Forum - View topicUnderground/Art/Alternative Manga Discussion Thread
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chrisb
 Subscriber Posts: 638 Location: USA |
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Most of the adults continue to be portrayed as evil, but they do end up being a bit more complex. There are a few adult characters that evolve into pretty amazing people.
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_Emi_
 Posts: 498 Location: Langjökull |
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Maybe Vertical didn't want to be branded and licensed these to get away from that. In which case, the new sales definitely come ahead of not tarnishing this brand they have. Frankly, even if it wasn't your intent, the whole tarnishing the brand thing comes off as "How dare the peasants stink up the place.". As long as the peasants don't push out the landed gentry, I don't see that there is an issue.
I saw that which is why I asked.
If it was cheap enough, I'd buy it just for the art, but at $130, I'd have to know if the story is up to snuff. I'll have to see if I can track down an earlier release of at least the first volume for cheap and check it out. |
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-Ushio-
 Posts: 37 Location: London |
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There was a brief discussion on twitter recently when someone described Vertical as an indie/alternative manga publisher, only to be clarified by Vertical as wanting to be seen as a publisher of novels and craft books as much as manga. They also veered away from the 'indie' label as they (obviously imo) want to take their titles to as big an audience as possible. It doesn't mean they won't be releasing solid works, but I guess it's better to get Tezuka in top 10 manga sales charts than be buried in obscurity. Not sure what I'm getting at, I hope Queen's Blade might encourages to venture further into Vertical's library anyway... |
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Moomintroll
 Posts: 1600 Location: Nottingham (UK) |
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It's certainly the case that they've been talking for a while about changing the perception of the Vertical brand away from the boutique and the obscure. Which makes sense if they want to grow substantially beyond their current limits. The thing is though, lumbered as they were with those brand perceptions, Vertical's manga sales still rose sharply over the past few years even as the rest of the manga industry (Dark Horse and Seven Seas aside) slumped into a massive depression. It's easy to see why they might want to court a wider market but it makes less sense if, in doing so, they neglect the dependable base they've built up even as that wider market continues to shrink.
My tastes run to populism at least as often as they do to arthouse; witness the many, many pages of gushing over stuff like One Piece and Cross Game in this very thread. The point is that Vertical was one of very few names in manga (or comics more generally for that matter) that was an indicator of quality in and of itself and it's sad to see that trust in them evaporate. I mean, take Tokyopop as a counter-example; they put out some great books over the years but could you seriously say you'd ever have pre-ordered one of their titles if you'd never heard of it before, purely because it was Tokyopop that published it? I certainly don't hate the new Vertical just because they've started publishing a few things I think are dreck. If they continue to publish the good (if increasingly poorly produced) alongside the not-so-good, I'll keep buying it. But, yeah, I think - purely subjectively - that this round of licensing warrants a smidgen of regret and a pinch of disappointment. If that somehow makes me the Earl of Comics, disdainfully throwing boiling oil over the heads of the otaku peasantry as they clutch their talismanic big tit fetish books at the foot of the castle walls below, I can probably live with that. But I don't think it does. |
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_Emi_
Posts: 498 Location: Langjökull |
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No, but neither would I do so for Vertical. Just because I've liked all of their previous releases doesn't mean I'm guaranteed to like all the things they release, or that they're any good, just because they are arthouse/boutique/quality releases.
Oh, I don't see you as some Earl of Comics. Because I'm American and don't recognize nobility. |
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Moomintroll
Posts: 1600 Location: Nottingham (UK) |
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I'm not sure any of Vertical's releases could fairly be described as "arthouse", except maybe Velveteen & Mandala. They've mostly been pretty niche (in Western market terms) but they're also mostly fairly straight forward, solid, middle-brow entertainment. Which is no bad thing. I agree, though, that "boutique" isn't a signifier of quality - Seven Seas are as much a boutique publisher as Vertical ever were and I wouldn't want to own any of their books if they were giving them away free.
Yeah, okay, I get it. I'm European and therefore a cap-doffing, toff-adoring snob. Still, I'm not sure failing to recognise class is necessarily something to be proud of. I mean, you can't really tackle a problem if you refuse to acknowledge that it exists, surely? Which may be why the US, despite protestations of classlessness, has the widest gap between rich and poor in the developed world, the least social mobility of any nation in the developed world and the greatest geographical segregation along class lines of any nation in the developed world (all combining to ensure that Americans born rich will almost certainly die rich and Americans born poor are extremely likely to remain that way). I can't actually think of any European aristocratic dynasties that exercise more influence over their respective nations than the Kennedy and Bush clans have done over the US in recent history either but, hey, if you put your hand over your eyes, maybe they're not really there. Can we go back to talking about Japanese comic books now? If you'd like to continue discussing social stratification and the bankruptcy of the American dream we should maybe do that via PM...but I'd rather know if you've read any good comics recently that I might like to try, y'know? |
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_Emi_
Posts: 498 Location: Langjökull |
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The comment was facetious as was the previous peasant/gentry comment. You can calm down. Maybe if I had put  in there, my intent might have come across better.
You're the only one discussing social stratification, so stop any time you like. I generally agree with you anyway. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I wonder how such a brief comment gave you enough information about me to presume that you knew enough about my thoughts on social stratification to give a lecture about how I'm refusing to acknowledge it exists. It feels like you're projecting some other argument you had onto me. As for comics, I don't think you'd be interested in Black Butler, which doesn't fit into this topic. I only half like it anyway. Novels and video games have got my attention for the time being. |
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-Ushio-
Posts: 37 Location: London |
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I just got the final chunky volume of Twin Spica (400 pages!). I've held off reading since volume 10 so hope to really enjoy reading those three together soon.
Random question: I'm not seeing any sign of Kingyo Used Books 5 on the horizon. Am I being impatient or should I be hitting panic buttons? It's not the most amazing comic, but I've certainly a rose-tinted soft spot for it. |
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Tamaria
 Posts: 1512 Location: De Achterhoek |
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Multiple Sig(Ikki) titles have been moved to a yearly schedule without any announcement whatsoever. There's a good chance Kingyo is one of them.
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-Ushio-
Posts: 37 Location: London |
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That's good to hear, thanks.  I think Bokurano and Dorohedoro are still coming out every six months for now, but yeah good to hear it not cancelled just yet.
Yearly releases are painful though. I'm an Excel Saga fan and waiting for volume 23 has been hard! |
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Bonham
 Posts: 423 Location: NYC |
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There's been some nice and quiet announcements recently: Thermae Romae and more Kaoru Mori from Yen Press, and some Samura short stories from Dark Horse.
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Moomintroll
Posts: 1600 Location: Nottingham (UK) |
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Agreed - I'll be wanting to pick up all three of those (though it looks like it'll be the best part of a year before the Samura book comes out).
Kind of pleasantly surprising that Yen seems to have the most exciting licenses this year. Until fairly recently they didn't really do anything of any interest (to me) other than Yotsuba. Slightly bemused by the wording of the Mori announcement:
So that's, what...nine stories? Seems a peculiar number to round down to. |
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bahamut623
 Posts: 1463 |
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Thermae Romae was a huge surprise. It just seemed really unlikely, particularly from Yen. Not sure if it'd be my thing though.
Anyway, has anyone checked out Rohan at the Louvre?? It's gorgeous and full colour...and really makes me wish we had more Araki available in English. I prefer his current art style on display here to the older Jojo. It stars a character from Jojo part 5, I believe. The plot is divided into two parts: as a teen, Rohan meets a woman at his grandmother's inn, who tells him about a painting made with the blackest ink in the world. Years later he goes to the Louvre to find that painting. It goes from a nice, sort of romantic story, to more of a supernatural horror story (violence in the basement of the Louvre!!). I thought it'd be more about the Louvre than it actually turned out to be. You see a bit of the museum, but most of the Louvre scenes take place in a storage room. If you're a fan of Jojo, or just like Araki's style, definitely pick it up. And you don't really need any previous knowledge of Jojo (I've only read bits of parts 1, 3, and 7, myself). Anything you'd need to know, like Rohan's power, is mostly explained (no mention of Stands or anything, though). The book itself is large and hardcover, and as I said before, the colors are gorgeous. Each segment of the back has a certain color pallette. The first half takes place in the summer, so yellow is the dominant color, then pink when he's at the Louvre, then blue when the supernatural stuff starts. The one thing that kinda bugged me was Rohan's hair. At first I thought the weird pointy thing around his head was just a weird hair design...until half way through the book I realized it was some sort of headband 
And a completely separate topic...have any of you read Icaro? Thoughts? I picked up the second volume in the bargain section of a comic book store two months ago. I'm having trouble finding the 1st at a decent price, though. There was one on Amazon, but it disappeared (never wait, kids!). |
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Moomintroll
Posts: 1600 Location: Nottingham (UK) |
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I'm planning on picking up the Rohan book in the not too distant future. Glad to hear no prior knowledge is required.
Pretty but lightweight. It's a long way from being the best work of either Taniguchi or Moebius (who was, let's face it, a much better artist than he was a writer) but I found it quite enjoyable once I let go of my over-inflated expectations. I'm certainly not sorry I bought it. |
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-Ushio-
Posts: 37 Location: London |
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Never heard of Rohan at the Louvre until it was mentionned here - thanks for the tip!
Currently interested in getting Fallen Words (Yoshihiro Tatsumi) and Nonnonba (Shigeru Mizuki) as they're both coming out soon.
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