Shutterbox (2003-now) - :)
Oh man, I remember seeing this in a brick and mortar bookstore and being like “this is my jam!”. Back when Tokyopop was a thing, and Borders was a thing, they offered up some manga and this was an English language original that had me hooked. The artists, Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons and Rikki Simons have deep roots in other projects I enjoy but it’s Shutterbox that I followed news of through first livejournal, then their site, and sometimes deviantart.
In the 5 of 6 volumes that are out we get to see the journey the main character, Megan Amano, goes through as the living anchor for a school full of spirits. There’s curses, there’s romance, there’s intrigue, there’s cute chibi things, big personalities, and honest to goodness multi generational tragedy. I’ve been waiting for that final volume, silently hoping that it will even have a conclusion given all the loose plot threads I can’t speculate on.
In a way, this was probably one of the defining mangas of my late adolescence. It makes me think of wandering through bookstores, of leafing through pages before I had the money to buy the books, but knowing I’d be back at some point. There are some things I find mildly problematic about it now, but I’m also not going to split hairs. I will throw money at them if they finish and thank them for the honor. It’s been a good ride, (and I hope they don’t sink my ship!).
