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Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - From Eroica With Love


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Wooga



Joined: 22 Jun 2007
Posts: 916
Location: Tucson
PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 4:29 am Reply with quote
Thank you for this, just thank you.
I dont usually read yaoi but this is a great series.
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CCSYueh



Joined: 03 Jul 2004
Posts: 2707
Location: San Diego, CA
PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 7:33 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Or was there some fan on your staff who thought, "Screw it, we're not going to make money with most of these manga anyway, so I'm just going to publish my favorite manga and hope that DC Comics pays for it?"

It was stated at more than one Comic-con this was a staff favorite.
Quote:
In fact, this proto-yaoi spy-espionage spectacular it is such a "classic" manga that I resisted reading it for a long time

The staff at con usually took the stand it wasn't yaoi, but hilarious & they wished more people would discover it.
Really, it's less yaoi than Hana Kimi & Hana Kimi is a girl crossdressing as a boy with the homosexual school doctor keeping her secret.
It's really an action title with a homosexual lead character who will most likely never attain his man. This is not unlike all those campy 60's shows like Man from UNCLE or Batman which provided solid diversion, but never really took themselves overly seriously. It's scattered with jabs at all sorts of things from Eroica's passions (art, Klaus) to Klaus's austere passion eye for completing his missions with no fluff. Hell, his men are alphabet letters endlessly threatened with being sent to a frozen outpost. Who needs names for "extras"?
Like those campy series, Eroica throws 2 complete opposite personality types into situations where they have to interact so they have the opportunity to voice their gripes to themselves ort any who happen to be around them
Quote:
Indeed, his standards of conduct are so high he dislikes almost everybody.

And almost everyone hates him as a person, though they acknowledge his skill in his career.

This was a fun title. Each volume was potentially the last once CMX hit vol 11--around then it seemed the release was stretched out as though they had actually cancelled it, but managed to get the green light for the next volume.
Honest-you can hate yaoi & love Eroica. The politically correct will probably be offended because the homosexuals ARE full of stereotypical behavior, but so are all the characters. Thank you for pointing that out. I never really had noticed this is the same humor as Hetalia uses-stereotypes, but not mean about it. The Earl gets his hands on one of Klaus's men & "turns" him flaming gay-very incorrect, but very funny. I loved James who moved from keeping an eye of the Earl's usually low funds to penny-pinching for the sake of penny-pinching.
The support cast is delightfully lively in this title.
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PrettyKitty$$$$$



Joined: 10 Sep 2007
Posts: 119
PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 8:53 am Reply with quote
I loved this series. It is absolutely hilarious. Although, it took getting through to the second volume before I got hooked, since that first volume didn't do much for me. But after those psychic teens are ditched, the series really shines. I'm sad we won't be seeing more, but I'm thankful for the 15 volumes that we did get. Fortunately, volume 15 wraps up a story arc, so it's a decent place to end. I hate cliffhangers.
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neocloud9



Joined: 06 Oct 2008
Posts: 1178
Location: Atlanta, GA
PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 9:50 am Reply with quote
Quote:
This is From Eroica with Love: a manga about a really tough, sexless, humorless German military officer and a really flamboyant, swishy English super-thief and their wacky, sexually charged espionage adventures.


Holy cow, this sounds like the best premise I've ever heard.
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vashfanatic



Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 3489
Location: Back stateside
PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 11:00 am Reply with quote
ARGH!! Do you know how frustrating this column is? So many great manga, so hard to find them! Any advice on that front?
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sepherest





PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 12:27 pm Reply with quote
YES! I absolutely LOVE Eroica. Sure the first volume is definitely a rocky start, but after that it's just loads of fun. Plus since it's mostly episodic it's not too frustrating that CMX shut down before they could publish every volume (although they DID miss out on the Coin King story which was one of my favorites...). Although you mentioned Eroica is really about Klaus and the Earl, I found the secondary characters to be charming as well, despite having less importance to the series. Mr. James remains as one of my favorite manga characters to this day, not to mention I find the spoiler[story where Eroica kidnaps Pope John Paul II ] to be one of the funniest moments in a comic, period.

Back when I first started reading it I remember one of my friends looking over and pointing out that Eroica looked exactly like Robert Plant, too. I didn't know the resemblances were that obvious until I compared it to one of their album covers.

It's also interesting that the mangaka didn't want an anime adaptation of Eroica. I wouldn't have minded but the manga itself has been going on for ages, like Patarillo.
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CCSYueh



Joined: 03 Jul 2004
Posts: 2707
Location: San Diego, CA
PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 8:59 pm Reply with quote
vashfanatic wrote:
ARGH!! Do you know how frustrating this column is? So many great manga, so hard to find them! Any advice on that front?

http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/catalogmgr/5ZdBc6dDyaFVStLu3Q/browse/category/4/1537/120
TRSI has all the volumes listed. All you could do would be to order them & see which are available.
It's been running since 2004 in the US so it's been available.
Honestly, I totally forgot the kids in that first chapter. They have absolutely nothing to do with the story. The Earl is so much fun. Bonham is so reliable. James is such an embodyment of every skinflint stereotype--he'd die if given a new suit. Klaus's men & Eroica's men actually get along pretty well. (Both sides posess a certain helplessness not being able to contain their bosses)
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kyokun703



Joined: 06 Jan 2005
Posts: 2505
Location: Orgrimmar
PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 9:07 pm Reply with quote
vashfanatic wrote:
ARGH!! Do you know how frustrating this column is? So many great manga, so hard to find them! Any advice on that front?


I picked up a lot from a bargain bin at a convention. I started reading this right when CMX went under, as it constantly made the "pick this up before it disappears!" lists that exploded. It was probably one of the best moves I did (this one, Swan, and Apothecarius Argentum were my 3 favorite CMX finds, and I hope that somebody will pick at least one of these up to finish them).

The art is dated, but the stories and the characters are so fun (except James... I really want to strangle James...).
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oriana3k



Joined: 24 May 2005
Posts: 94
PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 10:02 pm Reply with quote
neocloud9 wrote:
Quote:
This is From Eroica with Love: a manga about a really tough, sexless, humorless German military officer and a really flamboyant, swishy English super-thief and their wacky, sexually charged espionage adventures.


Holy cow, this sounds like the best premise I've ever heard.


Oh, it is. It is, it is, it is.

And Jason narrowly missed posting the page with my absolute favorite line. That being, "The fate of the world hangs on the underwear he's wearing!" Just in case anyone was wondering what was going on in that second image. Anime hyper
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sepherest





PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 11:03 pm Reply with quote
kyokun703 wrote:
vashfanatic wrote:
ARGH!! Do you know how frustrating this column is? So many great manga, so hard to find them! Any advice on that front?


I picked up a lot from a bargain bin at a convention. I started reading this right when CMX went under, as it constantly made the "pick this up before it disappears!" lists that exploded. It was probably one of the best moves I did (this one, Swan, and Apothecarius Argentum were my 3 favorite CMX finds, and I hope that somebody will pick at least one of these up to finish them).

The art is dated, but the stories and the characters are so fun (except James... I really want to strangle James...).


I also got a few volumes or Eroica for about $3 each at a convention this year. For the most part I had been buying them from a local comic shop that had it, along with Swan and some other older series (this place is like walking through a time warp). All of the volumes seem to be available on Amazon as well, for really cheap excluding shipping.
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vashfanatic



Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 3489
Location: Back stateside
PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 11:47 pm Reply with quote
...wah?!? I did a search for "Eroica" at RightStuf before posting that question, why did this not show up?! o_O Oh well.
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kailegh



Joined: 09 Jan 2009
Posts: 66
PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 11:51 pm Reply with quote
CCSYueh wrote:
It was stated at more than one Comic-con this was a staff favorite.


These people need some free drinks xD THEY ARE WIN.

... & my soul died a little after looking at that Robert Plant NOW image (okay more than a little. It died a lot D; ).
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mufurc



Joined: 09 Jun 2003
Posts: 612
PostPosted: Fri Nov 26, 2010 1:32 pm Reply with quote
Oh, I loved Eroica so much! Respect to the staff for releasing it for so long, despite obviously low sales.

I don't know about Pet Shop of Horrors, though. By the end when Leon goes on a holiday with Chris he takes D, too. Just because. And there's the vampire episode. Or when D tells his doctor that Leon is his new pet. Or...
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Youkai Warrior



Joined: 07 Aug 2008
Posts: 505
Location: Sarayashiki
PostPosted: Fri Nov 26, 2010 9:24 pm Reply with quote
Oh my gosh! Eroica really does look like Robert Plant! That is so funny and weird at the same time! Laughing Cool Shocked Rolling Eyes Anime catgrin + sweatdrop

From Eroica with love sounds interesting.
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CCSYueh



Joined: 03 Jul 2004
Posts: 2707
Location: San Diego, CA
PostPosted: Sat Nov 27, 2010 3:45 am Reply with quote
mufurc wrote:

I don't know about Pet Shop of Horrors, though. By the end when Leon goes on a holiday with Chris he takes D, too. Just because. And there's the vampire episode. Or when D tells his doctor that Leon is his new pet. Or...


Pet Shop has a lot of wiggle-room. The suggestion is D isn't human & he's made some very negative comments about humans. I could see it as yaoi-ish, but there's not really any indication in PSoH:Tokyo. There's zero indication of anything going on with D & the landlord who fills Leon's "keep an eye on this freak" job. I haven't read it since the last volume came out (actually I didn't read Vol 10 for about 6 months), but I seem to remember being surprised at how Leon still seemed suspicious of D's actions.
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