Found.
This week I decided to inaugurate a new feature here at RocketBomber (not related to the poll in the sidebar to your left; please vote — right now “More Drunken Ranting” is winning with one vote. Mine.)
Here’s the thought process:
Do you know what I miss most about the manga market circa late 2006, though 2007? Manga on the shelves.
More stores carrying manga, more shelves in the stores, more manga — right there, new titles every month. Back in the day [*chuckle* false nostalgia for a time just one year ago] I wouldn’t be visiting the shop looking to buy… but then I’d see a book and something about it would make me pick it up. I’d get out of the store 5 books richer and $50 lighter.
The stocking trend has reversed, it’s a sales dynamic that is lost. It’s close to impossible to replicate browsing (in the walking-by-shelves-full-of-books sense) with an online retailer and while I know the sites are trying, no one has managed to emulate this to my satisfaction.
I do end up looking at an awful lot of web pages full of manga titles, though — easily more than the next 50 people combined — so if anyone can take a stab at it, then I can. I must. It’s not a replacement for insightful reviews or recommendations based on my own readings, but then again it’s not meant to be.
Manga is still available at retail. Physical books sit in brick-and-mortar stores — and the staff of your local comic shop would love to meet you. But so much falls through the cracks
— and unless some obsessive manga nut steps up to fill those gaps, many many books will continue to languish in anonymity. I can’t say my mere mention of a title should be considered a recommendation — I mean, the book might not even be out yet so I can’t have read it to recommend it — but the idea isn’t to rate, review, and rank the manga, just to bring it to your attention. Just like if the cover caught your eye in the store: Pick it up, take a look, and then maybe you read the back cover blurb or flip to see the art.
I’m going to post covers, with a link. (Some of these covers are beautiful, worthy of posting in and of themselves — Heck, that’s one reason I love manga.)
