MadInkBeard | Derik A Badman

My favorite manga for the year.

I did not like Barefoot Gen. Posted for this month’s Manga Moveable Feast.

I finished reading the final triple volume of Yuki Urushibara’s Mushishi this morning. As has become popular with translated manga publishers lately, Del Rey published volumes 8, 9, and 10 of the series in a single, extra-large volume (it’s not quite Bottomless Belly Button thick, but it’s very close). Not only is it three volumes-in-one, [...]

The “inconsistent” drawing style of Cave-in [Rakuban, 1959] makes this short story unique. The five memory scenes (free motifs) are depicted in five distinctive styles, ranging from simple, comical line drawings reminiscent of prewar children’s comics to more detailed, “gekiga-like” figures. The degrees of detail in the drawing style represent the reliability of Maehashi’s story. [...]

Amano, Kozue. Aria v.5. Tokyopop, 2009. ISBN: 9781427805140. This just arrived the other day, and I read it straight through that same night. Light fare, yet refreshing. I can’t think of another comic that is so resolutely non-dramatic and non-comedic while maintaining a fairly standard narrative setting. It is a narrative without any guile. I [...]

Tatsumi, Yoshihiro. A Drifting Life. Drawn & Quarterly, 2009. 856p. ISBN: 9781897299746. This massive autobiographical manga has been appearing on a lot of the early best of 2009 lists, and while I can, to a point see, why, I’m not in agreement. A Drifting Life is, basically, the story of Tatsumi’s early entry into the [...]

Yoshinaga, Fumi. Ooku: The Inner Chambers v.1. Viz, 2009. ISBN: 9781421527475. I wasn’t convinced I’d keep reading this series after my first reading of volume 1. The concept of the series seems right out of a sociopolitical sci-fi novel like something Joanna Russ would write: a plague kills off only men, leaving Japan with a [...]