Not quite ready to resume our weekly releases yet, but we’re getting there. Tonight we have new chapters of All-Rounder Meguru and the always gorgeous The Music of Marie.

Next up: More Garden, Soil, SWWEEET, Ressentiment (not necessarily in that order) and our first big new project of 2010. Be excited!

Just when I thought 2010 got off to a good start, real life struck, leaving me buried with work. As a result most of our plans for February had to be shelved. Luckily, the worst seems to be over and we managed to get three chapters of All-Rounder Meguru done for now. Expect more frequent releases as I’m working through a bunch of finished scripts that have been piled up over the past month. Meanwhile, here’s an eye candy to keep you distracted:

Well, it looks like Kotonoha has survived another year. Looking back, I still can’t believe we managed to pull ourselves out of hiatus and actually got a few things done. Once again, I would like to thank everyone who lent us a helping hand during those trying days. Kotonoha would not be where it is today without your help and support. While I can’t promise that we will maintain a weekly release schedule throughout 2010, I will do my best to keep us from slipping into another long hiatus again. After all, there’s still a lot of work to be done. Our short-term goal remains unchanged: to finish our shorter projects (Hanashippanashi, Happiness, Happy-Go-Lucky Days, Ressentiment, SWWEEET, The Hour of the Mice, The Music of Marie) in a reasonable time frame and to keep making steady progress on a few of our longer ones (All-Rounder Meguru, Owari to Hajimari no Miles, Soil). Regrettably, some of our older projects will have to remain on hiatus, at least until there are more free slots in my work queue. But note this: unless a project is officially dropped we will resume work on it eventually.

As for long-term strategy, the biggest challenge for me in the upcoming months will be transforming Kotonoha’s line-up to make it even more diverse, while placing more emphasis on the “less ordinary” part. Expect a surge in titles by talented but little known artists whose works have never been translated into English before (legally or otherwise). Hirosuke Kizaki was the first of the pack and we have some more amazing artists lined up that will give Kaneko, Asano, Furuya, Kitoh and Tōme a good run for their money.

With that out of the way, let’s get down to business, by which I mean, releases. In addition to the familiar faces, we have a newcomer today: Garden by Usamaru Furuya. It’s a collection of his “indie” shorts that were published in Comic Cue, Manga Erotics and GARO respectively. The title is obviously a reference to Hieronymus Bosch’s famous triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights, with the first story being a homage to said painting. The other stories range from absurd comedies to fantasy to horror. It’s a very eclectic mixture, but make no mistake: artistically, Garden might just be Furuya’s most accomplished work after The Music of Marie. There are simply no words to describe stories like “The Book of the Moon” and “Emi,” the former having been hailed as “one of the best comics of any kind I’ve ever read” by Adam Stephanides. Sadly, it’s also a reminder that Furuya will never be able to draw something like this again. Those of you who think Furuya has become tame in his recent projects and who yearn for the days when the guy still had some genuine “indie cred” will find Garden a treasure trove of comic gems.

Finally, since there’s no easy way to announce this, I’m going to give it to you straight: we are dropping Chokotto Sister and Hourou Musuko, for the same reason we dropped Historie. Both projects were picked up by other groups while we were on hiatus and they have been continued to the point where it no longer makes sense for us to bother with either of them again.

P.S. Yes, I know the website still needs some fixing.

It seems our vacation ended before it even began. But I feel good getting back into action again, so get ready for some ass-kicking releases.

As you can see, we are in the process of switching to a new theme. Meanwhile, some parts of the site will temporarily go offline, others might show up incorrectly. I’m working as fast as I can to fix those problems. Hopefully the new website will be up and running by the time we start releasing again.