The Way of the Editor:
The Editor’s Manga ComplaintComicBase Editor Shiaw-Ling Lai discusses the burgeoning problem of manga overpopulation and presents a few modest proposals to alleviate the situation.
Salutations! and welcome to the first installment of ComicBase reviews online. As Editor, I get dozens of fantastic reviews each month from our hard-working team of writers, and there’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of adding a new title description to ComicBase. But as fun as it is to breeze through titles in ComicBase, checking out a review here, a review there, very few of our blurbs actually hit the news while the comics are still hot on the racks.
But, gosh-darn-it, why not? Our two cents on comics, plus the chance to drum up some appreciation for our deserving writers? We couldn't resist. Thus, a column was born.
And while I have your attention, I'd like to take a moment to make an important public service announcement about a growing issue in the world of comics: manga, otherwise known as Japanese comics.
As many of you are aware, the introduction of foreign creatures into a local ecology can often end with disastrous results. Similarly, the influx of manga imports, legitimately, as well as under the table contraband such as scanlations, has resulted in unprecedented consumption of space on our American shelves. In the past five years, manga has become the fastest growing population of the comics industry, more than doubling its numbers every year. Domestic-born titles have been shouldered out of their niches by their more robust manga cousins. Already this manga has seduced our American youth. Could it be the first symptom of a chilling future without super-heroes?
But — perhaps we’re going about it all wrong. Perhaps there is another way. Rather than thinking of the new manga imports as threats to our local environment, I propose we re-think of them as renewable resources. Yes, they come flooding into our office every week. But do we have to sit here and just take it? No! That’s why the Innovative Thinking Team here at Human Computing has generated this list.
Without further ado, here is ComicBase's Top Five List of What To Do With Your Unwanted Manga.
ComicBase's Top Five List of What To Do With Your Unwanted Manga:
5) Turn your manga into a coloring book for your kid. Or, better yet, take apart the binding on the book to turn it into a coloring book for your kid’s entire class!
4) You can also use key passages of the manga for origami paper and give your creations to your friends. Watch their faces contort in confusion when you hand them paper cranes that read, “My Devil’s Right Hand will rip you apart!”
3) Connect your manga together with superglue and use them as table legs. Make a statement with your new table supports that say, “I’m hip on the fads, and I’ve got a steady table!”
2) Cut-out a 3” x 2” section from the center of your thickest manga (for best effect I recommend Nambul: War Stories or Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha) and use it as a secret stash for cash or keys. Rest easy knowing even your common burglar will recognize that the re-sale value of your average manga isn’t worth its own carrying weight.
1) Use your unwanted manga for barbeque starters. Open it halfway and place the book face down on your grill. The cheap pages will burn quickly, but its pyramid shape will hold and nurture the embers of your fire until it’s ready to burst into flame. Antarctic’s editions of Ninja High School Pocket Manga are perfect for this purpose.
BONUS TIP: Combine collections with your friends and build a manga–fortress.
Collect them all to make a fortress sorted by series!
Shiaw-Ling Lai is the Editor of ComicBase. Although she swears she didn't use our missing volumes of DragonBall to light the grill for our last company barbecue, she has been seen turning excess ComicBase 9 DVD covers into elaborate origami cranes. She can be reached for comment or questions at