Have you read the post right before this one? If not, scroll down and read it first.

Done? Okay, in case you refuse to do that, this is going to be about NORA, a manga from VIZ MEDIA that Barbara and I rewrite/adapt. Okay, now that that’s clear, work with me here…

VIZ MEDIA ANNOUNCES AN ARRAY OF EDGY NEW MANGA SERIES TO DEBUT IN FOURTH QUARTER

New Releases Offer A Variety Of Intriguing Fantasy/Action Adventure Tales As Well As New Shojo Titles With A Twist

From Internationally Acclaimed Creators

San Francisco, CA, NOVEMBER 21, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced several eagerly awaited new manga series scheduled for release throughout the Fourth Quarter of 2008.

Seven new series are set to debut, beginning this month, and feature a variety of captivating stories designed to appeal to Teen and Older Teen readers. The new series include BLANK SLATE, NORA: THE LAST CHRONICLE OF DEVILDOM, SOLANIN, CAPTIVE HEARTS, GABA KAWA, WE WERE THERE and ST. ♥ DRAGON GIRL.

“We are looking forward to bringing a diverse range of titles in Q4 which will range from slice-of-life stories to romance and more!” says Evelyn Dubocq, Sr. Director of Public Relations, VIZ Media. “As the 2008 holiday season approaches, manga fans will have multiple strong VIZ Media releases to choose from in every genre.”

Blah blah blah… wait for it…

NORA: THE LAST CHRONICLE OF DEVILDOM · Rated “T+” for Older Teens · MSRP: $7.99 US / $9.50 CAN · Available Now!

Nora, an unruly demon, has defied his Dark Liege one too many times. For the sake of his “education,” Nora is sent to live among mortals and enters a bond of servitude with cool-as-ice star student Kazuma Makkari. But this relationship is destined to become a match made in Hell. Kazuma now must learn the ways of the underworld while Nora discovers more about the “real world” than he ever thought possible. When the seal for Nora’s form is released he becomes Cerberus, the vicious dog of disaster. But Nora can only use magic when Kazuma grants him permission, and he doesn’t grant it easily. The Dark Liege wants the pair to team up and crack down on renegade demon factions in the human world, but first they must find a way to get along. NORA: THE LAST CHRONICLE OF DEVILDOM is Kazunari Kakei’s first manga series and originally debuted in Japan’s Monthly Shonen Jump magazine. Blending the conceptual appeal of supernatural cliffhangers like DEATH NOTE with the aesthetic design elements of manga series like FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST, the series will appeal to fans of character-based, supernatural genre franchises likeHellblazer and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In Japan, the popularity of NORA: THE LAST CHRONICLE OF DEVILDOM eventually spawned a second series called SUREBREC: NORA the 2^nd, which also premiered in Monthly Shonen Jump.

…

Uh…

Sure, okay, go with that.

But I’m telling you, none of that prepares you for the dog jokes. I wanna talk to the person who thinks that Hellblazer has a bigger readership than the audience for amusing, canine-based humor.

Okay, okay, Death Note, Buffy, FMA, got it. Sure. I would have mentioned those too.

But… I think it’s a bit more like Naruto… FullMetal Alchemist is probably closest, of the four… followed by Buffy I suppose…

…Followed by Hellblazer, honestly, before we hit Death Note, really.

This is Barb after all. Hello? My wife? Barb? Y’know?

–P

New articles up in the writing section of this site…

Since my latest column (the 5th in a series) for Septagon Studios just went live at http://news.septagonstudios.com/?p=404 , I decided to add my 3rd installment of said column over here in honor of the occasion. Barb, on the other hand, has added a couple of new DVD reviews, namely the rock-snob delight GRACE OF MY HEART and the classic film ROBIN HOOD starring Errol Flynn.

We’re also kind of proud this week that a manga we adapt for VIZ, entitled NORA, sold in the top 10 graphic novel sales for the month of October. Sure, manga beat all American-type comics in this regard (except for WATCHMEN, at the top in expectation of the new movie), that’s not news, but it means Nora also beat everything put out by manga publishers too, except for eight other things (two of which were Naruto volumes, so you could count that as seven instead of eight if you wanted). And it (Nora) was only previewed for one little chapter in one issue of Shonen Jump! Just goes to show that if you show 216,000 readers some attractively-drawn boys, some supernatural hijinks, and some amusing dog jokes (Nora sort of turns into a giant scary dog when the chips are down), darned if manga-loving young people (and otherwise) might not pay to give the whole thing a try. And the reviews are just what we expected, too: if you average them all together you get “I thought this would be just a Naruto/Inu-Yasha rip-off, but I was pleasantly surprised to actually find that on top of having very nice art, it’s funny.” So yayz.

I turned out to be exactly right about how the announcement about the next GSG story and exactly how it will become available to your computing device would not be ready today. But I have strong hopes that it will be by this time next week… except that I will probably be away next Wednesday in preparation for American Thanskgiving. So either you’ll get lucky right before Thanksgiving, or after it’s over.

But it is coming… certain files were sent to someone mysterious earlier today…

(P.S.: It won’t involve Platinum.)

Okay, so anyway, finally, I will mention that the wife and I have decided to actually try to do this Twitter thing, so come on over if you want and follow along and observe the daily work of two manga adapters and editors and writers. http://twitter.com/parkcooper

-P

New articles up in the writing section of this site… This time I’ve chosen to go in a different direction with each one… for me, I decided it was time I put the second installment of my Septagon Column THE SEPTAGON BRIEFINGS, the one about comics conventions, up on this site… For Barb, it’s more DVD reviews. For the whole family! If your whole family has the GUTS…

In other news, Josh Wagner has broken his vow to stop blogging:

http://goodagainstremotes.blogspot.com/

Steven Saunders is doing all kinds of geeky new things over at his blog:

http://grognerd.blogspot.com/

But most importantly…

Not long ago Steven Saunders hyped GSG and one young woman said she wanted more GSG updates (like I didn’t just go write this: http://www.wickermanstudios.com/comics/short/tfb1.html –but I understand, that’s not GSG). I said… let me look this up and be specific… “There’s a new story all drawn (and lettered if I remember right) and just waiting its turn… but it involves a secret announcement, and there’s a tiny holdup on that announcement that’s depending on non-WMS people.”

Well the day when I can tell you precisely how it is that the next story will be available to your computing device is coming up fast. I hope I can do so by this time next week, but it’ll probably be 2 weeks.

But it’s coming…

–P

New articles up in the writing section of this site… Again, two very newish articles from Comics Bulletin, Barb’s a very useful list of 100 of her favorite movies (although it was written before she saw DORM), mine a nice interview with Age of Bronze creator Eric Shanower.

There is also new Salvus art– a pin-up by GUN STREET GIRL artist Ryan Howe:

http://www.wickermanstudios.com/comics/salvus/salvuspreview7.html

And what appears to be preview art for a coming Salvus short story:

http://www.wickermanstudios.com/comics/salvus/salvuspreview8.html

–P

I have written a new column which will probably be highly visible for the next 30-odd hours only:

Good-Bye, Condi Rice

Talk about time-dated.

–P