…Which leads me to a small conundrum. All the manga apps on my iPad have become somewhat stagnant. To begin with, there aren’t too many titles I want to buy. I’ve already bought all the volumes of series I’m collecting digitally and there don’t seem to be too many new additions to any of the apps. There are, however, a lot of manga that I’m already collecting.

These fall into two categories: manga where I’ve bought volume 1, but haven’t bought more if because I’ve been saving my money for other titles; and manga I’ve been collecting for quite a number of volumes.

It seems to me that if I’m having trouble keeping up with these titles, perhaps getting them digitally would help. That way I could get two for the price of one print volume, not to mention, not have to worry so much about space in my apartment. This seems particularly plausible for series like Story of Saiunkoku, Saturn Apartments and Cross Game, where I just keep forgetting to pick up volume 2. But what about series like Otomen, Natsume’s Book of Friends, Oishinbo and Grand Guignol Orchestra? (Yeah, so far this only applies to Viz series.) Am I just supposed to have half of a completed series on my shelves? Do I really care that much about having every print volume of a series I’ve already started in print?

BAH! SO CONFUSING!

Which leads me to ask: What would you do in this situation?

I think I might go ahead and start digital collections of manga where I only have one volume, it’s less of a issue there. But I’m still hung up over series where I’ve bought more than one print volume.

Personally, I love Ode to Kirihito the best. It was the very first Tezuka manga I remember reading and I still find it to be one of his most solid works.

That being said, I really enjoyed Princess Knight! And I really want to read Rainbow Parakeet in English! (I swear I will never stop talking it up until it gets published in the U.S.!)

So what’s your favorite Tezuka manga? What are you dying to see published in English? Have you read any of his work recently? (I just finished Black Jack Volume 10 myself.)

But I think it’s a good list and that it’s worthy of it’s own spot on All About Manga, so I’m going to re-do the whole damn post. Right here. Right now.

Most of these aren’t in any order, except the first two. Beware that a lot of these are out of print. The reason I suggest them is because they are WORTH hunting down and perhaps paying a little extra for a certain volume. Mind you, I’ve only had to do this for one of these series so far.

1. From Far Away

From Far Away is my favorite love story and I will never get tired of pimping it out to people. I think it’s the best example of a fantasy world being full of different kinds of people I’ve ever seen in a manga. In fantasy, I see a lot of authors have problems developing characters beyond what side of the story’s main issue they’re on. With Hikawa’s characters, you could spend hours describing all their little quirks. Do be warned, the series takes a little bit to warm up and volume 1 doesn’t feature the most amazing writing. Keep reading!

I collected From Far Away when it was still being released, so I have no idea how out of print it is aside from friends who are looking to collect it.

2. Monster

Naoki Urasawa is one of my favorite manga-ka of all time and Monster is one of his best series. They call him the Master of Suspense because of Monster, I’m sure of it! It follows a Japanese surgeon in Germany who gets caught in a strange, very scary conspiracy because he saved the life of a young boy ten years before. This is probably the series that got me collecting something other than shoujo manga.

This one, unfortunately, seems to be very out of print, from what I hear. Is it worth it, you ask? Well, when this manga was still coming out, my anime club passed this manga around like it was a pipe filled with the best hashish ever. There was a waiting list at least a half a dozen long for a number of volumes. (So glad that I started buying it after I borrowed the series…)

If Monster eludes you, check out Pluto and 20th Century Boys, also by Urasawa. Both are excellent.

3. Basara

Basara! My love! This epic shoujo manga reads a lot more like a shounen manga, but with a heavier dose of romance than normal.  It follows the struggle of a young revolutionary, who must hide her gender as she strives to exact revenge upon a tyrannical ruling class in post-apocalyptic Japan.

This manga is incredibly out of print. In fact, it’s the only manga where I’ve dared to spend much more than MSRP for a single volume. (Volume 19, which is heavily out of print. I got a slightly damaged library copy for $60. But I had incredible luck with the rest of the volumes and bought most of them at below MSRP, so it all evens out.)

4. Banana Fish

I just finished Banana Fish and it was one of those series where I was reading the volumes with such intensity, it was a little scary. Banana Fish wouldn’t be called a shoujo manga if it weren’t for the intense relationship between its two main characters, Ash and Eiji, who are so close it’s almost sexual. The rest of the time, it’s guns, drugs, violence, mafia-types and anything else typical of 1980s-era gangs in New York City.

Even though it’s been a long time since Banana Fish was published, I had no trouble collecting the series. People tell me it’s out of print, so I may have been very lucky, but check your local comic book store anyway. They might have extra copies laying around. (Buy those if you see them and really want this series. I always recommend buying stuff out of order if it’s OOP.)

5. Please Save My Earth

I’m actually still in the middle of reading Please Save My Earth. That’s how much I like it. I don’t even know how it ends yet and here I am recommending it to you. But I always get so SAD whenever I finish a chunk of volumes…

Please Save My Earth is about a bunch of teens (and one kid) who find out that they have memories of a past life on an alien moon base. As they get to know each other better, they find themselves entangled in the same relationships and drama that dominated their former selves.

Anyway. I’m not having any trouble getting volumes, even though I thought I would have more trouble. A quick scan of Amazon tells me you can get all the volumes for at or below MSRP though.

6. To Terra…

There’s a reason why Keiko Takemiya is considered one of the pioneers of shoujo and yaoi manga and To Terra… profiles everything that makes her great. Beautiful art with more experimental paneling than you’ll see in most modern-day stuff; amaaaaaaazing scifi writing; and more subtle boys’ love than you can shake a stick at!

Luckily, these volumes are almost always available due to their publisher (Vertical Inc.) being awesome and always keeping all their titles perpetually in print.

7. Ode to Kirihito

Tezuka is a great manga-ka and there are plenty of his works on the English language market right now, but Ode to Kirihito is one of my favorites. It’s a heavily emotional journey and easy to sympathize with the main characters, more so than some of his other manga. I think this is the very first Tezuka manga I read, but it’s just good and a lot easier to get into than some of his other dark stuff.

If you want something lighter, I do recommend Princess Knight, which will give you crazy feelings of Disney nostalgia. Dororo is a good middle ground, in case you’re not into fluff. All three titles are available from Vertical Inc. If you have trouble finding Dororo, it’s probably because they’re putting out a new omnibus edition.

8. Genkaku Picasso

I don’t know if Genkaku Picasso will always been on my top ten list, but it blew me away when I finished it last week. It was such a great example of using a standard manga formula (battle/problem of the week), that the manga was able to mock itself for using it. Personally, I could relate to the main character and I even cried a bit at the ending. I seriously wish that more shounen manga were like Genkaku Picasso.

It should still be available from Viz Media, seeing how it’s a fairly recent release.

9. MARS

MARS was an important title to me in high school. In a fit of obvious stupidity, I sold off all my copies before college and now I have to recollect them all.  I’ve gotten through about half the series so far and it still holds up beautifully. A somewhat dark, but sometimes uplifting look at the struggles the more creative types can face in high school.

I’ve looked at Amazon for the volumes before and most of them seem to be well below MSRP. Take advantage of this because you’re much less likely to see it in stores.

10. Ooku

I’m not entirely sure whether or not to feature Ooku or Antique Bakery, which are both by Fumi Yoshinaga. But I know this for sure, I will always love Fumi Yoshinaga manga. She is a master of emotional faces and simple paneling. She draws food manga, yaoi, historical manga and slice of life, and somehow manages to make each story nearly perfect.

Ooku is currently running and in print. Antique Bakery is out of print, but SO WORTH IT. But do be warned that both manga contain fairly explicit sex scenes, in case that bothers you.

Honorable Mentions-

A Drunken Dream & Other Stories

Moto Hagio is kind of my manga hero after hearing her speak about how she creates at Comic-Con 2010. (Where this book of her short stories debuted.) It’s still in print and ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS. All shiny and golden. *_*

Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad

If you’re even slightly into indie rock, you’ll probably have a good time with Beck. It’s like a good teenage anthem song. Unfortunately it has been long out of print and was never actually finished in English. It’s still a good read!

Planetes

Personally, I like the anime better, but it’s such a good story! If you really can’t find the manga (it’s really out of print), go take a look at the anime and you won’t miss much. The manga is gorgeously drawn, though, so my only real argument for the anime is having seen it first.

Bunny Drop

This series is currently being released by Yen Press, so you’ll be able to find it easily. About an adorable kid and her not-so-adorable, older nephew who winds up adopting her. (Her father is his grandfather, who dies at the beginning.) SO CUTE.

A Bride’s Story

I LOVE A Bride’s Story! I never expected it to get licensed because of a slightly squicky May/December relationship, despite the fact that it has some of the most gorgeous artwork ever. It’s a historical manga, set in the Middle East in 19th Century and   is currently being released by Yen Press. If you want more of Kaoru Mori, Emma has also been released in English, but it’s getting hard to find.

Twin Spica

Oh, Twin Spica. Could there be a cuter slice of life, kind-of scifi series out there? I’m not sure. Everyone thinks Yotsuba&! is cute, but I think Twin Spica is better. Vertical just released the last volume has almost finished releasing the entire series, so it’s definitely still in print.

Barefoot Gen

I began reading Barefoot Gen for one of the Manga Moveable Feasts. It’s not happy, it’s about a family struggling before, during and after the nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, but it’s important and mostly true. (The author is a survivor of Hiroshima.) It’s still in print, as far as I know.

Nodame Cantabile

There are more than a few manga about serious music students out there and Nodame Cantabile has got to be the most entertaining, especially when it comes to the titular character. Sadly out of print, but wroth the read!

You see, Genkaku Picasso is the only shounen manga I’ve bothered to collect. Ever. The title of this blog is a little bit of a lie, I actually have a volume of One Piece, a volume of Ranma 1/2 and a volume of Bakuman sitting in my to-read pile, a number of Japanese Gin Tama tankobon that I inherited from someone and Cross Game, which I totally forgot I owned until I began putting the finishing touches of this post. I think I used to own some Inuyasha volumes back in the day when those cost $15 a pop, but sold them off years ago. Ranma 1/2, Bakuman and Gin Tama I got for free, but I have absolutely zero plans to read Bakuman or Gin Tama, let alone continue collecting them. Cross Game is an unfortunate victim of having other titles I’m a little bit more interested in and I haven’t bought more volumes even though I want to, eventually. One Piece and Ranma 1/2 will probably be the next shounen manga that I attempt to get into, but I’ve had those volumes for a number of months now and little desire to actually read them. If I do get into One Piece, I’ll probably buy the rest of it digitally because of its length. I’d do the same if  Ranma 1/2 was available online.  Thus, Genkaku Picasso is the only shounen manga I’ve bothered to a) read and b) buy the rest of the series. Too bad it’s so short.

I don’t know if I could tell you exactly why I dislike shounen manga. I’ve read a number of volumes through friends who are kind enough to let me borrow. I read a few through scanlations, once upon a time. (I don’t think any of those titles have been licensed though.) I’ve watched a number of shounen anime too, although I can’t say that too many have struck any sort of chord with me. I know the “problem/fight of the week” formula is one reason I dislike shounen manga, but Genkaku Picasso and many other manga I own use the same formula. So that’s not it.

Perhaps it’s the easy camaraderie coupled with fighting, I’ve never understood why people can be best friends so easily after being on the opposite sides of an issue. It seems a little fake to me as I’ve never found making friends to be that easy.

At least in Genkaku Picasso, the friendships Hikari (Picasso) suddenly gets are a result of him having to fix their emotional problems without them knowing. The characters he helps then feel more interested in Picasso because of the emotional impact he’s had on them. (The premise of this story is that Hikari must dive into other peoples’ hearts to help them fix deeply-ingrained emotional wounds, or else he starts rotting and dies.) You know, like a good friend who gives you a shoulder to cry on and helps you work through your problems.

But it’s not really a mystery to me why I like Genkaku Picasso over other shounen manga I’ve read. In the back of volume three, Furuya begins to talk about how Genkaku Picasso came into existence, namely how an Jump SQ editor approached him about making a series for the magazine. For an alt-manga creator like Furuya, this seems a little odd, why would he place his next series in such a popular magazine? But the editor gave him free reign to create whatever he wanted without having to worry about selling books. (Within certain parameters, I’m sure, since Jump SQ is still a magazine for young, impressionable kids.) So Genkaku Picasso is a work of love, something that Furuya wanted to write. And I could feel that as I read the series.

It’s actually surprising how one forgets that a lot of manga are kept going by sales alone. One great example of this is Please Save My Earth, which I’m currently reading. It’s very engrossing and it doesn’t smack of “this series is only continuing to sell more books,” probably because Saki Hiwatari created a more complex story than she initially realized. She admits to having planned something much shorter initially in her author notes, but also reveals that she created the idea all on her own and that she got a lot of support from her editor to take the series in whatever direction it needed to go in. Not that the story isn’t weak in certain areas, but you can see where Hiwatari really shines and builds a concrete, believable world. I love reading Please Save My Earth and I feel a bit sad when I run out of volumes to read.

A very bad example of a series that has been extended too long is Fushigi Yugi, in which the main story ends in volume 13, but continues with an after-story for another five volumes. It feels very, very, very forced in comparison to the first 13 volumes and creator Yuu Watase even states that she was asked to continue the story because of its popularity. And, wow, you can really tell that Watase is pretty much done with these characters and their story. She clearly needed a break from the popularity of Fushigi Yugi. It’s really not surprising that Watase didn’t start Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden until a full nine years after she finished the first series. Even I don’t even want to read the rest of Fushigi Yugi that much. I’m just doing it to finally finish the series that got me started on manga and move on. Maybe nine years from now, I’ll want to take a peak at Genbu Kaiden…

So perhaps it’s really the desire to sell books and become the next big shounen manga that keeps me away from it. There’s too much use of a certain formula for success and not quite enough creativity to keep me from rolling my eyes whenever I read a standard shounen manga. Not that shoujo manga doesn’t do the same thing, but shoujo tends to get the ax much sooner if it’s no good. It’s why you see so many short stories in the back of shoujo manga.

Genkaku Picasso, on the other hand, has enough creativity to attack unconventional issues and goes so far as to mock the generic shounen formula it does take. Not to forget the manga’s shounen roots, the ending will probably make you cry a single, manly tear. I couldn’t think of a better shounen title to read right now. Grab it while it’s still widely available.

For more on Usamaru Furuya and his many works, you can check out the rest of the Manga Moveable Feast at Experiments in Manga.

I’ve always felt like anime is more popular than manga, but for reasons I don’t really understand as a very devoted manga reader.

That being said, there are so many reasons why people choose anime over manga, or just fall out reading manga or watching anime altogether. Disinterest in reading, passionate interest in animation, waning interest in manga and its tropes or really just interest in other things are all valid reasons to spend time away from manga.

But I want to hear the nitty, gritty details of why, so please share your answers to your heart’s content.

Andromeda Stories by Keiko Takemiya and Ryu Mitsuse: I was really excited to read Andromeda Stories because I loved To Terra…, but Andromeda Stories fell flat for me and I’m going to blame Mitsuse for it. Accompanying Takemiya’s lovely art is rather poor world building, bad character development and a plot that takes so long to get off the ground it completely forces the story to implode.

The story begins as the Ayodoyan princess, Lilia, marries the Cosmoralian king, Ithaca and gets pregnant. Ithaca starts acting strangely and it turns out he’s been infected by evil machines that want to take over the entire planet. After giving birth, unknowingly, to twins, Lilia flees with her son Jimsa. The evil machines take over Cosmoralia and Ayodoya at the same time and Lilia’s other child winds up with a prostitute.

Prince Jimsa grows up in the desert, protecting his mom. He gets to step into the role of destined rebel prince when a mysterious elder approaches him, but reneges on their partnership when Mommy Dearest is nearly killed. And this is where our hero’s character development screeches to a grinding halt. Lilia, Ithaca, the machines, the Elder and many other supporting characters have no development to speak of, by the way.

In comes Affle, Jimsa’s long lost twin, as the Elder’s replacement for Jimsa, who feels a strong need to protect Affle. Then they fall in love. Then they all finally get off their asses and start trying to fight the machines, but it’s too late and everyone dies.

And that’s how this manga ends, as a beautifully-illustrated incestuous mess. All that build-up, all that “oh, Prince Jimsa/Affle, you were meant to deliver us from the machines” crap and everyone just dies anyway. I am pretty sure this one got cut off by the editors because it was really unpopular with readers. And for good reason, I think. In other hands, Andromeda Stories could have been a romantic epic.

Dear Vertical, can you license something better by Keiko Takemiya next? Pretty please?

Eagle: The Making of an Asian-American President by Kaiji Kawaguchi: It’s terribly interesting to read Eagle as various candidates begin to compete anew for the presidency and as someone who first became aware of politics when the events of the manga take place. It’s also quite interesting how the 2000 election turned out in favor of a white Republican candidate, although a non-white Democrat was elected into the Oval Office less than a decade later.

The story follows a young reporter named Takashi Jo who has been invited to report on the presidential campaign of Kenneth Yamaoka. Jo knows that Yamaoka is his dead beat father and that he may be responsible for Jo’s mother’s death, but Jo decides to trail the campaign anyway.

There’s a lot of high-tension drama in Eagle as Yamaoka struggles to win over American voters and a lot of people who don’t like him. All kinds of politic scandal is thrown out there:  illegitimate children, extramarital affairs, dirty deals, blackmail. You name it, Eagle got it in there. It’s a testament to Kawaguchi’s research that he gets not only the scandal right, but the attitudes of various regions and the true problems that presidential candidates face while trying to win over the people.

And it’s entertaining. The fast pace of the election really helps keep things interesting- because when you look at the bare bones of the story, Eagle is like one of those shounen manga where you fight a foe before they become your friend- as does the romance between Takashi and Yamaoka’s adopted daughter, Rachel.

At the same time, it’s such a sadly idealistic manga to be reading today, especially post-9-11. As a young adult, I’m not sure I could believe an idealistic candidate like Yamaoka, assuming he was running nowadays. Even if I voted him into office, I wouldn’t expect him to be able to get anything done. Still, it rekindled my interest in the stories tha happen during the presidential elections. Perhaps I shall look forward to the upcoming one just a little bit more.

Banana Fish by Akimi Yoshida: No sooner did I put down the final volume of Banana Fish than I began to cry a little. Not too many manga have done that to me! This 19 volume series starts out about the titular mind control drug, but becomes more and more about the main character Ash. His struggle to gain independence from all the cold-blooded evil in his life is more than a little intense. Ash is the leader of a number of New York City gangs, and is set to inherit a powerful position in the Italian mafia as head of the Union Corse. There’s so much violence, rape and killing, you can barely believe this is a shoujo manga.

Since the majority of the characters in the book are male, the aforementioned rape ranges from secret pedophilia clubs to jail gang bangs. Luckily, it’s only alluded to and not shown, but it’s all a large part of the yaoi influence in this series. It’s also a huge motivation for Ash to move the story along as he wants to destroy the head of the Union Corse, Dino Goldzine, who is his adoptive father, pimp and tormentor.

Another bit of yaoi influence is in Ash’s relationship with Eiji Okumura, a Japanese photographer’s assistant visit Japan to chronicle New York City’s dangerous gang members. Eiji winds up getting caught up in the violence, but because if it, he forms a deep bond with Ash. They aren’t lovers, soul mates is a much better word, but they can’t really stand to be separated for long.

The story ends in the final volumes with a whirlwind of violence and trying to outsmart the enemy, which is quite the emotional buildup because Ash has almost nothing whereas Papa Goldzine has billions of dollars at his disposal. The ending also strays very far from the original premise of the series, with only brief mentions of Banana Fish. But it’s so entertaining you hardly notice the story has gone off on a tangent, never to return.

Banana Fish is well worth tracking down for the impact of the whole story.

Recipe for Gertrude by Nari Kusakawa: I’ve read a few of Kusakawa’s series now and I have to say that Recipe for Gertrude is her weakest. There’s nothing particularly wrong with the story, except that the two main characters, Gertrude and Sahara, are rather uninteresting and the most interesting thing that happens to them is that they fall in love. Sadly, Kusakawa never puts enough emphasis on this romance and the reader finds little other reason to relate to them.

Far more interesting are the side characters, Mariotte and Puppen, two demons who become attached to Gertrude, as well as a demon librarian. All three have quirks that Gertrude and Sahara totally lack, something that becomes obvious when you read short stories about them in the final volume.

Normally, I would be all for a little less emphasis on romance in a shoujo manga, but this isn’t the the way to go about it. I suggest reading some of Kusakawa’s stronger series like Two Flowers for the Dragon. (Which is also out of print due to DC shutting down CMX.)

Happy reading!

Yesterday, Digital Manga Publishing announced a new Kickstarter campaign to finance the publication of the mature Osamu Tezuka manga, Barbara. Now, about 24 hours after its launch, the campaign has already made more than half of its goal in pledges. I think it’s already safe to say that Barbara is going to be published, even though the Kickstarter is 29 days away from completion. I guess it just goes to show you how popular Osamu Tezuka is becoming in America.

It also brings up an important question: Is this the new way to publish manga? So far only DMP has wandered into this new territory, but I think other publishers might not be too far behind. Heck, I thought of the idea of financing manga on Kickstarter well before the first DMP campaign started for Swallowing The Earth, another Tezuka title. Not that I’m trying to take credit for anything, but if I was thinking about it, you can bet someone else in the manga publishing biz (not just DMP) was thinking the exact same thing.

Of  course, this model makes a lot of sense, especially in a time where manga publishers are  keeping a tight grip on their purse strings. A publisher can essentially say to its fans, “Hey, do you want this?” with little financial consequence. Readers vote yes or no with their dollars and by helping the publisher with viral marketing. Just think about how many tweets, blog posts, etc. that excited manga fans (like me) have sent out to help ensure that the manga they want gets published. It’s a very democratic system of publishing.

So, how do you feel about Kickstarter manga? Do you not want to have to pay for more than the manga? (As you often have to do with these Kickstarter campaigns, although you do get bonuses.) Do you even want to have to vote for your manga? There are a lot of manga readers out there that aren’t connected to the online manga community at all, is it fair that they don’t get to have a say? I’d love to hear any and all thoughts and concerns.

There are a lot of questions posed by Kickstarter manga. Obviously, I think the result is mostly positive and allows fans to have more of a voice in manga publishing. I look forward to seeing what happens next with this business model and what other publishers choose to employ it.

If you want to learn a bit more about Barbara, Deb Aoki has an excellent post about the manga and the Kickstarter campaign at About.com.

I love being a manga editor. When I get work in and I’m 90 pages deep into a tankobon, I couldn’t be happier. Even when I get rush work and I’m crying because I’m so stressed out, I come out of it feeling so content that the product of my hard work will be on shelves in a matter of months.

I HATE being a freelancer. Having to invoice people, then having to chase down my clients when they don’t pay me on time, never having enough work on my plate, constantly trying to find new clients and waiting for a big break or a full-time job to put me out of my misery. If it was possible, my new year’s resolution would be to give up freelancing for 2012. But then I’d only have a job at my mom’s travel business and I only work there four days a month.

Luckily, since legit freelance manga editing jobs are hard to come by, the following story about having to fire a client is not about a manga publisher. Actually, all my manga publishing clients are really decent folks who usually pay me on time, the occasional glitches aside.

I got this client, we’ll call them Client D, after Tokyopop shut down because I needed something to start filling that gaping hole in my income. I was actually really excited to work with Client D because I really connected with my managing editor and because it wasn’t manga-related work, which would allow me to branch out into other areas of editing.

In June, the first month I worked for them, they sent me lots of work and I accidentally invoiced them too much because I was editing their articles like I edit books: over and over and over again. That was not what Client D wanted, but they kindly told me that they’d pay me the invoiced amount anyway since they were pleased with my work.

The next month, I got into the swing of things, but they sent me approximately half of the work they sent me the month before. Things still looked promising though, because Client D was telling me about other kinds of work they wanted to give me. This time, there were no problems with the amount of the invoice I sent them.

In August, I had to hassle them about paying that first invoice because it was agreed upon that Client D would pay me within 30 days of invoicing. Yup, Client D had already failed to honor our agreement on my first invoice to them. They did pay me by the end of the month, about 60 days after invoicing, but I had gotten less work from them that month too.

I inquired about more work in September, but was told they didn’t have any. Realizing I had forgotten to invoice my August work in October, I promptly invoiced them and also inquired about why I hadn’t been paid already for my July work.

Another month passed, with e-mail exchanges that promised me I would get paid for my work soon, but no actual payment coming my way and no more new work from Client D. I finally got my July invoice paid in December after harassing their poor accountant, who was probably freelance herself. (She assured me that Client D always paid, but I had to tell her that getting them to pay me was like pulling teeth.)

Now it’s January and I’m still waiting on a mere $90 from October, 2011. Because Client D is a small business, I can understand why they are keeping their copy-editing in-house right now and not sending me more work. I haven’t hassled them about that. What I don’t understand is why it’s taken Client D so long to pay me for work I’ve already done for them and why they think it’s OK to just keep forgetting.

So I fired them as politely as I could. I did like working for them when times were good, and my contacts had been as kind as possible to me when times weren’t so good, but it was clearly time to part ways.

I realized a few things as I did this, though. It’s ethically wrong to stiff freelancers out of their hard-earned money. Chances are, especially in this economy, that money is needed to put food on the table. A freelancer’s precious time is wasted if they don’t get paid.

It can be easy to feel like the clients are the masters, but they aren’t. One of the beauties of freelancing is that one can turn down clients and turn down work when one wants to. Ideally, this only happens when a freelancer has too much on their plate already. Well, ideally, clients treat freelancers like any other hard-working employee who earns their paycheck! If that’s not the case and the paycheck isn’t coming on time, it’s time to let go.

Instead of writing to you about manga, for the first post of the new year, I went and started a new blog on a different platform: Ladies in Comic Book Stores.

Don’t worry, All About Manga isn’t going anywhere. I just felt I had to start this tumblr blog in order to truly chronicle the impact of this proposition I made a few weeks ago. (And activism is always a feel-good way to start a new year.) The fact that some guys in fandom, especially some guys who make important decisions when it comes to the contents of comics, see women as an insubstantial part of the fandom kind of pisses me off. So, I wanted to put a face to the ladies and I wanted to show off just what they bought.

Only my picture’s up there at the moment, but over the next few days I’ll be posting the initial snaps I took at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles this past Wednesday.

If you’d like to submit a pictures of women buying comics -or women working in comic book stores- and their purchases, here are the submission guidelines.

Thanks for your continued support!

Linda came up with a wonderful gift guide for manga that has stood the test of time and  that you wouldn’t want to buy digitally because the printed versions are so awesome at AnimeMiz’s Scribblings.

Seichan provides gifts for every kind of CLAMP fan, even the uninitiated, over at CLAMP*NEWS.

Kristin writes puts together a well-rounded gift guide of manga she’s read this year for ComicAttack.net.

Finally, I wrote my traditional Great Shoujo Manga Gift Guide, although this year it could be called the Great Shoujo and Other Awesome Manga Written By Women Manga Gift Guide.

If we’re missing anyone’s gift guides, I’ll be more than happy to add them to this post and to the archives. Just send me a link!

I have to admit that I could have been a better host this year instead of getting distracted by personal stuff, so maybe that’s the reason why we got so few Great Manga Gift Guides this time around. Perhaps next year, the tradition should be passed on to a new host. Anyone interested?

That said, I hope everyone has a Happy Hanukkah and a Merry Christmas! Hope you get all the gifts you really want!