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Category: Anime

Manga goes Martha

Here's one for the never-thought-I'd-see file: manga cross-stitch.

That's right, if you're the crafty type (or know someone who is), you can make your own throw pillows and fancy wall scrolls emblazoned with your favorite characters (or a close approximation).

"Manga Cross-stitch: Make Your Own Graphic Art Needlework" (Andrews McMeel, $19.99) includes patterns and tips for all sorts of projects, from weapon-toting school girls to cute critters to menacing mechs. None are of licensed characters, but extrapolating probably wouldn't be too hard.

The book is by Helen McCarthy, who has several other anime-related books to her name ("500 Essential Anime Movies," "Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation").

"The idea for 'Manga In Stitches' (the original title) came from the realization that the pixels I was pushing around on my Mac in Photoshop were just like the squares on a counted thread embroidery chart," she writes on her Web site. "I wanted to make a book that would bring together the energy and graphic originality of Japanese animation and comics -- anime and manga -- and the skills and traditions of counted thread needlework. Stitchers often get stereotyped as middle-aged ladies in cardigans, anime and manga fans as geeky teenage misfits. Both stereotypes are equally inaccurate - because both groups are just people who love beautiful things and want to create and enjoy beauty in their own way."

Publisher Andrews McMeel also has a line of manga clip art books, but this is one I wasn't expecting.

If you pick it up and make something, please send me a photo. I'd love to see it.