Though it often seems like many of their other movies get more attention, my favorite Pixar movie, far and away, is Brad Bird’s The Incredibles. It is so many things; a family-friendly comedy that’s genuinely funny, a coming-of-middle-age drama, and, of course, a tribute to the cape and cowl antics of comic book superheroes - the muscles, the gadgetry, the outlandish villains. It’s even kind of politically subversive for a Hollywood movie, if you think about it… though maybe I shouldn’t go there.

If you haven’t seen it… well, you should. I understand that part of my audience of this site is of the “oh, I only watch anime, American cartoons are just for kids” mindset, but I really think you’re doing yourself a disservice, and The Incredibles may be the movie that changes your mind. It basically address the question, “What if Superman and Wonder Woman got hitched, settled down and had a couple of kids?” After vigilante heroism is outlawed by the government, super strong Mr Incredible and stretchy shapeshifter Elastigirl settle down in the suburbs and start a family. But Mr Incredible doesn’t find the domestic life fulfilling, so he continues his heroism covertly, without cluing in his increasingly suspicious wife and kids. However, he soon finds himself over his head…

Given that The Incredibles is basically about comic book-style heroes, I guess it’s little surprise that when Boom! Studios’ Boom! Kids imprint brought the franchise to actual comic book pages, it would feel very much in place. The Incredibles is still ongoing as a comic series; Family Matters collects the first story arc into one paperback. In the story, Mr Incredible discovers he is gradually losing his super strength powers for some reason, and tries to find out why without letting his family find out (old habits die hard, apparently) or, of course, being clobbered in his weakened state. Taking place some point after the movie, where implicitly the Incredible family is apparently able to superhero with impunity (to verb a noun), The Incredibles: Family Matters features many of the same characters as the movie while introducing a few new ones, both heroic and villainous. But more than just the characters, the story maintains a certain The Incredibles feel in such things as how the characters interact; a battle against baddies is interspersed with typical family bickering. Though the traditionally drawn comic necessitates a different look than the 3D animation of the movie, the characters are still instantly recognizable and the same visual gags involving Mr Incredible’s freakish upper body proportions or Elastigirl’s, well, elasticity still “work.”

Bonus pages in the back show off the cover art used for the issues the volume compiles; some of them are done in an absolutely brilliant “golden age” style, with flat, faded colors and bold outlines. Very cool. There’s also a few pages of layout and character development sketches. All in all, the volume may feel a bit on the thin side, but I feel it’s a good value for the $10 price tag. Yes, it’s kiddie, but it won’t insult your intelligence like certain “adult” comics, and it’s definitely a fun read - and isn’t that what it’s all about?

I’ve decided to post a short series of articles of non-Yen Press-related comics that I’ve enjoyed in recent years. I guess you can say that I’ve only recently started taking comics “seriously,” so I’m probably missing quite a few good ones, but I hope that I can at least offer some suggestions of things to read while you’re waiting for the next issue to arrive. Like many of the comics in Yen Plus (more so earlier in its run than now, I suppose), I’ll try to focus on comics which may fly under the radar of many typical manga fans, though I suppose most such fans would have at least heard whispers about this first title… Tonight, I start with Daisuke Igarashi’s Children of the Sea.

Children of the Sea is a contemporary fairy tale about Umi and Sora, two boys who were raised in the sea by dugongs (manatee-like sea mammals), and Ruka, the troubled girl from a broken home who befriends them after meeting them at the aquarium where her father works. The mysteries of the boys’ lives makes them subjects of interest to researchers, especially after news and rumors of odd happenings involving undersea life start making the rounds in oceanographical circles - but the boys are content with keeping a few if their secrets, and are really just trying to get along by getting along. Children of the Sea is being released by Viz on this side of the Pacific by Viz. It’s still being serialized in Japan, and so far has seen four collected volumes released over there, of which two have been released by Viz thus far.

CotS’s plot is slow-paced and wandering, and I can see how some readers would get frustrated at it. I must admit also at times being confounded by the plot, wondering why certain events have happened and where things could be leading - the standard plot arc doesn’t seem to be in play here, and instead we’re just exposed to a series of mysterious occurrences interspersed by back story which doesn’t do much to explain the present.

But put the story aside for a bit and let’s talk art, because this is where I feel that Igarashi really delivers. His sketchy style is in stark contrast to the heavily polished and toned look of modern comics both domestic and imported. At a glance, you might feel tempted to write it off as amateur-looking, but that would be your loss. I think this especially comes into play when Igarashi draws what is arguably another character itself, the ocean. Perhaps those in the flyover states who have never been on a seashore won’t be able to relate, but it’s often hard for me to see Igarashi’s oceans without hearing the familiar hiss-roar of the ocean ringing in my ears; tasting the salty air; feeling the sand give way beneath my feet with every step. The various rainstorm and underwater scenes offer a similar tingle, and give evidence to the fact that art doesn’t need to be “accurate” to be powerfully evocative.

If you’d like to give Children of the Sea a try, you can check out several chapters for free, on Viz’s SigIkki site, which they seem to be using as sort of a web-based anthology magazine to test the reaction for titles for which commercial success of print versions is far from a given; the reaction for CotS was good, so now we have it in print. It’s a good thing, too, because, as I’ve ranted about on this site before, reading comics which were originally designed for print on a computer screen - and especially in a Flash app inside of a browser window - really, really, really, really sucks. But at least the try-before-you-buy factor is there. Give it a look, then give it a buy.

Man, the February issue is kind of boring. No special interviews or articles, no new comics or comics ending, no previews of other series, no posters. I mean, it’s still packed with comics, but that’s all… comics.

So if you’ve torn through the February issue and are left wanting a little more, how about checking out the animated interpretations of some of your favorite Yen Plus comics? The web site for domestic anime distributor Funimation features full episodes for many of its series, including Bamboo Blade - which I mentioned earlier is also available on ANN’s site. But you can also find episodes from the animated interpretations of Nabari no Ou, Higurashi When They Cry, and Soul Eater. And if you enjoyed the bit from the preview of the Spice & Wolf novel which appeared in the December 2009 issue, you can watch that too.

If you’re into ‘toons, that ought to last you a while. Just be aware that, in Soul Eater and Nabari no Ou’s case, episodes have been posted which are further along in the story than they are in Yen Plus, so tread carefully if you don’t want to be spoiled.

Today was one of those days where I started writing a longish post for the site and maybe got three-fourths of the way through before I decided to just can it… it was too long and presumptuous and uninteresting. Maybe it’ll be retooled for a future post; I don’t know. (One of the more interesting parts of it was comparing the covers of the January 2010 issues of Shonen Jump and Yen Plus. Can you spot the differences?)

But for now, I’ll just redirect you to an article by Deb Aoki entitled 25 Manga Milestones: 2000-2009. Look through them all, and you’ll see that Yen Press and related subjects have quite a presence; Yen Press itself (#13) and editor Kurt Hassler (#1) appear on the list plus Dramacon (#9), a previous title from Nightschool’s Svetlana Chmakova; the young adult novel comicization trend (#21); and manhwa in general (#16). An interesting list, especially if you’re fairly new to this whole manga thing and want a quick guide to relevant topics and trends in its recent history.

On a more personal note, the turn of the year was also Yen Plus Info’s first birthday, as the site went live on January 1, 2009 (here’s the first news post, if you’re curious). I’ve been considering reworking the site a bit; perhaps expanding it away from being Yen Plus-centric (in retrospect, it’s quite possible this site’s name and domain name could be considered trademark violations, should some lawyer at Hachette be fishing for a reason to justify their retainer fee…) and carrying news and perspectives on comics and things not related to Yen Plus or Yen Press. However, I’m just one guy with a full-time job and various other significant things to do besides read and write about comics, so I’m afraid such a site would be rather lacking in content, both in depth and volume. I’m considering some options, including bringing on more editors to this hypothetical reworked site (if I can find anyone who would want to join me), taking up a co-editor position on another site (if I can find anyone who would want me to join them), or just doing nothing and keeping YPI as it is. Your feedback in the comments would be appreciated.