Usually when people think of manga, they think about stories about epic sci-fi, sweet shojo manga romances or adrenaline-charged action. But as there's more to Japan than geisha, samurai and sushi, there are also several manga artists who take a more thoughtful, sensual and personal approach to their storytelling. One such artist is Susumu Katsumata, the creator of Red Snow , a new collection of gekiga short stories published by Drawn and Quarterly.

Katsumata-sensei, like Yoshihiro Tatsumi, is known for being part of the gekiga, or "dramatic pictures" movement that was known for depicting stories that are both more gritty, personal and realistic than fantasy-driven manga, and also for its artistic innovation. But unlike Tatsumi-sensei's gritty, urban tales (A Drifting Life , Abandon the Old in Tokyo ), Katsumata's Red Snow is set in rural Japan, where life was somewhat simpler, but also had its share of hardships and drama.

Gardena, California-based Digital Manga Publishing recently announced that they are seeking submissions of original manga, graphic novels, short stories and prose novels in all genres (e.g. not just boys love) from "aspiring and professional creators" for eManga.com, their online manga rental website.

DMP graphic designer and marketing maven Michelle Mauk showcased this recent addition to the eManga line-up at Yaoi-Con 2009 by showing two titles: Games With Me by Tina Anderson, Lynsley Brito and Yaoi Hentai, an anthology series of erotic boys love short stories from Yaoi Press.

"We're looking for original content only," said Mauk. "Short doujinshi and novels are also fine. Fan or slash stories won't work, and neither will pin-ups. It's hard to convince people to rent pinups -- people want to read."

A few days ago on Twitter, @gottsuiiyan, (a.k.a. Ian, the translator / blogger of The Eastern Edge fame) made mention of an exhibit of artwork by manga artist Takehiko Inoue that would be displayed at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo this month through March 2010.

Now, since I'm headed to Tokyo later this week, this news was very intriguing! Would this be an retrospective of artwork by the creator of Real, Slam Dunk and Vagabond? Would it be an exhibit of his color and black and white illustrations from Vagabond, as seen in the Sumi and Water artbooks? Or would it be new artwork created just for the museum?

The English version of the MOT website unfortunately doesn't have information about the Inoue artwork -- however, the Japanese version of their site does. And, thanks to yet another blogger/DJ, I got pointed to this page, which is a rough translation of a post and photos posted on Fukuhen, another Japanese blog, which got its info from Brutus magazine. In any case, this online journey led me to some photos and more details about Inoue-sensei's new mural at MOT, which I hope to see in person next week.

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While mid-month tends to be slow for new manga, there's lots of intriguing series and one-shots making their debut this week from CMX Manga, Drawn and Quarterly, TokyoPop and VIZ Media.

Topping this week's list of new releases is the VIZ Big edition of Inu Yasha, which collects the first three volumes of Rumiko Takahashi's long-running adventure series in a larger format. With 56 volumes in the regular run of Inu-Yasha, we can look forward to at least 18 more VIZ Big volumes to come.

Also new and well-worth picking up is Red Snow, a new gekiga gem by Susumu Katsumata from Drawn and Quarterly. Like their prior releases of manga by Yoshihiro Tatsusmi, D and Q pulled out the stops to give this award-winning collection of short stories of rural Japan the deluxe, hardcover treatment.

If hard-boiled action is more to your taste, VIZ Signature has Jormungand, which is chock-full of gun-slinging and international intrigue, ala Black Lagoon.

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