Young Bill Young here. David P. Welsh at Precocious Curmudgeon wants to know if anyone is teaching introductory Manga courses at the college level. He’s not looking for those how-to-create-Manga classes, but rather a survey course that would provide an overview and history of the art form.

And in case you’re contemplating such a course, Welsh thinks he has the perfect textbook: Paul Gravett’s Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics. Commenters on his site have their own ideas for reading materials in such a course, ranging from Manga! Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics to samples of classic and groundbreaking titles.

All of this is exciting to me because I’m such a newbie to Manga. Sadie’s influence has inspired me to check out Gantz and MW, and I think I’m ready to move on to some other titles. Astro Boy and Pluto sound like the ticket right now. But I’ll definitely have to check out one of these overview titles to learn more.

So fans, what titles would be on your reading list for a Manga survey class?

Young Bill Young here. Well, the world welcomed Leo Bruce Maddox last night at 9:45 p.m. Congrats to Sadie and family.

This special event deserves a special post—a baby post! So I go to Google and type in Baby NEAR ‘Graphic Novel” and I get a link to this cool online GN on NBC’s Heroes site. Now, this is meant to be, because Sadie is the only person I know who has continued to watch Heroes. (Hello! Jumped the Shark, anyone?)

Anyway, the online Heroes GN 130 “Baby Power” is described on the Heroes Wiki thusly:

Hiro and Ando receive a message from the mysterious REBEL to “Save Matt Parkman.” But when they arrive at the address all they find is a baby. They soon discover that the baby has a power and is, unbeknownst to Matt, Matt Parkman’s son. After saving Baby Matt from being abducted by agents, Hiro and Ando suddenly become the sole protectors of the child. They set out on a cross-country mission to unite father and son but quickly learn that traveling with young children is never easy. And then there’s the issue of diapers…

At least the story features Hiro and Ando, characters I still like.

You can celebrate the arrival of the new Mattox and satisfy your graphic novel jones all at the same time. Just download and enjoy this pdf file of Baby Power!

Then, driving to dinner a few days ago, my husband and I heard this NPR piece about vidders.  I listened as talented artists explained their craft in ways I had never thought of. I love what the internet has done for fans.  We can talk to each other, we can talk to creators, we influence how something is made.  It’s “wikinomics” gone hypercolor, I think.  These vidders, fanfic writers, cosplayer and machinimas create something out of something – rearraging worlds and ideas.  It’s beautiful to me.  It’s also somewhat illegal.  Which is where our debate started.  Mainly with these words from Lim, a vidder:

“We all speak the language of television, we all know the basic symbolism. Rain means redemption; an open window means a new choice or opportunity.”  and “The media seems to think they own the things they’ve pumped into my brain in 27 years. It seems to me ludicrous that television spends so much time and so much money carefully colonizing my mind. But it is my mind.”

I took the stance that I could argue in court – duh, I’ve seen enough Law and Order episodes to know how to make a case in style – that she’s right.  That her manipulation of copyrighted images is something born from her own mind and therefore is her intellectual property.

My husband – who does not watch nearly enough Law and Order to even begin to know what he is talking about and doesn’t say it with enough flair anyways – takes the stance that she is ripping off the characters.  That even if  she, say splices them into a video that looks somewhat like a warped “Take on Me” tribute – uses these images to define herself as a fan, how she feels about these colonies in her mind, how she uses them, judges them and worships them – well, they are still someone else’s creation and that person DESERVES TO BE PAID.

What do you think?