Hi. My name's Matt Thorn, and I teach in the Faculty of Manga at Kyoto Seika University. I found Comic Book + while searching for scanned Golden Age comics to show my Japanese students in my lectures on the history of American comics.
I was a fan of Marvel comics (particularly the Hulk and the Fantastic Four) as a child in the 1970s, "grew out of comics" in junior high school, became hooked on shōjo manga (Japanese comics by women for girls and women) as an exchange student in the late eighties, and "rediscovered" American comics when I found myself assigned to teach about them in 2000.
I don't know if it's a factor of age or personality, but it seems I'm interested mostly in the history of both manga and comics, and am particularly interested in material published in the thirties, forties, and fifties. At the moment, I am trying to learn all I can about Golden Age crime and horror comics.
Since I'm interested in gender, I'm always looking for romance comics or comics created for girls that are worth reading, either because they are hilarious from a modern viewpoint, or are simply well executed. Naturally, I'm a fan of Stanley's Little Lulu.
I would appreciate any recommendations!
I also translate manga. Recent projects include Inio Asano's Nijigahara Holograph, Moto Hagio's The Heart of Thomas (nominated for an Eisner this year), and Takako Shimura's Wandering Son (nominated for an Eisner a couple years back).