Manga on Hiatus

So...I was in the bookstore again (I seem to be in there a lot) and was hoping for some suitable gifts for friends. I found some good stuff. Mission accomplished, post over, right? Of course not. Being the manga-lover that I am, and hoping that at least one of the graphic novels I buy has been placed somewhere on the shelves, I took a peek through the "Manga/Anime" section (someone should tell the manager that there is a difference between the two). For the third month in a row: nothing. Now, most of them come out bimonthly, and they weren't put up two months ago, or last month, and now not this month. What's wrong with this picture? So I do a little research (I typed it in wikipedia). My results were annoying.

Turns out that the bookstore is just really lousy at putting anything up when they are supposed to. This used to be great because they would put things up weeks before they were due out. But now, they've either stopped ordering new stuff or have mountains of manga in the back (I drool at that thought). Knowing that this place doesn't have the largest storage space, I'm pretty sure they don't have that much in the small closet they keep overstock in. Anyways, a few manga in particular have caught my attention in the past weeks: Ragnarök by Myung-Jin Lee and Beet the Vandel Buster by Riku Sanjo and Koji Inada.

I haven't seen a new Ragnarök in years. It just occurred to me that maybe something is wrong with the writer. Feeling almost concerned (for the wellbeing of my reading pleasure, not for the artist) I looked it up. "Status: Hiatus." Eh? I whipped out my dictionary and was quickly disappointed. Hiatus means that the writer has taken a break and probably has no intention of finishing. But....I like that manga....(sniff) why would they take it away? Turns out, Ms. Lee is helpin' the wonderful folks at Gravity make the Ragnarök Online games...wouldn't you know that I played it. Worldwide, it's actually got more players than World of Warcraft. So, I guess I can't get too angry about that; I'm sure it pays better.

Beet the Vandel Buster was one of the first manga I got because I read the preview in Shonen Jump's magazine (the first one I bought because of previews was Bleach actually). That means that I've been collecting the graphic novels since they came out. It's also one of the two manga that I've started buying from the beginning and haven't given up waiting and read them online (Claymore is the other). I kinda got annoyed when it was set to come out one month and never showed up. Six months later, it finally appeared; however, the "Next Issue" was set for six months later. Ouch. So, every six months I bought a new one. Until finally, four months after the previous one, a new one came out. There's no "Next Issue" section in it. "Status: Hiatus."