Shin-chan creator missing; unidentified body discovered in search area

Very tragic news… a body likely to be that of Crayon Shin-chan mangaka Yoshito Usui was spotted yesterday, one week after his family reported him missing, in what appears to have been a mountain-climbing accident.  The remains were located at the base of a cliff in Mt. Arafune, which is a nearly vertical climb with only chains and no paths in some areas.  Neither the remains nor any identification have been recovered yet, but the victim’s clothes appear to match Usui’s.  Anime News Network has coverage from the beginning.

Cranyon Shin-chan is an extremely popular “yonkoma” gag manga first introduced to the US by now-defunct Comics One, and its publication continues under DC’s CMX imprint.  The loosely-based anime adaptation gained popularity in the US after an even looser “dub” aired on the Cartoon Network.  The manga has been at the center of social and legal controversy at times; Shin-chan is often compared to Bart Simpson, and the anime was targeted by conservatives, parents, and teachers for encouraging children to behave rudely.  And curiously, Japanese publisher Futabasha actually lost the Crayon Shin-chan trademark to a pirate in China.

Edit: ANN has additional information, but be forewarned, the details may be a bit upsetting.

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The Guardian has a short review of Last Gasp’s Best Erotic Comics of 2009.

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Deb Aoki has a neat interview with Yen Press Senior Editor JuYoun Lee, on the various editorial difference between the newly re-released Yotsuba&! versus the original ADV editions.

The one tiny detail that popped out at me, though it’s not entirely surprising, is the fact that Yen did no have access to the original manuscript or first-generation scans, meaning they had to painstakingly debind, scan, and make corrections from the Japanese releases.  Occasionally, the Japanese publisher does not want to share good files.  But most of the time (and this might leave some jaws on the floor) the Japanese publisher simply does not keep a print-ready digital archive of their manga.  Yes, in the year 2009, manga offices in Japan are still cluttered with stacks of original art and photocopy manuscripts.

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Also be sure to check out this interview with retailer Gaston Dominguez-Letelier of Meltdown about the difficulties of selling manga in the direct market.  Among a litany of frustrations: bulk orders from Hollywood studios that are canceled after the studios discover the illicit wonders of scanlations.

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Japanese-produced manga of Harlequin’s soft-core porn romance novels will soon be available to Korean cell phone users.

Over here, we probably won’t even get the courtesy of a response from somebody like Apple.  Piffle.

Semi-related: The Escapist makes the case for a more open policy towards adult games on the iPhone Apps store.

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Still following the porn lawsuit in South Korea?  I am… Prosecutors there have declined to pursue copyright infringement cases against internet uploaders at the request of US and Japanese porn producers.  However, they will be investigating them for uploading porn.  (See, I told you this was the better strategy.)  A potential reason for hesitance on the part of the Korean government is that many of those internet users are probably underage, which would be very embarrassing for the families and the state, as well as highlight the complete impotence of anti-porn laws and enforcement as a deterrent for hormone-addled youth.

The US and Japanese companies had threatened to take the case to US courts earlier.  The article gives no indication whether that is still their strategy…