Online Commentary & Diversions:
• Review: "The… leaps in chronology and POV can be jarring for those not familiar with Hernandez's episodic style…, but [High Soft Lisp's] offbeat humor and manic sexual energy make the adjustment more than worthwhile. Fritz's hypersexuality, bizarre fetishes, rampant vanity, and burgeoning alcoholism provide many of the volume's finest comic moments, but the ample sex on view is rarely sexy. Rather, the characters' libidinous pursuits are tied into an affecting strain of loneliness and regret that pervades even the most outlandish panels. Add to that Hernandez's characteristically thick, expressive line and character design that owes an acknowledged debt to Archie comics, and the result is a charmingly incongruous, occasionally titillating collision of poignancy and pulp." – Publishers Weekly
• Interview: Publishers Weekly manga editor Kai Ming Cha talks to our new manga editor, Matt Thorn, about our new manga line and manga publishing in general: "I love manga, but I know the sales in the first years of the century were fueled to a large extent by fad and the whole 'Cool Japan' thing. Fads are nothing to build a real industry on. Just look at the comics bubble of the late eighties and early nineties. People have told me I'm jumping on the bandwagon too late. On the contrary, I think the time is ripe to build a new, reliable market that doesn't depend on trends."
• Commentary: Something Deeper: Anime, Manga and Comics also discusses the "new manga publisher on the block"
• Interview: At The Daily Cross Hatch, the second half of Brian Heater's conversation with Newave! editor Michael Dowers touches on webcomics, Factsheet Five, the Seattle Star, and the joy of getting envelopes with $150 cash in the mail