Roland Kelts « The Comics Journal

Bloggers

Essayists

International

Interviews

Interviews

Reviews

Reviewers

Galleries

Topics

RSS Feeds

Author Archive

Disaster and distance

Posted by Roland Kelts on April 10th, 2011 at 8:07 PM

Hokusai, 1833

Hokusai’s “Great Wave off Kanagawa,” 1833

I was in Oregon when the quake and wave first struck Japan last month. More specifically, I was in a little comfort food eatery called Belly in downtown Eugene, sipping a martini.

…

Anime/Manga Porn Battle Heats Up in Japan

Posted by Roland Kelts on January 20th, 2011 at 6:02 PM

The battle in Japan over pornography censorship Bill 156 is intensifying. Last month, media companies Kadokawa Group Publishing and Animate jointly announced they would take their wares away from Gov. Ishihara’s Tokyo Anime Fair and host their own simultaneous event, “The Anime Contents Expo.” Several other major publishers and producers are joining them.

Looking back to move forward: A few good gift books

Posted by Roland Kelts on December 21st, 2010 at 5:32 AM

Given such dire prognostications for the near future, it may be better, or at least more fun, to look back at a few of 2010’s gift-worthy Japanese pop culture pubs.

Cool Japan chilled: Censorship rules Japan

Posted by Roland Kelts on December 15th, 2010 at 7:10 AM

Any of you remember the ‘Comics Code’ in America, effectively shutting down the most creative comics artists in the US in the 1950s, as aptly recorded by David Hadju in The Ten Cent Plague? For the sake of all of us, let’s hope it doesn’t happen in Japan.

Manga vs Comics: Does it matter? Felipe Smith in Japan

Posted by Roland Kelts on December 10th, 2010 at 11:45 AM

Can an American artist and his Japanese agent break down the walls of prejudice in both East and West?

Satoshi Kon, 1963-2010

Posted by Roland Kelts on September 11th, 2010 at 8:23 PM

Satoshi Kon, one of the most gifted, innovative and searchingly intelligent artists working in the anime medium and the film world at large, died on the morning of August 24 from pancreatic cancer–at the age of 46.

The Gaming Scramble: TinierMe hits half-a-million U.S.-based users

Posted by Roland Kelts on September 7th, 2010 at 7:33 AM

The gaming scramble for American fans of authentic anime.

Porn, Piracy and Manga’s Revolutionary Summer

Posted by Roland Kelts on August 19th, 2010 at 7:06 AM

Roland Kelts tackles the issues surrounding scanlations.

TokyoPop hits the highway to save manga in America

Posted by Roland Kelts on August 2nd, 2010 at 12:01 AM

The company’s self-branded “TokyoPop Tour” launched in early July at Los Angeles’s Anime Expo. When it’s all over, Levy and his crew will have hit 28 cities in 54 days — all to get face time with fans.

For me, the move is rich with irony: the heavily Internet-invested manga/anime producer and retailer I first encountered five years ago is now using online social networking to turn back into old-fashioned traveling salespeople.