stand for all manga, I feel like someone is actually acknowledging that this may be something I want to read.

Press release is here. (Svetlana Chmakova’s web site.)

I really want to grumble about “all coverage of girls/women reading comics focuses solely on manga” but well, I think this is pretty big. No magazine aimed at teenage girls had anything resembling manga/comics when I was growing up. I don’t think I’d necessarily be picking up CosmoGirl! if I was 15 just for this, but I think it speaks that manga is pretty mainstream with a wide cross section of girls at this point, and I think that’s pretty cool.

On a related note, issue #269 of The Comics Journal is about shojo manga. I think it may be out but I couldn’t find it at my local Barnes & Noble so I can’t say for certain. Once I do find it, I’ll report on it (and more than likely grumble about how all coverage of girls/women reading comics focuses solely on manga).