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Another American comics writer doing OEL manga




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mangaben



Joined: 15 Jan 2006
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2006 5:13 am Reply with quote
While soccer fans (and the entire world) eagerly await 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany, Chuck Austen, on the other hand, has a different ball game that he’s interested in.

The former writer of Uncanny X-Men, Action Comics (and numerous other comics such as U.S. War Machine, Elektra, Captain America, Avengers, Eternal, Exiles as well as his unfinished creator-owned comic, WorldWatch) returns to comics (or rather OELs, ie TOKYOPOP’s Original English Language manga) with the scheduled release of the first volume of Boys of Summer this summer. The subject is Austen's return to baseball in comic form, which he touched upon previously in his adult comic, Hardball, though Boys of Summer is not an adults-only title.

According to Austen, Boys of Summer, illustrated by hentai (adult) manga-ka Hiroki Otsuka, is a romantic/comedy/drama about college, growing up, and learning to be an adult for the first time away from home. “It's the story of a college freshman named Bud who, for reasons we'll get into later in the series, is an incredibly talented pitcher who won't play for the school team no matter how much the coach begs him...

http://www.newsarama.com/tokyopop/BoysofSummer/AustenBOS.htm
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mangaben



Joined: 15 Jan 2006
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2006 5:17 am Reply with quote
Speaking of OEL, has any of you read any of TOKYOPOP's OEL manga? Van Von Hunter? I Luv Halloween? Peach Fuzz? Etc?

Well, other than these, I know Megatokyo is quite popular with manga readers.

And Fred Perry's Gold Digger and Ben Dunn's Ninja High School have been around for around between 10 and 15 years now...
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deathbringer



Joined: 21 Aug 2004
Posts: 276
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2006 5:23 am Reply with quote
mangaben wrote:
“It's the story of a college freshman named Bud who, for reasons we'll get into later in the series, is an incredibly talented pitcher who won't play for the school team no matter how much the coach begs him..."


Yeah, cause that's an original idea that needs to be told.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 16406
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2006 5:35 am Reply with quote
The cover makes me think she's really a dick-girl. Laughing
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darkhunter



Joined: 13 May 2004
Posts: 2992
Location: Los Angelas
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2006 7:54 am Reply with quote
The title is Boys of Summer, which remind me a lot of the Don Henley song with the same title.

You have to give credit to Austin though, he's a manga fan (of Mitsuru Adachi), so he's not just comic guy working on manga and he got experience as a writer even though he only worked on superhero comic in the past. With art provided by Hiroki Otsuka, it will be interesting.
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Kagemusha



Joined: 20 Feb 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Boston
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2006 12:02 pm Reply with quote
This is what Tokyopop calls bringing in established "talent"? Not that I've ever read the guys stuff, but this is the man who had the entire community of Marvel fanboys (who have an amazing tolerance for mediocrity) ready to form a lynch mob because of his run on X-men. I guess this is the only work he can get outside his self-published smut-books.
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Patachu
Past ANN Contributor


Joined: 08 Jul 2004
Posts: 1325
Location: San Diego
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2006 2:06 pm Reply with quote
Kagemusha wrote:
This is what Tokyopop calls bringing in established "talent"? Not that I've ever read the guys stuff, but this is the man who had the entire community of Marvel fanboys (who have an amazing tolerance for mediocrity) ready to form a lynch mob because of his run on X-men. I guess this is the only work he can get outside his self-published smut-books.


Newsarama discussion thread wrote:
...Everyone's still so pissed at how he clusterf'ucked the X-books and the Super-books that they forget Chuckles' talents really lie in the "soft porn" genre. Strips was a fun read, and you didn't care if plotlines dangled so long as boobs popped out. Had Chuckles continued doing those books instead of trying to branch out into mainstream work - where he was clearly not qualified, save for that Eternals re-imaging which was actually 2/3rds decent - nobody would be bitching about him save for the feminazis who don't like books about tits and ass and sex and people getting laid just for the sake of getting laid.


I think it's not so much a tolerance for mediocrity as the fact that Marvel readers' standards are the complete opposite of, let's say, normal people. So they lambasted Austen not because he was bad, but because he was unsuited to working on super-books. It's like if Taiyo Matsumoto tried to do a romantic fanservice comedy to make a few extra bucks. It'd be very innovative, but d'you think the Ken Akamatsu crowd would be impressed?

I'm not saying that Austen is on a level with a top comicker like Matsumoto, but his poor reception with Marvel readers was probably more due to a conflict of aesthetics than any lack of talent.

Whether or not he gets a good reception with manga and OEL readers, however, only time will tell.

DEAR TOKYOPOP PLEASE SIGN KAZU KIBUISHI OR DEREK KIRK KIM IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU.
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Kagemusha



Joined: 20 Feb 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Boston
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2006 2:56 pm Reply with quote
Ah, well that makes more sense. After all, if Marvel fans love crap like House of M, I was currious to see just how bad his run was to warrent such hatred. Perhapse this will turn out halfway decent.
Quote:
DEAR TOKYOPOP PLEASE SIGN KAZU KIBUISHI OR DEREK KIRK KIM IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU.

I guess there is a chance since they've signed a couple of people who were in Flight, though those ones had alot more appeal in terms of style than either Kim or Kibuishi. Would be great though.
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marie-antoinette



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 4136
Location: Ottawa, Canada
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2006 3:48 pm Reply with quote
mangaben wrote:
Speaking of OEL, has any of you read any of TOKYOPOP's OEL manga? Van Von Hunter? I Luv Halloween? Peach Fuzz? Etc?


I've read Dramacon and thought that it was the most hilarious manga I've read in quite some time. It has the added advantage of being set in not only my main, North American culture (probably Canadian, seeing as the artist is Canadian), but also the anime sub-culture.
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darkhunter



Joined: 13 May 2004
Posts: 2992
Location: Los Angelas
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2006 7:02 pm Reply with quote
Just for reference, here are all the OEL manga propertie has. Listed on Love manga

1. @Large by Ahmed Hoke
2. Afterlife by Stormcrow Hayes and Rob Steen
3. A Midnight Opera by Hanzo Steinbach
4. Atomic King Daidogan by Nathan Maurer
5. Bizenghast by Marty LeGrow
6. BLANK by Pop Mhan
7. Boys of Summer by Chuck Austen and Hiroki Otsuka
8. Dark Crystal by ???
9. Dark Moon Diary by Mike Vega, Diana Sprinkle and Che Gilson (on hold)
10. Dogby Walks Alone by Wes Abbot
11. Dramacon by Svetlana Chmakova
12. East Coast Rising by Becky Cloonan
13. Fool’s Gold by Amy Hadley
14. I Luv Halloween by Benjamin Roman and Keith Giffen
15. Labyrinth by Jake Forbes and ???
16. Juror 13 by D.J. Milky
17. King City by Brandon Graham
18. Mail Order Ninja by Joshua Elder and Erich Owen
19. Mark of the Succubus by Irene Flores and Ashly Raiti
20. M.B.Q. by Felipe Smith
21. Mirror Mask by ???
22. My Cat Loki by Bettina M. Kurkoski
23. Off*Beat by Jen Lee Quick
24. Pantheon High by Paul Benjamin and Steven Cummings
25. Peach Fuzz by Lindsay Cibos
26. Poison Candy by David Hine
27. Pop Star by T Campbell and Amy Mebberson
28. Princess Ai by Courtney Love and DJ Milky
29. Psy-Comm by Tony Salvaggio, Jason Henderson and Shane Granger
30. RE: Play by Christy Lijewski’s
31. Roadsong by Allan Gross and Joanna Estep
32. Sea Princess Azuri by Erica Reis
33. Shutterbox by Studio Tavicat
34. Sokora Refugees by Kurt Hassler and Melissa DeJesus
35. Sorcerers and Secretaries by Amy Kim Ganter
36. Steady Beat by Rivkah
37. Sushi Girl by Studio Tavicat
38. The Abandoned by Ross Campbell
39. The Dark Goodbye by Frank Marriffino and Drew Rausch
40. The Dreaming by Queenie Chan
41. Van Von Hunter by Pseudome Studio’s Mike Schwark and Ron Kaulfersch
42. Warcraft by Richard A. Knaak and Kim Jae-Hwan
43. War on Flesh by Justin Boring, Greg Hildebrandt and Tim Smith 3
44. Work Bites by Jess Stoncius
45. World of Hartz by Terrence Walker
46. Yonen Buzz by Christina Plaka
47. Zeroes by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray
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BoygetsfireD



Joined: 03 Dec 2004
Posts: 475
Location: earth
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2006 11:45 pm Reply with quote
I get to see some previews through Tokyopop's free manga magazine, and some of it actually looks pretty good.
Dramacon looked funny, and Mark of the Succubus, Psy-comm and Bizenghast look good as well.
Some of them just look downright stupid, though. I wasn't too impressed with I luv halloween or War on Flesh.
But then again, I've only read about a chapter of each, from the previews Tokyopop gives us

I have another question about the OELs, though:
do they get translated into Japanese and sold over there, too?
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