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, [...]

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 [...]

Taniguchi, Jiro. A Distant Neighborhood v.1. Fanfare/Pontent Mon, 2009. ISBN: 9788492444281. I read the first volume (of two) of Jiro Taniguchi’s A Distant Neighborhood the other night. I am so far not very impressed. At this point the story reads like a partially autobiographical story that indulges in the often wished for desire to “do [...]

Over at Graphic Novel Reporter Review you can now read my article on “Cooking with Oishinbo”. Basically I read Oishinbo (read my previous review) and then made a Japanese meal using some dishes from the manga. Today’s post is an overview of cooking and the meal. It will be followed by four days of recipe [...]

I knew I’d love this manga as soon as I heard about it, a long running series about food, not where food is just part of the setting but rather an integral part of each story. Oishinbo has been running in Japan since 1983 and totals over 100 volumes. Viz is here translating the “A La Carte” series, a repackaging of stories from across the title’s run into thematic volumes. That immediately tells you one thing: you don’t read this for the larger narrative arc or the character development.

Here’s a list of my complete series on Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix (1967-88) (Translation in 11 volumes: Viz, 2003-2008). Starting overview of the series Volume 1: Dawn Volume 2: Future Volume 3: Yamato Volume 3: Space Volume 4: Karma Volume 5: Resurrection Volume 8: Robe of Feathers Volume 6: Nostalgia Volume 7 and 8: Civil War [...]