I mentioned I was translating an article on manga; it's now online. Essentially it's an eminent French academic - and manga fanboy - explaining why manga is so popular in France

I'd be fascinated by what people make of it; not just emmav and the rest of the manga fans, but also the larger crowd who love Transmetropolitan &c. Because a good chunk of the argument is precisely what Warren Ellis, Grant Morrison, and Alan Moore have spent decades grumbling about, and fighting against: the fact that a lot of Western superhero comics are really, really bad - slow-paced, unimaginative, unable to imagine readers who aren't boys or nostalgic men. And I'm not convinced that's true any more: manga may be more inventive than mainstream comics, but is it really more inventive than all the fringe stuff that's popped up since the 80s?