Oh, be still, my heart! Licca-chan, the iconic Japanese fashion doll created by Miyako Maki, renowned mangaka and wife of Leiji Matsumoto, is coming to the American market. The friend and companion of little girls in Japan since 1967, Licca is often described as the “Japanese Barbie” despite her childlike, innocent vibe. Like Barbie, she […]
That’s a question that keeps on coming up in interviews. It’s a real toughie, because the ‘right’ answer depends on the person you’re talking to, and that’s often a theoretical complete stranger – or in an online interview, an Internet of complete strangers. How do you answer? “{It’s) a huge question because it depends entirely […]
The Manga Bible is out today in the US – the right time for me to give the fabulous Mandy Kaplan a crash dive into manga on her podcast Make Me A Nerd We talked One Piece, Nana and Nausicäa, amid many of my trademark diversions, and you can hear us on TruStory FM or […]
I’m with Matthew Fox on the Superhero Ethics podcast. We talked manga and #TheMangaBible and I had a great time. Full disclosure: since you can’t talk ethics (or manga, or superheroes) without also talking politics, especially when talking in 2026 to a host who lives in Minnesota, a little political comment is involved, The show […]
I did a two-part interview with Iulia Faciu for her Otaku Academia website. Here’s part 2, about The Anime Encyclopedia and #TheMangaBible There’s other good stuff on there too – a dozen interviews so far with anime and manga academics from around the world!
Happy New Book Birthday to me! The Manga Bible is in the shops today. Of course, I’ll celebrate – but very quietly. Cake, no alcohol, no rushing from bookshop to bookshop to admire its gorgeous cover on the shelf and maybe sneakily move it into a more visible position. I can’t go into town and […]
Among the many fascinating questions at my Seed Talks in the West Country was one about the influence of comic art on Studio Ghibli. I’d talked about Takahata’s lifelong passion for French culture and about the many and varied Western influences on Nausicäa of the Valley of the Wind, but there’s a limit to how […]
My lovely PR team at Octopus shot some videos of me to promote The Manga Bible and I thought it might be fun to share them. This one is all about why the book came to be. Thanks to Matilda, director and cinematographer, and Keiron and Emma for support and great company during the shoot! […]
When OH and I travel for Seed Talks, we love to look for comic shops and other places that sell Japanese items. There are loads of places that sell the latest gacha toys and other current stuff, and that buy secondhand comics and toys for resale. There are not so many that buy tempting older […]
I was absolutely thrilled to receive an advance copy of La Bibbia dei Manga – Gribaudo’s Italian edition of The Manga Bible. Just when that after-Christmas, no-more-exciting-parcels feeling usually kicks in, this gem shot through my letterbox and made my day. Many thanks to translator Paolo Silvio Poli for making my work accessible in […]