By Mat K.
Wow, it’s good to be back. The holidays this year were so nuts that we had to take a little hiatus. If any of you came by shopping last week you must have noticed that there were no new releases at all, in fact the only comics were some Fall Of Hulks thing and a Blackest Night issue. The good news is that it’s the first release week of the month and that means a million books you know you’ve been waiting for.
The first hunk of big news is One Piece. Now if you read Naruto, (or even if you don’t), you may remember the last couple years around this time Viz started pumping out 4 issues a month or so in order to catch up with the rapidly progressing Japanese issues. Well, apparently we started getting dangerously close to current Naruto issues, and they realized we were still desperately behind in One Piece, because in 2010 it’s Luffy’s turn. That’s right, this week 5 whole volumes of One Piece come out at once, 24-28.
As gorgeous as that news may be, One Piece is certainly not the only thing happening this week. Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 21 is also making it’s grand entrance, as well as NaNa Volume 20. There’s also new Fate Stay Night, Fairy Tail, Reborn, Kyo Kara Maoh, and Hunter X Hunter to name some more, and believe it or not, for the all the stuff coming out, there are only 3 premier titles.
StarCraft comes back again with their second manga series, (and third comic series, if you count the comics being put out by WildStorm). StarCraft: Ghost Academy chronicles the lives of the terran cadets as teenagers as they deal with crushes, drug addiction and their own budding telepathic powers. Not to mention getting the crap kicked out of them as they train to become the next wave of ghosts, physical pain ahoy!
Happy Cafe Volume 1 by Kou Matsuzuki shows up this week bringing a new goofy shojo manga to the table. When Uru’s mother remarries, she uses the opportunity to get a part-time job as a waitress. Unfortunately, not only is she a complete clutz, but both of the cute boys that work there with her are completely unsociable. The art in this series reminds me of Fruits Basket, Uru looks just like a Tohru with short hair, and both of the guys (despite having black and silver hair), look like Kyo though that might just be because of the constant glaring grimaces they both sport.
And lastly on the list is World I Create by Ayami Kazama makes its way to us from CMX. I know most CMX books look like lame water-colory super-shojo, but this one actually doesn’t look bad, though a bit cute. In this world there is a unique profession known as Projectionists. You can be rich and famous but only if you’re good at it. Where else can you hone your skill at casting 4 dimensional images other than a high school full of other projectionists?
Anyway, that’s plenty for now, dont want to overload you guys. So until next time!
Ja Ne!
