new swag

I made another amazon.jp order and here's some of the more interesting books that I picked up! Clockwise from the top left: 25時のバカンス(25ji no vacance) by Haruko Ichikawa 市川春子, A book of collected stories and loose ends by Kaoru Mori,Hetappi Manga Laboratory R by Murata-sensei, and 薔薇だって書けるよ (Bara datte kakeru yo) by Kiko Urino 売野機子.

Kaoru Mori's book contains a real hodge-podge of stuff, from random short stories from fellows, to pinup illustrations and notes on the victorian era (my fav). Hetappi Manga Laboratory R is sort of a half-tutorial on drawing comics, half "in the life of a mangaka" sort of deal. The best part is the chapters that "interview" other creators, including the guy who draws Toriko (Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro) and Yoshihiro Togashi (!!) The other two books are sort of... short story collections with a surrealist slant? Hard to explain. They're REALLY good, though. I especially love Ichikawa's work. The other book I got by her, Mushi to Uta, is amazingly good. I would really love to see translations of her work someday... *_* /dreams