My Future in Manga:
I've gotten a few manga recommendations from my readers in response to my most recent Monitor Duty column (but not a lot, leading me to believe that a lot more folks read my reviews and Down the Line than anything else I write... which is perfectly cool by me), and I think I've mapped out some of the manga I want to try out in the coming months.

1. Blame by Tsutomu Nihei (Wolverine: Snikt). Love his art, although the story didn't instantly grab me when I flipped through the early pages. Also hasn't sold a single copy at my store yet, leading me to believe my taste in manga is going to be just as off-the-popular track as my taste in comics, movie, TV and seemingly everything else these days.

2. Saikano - I've had two recommendations on this one, which is about, according to one reader, "a high school student and his girlfriend, who becomes the Army's ultimate weapon." Sounds interesting.

3. Peacemaker - Same reader recommended this as a "historically-based samurai drama" that deals with the beginning of the westernization of Japan. That sounds like fascinating subject matter.

4. Planetes - I've heard nothing but good about this story of space-age debris removal specialists (space garbagemen and women), and it's relatively short, so I'll definitely be giving it a shot.

5. Yotsuba! by Kiyohiko Azuma - Heard good things about this one as well, although I confess I don't know exactly what it's about.

6. Cromartie High School - No readers recommended this one, but two of my friends read and love it, and I'll probably check it out to see if it's as funny as I've been told.

7. Monster - Looks awesome, and I can't wait to read it. I covered this one in a recent Down the Line column.

8. Battle Royale - Honestly, I've already read a volume of this, but having seen the addiction that overcame my friends and how they've had to wait for the later volumes, I'm gonna wait out the last couple of volumes showing up so I can read the whole thing in one shot.

That's not all, and it will definitely depend on what I'm in the mood to read as to when I get to these, but that's at least a snapshot of some of the manga I want to try out.

Oh, and in the meaningless anniversary department, yesterday marks a whole month of me doing daily blog updates. So maybe I actually am going to be able to keep up with that schedule after all.