Monday, June 06, 2005
What a difference a year makes...
Yikes, apologies for being MIA once again. Tons of stuff going on in my personal life lately. One I won't mention quite yet, but the other is that we moved buildings at work and I have my own office. :)
Anyway, I was looking at the Beat's BEA entry and that reminded me of back when I was just starting blogging. Deppy was still blogging, and I remember that book expo was a topic at the time. Discussion of the presence of the manga companies, the rising stature of graphic novels to booksellers in general, etc.
Well, it seems like things are still moving in that direction. Viz has a big banner, a large presentation on graphic novels, and more moves by the big publishing companies (Flight moving to Ballantine!!).
At about the same time, I also noticed this TCJ thread on manga. A very positive thread with helpful suggestions. That's not even mentioning the shoujo issue of TCJ coming up next.
The local central library has an ever-growing selection of graphic novels for both kids and adults. I just read the first part of Moore's Swamp Thing, LoEG II, and a bunch of other good stuff from there.
More columns on manga in the major comic news sites (and a lot less heckling and ignorance whenever manga is mentioned on those sites). FCBD didn't fall flat without a movie release to support it. Lots of exciting new talent showcased in anthologies like Flight and RSoM. Web comics still plugging along...
The list goes on. There's been a fair share of bad things too, especially taking into account the Big Two, but overall I think we're in pretty good place compared to this time last year. I don't think that even the boy's club mentality that has caused firestorms will be able to hold on much longer. Between the huge female manga fanbase and the amount of female up-and-coming creators, things are changing. I'm sure that change will continue to be slow in the superhero world, but the larger comics world surrounding it is becoming quite a different thing entirely.
Anyway, I was looking at the Beat's BEA entry and that reminded me of back when I was just starting blogging. Deppy was still blogging, and I remember that book expo was a topic at the time. Discussion of the presence of the manga companies, the rising stature of graphic novels to booksellers in general, etc.
Well, it seems like things are still moving in that direction. Viz has a big banner, a large presentation on graphic novels, and more moves by the big publishing companies (Flight moving to Ballantine!!).
At about the same time, I also noticed this TCJ thread on manga. A very positive thread with helpful suggestions. That's not even mentioning the shoujo issue of TCJ coming up next.
The local central library has an ever-growing selection of graphic novels for both kids and adults. I just read the first part of Moore's Swamp Thing, LoEG II, and a bunch of other good stuff from there.
More columns on manga in the major comic news sites (and a lot less heckling and ignorance whenever manga is mentioned on those sites). FCBD didn't fall flat without a movie release to support it. Lots of exciting new talent showcased in anthologies like Flight and RSoM. Web comics still plugging along...
The list goes on. There's been a fair share of bad things too, especially taking into account the Big Two, but overall I think we're in pretty good place compared to this time last year. I don't think that even the boy's club mentality that has caused firestorms will be able to hold on much longer. Between the huge female manga fanbase and the amount of female up-and-coming creators, things are changing. I'm sure that change will continue to be slow in the superhero world, but the larger comics world surrounding it is becoming quite a different thing entirely.
