I don't think I could have read Manga Boshi, the new online manga magazine from the Japanese internet service provider NEC-Biglobe, last week, when the temperatures here on the East Coast were still in the 90s (with humidity to match). Most of the short stories in this delightful little manga take summer as their theme, and the sweltering heat features in several. It would just have made me more miserable.

Now that we're getting a few cool breezes, though, I can cheerfully recommend it as light end-of-summer reading. Most of the stories are just four or five pages long, but they display an impressive variety of styles and all are well drawn. All are by young creators, and they are definitely more indy comics than the traditional manga genres. The plan is for the magazine to update monthly, and eventually French and Italian versions will be available as well.