I’ve been gone from the site for awhile. On my time away, I started shopping for textbooks. Then I needed to shop for teen literature and plays for two other classes. When I noticed some of my orders didn’t reach the “$25 and over free shipping,” I started to get a few comics I’ve been waiting to buy. Though none were manga, which I need to catch up on, many of them were bargains. And because they were bargains, I think it is a good time for some people to go back and invest in their favorite hobby: collecting comics and manga.

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Just what the title says. I’ll be taking a break from the blog since school has started again. Hopefully the other writers will step in and take care of the blog while I’m busy with adolescent and medieval literature. Give or take a month and I’ll be back to writing again.

I think I should stop making my titles into questions, but this is quite an issue we are talking about. While surfing the web for some manga news, Lori Henderson from Manga Xanadu posted an editorial that ranted on the School Library Journal’s choice for “Best Books for 2009″ (though Henderson pointed out that the list’s title was actually “Best Comics and Manga for 2009“). Somehow the discussion in the rant led to a concern for children reading comics over books. For some reason when it comes to the comparison of novels to comics, there is some biased agreement that novels are a “superior” form of reading to comics. I’m sure this isn’t new to anyone, especially those who read comics or manga. However, this biased thinking really needs to stop.

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Even though it’s only one link, it’s still worth the post. For those who know and follow Lori Henderson at Manga Xanadu, she is holding a contest for a manhwa set. You can find more details to enter by going to her blog. Link here.

It’s been awhile since I wrote another for the blog. But I’m curious to know one thing. When you read a manga and there are numerous cliches in the story, is it okay? You’ve heard my take on the subject of walking cliches, but I wonder about other people’s opinions.

For those who don’t know what a cliche is (shame on you), here is the definition from Wiki:

A cliché is a saying, expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect rendering it a stereotype, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel.

Now if you need an example, just read a few manga titles and find some common element within each manga. The “good” guy character, rain equals sick person, love, etc. I don’t really consider “fan service” as a cliche, but it is a well known technique used in many manga titles.

Personally if the story is strong or the character develops into something more, then it isn’t such a problem. But it becomes bothersome when the cliche doesn’t go away. But I’m more interested in others opinions of the subject.

To make up for the lost of posts in recent days, I wanted to create a manga gift guide for all you shoppers. Only problem is so is every other manga blog. With so many manga gift guides, why bother making another one? So instead of creating another guide, just go to this link and look through all the guides for that perfect gift.

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No, really. Go look at the Great Manga Project.

Sorry to those potential readers. There are mainly two reasons we haven’t updated the site. One is because we didn’t have internet service for a week. The other reason is we had a lot of homework to do before Thanksgiving break. But now that the service is back up, I can now write. Keep a look out in the weeks to come before winter break hits.

Blogger Matthew J. Brady is nearing his fourth year of blogging at Warren Peace Sings the Blues. Make sure to congratulate him, he may give away two copies of vol. 1 of Moyasimon. Link here.

Just Bento is also doing a give away. The prize is The Manga Cookbook. Link here.

For those who want to show off their art skills, Holiday Anime Faire is calling for entries in postcard art and coloring contest. Children from Kindergarten to 6th grade can enter in the coloring contest while everyone older will have to enter the postcard contest. Offical rules at their website.

Ever wanted to watch that one episode of Robot Chicken where Voltron gets served or that episode of Boondocks where Granddad gets whipped by a blind man, but didn’t want to pay the full price of the DVDs just for one episode? Well now you can with Adult Swims new marketing pitch.

Starting today, Adult Swim will allow customers to customize and purchase their newly made DVDs. They can select episodes up to 110 minutes from Adult Swims programs, choose the disc art and a cover image, design the DVD menu, and have the thing shipped all for a mere $20. It seems, however, that this is restricted to US customers (sorry international friends). 100 TV episodes will be available, including some not available on DVD. I’m assuming this is content that wouldn’t be in the original DVD.

It’s unknown whether Adult Swim will include their anime lineup with the selection, excluding Boondocks. I wanted to try out the customization, but couldn’t get the page working. Anyone else get the page to work? And if you did, what do you think about the whole thing?

We’ve all done it before. When we don’t want to solve that impossible math problem, when we don’t want to remember all those Latin-based biology terms, when we don’t want to write that stupid essay due tomorrow, we do something else that is more fun. Video games, television, and the internet are some of the big helpers that create the procrastinating effect. But how about manga, or even anime? Sure manga is not as interactive as video games or the internet, but it does take away your valuable time from what you could be doing. Like a novel, it needs the reader to help unfold the story right before our very eyes. It consumes us, and our time.

Using me as an example, I am starting to see my grades slide a bit. But if you ask me what has been keeping me from doing my homework properly, I’ll just list them:

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