The staff at ComicPop Library would like to send our condolences to the McDuffie family. Dwayne was well known for his breadth of work in the graphic novel industry, whether it be comic books, television and silver screen. He will be missed by all.
New Yu-Gi-Oh Anime Series
This is for your library’s Yu-Gi-Oh fans. Anime News Network has a small article (linked below) about the new Yu-Gi-Oh series entitled Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal anime series and it states the manga is already in production in Japan. This will be one title to look for in the next year if not sooner for library collections.
Fantastic Four Variant
Librarians can show some interest in the comic book medium with their graphic novel readers. Ask your patrons if they were lucky enough to get the cover variant of Fantastic Four #587 that sports the autograph of the writer of the issue, Jonathan Hickman. Follow the link to Marvel’s site for the full article.
http://marvel.com/news/story/15077/fantastic_four_variant_surprise
Live-Action Star Blazers
Librarians keep your ears to the ground about a possible Star Blazers live-action movie from Skydance Productions which, helped with the production of True Grit. They are currently in talks to obtain the rights at this time. Anime News Network’s site (link below) also mentions that there was a live-action Japanese movie of Star Blazers released this past December. So you might check out some of your international film distributors to see if they have this title.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-02-21/true-grit-producer-in-live-action-star-blazers-talks
Mercy Thompson Trade Paperback
Librarians take note Patricia Briggs’ collected edition of Moon Called, Vol. 1 is now available to purchase. This would be a title that you could cross promote with readers of Briggs books so they can see imagery of her characters from her popular Mercy Thompson series. Follow the link to Dynamite’s website for ordering information.
http://www.dynamiteentertainment.com/htmlfiles/viewProduct.html?PRO=C1606902032
Dark Horse Named Manga Pub. of the Year
Dark Horse’s site has a brief article (link below) on being named Manga Publisher of the Year by Diamond Comics Distributors Gem Awards. This being Dark Horse’s 25th year of publishing this makes a nice feather in the hat for them. Out of the 25 years, the site mentions they have published manga for 23 of those years, most notiably Oh My Goddess! and Blade of the Immortal.
http://www.darkhorse.com/Blog/269/dark-horse-named-manga-publisher-year-diamonds-gem
X-Men Anime
This will be of interest to librarians working on their anime collection. Anime New Network’s site has a brief article about the X-Men anime starting on Japanese television channel Animax. The article also mentions that Animax is already airing Ironman and Wolverine animes. These are not available for purchase yet. However, with these being U.S. properties I can see these eventually collected and distributed in the United States (dubbed and subbed). I could be wrong with my speculation, but I would definitely keep these writing down and in the back of your mind for a possible future anime purchase. Follow the link to Anime News Network and there will be an image of X-Men’s Cyclops, pictured above. Click this image and it will take you to Animax’s site where you can see the trailer/commercial for X-Men.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-02-18/x-men-anime-nichijou-promo-videos-streamed
Yu-Gi-Oh 3D Movie card pack
If some of your libraries are in the area that the new Yu-Gi-Oh 3D: Bonds Beyond Time movie will be shown let your patrons now about the movie packs. ICv2 has the article about this, however it is unclear if these will be available to purchase at the theaters or elsewhere. The link below will take you to the article. Let your anime and card gaming fans know about this if they don’t already.
Arrietty wins Animation of the Year
For all the librarians purchasing anime for their library’s might want to consider Arrietty. Your anime fans will really appreciate it and you could show case it to American animation fans and us Arrietty as a crossing over title for some patrons that like American animation but are hesitant about Japanese animation. Arrietty won recently at the 34th Japan Academy Prizes. Follow the link to Anime News Network for the article.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-02-18/arrietty-wins-japan-academy-animation-of-the-year
Marvel & Oscar Crossing Paths
Yahoo has a nice article about how many past and present Oscar Nominees are taking rolls in comic book movies. They are from Thor: Natalie Portman; Kenneth Branagh, Director; Adriana Barraza; and past winner Anthony Hopkins. From X-Men First Class is Jennifer Lawrence and from Avengers: Mark Ruffalo; Jeremy Renner; Robert Downey Jr.; and Samuel L. Jackson. Pretty good cast of talent hopefully this will bode well for these three movies. Time will tell…Follow the link to the full article by Matt McDaniel.
http://blog.movies.yahoo.com/blog/694-new-thor-trailer-features-oscar-hopeful-natalie-portman