I borrowed another one of the fat magazines, to see what they are about: this time the June 2010 issue of Comic Alive. Not sure if it's specific to Alive, but most of the manga there is action, and now I know that I am not interested in it. The only series that grabbed my attention was "Non-non Biyori": a slice-of-life on papper, apparently. I guess that the title has to do with a loli character who ends all her phrases with "-non" where rules call for "-no". It has uncomplicated dialog and furigana, which helps, but most importantly the quality of art is a few levels above everything else in the magazine.

Here's a zoom:

For comparison, Asobi ni Ikuyo at the same sale:

Generally, there seem to be a bunch of "mediocre tie-ins" published. There was Kampfer, for example. AsoIku drew my attention due to the dialog between the apparent protagonist[1] and the pictured lady with a scar, who I imagined being infamous Jens (but as it turned out her name was Maya). I think the knock-off mangas lag anime, let alone novels.

BTW, it feels quite weird to read off such big format. It is a help for my old eyes, but still, it just does.

UPDATE: The urgency has passed, but here's the picture that I promised:

First, you see Manami and Aoi facing off, then a break, the assitodroid, the guy, Maya, and on the next page is "摩耶さん、誰がを好きになったことはありますか？" and so on.

[1] Hair color is dark, but the guy was emoing in the closet by wrapping himself into a bedsheet -- who else would that be, right? Not that I want to know really.