We love her ^^

wow, that is a really good thing to do for someone ^^

"I am the spirit of cellphones and other wireless devices!! BWAHAHA!"

The art looks pretty.

The people should not be afraid of it's government. The government should be afraid of it's people. -V

cool. I've always thought Avril was damn hot. But I don't like her music much. A little pretentious. I do wish her success in her manga endeavours though. Beautiful little girl too.

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Nazirah is a rabbit! She does pretty tricks for us. So well trained and so eager to please.

I can't wait for it to come out. The storyline sounds really cool.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I've never has a heart, Never know love.

Yet you expect me to care, to care about you.

Now you're staring at me, You stare at me as your love fades to grey.

What did you expect, Did you expectg me to love, love you with a heart I've never had?

AWESOMENESS!!!
LOVE AVRIL!!!!!!

The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage.

I'm not into Avril, but if it gets more girls to read comics and show the traditional publishers they're missing out, I'm for it. Next thing you know, Courtney Love is going to have her own comic book. Oh shit, wait...!

****
I live under a bridge.

Good lord! xD Here I am, virtually running around the boards trying to catch my virtual breath, making sure no one curses or types like a preschooler... and here comes Rachel the Great with a ready sailor's tongue. =P

Anyway, the artwork looks wonderful.

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"The right to vote or equal civil rights may be good demands, but true emancipation begins neither at the polls nor in the courts. It begins in [the] soul." -Emma Goldman

Great, just when I hoped the fuggin' corporate scum-suckers had finished with their pseudo-punk exploitation extravaganza, this has to come around. Peachy.

Let me begin by saying that I absolutely loathe this vapid, faux-rebellious wench with a good chunk of my heart. I don't hate her for her crappy music - were she simply your run-of-the-mill pop diva I would reserve for her the mixture of pity and mild revulsion that I feel to all corporate-owned "musicians," but she's being used as a tool to exploit something I love. She's paraded around as a harmless "punk" fix to suck out the cash from the pockets of any unsuspecting wee'un who doesn't know a liberty spike from a crust-punk. She's an attempt to reduce an entire way of life - a culture rich in iconclasm, emotion, and rebellion - to a mere commodity through overpriced merchandise, of which this PR scheme of a comic is merely another piece.

Look, if Avril knew a damn thing about courage she'd be producing and distributing her own music on an independent or self-made label so as to have complete creative control, put on cheap shows so anyone could join in on the experience, and would play music not because it makes her rich or gets her on MTV but because she loves to do it. The woman's nothing more than the puppet of money-hungry record executives looking to make a buck on anything "alternative" - manga included. She's no fuggin' hero.

"And just like that, it was over... The last flames flickered and died amidst the rubble of an empire[.] As the smoke rose into the blackened sky, we realized that the world we had known was gone forever." - Eric "Doc" Griffin on the fall

Or...

...maybe she really is just in it for the money, as she has the right to be, and is simply making comics because she feels like it, which is also within the paremeters of her right as a human being (regardless of how misguided her life may be). Just a thought.

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"The right to vote or equal civil rights may be good demands, but true emancipation begins neither at the polls nor in the courts. It begins in [the] soul." -Emma Goldman

oh she has the right; I'm not saying she should be banned from making music or merchandising, but I most certainly have the right to despise her for her actions. I take her actions to be made purely for the sake of profit, as are the actions of those who pay her salary. That being said, I find her to be a pale imitation of my culture that is paraded around for profit. I think it's a shame that kid's look at her as a symbol of punk, but I guess I'm over reacting.

...Sigh... It's odd how easy it is to get angry at things like this, at least for me. It's one of the reasons I don't watch TV anymore - commercials just fill me with bile. Sorry for 'splodin everywhere kids.

"And just like that, it was over... The last flames flickered and died amidst the rubble of an empire[.] As the smoke rose into the blackened sky, we realized that the world we had known was gone forever." - Eric "Doc" Griffin on the fall

I'd say any feelings of animosity aroused by a shallow, meaningless misrepresentation of a subculture whose members suffer from proud delusions of being anything other than fans of another music genre is an over-reaction. I'm sure there's infinitely more associated with "punk" than just the music, but it in the end everything is nothing but what you make of it.

In any case, people do far stupider things in this world than mistake posers for punkers. Let us save our rage for them. But you're right--it's your anger. Aim at will. :)

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"The right to vote or equal civil rights may be good demands, but true emancipation begins neither at the polls nor in the courts. It begins in [the] soul." -Emma Goldman

Believe me when I say it's an all out culture more than a genre of music - when kids who could easily become accountants and lawyers, clerks and secretaries eschew capitalism and hop trains, dive into dumpsters, fill countless pages of 'zines with art, literature, and raw feelings, get their faces smashed in at protests, and start up radical collectives that do everything from feed large groups of hungry people free of charge to provide daycare for single mothers (also free), oh and also throw sweet shows, well, then you know that they're motivated by more than just a beat, yeah?

You're absolutely right though - 1)there are more important things to be angry about and 2)Punk is just what you make of it. My point is that something special has been made out of it. A lotta good things have come from what started out as a couple of kids screwin' around in Queens.

"And just like that, it was over... The last flames flickered and died amidst the rubble of an empire[.] As the smoke rose into the blackened sky, we realized that the world we had known was gone forever." - Eric "Doc" Griffin on the fall

She is not making comics. She isn't making them any more than Courtney Love was. She's just given the company approval to use a script (which they probably wrote) and her image. She is not a comics creator. She is a brand.

Now that we've gotten that straight, Christopher Hart, while an excellent artist, is responsible for a tidal wave b-grade "how to draw" books, the ones on manga being particularly repetitive and even trite throughout the series.

Neither of them are particularly admirable, but as I stated before, if this helps tune girls into comics, so much the better. I can only hope this sort ofthing doesn't become standard or I'm afraid we haven't revolutionized anything. Comics will, as I predicted, become the whores of the same editors and businesses behind girl mags and made for TV movies. Hello skinny so-called rolemodels. Goodbye plot.

And Joey, I can say shit when ocassion calls for it. It's the f-word I care about.

****
I live under a bridge.

And they called it "Original English Lanuage Manga" which further irks me. Why is "comic" wrong?

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I live under a bridge.

That's a no-brainer: the standard belief is that girls don't like "comics." They like "manga." They're going to tote it as what sells.

That's obvious, Rachie. She isn't even credited with any of it on the cover. I spoke incorrectly because I wasn't really thinking about it; defending her wasn't the purpose behind that post. I was simply playing Devil's Advocate with Sinn.

Sinn: You probably found what I said insensitive judging by your response. If it was, I apologize. All I can say in my own defense is that I have never before in my life encountered any member of the group of which you speak so highly. You're the first even via internet.

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"The right to vote or equal civil rights may be good demands, but true emancipation begins neither at the polls nor in the courts. It begins in [the] soul." -Emma Goldman

It's actually pretty funny :D

I'm not sure if I like Avril or not. Kind of awesome to have a comic written about/with you though, just because you're famous.

Damn, and and most people find Mary-Sues something to avoid.

~ Barking at the Moon ~

My comment about Avril not being involved in the creation of the comic was directed to anyone reading these posts who may have gotten the impression that she is now a comics creator. The only part of my message specifically aimed at you was the part immediately following your name. Sorry if it appeared otherwise :)

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I live under a bridge.

No problem. I was apparently confuzzled since I was the only person that had claimed she made anything. ~.~

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"The right to vote or equal civil rights may be good demands, but true emancipation begins neither at the polls nor in the courts. It begins in [the] soul." -Emma Goldman

No, there were others wishing her luck with her comic. I think it's probably more Mr. Hart's than hers.

****
I live under a bridge.

Now I'm confused. No where does it say Christopher Hart is doing the Avril Lavigne's manga. It only says that Camilla D'Errico and Joshua Dysart created it.

If you look at Camilla D'Errico's site http://www.camilladerrico.com/illustrations1.html the cover looks like her work. And considering that Joshua Dysart has comic book writing credits, then he must be the writer. http://www.joshuadysart.com/content.php?which=about

So in closing, I think the comment about Christopher Hart is doing a manga at Del Rey and a Avril Lavigne manga is being made at Del Rey are unrelated items. They are two separate projects that seemed to have it blogland at the same time.

There are more details about the book at:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6411487.html?nid=2789

Also it seems that manga was "produced" by House of Parlance Media.
myspace.com/houseofparlance

And that does paint a picture that this is a more corporate or editorial driven comic where the company comes up with the core concept and plot and then hires a team to implement said plot. Or to be more favorable to the company, they could have gone through pitches from creatures and selected the one that fit their vision most. But if they had accepted pitches, word about the project would have leaked before now (well unless it was pitch by invitation only and all involved signed NDAs).

Regardless, we don't know if Avril Lavigne came up with the idea for a comic and had her people make it happen or did company come up with the comic idea and sold the idea to Avril or it's all just a clever marketing scheme to help promote her new albumn. I'm betting it's all to help promote her new record. The record industry is still taking a heavy beating and attaching a project to something "cool" or "hip" like manga may be a way to help sales.

Ah, okay, I had misunderstood the Christopher Hart bit. I must have been skimming at one point ;)

****
I live under a bridge.

Haha! It looks like she's lifting weights in the poster XD

~ Barking at the Moon ~

Two pages of comic

It's good that manga is more mainstreamed and targeted at girls in the U.S., but I, uh... really don't think this is going on my reading list. The art grates on my nerves, as does the page layout, and the plot is so freaking overdone it isn't funny. Heroine gets to make a wish, meets some great person, becomes better person for it. Meh.

Avril Lavigne being in it doesn't bother me, for some strange reason, though... even if she is a poser or corporate whore or whatever, you know something's becoming more popular if celebrities start exploiting it, and more popular = more manga for us!

EDIT Hrm... the art on D'Errico's site's actually pretty darn good. Maybe it's just those pages. Okay, so that was just plain mean of me anyway--sorry. ^_^;;

i think the real issue here is not whether Avril is "punk" enough, or what exactly "punk" is, so much as it is the exploitation of manga. Neither she nor the company representing her is making for the love of manga, their making it for the love of money. She knows her fans read manga, she knows DelRay can make manga, she knows selling manga makes money. And that's what I have a problem with, plain and simple.

I agree with both Sharky and EpsilonZero. Well put!

Perhaps both points are related?

~ Barking at the Moon ~

The writer, Joshua Dysart, has this to say about the manga:

"What the candy colored cover does not convey, and what the PR people are not telling you is that this is a very dark book. While it is seeing publication in North America, it was written specifically for the Japanese and Korean markets (where Avril commands a massive army of fans) and will be part of a considerable push to produce comics for a digital downloadable market.

What they're also not telling you is that it's a young adult horror story aimed at the 15 to 17 year old market. And if you know anything about the global horror movement, you know nobody does it like Asia
http://www.joshuadysart.com/journal/archives/001273.html. So we were given a great deal of freedom to be, well... dark as hell.

The original title was MAKE5WISHES.COM and a sample site, that captures the mood much more accurately can be found here http://www.make5wishes.com/ (there's no interface, just graphics and a tag line).

I think when people read it, if they read it, they'll be very, very surprised by it. Particularly by the second volume. All my standard themes are in place. All the humanist based horror, all the loneliness and, yes, all the tragedy found in my other work can also be found here."

I've asked him several question about the manga and hope to have the interview posted soon.

Good to hear, David! It sounds like the concept would have made a great stand alone book, so I would like to know how Avril features and how, if at all, she is necessary to the plot. The site piqued my interest. I would like to know more.

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I live under a bridge.

(Well, it would be more interesting than the Cinderella storyline most of the descriptions portray...)

Whoah. I'm definitely going to read this now. I'm a sucker for Japanese horror, and if the plot rings true to the Japanese style this should be one bloody hell of a book.

The website really creeped me out. I love it.

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"The right to vote or equal civil rights may be good demands, but true emancipation begins neither at the polls nor in the courts. It begins in [the] soul." -Emma Goldman

I agree with Rachel. But as a cynic, I'm obligated to ask "If it's so freakin' good, then why do you need to plaster a celeb's name on the front to sell it?"

Maybe they don't NEED to, but they would like to make money, she would like to make money and they would like to bring new readers into the world?

...

The website is f*cking scary...

The people should not be afraid of it's government. The government should be afraid of it's people. -V

Woa. Awesome. Definetly want to read it now.

~ Barking at the Moon ~