kodansha comics

Ghost In The Shell is on a lot of people's minds right now, and while the upcoming Scarlett Johansson-starring Western cinematic adaptation is garnering its fair share of controversy it has made people re-evaluate and reappraise their love for Masamune Shirow's classic manga. To celebrate the series, Mondo has teamed up with Kodansha Comics and Gotham Academy and Southern Cross' Becky Cloonan for a pair of exclusive prints, timed to go on sale at some point today.

The question most often asked of the ComicsAlliance staff is a variation of, “Which comic books should I be reading?” or, “I’m new to comics, what’s a good place to start?” The Wednesday deluge of new comic books, graphic novels and collected editions can be daunting even for the longtime reader, much less for those totally unfamiliar with creators, characters and publishers, and the dark mysteries of comic book shopping like variants, pre-ordering, and formats. It’s with these challenges in mind that we’ve created Best Comic Books Ever (This Week), an ongoing guide curated by the ComicsAlliance staff. This is where new comics readers and seasoned Wednesday shoppers alike can find our picks of the best books the medium has to offer.

With Screen & Page we typically explore the relationship between anime shows or films and the manga series inspired by them, but today we're making an exception for a manga and anime produced in overlapping schedules by the same author, where the anime is more famous in the West, but both works deserve to be regarded as essential. It's a big one, the Holy Grail. We're talking about Katsuhiro Otomo's landmark work Akira, serialized in manga form from 1982 to 1990, and released as a feature film in 1988.

One of the things we just didn’t have time or space to get into in our Captain America: Civil War review, is just how great Scarlett Johansson is in the film. Black Widow is so dynamic and exciting to watch, it’s almost a crime Marvel hasn’t given Johansson her own action movie yet...

What if Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea series had more modern technology, and focused on a young girl, a fire wizard raised by a dragon, and a winged, talking blue cat? You'd have something like Fairy Tail, one of the most popular shonen (boy's) manga being published today, and a grand fantasy that's a whole lot of fun.

What a week! I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to sit back and read some comics. The weekend is finally here, and the world can relax and rest once more — but the comics industry has been busy too, you know, and the last seven days have seen a flurry of comics-based news and announcements fly past at high speed. ComicsAlliance has got your back, though: when it comes to comics, we never slow down, so here’s a look back and just what’s been going on. New comics, new stories, new podcasts, new art being made — it’s all part of the ComicsAlliance Weekender!