Rocket Bomber - article - Manga Moveable Feast - Call For Participation - The November 2012 MMF: A Thankful Manga Feast

Many of our readers (and most potential participants in November’s Manga Moveable Feast) will be celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday on November 22nd. In years past, we’ve come to a consensus to either schedule around the holiday or skip the month altogether; however, following a suggestion by Justin on the email list/discussion forum a topic was presented that was a natural fit for the holiday:

“Well, it technically is around Thanksgiving, so… maybe manga that we are thankful we can read? Thankfully exists in print or something? Of course, that’s pretty vague, and I believe the topic is limited to artist, manga, or genre, but just throwing it out there.”

Thank you, Justin.

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A Thankful Manga Feast
Wednesday 21 November to Sunday 25 November

The usual modus operandi for the MMF is to consider a single work, single creator, or (less frequently) a genre or imprint worthy of note; at any rate there is either a single topic or a very strong theme upon which our small-but-mighty community focuses. This month is, different.

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Stop. Breathe. Think.

Let’s take some time to reflect: to ask what brought us into the hobby, and what keeps us here.

Let’s take a moment to thank everyone, from creators to publishers, licensors and licensees, the friends who loaned us our first manga and the brave souls who trawl the Japanese internets to inform us of our next one. Let’s be thankful that we were able to read some really excellent manga, and give credit where due.

Our topic is effectively open-ended. I look forward to reading all your submissions.

Once again, our hub is http://www.rocketbomber.com/mmf — the Emma stuff is still there; if you’d like to link to the two separately than please cut-and-paste or bookmark http://www.rocketbomber.com/mmf#emma and http://www.rocketbomber.com/mmf#Thankful2012.

Over the course of the week [or is it just a super-long holiday weekend?] I’ll revive my MMF Daily Diary; if you like, you can also use these as seeds for your own reviews, essays, and thought-pieces

Appetizers Wednesday – “The Manga My Best Friend Lent Me That Got Me Into Manga” – be sure to thank them!
The Feast – “Manga I’m Thankful For” – Thursday
A Side Dish – “I can’t believe they licensed this but am I ever thankful they did” – Friday
Desserts – “Guilty Pleasures Manga” – Saturday
Quiet and Reflection – Sunday – also a chance to catch up with late posts, or an opportunity to write a longer piece about manga generally and not manga, title, specific.

I’ll post a final wrap-up on Monday the 26th. Because there are always last minute submissions. ;)

My actual topic for Wednesday will be more about my own discovery process – I suppose the ‘friend’ who got me into manga is a corporate buyer for the bookstore in New York – but I know so many of you who were converted to the cause by a friend, and I’d love to hear more testimonials.

If you have any additional suggestions for the Thanksgiving MMF, or any questions, comments, concerns, random insults, or other feedback: please drop them in the comments here, or track me down on twitter [at ProfessorBlind – I’m on twitter more than is healthy]. And starting on Wednesday, please send me the links to your submissions! Twitter is perfectly fine, but if you don’t tweet or want to be doubly-sure, email me at matt@rocketbomber.com so I can add you & your essay to the MMF archive.

And once again: special thanks to Justin for the idea.