Press release is here. (Svetlana Chmakova’s web site.)
I really want to grumble about “all coverage of girls/women reading comics focuses solely on manga” but well, I think this is pretty big. No magazine aimed at teenage girls had anything resembling manga/comics when I was growing up. I don’t think I’d necessarily be picking up CosmoGirl! if I was 15 just for this, but I think it speaks that manga is pretty mainstream with a wide cross section of girls at this point, and I think that’s pretty cool.
On a related note, issue #269 of The Comics Journal is about shojo manga. I think it may be out but I couldn’t find it at my local Barnes & Noble so I can’t say for certain. Once I do find it, I’ll report on it (and more than likely grumble about how all coverage of girls/women reading comics focuses solely on manga).
