Posted by Editor @ 08:11 PM PST [Link] [No Comments]

Hero Heel, volume 2
Story and art by Makoto Tateno
Published by Juné, imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
ISBN-10: 1569708363
ISBN-13: 9781569708361

Review by Jilly Gee

The second of what I believe is a three volume series about deliciously handsome actors for a children's superhero show, Hero Heel, volume 2 ups the tension by bringing in an old flame and revealing a new one. Not being able to forget his night of sex with Sawada, Minami starts out in this graphic novel pining way for him. He determines to stop, though, when Sawada tells him in the bluntest of ways that he just doesn't like him. Minami's co-star, Katagiri, takes this chance and says the words anyone so vulnerable would grasp at after being told he was not liked: I want you. Thus starts their purely sexual relationship, regularly meeting up after work at Hotel Destiny. [more]

Posted by Jilly Gee @ 01:50 AM PST [Link] [No Comments]

Sun, June 29, 2008

Hate to Love You
Story and Art: Makoto Tateno
Published by Deux Press
ISBN-10: 1934496014
ISBN-13: 978-1934496015

Review by Kris

Review originally appeared at Manic About Manga at http://manicaboutmanga.blogspot.com. Check it out!

I was introduced to Makoto Tateno-sama through reading Yellow, another of her series. Initially I didn't know whether or not I liked her art style. It was different from what I was used to. Once I finished the first volume of Yellow I fell in love. Hate to Love You was the second work of her's that I read. I was intrigued because on the back it said that it is a yaoi version of Romeo and Juliet (Romeo and Romeo?). Since I love Shakespeare I couldn't pass on it.

Masaya Konoe and Yuma Kazuki are the sons of two rival real estate company presidents. They were raised to hate one another, since they are eventually going to take over their fathers companies. Even though they act as though they hate each other, there seems to be something more to their relationship. They used to play with another child in an adjoining estate: Akiko Tojoin. It seems that Konoe might have a little bit of a crush on Akiko. It is expected that Konoe and Kazuki are supposed to compete in every aspect of life and for some reason Kazuki is always the one ahead. [more]

Posted by Kris @ 02:04 PM PST [Link] [No Comments]

Real Love
Story and Art: Mitsuki Oda
Published by Luv Luv Press
ISBN-10: 1934496146
ISBN-13: 978-1934496145

Review by Kris

Real Love by Mitsuki Oda is a release from Luv Luv Press. Luv Luv specializes in josei manga, erotic manga featuring heterosexual couples that is aimed at women. Real Love features three stories that focus on two separate couples.

The title story "Real Love" and the stories "Baby" and Love Star" are an interesting mix. [more]

Posted by Kris @ 01:33 PM PST [Link] [No Comments]

Sat, June 28, 2008

eat.shop nyc: the indispensable guide to inspired locally owned eating and shopping establishments in the five boroughs.
Written by Kaie Wellman, Agnes Baddoo, Anna H. Blessing, Jan Faust, and Jon Hart
Published by Cabazon Books
ISBN-13: 978-0-9789588-3-1

Review by Linda Yau

Upon visiting an infamous and unfamiliar city, to be a smart traveler is to have already conducted a prior research or pick up travel guides like eat.shop nyc is introducing. Now travel guides are a dime a dozen, especially for visiting New York City, this book appears to be a supplement to the already booming travel books market alongside the Lonely Planet or Times Out series. The highlight of this book though is the introduction to locally owned establishments worth visiting if you are a backpack traveler and in search for good experiences in food and shopping. To use this book is to support promoting local business and any publicity can help sustain the local culture of establishments. [more]

Posted by Linda Yau @ 12:44 AM PST [Link] [No Comments]

Miskatonic Mistletoe
Written by Angelia Sparrow
Published by Torquere Press
ISBN-10: 1-60370-233-4
ISBN-13: 978-1-60370-233-1

Review by Linda Yau

The setting for Miskatonic Mistletoe is supposedly centuries after the space and information ages. Corin is a werewolf moving into Arkham, Massachusetts with his mate Cian who is a half-elf. They move into this location to advert an apocalypse, however they are elderly in age and request for assistant from their friends Dan and Paul who are like Corin -fellow werewolves. [more]

Posted by Linda Yau @ 12:38 AM PST [Link] [1 Comment]

Fri, June 27, 2008

Star Project Chiro vol. 3
Story and Art: Baek Hye-Kyoung
Published by UDON Entertainment
ISBN-10: 1-897376-13-8
ISBN-13: 978-1-897376-13-3

Review by Kris

We've reached book number three in this adorable manhwa series by Baek Hye-Kyoung. Here's a quick recap. Eun-Yo Song is a gorgeous teenager who accidentally burned down pop star Nan Lee's house. In order to pay the damages she severs ties with friends and family and is sent into the middle of nowhere. Here she is transformed into male pop star, Chiro. Feel free to click on either title to see my review of Star Project Chiro vol. 1 or Star Project Chiro vol. 2. [more]

Posted by Kris @ 09:45 PM PST [Link] [No Comments]

Thu, June 26, 2008

Star Project Chiro vol. 2
Story and Art: Baek Hye-Kyoung
Published by UDON Entertainment
ISBN-10: 1-897376-12-X
ISBN-13: 978-1-897376-12-6

Review by Kris

It is always so hard to write reviews for books in series. You don't want to spoil anything that happened in the previous volume and yet some of that information is carried on into the next volume. I'll try my best but I'm going to apologize for any spoilers that may appear. Also, click here to read my review of Star Project Chiro vol. 1. Star Project Chiro vol. 2 continues the story of Eun-Yo Song and her trying to pay back her debt to Nan Lee. [more]

Posted by Kris @ 04:24 PM PST [Link] [No Comments]

Wed, June 25, 2008

Star Project Chiro vol. 1
Story and Art: Baek Hye-Kyoung
Published by UDON Entertainment
ISBN-10: 1-897376-11-1
ISBN-13: 978-1-897376-11-9

Review by Kris

Eun-Yo Song is a fairly typical 16-year-old with a few exceptions. Her family owns the renowned Mama's Childrens Clothes, which her three older brothers now run. She started modeling in their television spots when she was just a little kid. All of her wardrobe contains unique designs made just for her. She is stunningly beautiful and she knows it. All the boys love her and all the girls, with the exception of her best friend Hyun-Joo, despise her. It must be so difficult for her (can you sense my sarcasm?). Eun-Yo has all the traits of being the youngest child, something I know very well myself since I'm the youngest. Because she's gorgeous and the youngest Eun-Yo has somewhat of a superiority complex. Even though Eun-Yo could have any guy she wants, the one she's trying to catch his eye is Chan-Kyung Woo. He's popular, smart, athletic and kind. He's the complete opposite, personality wise at least, of Eun-Yo. [more]

Posted by Kris @ 07:27 PM PST [Link] [No Comments]

A-Viking
Written by Kiernan Kelly
Published by Torquere Press
ISBN-10: 1-60370-168-0
ISBN-13: 978-1-60370-168-6

Review by Linda Yau

Bijorn the Conquer is a Viking that got washed up on the beaches of Florida after trying to escape from his sworn enemy - Jorund the Vanquisher. The only problem, that battle took place in 975. The time now is modern times. Somehow these two Vikings found themselves propelled through time, possibly through a worm hole. [more]

Posted by Linda Yau @ 03:13 PM PST [Link] [No Comments]

Red Shifting
Author: Aleksandr Skidan
Translator: Genya Turovskaya
Published by Ugly Duckling Presse
ISBN-13 978-0-939010-95-0

Review by Jane Seaton

I don't read much Russian, and less contemporary poetry, so treat this review with some caution, but I enjoyed spending time with this parallel text from the Ugly Duckling Presse's Eastern European Poets Series.

The poems themselves have the sense of being a preliminary sketch, an outpouring of observation with no order yet imposed, no choices made, no thought on how to form a vessel or a narrative to contain them. It's all a bit like having your lunch, however appetising, banged down on the table in front of you still in the saucepan with a metal spoon sticking out of it. You worry about burning your tongue, then discover that the poet hasn't even checked it's hot through. [more]

Posted by Jane Seaton @ 03:05 PM PST [Link] [No Comments]

eat.shop london
researched, photographed and written by Caroline Loncq
Published by Cabazon Books
ISBN-13: 978-0-97895881-7

Review by Jane Seaton

Definitely a book to take out on a day when you're shopping for shopping's sake (and pausing for refreshment lots of times too), this guide won't help you track down a night duty pharmacy or get your shoes reheeled. It distinguishes between shopping and eating, and that's as structured as it gets.

But it's such fun! [more]

Posted by Jane Seaton @ 03:03 PM PST [Link] [No Comments]

Knights Volume 1
Story and art by Minoru Murao
Published by Digital Manga Publishing
ISBN-10: 1569705682
ISBN-13: 9781569705681

Review by Jilly Gee

In the quasi medieval setting of the kingdom of Excludo, witches are tortured and put to death at an alarming rate. Much like the witch trials of our world's past, those women were merely victims of greed and superstition. Unlike our world, however, a noble, masked youth and his nearly-naked female sidekick travel the kingdom saving these innocents. While probably not the first female they have saved from a burning at the stake, the first one saved in this series is cute and naive Nina. This first is an important first, as she is the first girl who is still able to smile at and be kind to Mist after having seen the dark-skinned face he hides under the mask. [more]

Posted by Jilly Gee @ 03:01 AM PST [Link] [No Comments]

Tue, June 24, 2008

The Devil's Secret
Story & Art by: Hinako Takanaga
Published by: 801 Media, Inc.
ISBN-13: 978-1-934129-22-7

Review by April Kimm

As always, 801 Media has quality presentation: the manga is similar in size to the original Japanese manga with a nice dust jacket and a color cover page. Hinako Takanaga is the mangaka of "Challengers" (complete 4 volume series available by DramaQueen), "Little Butterfly" (complete 3 volume series available by DMP), "Dekiru Otoko ga Suki Nanda" (licensed by Blu), "Kimi ga Koi ni Ochiru" (licensed by Blu), "The Tyrant Falls in Love" (licensed by DramaQueen), "Bukiyou na Silent," "Croquis," "Kimi ga Koi ni Oboreru," "Liberty Liberty," "Love Round," and "Study Hard." The manga is composed of 5 chapters: 2 involving the main characters Father Mauro and Raoul, 1 involving the side character Raoul's older half-brother Baldur, and 2 unrelated one-shots. "The Devil's Secret" is one of Hinako Takanaga's yaoi manga that gets straight to the smut in the first chapter. The only chapter without smut is the second one-shot, "Before Winter Comes," a shonen-ai with a patient seme who pines for his uke. [more]

Posted by April Kimm @ 09:12 AM PST [Link] [No Comments]

Love is Like a Hurricane 5
Story and Art by: Tokiya Shimazaki
Published by: 801 Media, Inc.
ISBN-13: 978-1-934129-14-2

Review by April Kimm

801 Media has nice presentation: the manga is similar in size to the original Japanese manga with a dust jacket and 2 color cover pages. Tokiya Shimazaki is the mangaka of "Little Romance." The yaoi manga is composed of 6 chapters about the continuing relationship between in charge Azuma and naïve Mizuki, who somehow manages to either misunderstand something or other or gets easily duped by Azuma's cousin Seiichi, who enjoys toying with him. As in the rest of the series, smut abounds in almost every chapter. This is the first volume in which there are no one-shots or chapters devoted to side characters. [more]

Posted by April Kimm @ 09:11 AM PST [Link] [No Comments]

Mon, June 23, 2008

BookExpo 2008

by Tom Good

There were some fascinating and wonderful people to talk to at BookExpo; the challenge was to find as many of them as possible in the large crowds. People with very different kinds of goals inhabit the social ecosystem, and the scale of the event means that nobody has the time, energy, or interest to engage with everyone and everything there. So all attendees must solve a filtering problem, like sorting through e-mail to pluck the most valuable messages from a sea of spam. But everyone has their own criteria for what's interesting to them.

Some people wore costumes to stand out from the crowd, so stormtroopers, pirates, cowboys, and characters from children's books prowled through the aisles. Others relied on clever lines to grab attention. One of my favorite lines was, "Have you smelled our book yet?" This wasn't as weird as it first sounded, since it was a scratch-and-sniff book. Dax and Lloyd Garner (pictured above, far left and center) promoted their book Corpse of Freedom with an unusual prop: an artificial corpse. They apparently wheeled it around in a wheelchair and it was a big hit with some striking food workers. [more]

Posted by Tom Good @ 09:23 PM PST [Link] [No Comments]

Sun, June 22, 2008

Yaoi Jamboree, Glendale AZ, Day 3

Scenes from the closing ceremony

Not much happened today (I broke down and went to the spa for exfoliaiton and it was great), but I got some pictures of what did happen. [more]

Posted by Ginger Mayerson @ 11:34 PM PST [Link] [4 comments]

Steal Moon vol. 1
Story and Art: Makoto Tateno
Published by the Juné Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
ISBN-10: 1-56970-570-4
ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-570-4

Review by Kris

Nozomi is a top-notch street fighter. He chooses to fight for some spare cash and generally blows his competition out of the water. But all good things must come to an end. He opens his yap and makes a bet that the person he loses to he will become their servant. He didn't really mean it though. A handsome, mysterious stranger suddenly appears and decides to take the bet. Well, you can figure it out from this point. Nozomi loses and the mysterious stranger tries to collect his prize. Nozomi refuses and tries to get away, unsuccessfully. The stranger knocks him out. [more]

Posted by Kris @ 08:04 PM PST [Link] [No Comments]

Sat, June 21, 2008

Yaoi Jamboree, Glendale AZ, Day 2

Relaxing in the lobby. [more]

Posted by Ginger Mayerson @ 08:06 PM PST [Link] [4 comments]

Fri, June 20, 2008

Yaoi Jamboree, Glendale AZ, Day 1

Rachel Livingston let me hitch a ride with her to Glendale Arizona for Yaoi Jamboree. She picked me up at 2AM (my neighbors must be scandalized; they never see me up that late) and we drove into the desert. I don't have any pictures of this, sorry, it was just dark and empty. [more]

Posted by Ginger Mayerson @ 10:07 PM PST [Link] [3 comments]

Ring My Bell
Written by BA Tortuga
Published by Torquere Press
ISBN-10: 1-60370-227-X
ISBN-13: 978-1-60370-227-0

Review by Linda Yau

In Colin's opinion, ringing a bell for charity is a horrible way to spend the holiday. Three hours on the job, his fingers are numb, his ears are ringing and if he has to listen to other people wish him happy holidays, he's going to be pissed off.

It is this setting that set him up to rescue the naked and muddy Gaz (Gazardiel) from the side of the road. What made this situation strange though were the white loose feathers when Colin found Gaz and the bloodied stubs on his back. [more]

Posted by Linda Yau @ 06:38 PM PST [Link] [No Comments]