Three things of interest today. First off, Yen Press has updated their blog with details about the March 2009 issue of Yen Plus, which should be hitting stores soon. Dig the cover art. The most interesting bit is the debut of yet another new feature; a column somewhat worringly entitled “Otaku Pimp” which will cover the world of Japanese pop culture. Hmm. I’ll be checking my local bookstore tomorrow; expect an update or two over the weekend if the ish is there.
Next: Did you know Yen Press has a Twitter feed? (I can’t find any mention of it on their regular web site; I would not have known of its existence if they hadn’t linked to YPI (thanks!). I stumbled it when checking out my server’s referral stats earlier today.) For those not in the know, Twitter is a sort of blogging service where all posts can only be a few words long - it’s sort of like the illegitimate child of a blog and an instant message service. By tracing their friends list, I found a couple other Yen crew members on Twitter as well; here’s Svetlana Chmakova’s feed (though it’s sorely in need of an update), and I’m guessing Yen Plus assistant editor Tania Biswas is behind this caffeine-fueled feed.
Finally, here’s a fascinating article about comics grammar and tradition, specifically when it comes to word/thought/narration balloons and the lettering therein. It applies mostly to western comics - certainly Japanese and Korean comics have their own habits - but I think comic fans of all sorts will get a kick out of it, especially if they’re also language nerds like me. Now if Yen Press could only stop abbreviating “because” as “‘cos” for whatever reason…
