Attention Nerds!
Local self-proclaimed "publisher of the world's greatest cartoonists" Fantagraphics has a new issue of The Comics Journal (The 2005 Special Edition) out right now. There's some content from the manga-centric issue online---including web-exclusive art---enough to whet your appetite. Oh sure, you can read three friggin' pages on the history of the Japanese comic genre as a whole...which I'm sure is very important, given how well the stuff sells. But when it comes to juicer fare, they're a bunch of no-good teases. Just an excerpt of Adam Stephanides' examination of the violence and porn pervading Suehero Maruo's sophisticated work? We needs more. With that in mind, it might be worth a buy, if only to get one's arthouse-porn rocks off.
Purchasing options, based on level of social ineptness: If you have problems interacting with anyone who's not from an online gaming universe, stay in front of your computer and order from Amazon or straight from Fantagraphics (scroll a third of the way down for this particular purchase, but feel free to browse too). If you venture out of your dank hobbit-hole every once in a while, Bailey/Coy usually has The Comics Journal in stock. Same for those dens of geekitude, Confounded and Zanadu (both their Downtown and U District locations). Ah yes, Seattlest is down with the comics, as well as the nerdery. w00t!
