Read this weekend

[rachelmanija]

Blade of the Immortal volumes 7-10, by Hiroaki Samura. An immortal swordfighter shepherds a slightly clueless girl on a mission of revenge; sort of like Lone Wolf and Cub if Quentin Tarantino wrote the dialogue; gorgeous art; really violent; the story is taking some interesting twists right about now...

Prom, by Laurie Halse Anderson. Ashley, a girl in a blue-collar neighborhood, never wanted to go to the prom anyway, but when the math teacher steals the prom funds, she decides to help her friends who do care about it. This was terrific-- funny, sweet, and a very unusual point of view. (Unlike every protagonist ever, Ashley hates to read.)

Comments

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I will have you know that I had to wait a YEAR AND A HALF for volume 11 to come out, to be confronted with, well, with volume 11 and ANOTHER YEAR TO WAIT FOR 12.

You have it EASY!

Uphill! Both ways!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

* And volume 11 will give you an impression of Samura that, I have it on semi-reasonable authority, is fairly true.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Just read it and uh. Yeah. I see what you mean. I also see what you mean about waiting for # 11 to come out, and then being confronted with # 11 and another year before 12.

(What semi-reasonable authority?)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Somewhere online there's a translated interview with him where he said he was, IIRC, working on a personal project - an artbook featuring women being tortured. #11 made SO MUCH MORE SENSE after that. And cemented my opinion that I'd love to meet him and watch him work, but no way in hell would I date him. XD

It was like TWO YEARS without Manji.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Yikes! Much as I love his art, that's one artbook I don't covet.

Re: dating Samura: It reminds me of a friend telling me that there was no way she'd set me up with one of her friends, because he had this unusual kink that she had a feeling I would refuse to indulge: he liked to have women dress up in lingerie and such high heels they could barely walk, and then wobble around his house while he verbally humiliated them.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Um, yeah, I think that'd be a deal-killer right there...

I do want a Samura artbook, if one exists or ever will exist, but I don't believe even the completist in me would go for that one.

[sdn.livejournal.com]

you know that laurie has an lj, right? halseanderson

[greenapple2004.livejournal.com]

I met Laurie Halse Anderson at the Rochester Teen Book Fair I went to with Amy Ganter, one of my artists, back in April or whatever, and I've got a signed copy of Prom that I now treasure. I hadn't read any of her stuff (or any of the other guest authors' stuff) before the event, but since then I've read two of her other novels, and really enjoyed them. Prom is clearly a more mature work than Speak or Catalyst, but all three are strong and inventive. We've been tossing around ideas in editorial about doing a manga revolving around quincenera parties, and I told the editor in charge that if we can make our manga anywhere close to as good and interesting as Prom, I will be very proud.

[fearlesstemp.livejournal.com]

Prom! Oh, I love that book. I spent half of last year in a high school (the other half in a middle school), both in somewhat tough districts, and her book is the only YA novel I've read that came close to accurately depicting what high school is like for a lot of kids.

[rilina.livejournal.com]

I need to check out Lone Wolf and Cub one of these days.

Blade of the Immortal is so very different from everything else I read; I love the art, and I was really pleasantly surprised by some of the directions where Samura took the story.