Tag: Manga

Recommendations – March 2026

Be smart/broke like me and get yourself a cheap CD player and dust off your under bed storage boxes

I’ve been cutting back significantly on the amount of online accounts I’ve built up over the years. I’ve mainly deleted SM (instagram, twitter, etc.) and art platforms (artstation, devart, etc.) but I’ve also been avoiding music streamers like spotify.

Initially I set up an old windows phone as an mp3 player but got a bit bored of shuffling tracks so I’ve returned to CDs and more importantly albums. I’ve got loads of the things and some haven’t been touched in over 15 years at least, mainly because I donated my Hi-Fi to charity.

I can see why CDs are having a bit of a resurgence, it’s pretty great to turn off my phone and just avoid scrolling or switching through playlists and endless suggestions. It’s the same reason why I’ve also started watching DVDs again.

Reading the classics – Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Vol. 1 (1982) & Vol. 2 (1983), Dragon Ball Z, Vol. 1 (1989)

Continuing to take advantage of my local libraries newly acquired stock of manga. Reading these for the first time and I couldn’t be happier, the hype is real.

Little Batman: Month One – Morgan Evans (W), Jon Mikel (A), Ian Herring (C), Lucas Gattoni (L) (2025)

I adored the Merry Little Batman animated special so I grabbed the collected volume of month one recently in my local library. I love the compact size of this TEEN/YA graphic novel format, at 5-1/2 x 8 inches it’s slightly larger than the Tankōbon format (5 x 7.5 inches) but only just (issue 1 pictured for scale). Should also mention that there’s a great gallery section in the back matter with sketches and inks.

Sam’s blog – Sam Kieth (1963-2026)

Like so many others I was gutted to learn of Sam Kieths passing recently. An incredible artist, I will always remember poring over my best mates copies of Marvel comics presents and having my teenage mind blown by Sam’s work on Wolverine. Similarly since his passing I’ve been poring over his blog and having my mind blown all over again. Sam’s influence is undeniable, a huge loss to comics and the community as a whole.

Jesse Marsh has made a Sam Kieth Wolverine Bootleg Artist Edition available on gumroad, a fantastic collection of scans from various sources that includes covers and commissions

Recommendations – February 2026

Haven’t done one of these in a long long while, it’s a quick one, lets gooooooo

Hirayasumi – Keigo Shinzo (2024)

I’ve been requesting books for my son at the local library and grabbed this up for myself. What an absolute treat, I loved this, a delightful manga with highly relatable characters. Despite themes of grief, anxiety and friendship/connection, the manga never feels heavy or even depressing. In fact, it’s uplifting and at moments profound. I’ve been thinking about this book a-lot lately, especially sequences with the granny character or Natsumi’s struggle to find her place at art school. There’s even a sequence about escalators that makes me smile when I get off at the train stations in Belfast.

I love the art, Keigo Shinzo has quickly become one of my favourite manga artists, there’s so many little choices in this book that I just adore.

Love that the lil guy is picking his nose here and that kokeshi doll bubble
Natsumi’s body language/acting here is just chefs kiss, we’ve all had walks home like this

Keigo developed Hirayasumi while recovering from lymphoma during the pandemic and there’s a fantastic diary manga of that available on reddit – “Akusei Rinpashu de Nyuuin shita Toki no Koto” (About the Time I Was Hospitalized for Malignant Lymphoma).

Predator: Badlands (2025)

Watched this late last night and I had an absolute blast. The action is superb, the design work astounding and you’re really rooting for this brutal young killing machine. It’s so much fun and that’s something I haven’t said about a film in a hot minute.

Minari (2020)

A beautiful and deceptively simple film, I loved this, there are so many great performances but I adored David’s relationship with his grandmother Soonja.