Donald Richie has written an article about Boy, a book of three short stories by Japanese actor/director Kitano "Beat" Takeshi. You might know Takeshi as the host of the cult hit TV show Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, but he's also a serious actor. His most famous move is the great Hana-bi (Fireworks). Richie's article discusses … Continue reading Turning Japanese

When Ian Rankin's best-known character, the crusty Edinburgh cop John Rebus, debuted in 1987's Knots and Crosses, he was forty years old. He's been aging in the novels right along with the rest of the world, and he's now sixty and approaching mandatory retirement. Seventeen books later, Rankin has announced that the next Rebus novel, … Continue reading The End

Who would have thunk that New York magazine, home of the Model Manual and Party Lines, would also boast a great series of excerpts from graphic novels? But they do. Their Comics Page features some really interesting grown-up work--stuff you don't have to be embarrassed to read.Right now they're showing Jake Myler's American manga Undertown. … Continue reading Among the Barbarians