And to HELL with that silly one piece shit.

Though to eliminate, One Piece is looooong. Vol 16 just came out (reading it myself right now) and lord knows what they have out in Japan. Even the anime on TV is further than the US manga. You’d have to go to online scanlations (shh) if you want to catch up while the US manga is slowly released. It’s a kids book, but a brilliant one. Gets surprising serious at points. Also, the art is cartoonish, but in a very good way. Off hand I can only think of Kyle Baker doing caricatures this well. Though his stuff isn’t really for kids.

Yotsuba is light fare. Though that might be a plus. It’s a simple family comedy. More.. I don’t know. Though it’s not as deep as Calvin and Hobbes, but it is funny and quite enjoyable.

Planetes is finished. It’s actually 5 volumes, the last one is large and split up into two books.

Monster is plugging away. I don’t know how long it is, but they’re up to 11. (Sadly, I somehow missed five and keep forgetting to find a copy as I keep buying the new ones.) It’s a very good fugitive tale with an interesting mystery.

So I guess the best bet is Planetes or maybe Yotsuba for light fare. Though all of them are excellent, One Piece and Monster are simply long.

Out of the others, I highly recommend Planetes, even if you don’t review it. It’s a thoughtful, realistic series about life in space, with good character development and even some exciting plots. One of the first manga series I read, and still one of the best.

I’m slowly working my way through Monster (I just reviewed the third volume yesterday), and it’s also really, really good. I often get way behind on manga series, but this is one I’ll probably rush out and spend money on so I can catch up (that’s what I did with Death Note, although it was only up to the sixth volume or so when I started reading).

As for Yotsuba, I finally caved and bought the first volume after reading review after review of people praising it to the heavens (the excerpts I’ve seen certainly helped me get on board). I haven’t read it yet, but I’m hoping it doesn’t let me down.

As far as Urasawa’s work goes, Monster has nothing on 20th Century Boys in that regard. As I remember it, in 20thCB, they’re still introducing obscure characters from the protagonist’s childhood as crucial characters in the last volume. Of course, half of the plot doesn’t even get resolved by the “end” of the series because then it spins off into the sequel, 21st Century Boys.

For the record, I have read all four of those series, and I love ‘em all to death, Yotsuba& included. >

For the record “Voting ends whenever I make it to the comic shop next, probably Thursday the 15th.”

I forgot to put this in the original piece, and am just editing it in now.

It’s endlessly visually inventive, Oda’s influences are vast and ever expanding and it has the best narrative structure of any long running shonen manga today.

On the downside, the pace can be very slow which puts some people off, and the narrative can switch focus – neither of these are necessarily bad, but some people aren’t fond of it.

One Piece is definitely like the Popeye comic strip. The kinds of adventures are very similar. For example, hunting for treasure? Popeye yes, Spider-man not so much. Plus, Popeye had Eugene the Jeep, and fought Alice the Goon and other the Sea Hag more than he fought Bluto.

Anyway, we both agree it’s a great comic, your definition of “superheroic” just seems to be broader than mine.

PLUS GIANT FLESH EATING BUNNIES!!!!!!

Very compelling argument.

Well, the whole thing but this in particular. I’ve had bunnies on the brain lately.

There you go.

In a related vein, I would also recommend Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, as well.

Then on a competely different tangent, if you like Love and Rockets I would recommend Nana or Paradise Kiss.