Retrofit is running a kickstarter right now to raise funds to print SP7: an Alt Comics Tribute to Garo Manga. Above is the cover by Ryan Cecil Smith. This book will NOT be part of subscriptions (which will continue on unaffected).
Two things here. First, this looks like a great comic. The contributor list is very good, and I really love that cover.
Also, the argument that book is “presenting” (manga has had an important influence on most younger North American cartoonists, even those who haven’t picked up on visual cues or anything else superficial) is one that I’ve definitely thought about. I imagine that people who are a lot smarter than me will start writing seriously about this idea very soon. There are a number of interesting directions to explore there, I think. To take just one example, I would say that there’s an interesting difference between the influence of manga on cartoonists who actively studied it at an older age (like Frank Miller, for instance) and those who absorbed its influence more subconsciously at a younger age. That isn’t an argument exclusive to manga, but I think that the distinction is drawn into focus by the relative speed with which manga was introduced to North American readers.
This, of course, is the sort of thing that one thinks about when spending far too much time drawing pictures in boxes.