As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was able to pick up some ‘give aways’ from the DC Comics booth at New York Is Book Country. I’m going to try this week to review all those comics. It’s been a while since I’ve written any comics reviews here so bear with me while I try to get back into the swing of things.

CMX Manga Preview – 2004 (DC Comics): A digest sized sampler of the first few stories to be serialized in this manga (Japanese comics) line from the publisher. It’s been said before, but one of the most fascinating things is the wide-range of material that the Japanese comics industry is willing to put out. Unlike their American counterparts, who seem to believe that anything outside the super-hero/action genre is risky, the Japanese creators give free range to their imaginations. Everything from sports to gambling to dance and hobbies has their own comics devoted to them. CMX brings to the U.S. English translations of books which, in many cases, have not been available at all in this country.

Among the series are: SWAN tells the story of a young girl who dreams of being a great ballerina and how she goes about trying to bring her goal to realization; MUSASHI NUMBER NINE is about a secret organization fighting international terrorism, and features a member of the team passing herself off as a high-school student.; PHANTOM THIEF JEANNE features another high school girl, this one a reincarnation of Joan of Arc(kind of a cross between JOAN OF ARCADIA & BUFFY) who uses her supernatural abilities to steal paintings which house demons; and the adult-themed FROM EROICA WITH LOVE which features three operatives with super-natural abilities trying to capture the art thief Eroica, who is in actuality a member of British royalty, Dorian Red Gloria. Dorian is gay, as is at least one of the operatives. An odd mixture of romance & comedy, it will be interesting to see how a title featuring an openly gay protagonist sells in the States.

Manga seems to be selling pretty well in bookstores and in comic shops. Working in a public library, I get a lot of requests from kids and teenage patrons for just about anything in manga form. The American comics industry would be wise to not only republish the original Japanese titles, but to try and utilize the format for their own creations.