Today's review is another Tezuka review by my good friend and amazing writer/artist/mangaphile, Shaenon Garrity. As I mentioned yesterday, I gave Shaenon the job of doing all the Tezuka reviews for Manga: The Complete Guide (both the original book and this update), because Tezuka is too classy for me and I would rather spend my time grubbing around in the dirt reading manga like "Enmusu" and "Violence Jack." -_- *ahem* Anyway!

The good folks at suvudu.com recently tallied up the statistics for the first 50 days of "365 Days of Manga" and answered the question "Just what sort of person fills out forms for free manga online?" Personally, I kind of imagined a mixture of people like Tank Girl in the '80s and Bruce Campbell in those Old Spice commercials. More realistically, I've gathered some data from the forms, and I'll share it with you now.

First, your ages:

Over 18 - 77%
Under 18 - 23%

I had noticed that most of the winners are over 18, despite the attempts by companies like VIZ and Udon to publish "all ages" and preteen manga. Is the age of manga readers rising? Teenagers and preteens, send us your manga requests! But what about your manga preferences?

Shojo/Josei - 30%
Seinen - 22%
Shonen - 15%
Yaoi - 11%
No Preference - 24%

Shojo/josei is the highest requested category, although so far the winners have been mostly seinen lovers -- is this just bad luck for the shojophiles? The preference for seinen over shonen might be linked to the ages of the readers. We have a steady undercurrent of yaoi requests, and a lot of "no preferences," which I take to mean "prepare to receive the weirdest manga I have."

So those are my wild guesses about the demographic of web-savvy manga maniacs. There's something else I've been wondering which can't be answered by the suvudu form results -- do "365 Days of Manga" readers read just manga, or do they also sup of a variety of other types of graphic novels and comics? Do they know the joy of "Yokaiden", "Scott Pilgrim", "Finder", "Won Ton Soup," the work of Dylan Meconis and Jason Shiga and Derek Kim and Jen Wang? Recently I've been working on some of my own comics, specifically on a comic adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft story The Strange High House in the Mist. I'm a horror and fantasy fan from way back and it's a huge pleasure to draw my own stuff when I'm not reading manga. I'm currently on page 11 of a projected 16 pages, so please check it out!

And now, today's winners! Today's new manga winner is Mona K. of California (congratulations!), and the repeat winner is Adele S.!

Congrats, Adele! I'll do my best to send you some really awesome books that you don't already have for your next 5 manga. Till tomorrow, it's "365 Days of Manga," over and out.

Today's review is by Shaenon Garrity, creator of numerous comics, manga editor, comics critic, and one of my best friends. For "Manga: The Complete Guide" and 365 Days of Manga, I asked Shaenon to review all the manga by Osamu Tezuka. I love Tezuka, but to be honest, so much has been written about him that I have never had a strong desire to write about him myself. There are other, lesser known manga creators who need the attention. Writing about Tezuka reminds me of that scene in the 1983 movie "A Christmas Story" when the kid is fantasizing about his teacher giving him his grades "A plus... plus... plus... plus... plus!" Actually, not all Tezuka manga deserves an A+ (Apollo's Song for one), but still, although I can't put down a Tezuka manga once I pick it up, I gave the Tezuka honors to Shaenon so I could spend more time reviewing yaoi manga, shojo manga and stories about spiky-haired young boys who want to be the best at something.

Today's winner is Nathan G. of Indiana! Congratulations, Nathan! Soon you'll be getting five free manga, just like this other dude, Brandon W.:

Thanks for sending us your photo, Brandon! You've allowed us to continue the "circle of manga" by sending you five more graphic novels. See you all tomorrow!

If I haven't said it before, I love New York City!

I have been here twice, both times for the NY Comic Con. I haven't done very many tourist-type things—meetings, events, dinner and drinks at the Comic Con take up a great deal of time—but instead have tried to embrace the city as it is. Great food. Great people. Great city. I highly recommend a visit if you haven't, especially if a visit to Comic Con can be worked in!

The first time I visited I had author Terry Brooks and his wife Judine as a guide; they have been here many times before and found the very best restaurants and fun things to do away from the convention. The second time I was alone and spent more time walking the city to discover its true nature.

Chaotic fun!

This time I have been almost exclusively at Random House.

And I thought it would be fun to write a post about it!

Random House publishes more than just science fiction and fantasy. It is the largest English-language book publisher in the world. It houses dozens and dozens of imprints, all with their own speciality and all with hundreds of employees. Each floor in the building is a maze of offices, cubicles, conference rooms and miles upon miles of computer cords and lighting. From the top floor to the enormous mailroom at its ground floor, Random House is something very unique.

To say this place is huge would be a dramatic understatement!

I spent the afternoon primarily with people from Del Rey books. The signing with Naomi went very well; it was fun talking to her about her forthcoming work. I got a look at The Talisman: The Road of Trials Issue #1 that will be released later this month. I even tried to help the editor for Terry Brooks find a great title for his next book. These kind of things happen all of the time here—multiple discussions and meetings. People bring this place to life. Everyone I have met loves books. They spend their minutes talking about books. Even now, as I type this, there is a loud discussion going on right next door about bestselling eBooks and how to improve sales for other eBooks.

The thing is, when these people leave for the day in a few minutes, they will continue to talk about books at dinner, while getting drinks and even at home until they go to bed.

That is passion. These people love books just as readers do.

I can't help but think of the monks who, in piety and silence, used to reproduce books by hand-copying them one word at a time, one page at a time. Talk about hand strain! Now we are able to produce a several million print run in essentially no time at all. But even though Random House is a corporation it is one built by very real people. It still takes a similar dedication like that seen by the monk to see a book created and published.

In essence, the religion these Random House employees live by is books.

I know one thing.

I will be sad to fly home tomorrow. Because I love being surrounded by books and book people.

Guess it is time to start planning my next visit!

Post Script: Many thanks to Gerald and Adrian in the mailroom! You guys were helpful gentlemen and without your aid I would not be flying back to Seattle on time! Thank you again!

50 days... 50 manga reviews... 250+ manga sent like mushroom spores out of my house to germinate in the homes of others. (Is that metaphor appropriate?)

It's been an exciting first 1/7th of the giveaway. One of the most interesting things, for me, is seeing the photos that people send in. It's like a high school yearbook of the kind of people who read manga (or at least, who read manga and enter online contests) in America. I could have almost called this contest "365 Faces of Manga," although (1) that sounds a little inappropriate and (2) not everyone who wins manga in the first round submits their photo for the second round. I hope you're all enjoying the manga, first-round manga winners! It's fascinating seeing this Studs Terkel-esque survey of manga readers.

Speaking of winners, today's winner is Francene L. of Michigan. Congratulations, Francene! I hope you like the manga (or "mangers", as my friend Dr. Urian Brown would pronounce it)!

On November 3, 2009, Shel Dorf, the creator of that which is now known as Comic-Con International: San Diego, died.

Dorf's passion for comics lead him to befriend, seemingly, every comics creator around. His friendship with the legendary Milt Caniff lead Dorf to a breif stint contributing to Caniff's strip Steve Canyon. Beyond his personal professional credits, his connections let him help establish fan conventions in Detroit in the mid-1960s. When he later moved to San Diego, he organized the comics community there to create a similar convention, and the rest is history.

That first convention at the U.S. Grant Hotel in 1970 drew a few hundred people, and while many, many people were involved with making it a success, Dorf was the sine qua non, without whom none of it would've happened.

Over the years, as the convnetion's scope grew and expanded, Dorf's involvement with the show changed and ultimately lessened. But his imprint still lingers in the San Diego Convention Center for that magical week in July, as more than a hundred thousand people now come to enjoy what has grown from that seed planted for that first show's few hundred.

It's astounding how important the San Diego Comic-Con has become in our corner of pop culture. It's the first best place to celebrate our favorite genres. There are authors who feel they've truly arrived only when they first sign at autograph at the convention. I have colleagues who vie for a chance to work the show (little suspecting what I'll put them through when they hit they show floor.) And none of that--none of it--would have happened without Shel Dorf.

An online tribute to Shel Dorf is here. Obits and memories and anecdotes will surely abound in the days to come. But I can't think of what the landscape of pop culture would look like--neither personally nor professionally--were it not for Shel Dorf. And for that, for right now, let me just say, "Thanks."

Fanfare/Ponent Mon is one of the highest-quality publishers of art-manga (and European comics) today. Who else would publish work as underground, as personal, as Kan Takahama's? Their books don't have the best distribution, so keep an eye out for them.

Today's winner is Carolyn U. of Utah! Congratulations, Carolyn! We've also received a new photo from a previous winner, Noel of Florida:

Thanks for sending your photo! I hope you enjoy the manga, particularly "Category: Freaks" and the out-of-print horror manga of Junji Ito, creator of "Uzumaki." I'll be sending you five more possibly less horrific manga in the immediate future as soon as I run to the post office. See you tomorrow, and as they'd say in "One Piece," "do it with a DON!"

Kazuo Umezu is one of my favorite manga artists. I learned Japanese to read his stories, and I later had the privilege of editing "The Drifting Classroom," one of his epics, for Viz. Umezu started out drawing shojo manga in the '60s and children's gag comics in the '70s, but his work always had an undertone of horror, and in the '80s and '90s his work became increasingly violent and terrifying, culminating in the mature-readers splatter manga "Fourteen" and "The Left Hand of God, The Right Hand of the Devil." "Reptilia" is from his early-mid period, when his work was still basically children's comics with a fairytale feel. I actually prefer his later, gorier manga, but "Reptilia" is still a fun book, if you don't mind the general lack of logic. Umezu, who is retired, is also a famous eccentric, known for fronting a band in the '70s, painting his Tokyo house pink (over the objections of his boring neighbors) and singing Paul Anka's "You Are My Destiny" on Japanese TV.

Moving on, today's winner is Lisa A. of North Carolina! Congratulations, Lisa! I'll be sending you five manga in the mail today. Let the manga rumpus start!