New Library Comics: Week of March 19, 2007

Here's a list of the comics we added to our library collection last week:


Blab! (Princeton, Wis.) Blab! /[Chicago, IL : Monte Comix Productions, c1986- no. 16

Centrifugal bumble-puppy. /Agoura, CA : Fantagraphics Books, 1987-1988. nos. 1-7

Horne, Joyce. A softer world : truth and beauty bombs /Vancouver, BC : Loose Teeth Press, 2006.

Jones, Keith. Bacter-area /Montreal, Quebec : Drawn and Quarterly, 2005.

Max, 1956- Hechos, dichos, occurrencias y andanzas de Bardín el Superrealista /Barcelona : Ediciones la Cúpula, c2006.

Subliminal tattoos. /Vancouver, WA : Robert DuPree, c1994- no. 2

Review: Project X: Cup Noodle

Three different manga read over the weekend, each quite different from each other and at the same time the sort of comics that you just don't see being produced on this side of the ocean. I'll be spreading out the reviews over the week.

First up is Project X: Cup Noodle (DMP, $12.95).

I'd heard that one popular manga category in Japan is salaryman manga, i.e. manga intended to appeal to Japan's white collar work force. I'm not sure if Project X: Cup Noodle is explicitly a salaryman manga, but I imagine that it's close.

Adapted by Tadashi Katoh from an episode of a television program, it relates the more-or-less true story of how the Nissin Foods Corporation developed the extremely popular Cup Noodle product. During an economic downturn in the 1970s, Nissin President Momofuku Andou came up with the idea for a portable version of their popular Ramen instant noodles. He assembled a team of engineers and set them to the task.

While the manga does a good job of telling the story and presenting the facts, it is mostly absent of any sort of narrative drive or emotion. Will the engineers develop a cup design that will insulate and allow for the noodles to be cooked all the way through? Will they find a shrimp that stays red through the freeze-drying process? Will they convince a skeptical public of the superiority of the Cup Noodle, even though it costs 100 yen? The answer of course is yes to all of those questions, and the outcome is never in doubt. Despite a couple of attempts to show the home lives of the engineers, an emotional connection is never formed.

Katoh's art and storytelling is workmanlike, fine but uninspiring; it gets the job done.

I suppose that one's ultimate reaction to the story will depend on one's opinion of the role of large corporations in the capitalist system. Some will read the story as a triumph of work and ideas in bringing a product to market and creating wealth for the corporation. Others will feel a bit sad and sorry for the engineers who labor under the direction of the management, and upon succeeding are happy to receive only a salary increase.

Project X: Cup Noodle achieves its basic aims; after reading it I knew about how the Cup Noodle was developed. But as an enjoyable story experience it falls short.

Rating: 2.5 (of 5)

Monkey Covers

Sunday is Monkey Covers day here at YACB. Because there's nothing better than a comic with a monkey on the cover.

A golden monkey reads the news on Steve Lafler's 1987 cover to Out the Next #1.

Image courtesy of the GCD. Click on the image for a larger version.

New Library Comics: Week of March 12, 2007

Casas, Mariano. Historias de Mariano : una inquietante recopilicion de algunas historias que fueron verdad y otras que no /Mariano Casas, 2006.

Cat Chow. Struggles, triumphs, and tender moments of Cat Chow : A B C. /[United States?] : Cat Chow, c2006.

Entrialgo, Mauro. Drugos el acumulador /Barcelona : Ediciones la Cupula, c2003.

Johnson, Dave. The Johnson sketchbook /[United States?] : Atomeka, c2004- vol. 1

Mackey, James T. Pfc. Ernest J. Mackey, A. F. 15343898 : 1603rd A. B. G. 1603rd M/S Sqdn. : A. P. O. 231 % Postmaster : New York, N. Y. /[United States] : A.L.F.T., c2005.

Morrison, Grant. Doom patrol : magic bus /New York : D.C. Comics Inc., c2007.

Solís, Fermín. El año que vimos nevar /Bilbao : Astiberri, 2005.

Vanyda. The building opposite /[London?] : Fanfare ; [Spain?] : Ponet Mon, c2006- vol. 1

Chris Ware Animation

Cartoonist Chris Ware animates a segment on the premiere of the new This American Life television show tonight. Don't have Showtime? Watch Ware's segment here.

(via TV Squad)

YACB Bulletins

ITEM! There's still time remaining to enter TangognaT's Free Manga Contest; but hurry, entries are due by midnight the 22nd.

ITEM! Opening chapters of the comics blogosphere's favorite OEL whipping child, Avril Lavigne's Make 5 Wishes, are available as a free podcast.

ITEM! If you're at the Boston Zine Fair this coming weekend you'll be one of the first to get the new issue of Cathy Leamy's Geraniums and Bacon; if not, you'll have to wait a little while longer to order it through her Website.

I'm Back

Completely off-topic post:

I spent the last couple of days at the University of Minnesota at the CIC Library Conference: "Getting in the Flow."

The good: Meeting interesting colleagues at other institutions. Many engaging speakers.

The bad: No free time, so I wasn't able to check out any of the fine Minneapolis comic stores or the famous DreamHaven books.

The ugly: The Minneapolis weather. My cell-phone getting stolen (I hope whoever took it really enjoyed the $5 of free calls they got before I reported it stolen. You should have taken my gloves and ear-muffs, as you would have gotten more use out of them!)

Proof I was at the conference:



(I talk with my hands a lot!)

That was actually take 2. Take 1 was much better, but they had to redo it because of sound issues :(

Regular comic-related blogging will return shortly.

EDIT: Other cool thing: flying through O'Hare on the way back home, we taxied past the new Airbus A380. It's big...