Three black & white manga titles published by Yen Press have recently caught our eyes. Cat Paradise (written and drawn by Yuji Iwahara) tells the story of Matabi Academy, where students are allowed to keep their pet cats in their dorm rooms with them. Trouble begins with a bang when a rip between the worlds occurs and a violent cat-demon intent on revenge is released. Now the students and their friendly cat-spirit companions find themselves in a battle not only for their lives and their school, but for the whole world! Then there’s Laon, written by Young Bin Kim and drawn by Hyun You. Laon is a magical nine-tails fox who found himself on the losing end of a bet in Heaven. Now he finds himself cast out of the realm of the gods, sent to earth in the guise of a young boy — and all of his tails have been removed, cast to the four winds, along with his heavenly powers! Now the exiled fox is determined to get back his powers, and his place in Heaven, one tail at a time! Yen Press is also the home of Spice and Wolf, of course. This popular manga by Isuna Hasekura and Ju Ayakura follows the medieval adventures of a human merchant and his friend, a pretty Wolf-God of the Harvest. Volume 4 of Cat Paradise and Volume 2 of Laon are coming from Yen this May. Volume 2 of Spice and Wolf will be out in June.
Wolf
B. B. Wolf and the 3 LP’s
Rich Koslowski (creator of the Ursa Major-nominated graphic novel Three Fingers) has returned with writer J.D. Arnold to bring us B.B. Wolf and the 3 Lp’s, a new black & white hardcover graphic novel coming this May from Top Shelf. Here’s the press release from Amazon.com: “B.B.’s life seemed simple: farmer and family man by day, blues musician by night, and a drinker of fine spirits at any hour. But his fragile world comes crashing down when the LPs decide to take his land by any means possible. When all is lost, B.B. lashes out, setting into motion acts of revenge that only a big bad wolf could unleash. Set in the Mississippi Delta of the 1920s, B.B. Wolf & the 3 LP’s is a classic story of racism, murder, revenge, and music, all wrapped up in the clever re-telling of a timeless fairy tale.”
