This week’s highlights, with commentary from the NFNT gang:
Bakuman Volume 20 (Viz, 9781421553702)
Jenny: The last volume!? I’ll be so sad to see it end. So much fun, this series, and enlightening as to the workings of the Japanese manga industry and all the creative effort that goes into it. The whole gang cracks me up and I want them all to be number one! Go Team Fukuda!
A Devil and Her Love Song Volume 10 (Viz, 9781421541877)
Jenny: This high school drama about self-acceptance likes its big emotions, but it plays them surprisingly well and I can’t help but get drawn in, especially when the love polygon has just added another intriguing side.
Dirty Pair – Part Two (The Right Stuf International)
Allen: Woot, more Dirty Pair. That’s a really fun series, although I’m assuming that specific volume is the revamp rather than the original show…
Distant Soil Volume 1: the Gathering (Image, 9781607067870)
Eva: I still have all my old floppies of the first incarnation of this series (as well as some original art), so I’m looking forward to reading the updated version — I can’t believe I haven’t made time for this before now. Shame on me.
The Garden of Words (Sentai)
Jenny: Makoto Shinkai makes some beautiful, dreamy, melancholy-tinged movies and I can’t wait to see this one, too.
Kamisama Kiss Volume 13 (Viz, 9781421552668)
Jenny: This series about a human girl who takes over a shrine and its supernatural attendants makes me laugh and ooooh and awwww. It’s silly, sweet, and unexpectedly moving.
Kaze Hikaru Volume 21 (Viz, 9781421535852)
Eva: I LOVE this series! Love. It. Having to wait so long between volumes is a killer, but each one is worth the wait.
Jenny: I am totally with Eva on this one. Kaze Hikaru is both of the awesome and well worth the agonizing year-long wait between volumes. It’s one of the few series I actually let myself buy for my it’s-all-mine-muahahahaha shelf at home.
Kimi Ni Todoke: From Me to You Volume 17 (Viz, 9781421554785)
Abby: So much awesome manga! I love and have been awaiting new volumes Kamisama Kiss and Kimi ni Todoke.
Jenny: I pine between every volume of this huggably wonderful ensemble romance. I want to keep all the characters in my pocket where I can make sure they’re happy and together and I can pat their adorkable heads whenever I like. (Someday, all these will be mine, too!)
Library Wars: Love and War Volume 10 (Viz, 9781421553764)
Abby: I also just started reading Library Wars and it’s a lot of fun.
Jenny: This is eye-rollingly cheesy much of the time, but how can big-hearted, snarky, armed librarians militant about protecting the freedom to read not be fun?
Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales Volume 3: Donner Dinner Party (Abrams, 9781419708565)
Jennifer W: Donner Dinner Party! Woo! I haven’t read it completely yet, b/c one of my eight year old patrons was anxiously awaiting it and I promised he could have it first. I love the spread of all the characters…and their deaths. Gruesome but informative:
Eva: Big Bad Ironclad! was one of my absolute favorites last year, so I’m really excited to read the next installment.
Slam Dunk Volume 29 (Viz, 9781421533360)
Jenny: I am woefully behind on this series (just finished volume 10 last night!), but I’m excited that new volumes are still coming out so I can keep cheering for (and giggling at) “Big Red” Sakuragi and the b-ball boys of Shohaku.
Tegami Bachi Volume 14 (Viz, 9781421551609)
Jenny: Volume 13’s revelations about individual pasts and the true nature of the capital just make me that much antsier for more.
Thrilling Adventure Hour (Archaia, 9781936393961)
Eva: As someone who grew up listening to old radio shows on her transistor radio late at night under the covers, this podcast brings back some fabulous memories while bringing on the laughs. I can’t wait to see the GN version of some of my favorite characters.
Tib & Tumtum Volume 1: Welcome to the Tribe (Graphic Universe, 9781467715225)
Jennifer W: I just finished reading Tib & Tumtum. It’s cute – the art has a kind of Miyazaki feel and I think kids will like the dinosaur/cavemen combination. Sometimes those picture book formatted gns don’t go out well though, so I’ll have to wait and see.
AND NOW FOR THE COMPLETE LIST
The following list of new releases is compiled from Diamond Comic Distributors’ complete weekly shipping list and Anime News Network’s Releases encyclopedia
Graphic Novels
Abrams
- EXPLORER SC
- NATHAN HALES HAZARDOUS TALES HC VOL 03 DONNER DINNER PARTY
Abstract Studios
- RACHEL RISING TP VOL 03 CEMETERY SONGS
Arcana Studio
- HEADSMASH GN
Archaia
- RUBICON HC
- THRILLING ADVENTURE HOUR HC
Avatar
- ALAN MOORE FASHION BEAST
- CROSSED VOL 06
BOOM! Studios
- DAMNED TP VOL 01
Dark Horse
- FAGIN THE JEW 10TH ANNIVERSARY HC
- LONE WOLF & CUB OMNIBUS TP VOL 02
- ORCHID TP VOL 03
- TREKKER OMNIBUS TP
DC Comics
- BATMAN ARKHAM UNHINGED HC VOL 02
- BATMAN ARKHAM UNHINGED TP VOL 01
- DISTURBINGLY AWFUL MAD TP
- IN THE DAYS OF THE MOB HC
- SAUCER COUNTRY TP VOL 02 RETICULAN CANDIDATE
Dynamite
- GARTH ENNIS BATTLEFIELDS TP VOL 07 GREEN FIELDS BEYOND
- RED SONJA TP VOL 11 ECHOES OF WAR
Fantagraphics
- KAFKA GN
- NO STRAIGHT LINES QUEER COMICS TP
Graphic Universe
- BAG OF MARBLES GN
- LITTLE PRINCE GN VOL 09 PLANET O/T GIANT
- TIB & TUMTUM GN VOL 01 WELCOME TO TRIBE
IDW
- FELDSTEIN MAD LIFE & FANTASTIC ART OF HC
- LOCKE & KEY SPEC ED HC VOL 02 HEAD GAMES
- TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ARTOBIOGRAPHY HC
- TORPEDO TP VOL 04
Image
- DISTANT SOIL TP VOL 01 THE GATHERING
- TODD THE UGLIEST KID ON EARTH TP VOL 01
Kodansha
- FAIRY TAIL GN VOL 28
Marvel
- DAREDEVIL BY MARK WAID PREM HC VOL 05
- IRON MAN PREM HC VOL 02 SECRET ORIGIN OF STARK BOOK 1
- SAVAGE WOLVERINE PREM HC VOL 01 KILL ISLAND NOW
- THOR BY WALTER SIMONSON TP VOL 01
- ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN ULTIMATE COLLECTION TP BOOK 04
- VENOM TP TOXIN WITH A VENGEANCE
- WINTER SOLDIER TP VOL 04 ELECTRIC GHOST
Moonstone
- PHASES OF THE MOON TP
Scholastic
- AMULET SC VOL 03 CLOUD SEARCHERS NEW PTG
Seven Seas Entertainment
- ALICE IN THE COUNTRY OF HEARTS: CLOCKMAKERS STORY GN VOL 01
- CERTAIN SCIENTIFIC RAILGUN GN VOL 08
- DANCE IN VAMPIRE BUND OMNIBUS VOL 03
- KANOKON GN COLL ED VOL 02
- SACRED BLACKSMITH GN VOL 02
- VAMPIRE CHEERLEADERS MUST DIE GN VOL 01
- WITCH BUSTER TP VOL 01 BOOKS 1 & 2
- WITCH BUSTER TP VOL 01 BOOKS 3 & 4
- WORLD WAR BLUE GN VOL 02
Uncivilized Books
- OVER THE WALL GN
Vertical
- TEZUKA TWIN KNIGHT GN VOL 01
Viz
- BAKUMAN TP VOL 20
- DEVIL & HER LOVE SONG GN VOL 10
- HAPPY MARRIAGE!? GN VOL 01
- KAMISAMA KISS TP VOL 13
- KAZE HIKARU GN VOL 21
- KIMI NI TODOKE GN VOL 17 FROM ME TO YOU
- LIBRARY WARS LOVE & WAR GN VOL 10
- NARUTO TP VOL 62
- NURA RISE O/T YOKAI CLAN GN VOL 16
- POKEMON BLACK & WHITE GN VOL 11
- SLAM DUNK GN VOL 29
- TEGAMI BACHI GN VOL 14
- TORIKO GN VOL 17
Yen Press
- KINGDOM HEARTS II TP VOL 01
Anime
Funimation
- Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail
- Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends – Complete Series
NIS America
- Daily Lives of High School Boys – Complete Series
The Right Stuf International
- Dirty Pair – Part Two
Sentai
- The Garden of Words
Viz
- Berserk: the Golden Age Arc II: the Battle for Doldrey
Keep in mind that titles are not always available from book vendors on the same dates as they are released in comic book stores, so not all of these will be available everywhere at the same time. Check with your vendors, just to be sure!
