Brilliant.

Now if only we could come up with something catchier than "Barackroll'd."

For a shounen fighting anime, the kids in Soul Eater fight really, really smart.

Because seriously, there's not much else you can do when you're facing down an immortal werewolf. If you can't kill him, you might as well... temporarily incapacitate him, shall we say.

The Archer's Heart by Astrid Amara

On page 160, "Keshan" and "Jandu" use magical voodoo archery to stop a thunderstorm and burn down a forest at the request of a sickly fire-demon.

On page 162, the fire-demon rewards "Jandu" with a magical quiver of everlasting errors.

On page 164, "Keshan" and "Jandu" celebrate their victory by 69-ing each other.

That, right there, is everything that you need to know about this book.

http://www.incite-national.org/index.php?s=137

Your assistance is urgently needed to help low-income women of color and their families evacuate safely if need be, stay safe for the duration of the evacuation, and return to the city as soon as possible so as not to fall prey to the pushout that has kept so many folks from being able to return to New Orleans since Katrina.

If you can't give, pass the info along via your blogs and social sharing sites like Digg and Delicious.

read more | digg story

More about the astounding fuckupery of the government re: Gustav--
No, seriously.
I'm not kidding.
Really not joking about this.
I couldn't be making this shit up even if I tried.
Edited to add: How the rug was yoinked out from under FEMA.

1. Sugreeve crashes and airplane right in the middle of Kishkindha, walks right through a hundred of Baali's soldiers, walks right the hell up to Baali himself and tells him, point blank to his face: "Neener-neener you can't kill me because your whole kindgom is watching and I'll be martyr." Dasgupta's version of Sugreeve has officially achieved that perfect balance of "scholarly peaceful statesman" and "delightfully flip badass" that Hanuman had in Valkimi's version.

2. Ravan tries to intimidate Sita with his "Blah blah blah I am the most powerful being in the world" speech. Sita stares him right in the eye and tells him, No, actually, she's a thousand times more powerful than he is (go Sita!), and that if Ravan were so powerful then he wouldn't have had to resort to trickery to abduct her. She also tells Ravan that she could destroy Lanka with her mind if she so chose to do so (this is true - just like she did with Panchvati), and that the only reason she isn't right now is because Ravan's maya garden is sedating her brain. Granted there's nothing she can do about that, but the point of her speech is, she has Ravan's number. This version of Sita is kind of awesome.

3. Jambwan's utter pwnage of Lakshman.

4. Lakshan crying uncle. Literally.

5. Rama and Jatayu's half-airborne battle. That was just fantastically rendered. Hats off to Siddharth Kotian.

Now, the sadness factor: According to an advertisement in this issue, the next issue of India Authentic would have been "Krishna." There's a very cute image of a baby Krishna printed beside an announcement of the third India Authentic trade, which may or may not happen now. Probably not.

There's a five-page excerpt from Kshatriya at the back of the issue. It looks potentially very fun. Oh well.

And of course there's also an advertisement for Stan Lee's probably-definitely-not-going-to-happen Virgin superhero project. Of course.

So I guess this is the end for Ramayan? Arrrrrrgh. Even if the final issue hadn't ended on a cliffhanger, still, arrrrrrrrgh. I am going to miss this series a lot.

First! Part three of Kosuke Fujishima's new Mini-Goddess strip, which is being published on the spine of montly issues of Afternoon. In case you missed any of the previous panels, you can find them all linked here.

( Behind the cut: Mini-Goddess comic, 20th anniversary wrap-up, and lots of bonus scans, too. )

1. Nina has a point.

2. Roundtable discussion of women in the anime/manga industry. Really interesting stuff, and a lot of it sounds very, very familiar. Bamboo does fall into the "feminist"-is-an-icky-word trap, though, which is disenheartening. Also, DO NOT READ THE FORUM COMMENTS if you value your sanity.

3. First look at anime Iron Man. I realize that Tony Stark comes in many flavors, yet I'm really not surprised that "broody Stark" would be the particular flavor deemed most likely to appeal to Japanese audiences.

That's all folks.

Also here, here and here. Edited to add: Val's take, Newsarama, Comic Forums, Brian Hibbs addresses Virgin's failure to properly market their Indian titles, Tom Spurgeon makes a Kali Yuga joke, Dirk Deppey makes with the intellectual masturbation, and then we have BLOGWAR!!

Edited again: Heidi's lengthy analysis.

Aw geez. I can't believe that Dirk Deppey and I expressed a similar opinion about something. That makes me feel like I need to take a shower.

I wonder if MBX will go through, since it was half of a Perspective Studios project anyway.

I mean, it's always interesting to see another Western-influenced version of the Mahabharata, especially one that I assume was targeted at Western audiences. Worst case scenario is we end up with another Hamletodhana and the Amazing Multicolored Diversicast, but I don't think that's likely with Grant Morrison doing the writing. The more likely outcome is "delightfully batshit insane," rather than "overwrought and far too full of itself."

Well, anyway, this probably means that The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma is never going to get a trade. That's a pity. It was such perfect-for-libraries comic. (And also it makes me selfishly sad because I much much much prefer trades to floppies. I do not like keeping too many floppies in my comics collection. Argh.)

Virgin Comics to drastically scale back their actual comics.

This makes me a sad puppy because I suspect that they're going to cut back on their actual good titles and focus on their celebrity-backed stuff instead. :(

I also fear that Devi might be canceled. I actually had that suspicion when I picked up the fourth trade last month. At the back of the trade, in the extras section, there are two gorgeous color paintings by Dean Ruben Hyrapiet and Jeffrey Spokes. The Hyrapiet painting depicts a new and yet-unknown character behind Devi. Both of the paintings are obviously comic covers. But I couldn't figure out why Virgin would put two future comic covers in the back of a trade collection... Unless these were destined to be "unused" comic covers. And now I can't imagine that Virgin would actually pass on either a Hyrapiet or a Spokes cover unless the Devi comics had been cancelled altogether.

Devi has been published steadily, every month, since Virgin launched. Until recently. Since there are no new solicits coming up, and no announced plans for any future issues...

Things look bad.

Mmmm. I wonder how Ramayan will fare. Now that the story has taken a delirious turn toward Rama for some reason being more concerned about rescuing a kidnapped chain-smoking monkey prince than he is about rescuing his super-powered girlfriend... Now I gotta see where this is going. Hopefully not into yaoi doujinshi territory.

Oh well. Regardless of what happens next, was anyone really surprised by this? I mean, I'm not an industry insider, just an armchair quarterback. But I know a little something about comics readers, er, being one myself. And I know that:

1. Comic readers will only put up with mediocrity if they have a twenty-year history with and beloved childhood memories of the franchise. Hence, Messiah Complex can be the biggest pile of shit that I've read all year (and it was), but still sell a gajillion copies (including some bought by moi), because readers are deeply invested in the world and the characters. But getting readers to spend their money and invest their emotions in a new comic book series? Unless it's freakin' spectacular (and Devi so totally is), that's unlikely to happen. And y'know, I don't care if you're the Most Innovative Comics Company Ever or whatever, not all of your series are going to be great, or even good. Law of averages. There are only so many Shakespeares and Picassos to go around.

2. You can have truly great titles that are beloved by critics and bloggers (India Authentic, The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma, and Buddha) and still not sell many copies of them. Sucks, but that's the way it's always been.

3. It probably didn't help things, though, that you lost street cred right away by being so upfront about your intention to use your comics as springboards for movie and TV deals. If you don't value your own comics - if you only see them as stepping stones to something more lucrative - then why are we to assume that you will invest anything other than a mediocre effort into them? Also, comic fans are an insular, prickly lot. We don't like Clueless Outsiders, we don't like anybody who smells like they're only latching onto comics as a "trend," and we especially don't like anyone who seems more interested in making money than in making actual comics. Now, you might not be any of those things, but a few misspoken words, or a little bit too much honesty about your marketing plan, and you will instantly become all of those things in the minds of fans.

"You" in the preceeding being a reference to the Chopra Duo and other Powers That Be, as opposed to the actual writers and artists working for Virgin, who were clearly in it for the love of comics, and that showed through. But they were undermined when Gotham and Deepak went around mouthing off about how they primarily wanted to turn those comics into movies/TV. Way to undermine the reputation of your own talent, guys.

4. It probably didn't help things that your CMO behaved like an asshat in public.

5. Fans have long memories.

This is what your Friendly Neighborhood Armchair Quarterback thinks: Fans have limited funds, and it's always an uphill battle to get them to spend money on something new, no matter how good said new comic may be, especially when you're competing against 20- or 30-year love affairs with Marvel and DC. Fandom Financial Inertia is a powerful and terrible force to behold, capable of slaying even the most carefully planned, innovative, creative, "mistake"-free young businesses. But! Virgin clearly did make some mistakes. That probably hurt them in the end, too.

Still, this makes me immensely sad. If not for Virgin, I would never have been introduced to Samit Basu, Saurav Mohapatra, Mukesh Singh, Ashish Padlekar, Harshvardhan Kadam, Abhishek Singh, Shamik Dasgupta, or any of the amazing artists who have worked on India Authentic. I really really hope that Virgin doesn't axe their Indian titles, because so far it's been such a great source of amazing, vibrant new talent.

Sigh. Very sad.

Edited to add: Oh hey look, comments at The Beat now include Jameson-bashing, complete with two sleazy jokes and counting. Arrrrrrrgh. Sometimes I just hate people. I really do.

I also do not regret that the Tweety Effect works really, really strongly on me. Apparently. That probably explains a lot.

Edit the Second: "Scale back" was apparently an understatement. Aw, crap.

http://www.mbxanimation.com/

Lots of material and notes from Grant Morrison uploaded.

(*reads notes*)

Uh, zhinxy, what was that you said about Grant Morrison going crazy?

About the time that he started describing the Gita as a "Singularity" (capital S) in space and time, my brain melted.

Here are my reactions, in no particular order:

--Narration will start with Gita and then intersperse 18-day war with flashbacks to pre-war storyline. Okay. That's a solid approach. Dunno if you want to smack Western viewers in the face with the Gita right away, though.

---Set in 10,000 BC. Ummmmmmmm. Bharat is Pangea. Attempts to include references to Biblical floods. (Um, okay.) Elephants are actually mastadons with plated armor and "gas masks." Mastadons. Drona wears battle armor. Oh, god, please don't tell me the "battle armor" is the giant robots in the preview.

---Click on "Concept Art." Oh Jesus Christ ILU Mukesh Singh. But who are these people? Arjuna is immediately identifiable because a) he's labeled and b) GANDIVA. Nobody else is labeled. Two characters frequently appear with Arjuna, one big and badass, the other older with a constipated expression on his face. Probably Bhima and Yudhisthira. OH HEY I FOUND KARNA he's the dude with the giant cyborg arm and the earrings. I think. Where is Krishna? Where is Duryodhana? I only see one identifiable elder, is he supposed to be Bhisma or Drona or what?

---Teaser trailer is still the same one posted on the Perspective Studios website.

---Behind the Scenes. Okay, they're using motion-capture animation to capture real martial arts fights. This looks potentially awesome. Some guy says it will be "contemporary and psychedelic." You've got some tough competition from Ekta in the "psychedelic" category, guys.

PS - I ordered the MBX Sketchbook from the Virgin Comics store last month. If experience has taught me anything, I'm sure that I'll be seeing it show up sometime in November.

Mmmmm. Must watch more Ektabharat episodes. The power of Nakula's hair compels me.

It's going to be three weeks before the next chapter of Tsubasa, so enjoy this week's fix while it lasts!

Unfortunately, in this chapter, absolutely nothing happened. Also, why is it that in anime and manga, nobody ever goes to a hospital when they need to?

( Seriously, Yuuko. Home care isn't going to help much when your kid is coughing up gallons of blood every time he opens his mouth to speak. )

1. How to avoid turning your original character into a Mary Sue. Specific to W.I.T.C.H. fanfic, but most of the advice therein - especially in the first half of the article - could apply to any fandom.

2. Dictionary of Argentine Slang

3. Temari Matsumoto does Metal Gear Solid:

( Behind the cut. )

Jason, blogging on possible endings for Code Geass:

...everyone dies except Milly and Rivalz. I think I just threw up a little in my mouth after typing that– we watched 52 episodes to end up there?

Well, considering that we've been following the Mahabharata script so far, YES, actually, I wouldn't be surprised if it all really did end with everybody dead, except for two or three incidental supporting characters. And what a fittingly awful-but-hilarious ending that would be.

(52 episodes? Ha! Try slogging through a million gajillion Sanskrit slokas only to find that the whole thing ends with only the puppy, the leper, that other teacher that everybody forgot to care about, and the zombie fetus surviving.)

Seriously, though. Code Geass had the Sauptikaparvan and the Mausalaparvan last week, and there are still seven episodes left. The show has only one direction left to go: Increasingly lolarious character deaths, and lots of them.

P.S. - 2chan has started referring to Lelouch/Suzaku as "Lulukuru." Which, in turn, Newtype magazine recently romanized as "Rurukuru." I know that the English-speaking world surely must have coined some worse pairing name-smushes, but off the top of my head I can't think of any. I really can't.

Next, Sadinotna on the Girl-Wonder forums:

Princess Tutu (essentially "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" as a children's show)

Yes. This.

Just finished reading India Authentic's thirteenth issue, "Saraswati." It wasn't so much about Saraswati as it was about Kalidasa, the legendary poet and playwright about whom little biographical information is known, but plenty of folk stories abound.

And, inevitably, I found myself comparing and contrasting IA's take on Kalidasa's life with that told in the Amar Chitra Katha comic book, "Kalidasa."

( Behind this cut: 18 scans and 4.8 megabytes total bandwidth-suckage. You've been warned. )

( Cut because this got long. )

Linky-link: International Blog Against Racism Week. It is International Blog Against Racism Week! Read something, learn something, write something, and try to teach something.

Go to Perspective Studios, click on "Our Work," then on the screenshot of the bearded scarred dude.

Initial reactions:

ZOMG ARJUNA IN A PONYTAIL.

Um, guesses as to who the second featured character, the one with the staff/whip, is? My first thought was "staff = Yudhisthira," but I dunno. I mean, if you were making a preview of your cool sci-fi version of the Mahabharata and you could only feature two characters, would freakin' Yudhisthira be one of your top picks? Probably not. My second guess would be Bhima, but dude, where's the giant smashy-mace? I want to see BHIMA SMASH, not BHIMA ELEGANTLY DANCES AND DELICATELY STABS THINGS.

The cityscape backgrounds look amazing.

Generic background music is generic.

So, internets. When are you going to make with the Grant Morrison sketchbook scans?

Edited to add: A little bit of MBX-related chatter in this coverage of the "Spirit of the Superhero" panel.

And yes, that's basically the only internet coverage of any of Virgin's SDCC presence that I've been able to find so far. Not that I'm complaining about the deluge of Watchmen coverage, though. Because hot damn does Dr. Manhattan have a finely-sculpted blue ass.

( Cut for spoilers, obviously. )

So, open thread time: How would you have changed the ending?

Okay, um... You know how sometimes I go all feminist-ranty about the comics I read, and sometimes I go all bad-writing-ranty about Tsubasa, and normally I try to keep the two separate, but... This week, I can't. I just can't. Because there's a big huge HELLO STRAW, MEET CAMEL'S BACK moment right in the beginning of this chapter, and just... well. Er. You've been warned.

Spoilers and venomous spite, behind the cut.

( This is some serious bullshit, right here. )