Yotsuba&! Design Awesomeness

Imagine my surprise this morning when I'm walking past the new unbound journal racks in the library and I see this staring back at me from the bottom shelf:



It's the latest issue (#334, May 2009) of the Japanese journal Idea: International Graphic Art and Typography. This special issue is almost entirely devoted to "Designs for Manga, Anime & Light Novels," nearly 200 pages worth. The first 24-page section is entirely devoted to one of my all-time favorite manga, Yotsuba&!, with design examples of tankōbon, calendars, CDs, toys, and promotional materials. Here's a sample page:



The text is almost entirely in Japanese so I can't read any of the commentary, but I could easily spend hours just looking at the pictures.

As a bonus, this issue comes with a 28-page mini-comic full of experimental manga bizarreness. Here's a sample 2-page spread:



(I apologize for the quality of the scans; the scanner I had access to in the library wasn't the greatest. The color in the originals is much more vibrant.)

New Library Comics: May 2009

And here are the new comics that we added to the library's collection in May:


Allred, Mike (Mike Dalton) Madman atomic comics vol. 2 / Berkeley, CA : Image Comics, c2008-

Avery, Chayne. Boy meets hero / Berlin : Gmünder, c2008.

Bell, Gabrielle. Cecil & Jordan in New York : stories / Montreal, Quebec : Drawn & Quarterly ; New York, NY : Distributed in the USA and abroad by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, c2009.

Brainard, Joe, 1942-1994. The Nancy book / Los Angeles : Siglio Press, 2008.

Claremont, Chris, 1950- New Mutants classic vol. 4 / New York : Marvel, 2006.

Del Carmen, Ronnie. And there you are / [Emeryville, Calif.] : Paper Biscuit Industries, 2009.

Di Liddo, Annalisa, 1977- Alan Moore : comics as performance, fiction as scalpel / Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, c2009.

Eerie. Eerie archives vol. 1 / Milwaukie, Or. : Dark Horse, 2009.

Ellis, Warren. Transmetropolitan 1. Back on the street / New York : DC Comics, c2009-

Erotic comics. 2 . A graphic history from the liberated ’70’s to the internet / New York, NY : Abrams, 2009

Folman, Ari. Waltz with Bashir : a Lebanon war story / New York : Metropolitan Books, 2009.

Geary, Rick. The adventures of Blanche / Milwaukie, Or. : Dark Horse, 2009.

Hornschemeier, Paul, 1977- Mother come home / Seattle, Wash. : Fantagraphics, 2009.

Humbug / Seattle, Wash. : Fantagraphics, 2009.

Kirby, Jack. Jack Kirby's The losers / New York : DC Comics, 2009.

Kovac, Tommy. Stitch / San Jose, Calif. : SLG, 2009.

Kubert, Joe, 1926- Tor : a prehistoric odyssey / New York, NY : DC Comics, c2009.

Laird, Roland Owen. Still I rise : a graphic history of African Americans / New York : Sterling Pub. Co., 2009.

Lee, Stan. The Fantastic Four vol. 1 / New York : Marvel, 2009-

Mack, David. Kabuki v. 7. The alchemy / Fullerton, CA : Image Comics, c1997-

Marder, Larry. Beanworld bk. 1. Wahoolazuma! / Milwaukie, OR : Dark Horse Books, 2009-

McKeever, Ted. Metropol / Berkeley, Calif. : Image ; London : Diamond [distributor], 2009.

Messner-Loebs, William. Journey : the adventures of Wolverine MacAlistaire vol. 1 / San Diego, Calif. : IDW Publishing, 2008-2009.

Millionaire, Tony. Drinky Crow's Maakies treasury / Seattle, Wash. : Fantagraphics, c2009.

Mome. vol. 14 Spring 2009. / Seattle, Wash. : Fantagraphics, 2005-

Mori, Kaoru, 1978- Emma vol. 8 / La Jolla, CA : WildStorm Productions, 2006-

Naifeh, Ted. Courtney Crumrin's monstrous holiday / Portland, OR : Oni Press, Inc., 2009.

Nakazawa, Keiji. Barefoot Gen : a cartoon story of Hiroshima v.7. Bones into dust / San Francisco, Calif. : Last Gasp of San Francisco, 2004-

Nakazawa, Keiji. Barefoot Gen : a cartoon story of Hiroshima v.8. Merchants of death / San Francisco, Calif. : Last Gasp of San Francisco, 2004-

O'Malley, Bryan Lee. Scott Pilgrim v. 3. Scott Pilgrim & the infinite sadness / Portland, OR : Oni Press, 2004-

O'Malley, Bryan Lee. Scott Pilgrim v. 4. Scott Pilgrim gets it together / Portland, OR : Oni Press, 2004-

O'Malley, Bryan Lee. Scott Pilgrim v. 5. Scott Pilgrim vs. the universe / Portland, OR : Oni Press, 2004-

Pekar, Harvey. The beats : a graphic history / New York : Hill and Wang, 2009.

Popgun vol. 3 / Berkeley, Calif. : Image Comics, 2007-

Regnaud, Jean. My mommy is in America and she met Buffalo Bill / [Spain] : Ponent Mon ; [England] : Fanfare, c2007.

Rogers, Boody Gordon. Boody : the bizarre comics of Boody Rogers / Seattle, Wash. : Fantagraphics, 2009.

Schulz, Charles M. (Charles Monroe), 1922-2000. The complete Peanuts [v. 11] 1971-1972 / Seattle, WA : Fantagraphics Books, c2004-

Soule, Charles. Strongman / San Jose, CA : SLG Publishing, 2009.

Supermen! : the first wave of comic-book heroes 1936-1941 / Seattle, Wash. : Fantagraphics, 2009.

Tatsumi, Yoshihiro, 1935- A drifting life / Montréal, Quebec : Drawn and Quarterly, 2009.

Tezuka, Osamu, 1928-1989. Black Jack vol. 3 / New York : Vertical, c2008-

Tezuka, Osamu, 1928-1989. Black Jack vol. 4 / New York : Vertical, c2008-

Tobe, Keiko. With the light : raising an autistic child vol. 4 / New York : Yen Press, 2007-

Trondheim, Lewis. Little nothings 2. The prisoner syndrome / New York : NBM, 2008-

Urasawa, Naoki, 1960- Pluto : Urasawa x Tezuka vol. 2 / San Francisco, CA : VIZ Media, c2008-

Usui, Yoshito, 1958- Crayon Shinchan vol. 7 / La Jolla, CA : CMX, c2008-

Vähämäki, Amanda. The bun field / Montréal : Drawn &Quarterly, 2009.

Walker, Mort. Sam's strip : the comic about comics / Seattle, Wash. : Fantagraphics, 2009.

Watchmen and philosophy : a Rorschach test / Hoboken, N.J. : John Wiley & Sons, c2009.

Wolverton, Basil, d. 1978. The Wolverton bible : the Old Testament & Book of Revelation through the pen of Basil Wolverton / Seattle, Wash. : Fantagraphics ; New York : Distributed in the U.S. by W.W. Norton, c2009.

World war three illustrated. no. 39 / N.Y.C. : S. Tobocman, P. Kuper, C. Kohlhofer, 1980-

Yuri monogatari vol. 6 / [United States] : ALC, c2004-



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