YOUR MANGA MINUTE: COMMUTING

[MattBrady]

by Troy Brownfield

I’ve been thinking about some of the issues that I raised recently regarding the importing of talent for conventions. The more that I’ve thought about it, the more that I considered that the companies that presently license and release manga into the United States should take bolder steps. I’m talking about completely new and original work produced under the auspices of the companies here in the U.S.

Granted, manga talent of some renown have worked for the big companies before. Kia Asamiya did projects for both Marvel and DC, and we could go on to list others. Akira ran at Epic in the late ‘80s before it was completed, giving at least some service to the notion of simultaneous runs. Still though, the inclination for the big companies is to get ahold of a prodigious talent and then . . . put them on Uncanny X-Men. While I understand that strategy, wouldn’t it be wise to capitalize on the creator’s own steam and let them either do an out-of-continuity mini-series or an original work under the company’s banner?

I’m not sure what monetary or contractual issues are at play in some of these moves, but surely a couple of creators would be amenable to creating something for the American audience. Surely someone would be interested in brokering more simultaneous releases.

Now granted, some of the strips running in a few of the sundry magazine publications here in the U.S. are getting “first looks”. And every title that’s never been released in the U.S. “feels” new. But, wouldn’t it be cause for excitement if a Toriyama decided to put out a brand-new project here? No Bit-Torrent previews, no precipitous online reviews, just good old-fashioned anticipation?

I do believe that the rumor mill and the internet have sometimes damaged American comics (Armageddon 2001, anybody?), but lately, DC in particular has managed to keep a lid on big moves and changes pushing through its universe. It can be done. Now imagine if one of the top-flight manga creators decided to step over to the Western shore and pound out a short run series with no advance warning of what he might do. Exciting thoughts, eh?

And really, with all of the different subuniverses and pocked universes and Ultimate All-Star universes, would it be so bad to let someone of that caliber come over and play in the big sandbox for a year or so? I’m not talking about American artists attempting to ape the manga style and slapping a manga label on it. I’m talking about guys like Takami and Taguchi on Punisher or Junji Ito on Swamp Thing or Hyun Se Lee on Thor or Superman. If we can all take a little time to think about our dream creative teams taking over core books at the big companies, we can take a little time to think about what our dream manga teams might do with our icons, or what they might do for us.

And now, some reviewing…

Apocalypse Meow
by Motofumi Kobayashi
Distributed by ADV Manga
Rating 13+; 134 pages

I’ll have to tell you, I really hate the title. It’s too cute, and initially blows off the serious nature of the book and the title’s inspiration. Having thus bitched, I will also admit that this is one of the series out there. Considering current events, a thematically similar war is something that warrants artistic investigation. Kobayashi shows his talent by making this whole thing work in the Spiegelman-like tradition of anthropomorphic animals.

The tale in this first volume rounds up some episodes which illustrate the day-to-day of Vietnam for the men on the ground. Perky, Rats and Bota are “roadrunners”, advance patrolmen that work in conjunction with South Vietnamese volunteers. The risky patrols often put them in harm’s way, and confused communication and support nearly lead to disaster on more than one occasion. If you can get past the silly title, this is a gripping read with the facts and research to back it up. The character’s are hauntingly human, and this one is well worth your time.

The Sword of Shibito Vol. 1
Story by Hideyuki Kikuchi
Art by Missile Kakurai
Published by CPM Manga

Reanimated samurais composed of multiple, stitched-together corpses? Talking ravens? Killer marionettes? More severed heads than the French Revolution? Sounds like another fun time from Hideyuki Kikuchi. Kikuchi, if you didn’t know, is the creative force behind a number of manga and anime series, including the immortal Vampire Hunter D. His penchant for horror-driven ultra-violence, introspective characterization, and wiseass anthropomorphic sidekicks is on full display; this time out, he’s abetted by the able art of Kakurai, whose mix of traditional manga imagery and extended anatomy recalls Peter Chung (on speed).

Sword of Shibito kicks off when a trio of unsuspecting travelers is ambushed by a mysterious, laconic female. Two casualties later, and our only survivor is a cowardly pharmacist by the name of Kinzou. Kinzou is forced to bear the headless bodies of his traveling companions to the shadowy manse of the Saesuki clan. The ancient patriarch uses the dead bodies and dark magic to bring back his son Shibito, a warrior who is prophesized to rule Japan. Unfortunately for the clan, Shibito arrives in a dim-minded state, and Kinzou is assigned a smart-mouth raven name Yashamaru as guide and ordered to “tutor” Shibito. Then again, the resurrected warrior with jugular stitching just might have other ideas about his path…

The twin engines that power Shibito are the striking art and the narrative creativity of Kikuchi; he’s a master of creating sympathetic characters that aren’t quite human. The dynamic of disparate personalities on display between the titular character, the raven and the pharmacist should create some great interaction as things progress. Some fans might find the graphic violence a little off-putting, but those who don’t mind will find an intriguing adventure. Sword of Shibito has all the makings of a grade-A action smash.

Troy Brownfield also writes Super-Articulate and co-writes Best Shots here at Newsarama. He’s the Editor-in-Chief of ShotgunReviews.com, and has a bunch of students that have borrowed way too much of his manga collection.

[Pete2525]

The Japanese title of "Apocalypse Meow" was actually "Cat Shit One" - you can sorta see why they changed it

I have a question for you - why do you only review obscure titles? Not that I am a huge fan of ultra-mainstream manga, but some of the stuff you review seems like one of the "1001 disposable ADV titles no-one ever heard of or ever will". I am not saying that the 2 manga you reviewed today fall into this category - I have not read them and so can't tell if they do or not, but a lot of the stuff you review does seem to fall into this category.

[jasinmartin]

Dude, you said "Peter Chung"
I now have to buy this.
I know, I know, "like" Peter Chung, but hey, that's good enough for me...
(not to mention it sounds very intriguing)

[Michael C Lorah]

Still though, the inclination for the big companies is to get ahold of a prodigious talent and then . . . put them on Uncanny X-Men. While I understand that strategy, wouldn’t it be wise to capitalize on the creator’s own steam and let them either do an out-of-continuity mini-series or an original work under the company’s banner?

that's the way of American comics. Why treat Japanese talent any differently than American or English talent?

I've always felt that the American comic industry would be healthier if companies pushed their talent as hard (better yet, harder) as they pushed their latest summer crossover (Countdown/House of M) or most recent resurrection (Colossus/Donna Troy/Hal Jordan).

My feelings (and if anybody has hard facts, I'd be happy to reconsider) are that current marketing largely shuffles existing super-hero-only fans from title to title, but does little to expand the market. In the long run, I see very few new readers picking up mainstream comics and I see a few other readers who get turned off by each creative change. Thus, the existing readers shuffle around a bit, but in the big picture, I still think that the industry is on a "no new blood and slow atrophication of current readers" trend.

Meanwhile, a fan of (for example) Stephen King or Paul Thomas Anderson is likely to follow that creator to any project that he is working on. With proper promotion, (and it would take some time to overcome many fans' super-hero bias) I truly believe that fans of Frank Miller or Grant Morrison will follow them from Batman or JLA to their more personal works.

And by pushing talent and letting them do their own work, you create a more diverse market. A more diverse market is more likely to appeal to casual readers. When I'm in Barnes & Noble or whathaveyou, I'll always stop if something grabs my eye, no matter which section the book is in, and I think that other readers would do the same if the American comics didn't all look completely interchangable.

But I'm also madly in love with the potential of great comics and hopeless naive, so I may be completely insane.

[Alfonso]

Troy, a good example of a mainstream company letter a manga artist do their own thing (at least, his style was that of a manga artist, but I don't know if he would genuinely be considered one) was Steve Uy's Eden's Trail at Marvel a few years ago, and if you remember that fiasco at all, they started butchering his scripts, letting Chuck Austen take over and rewrite them, and as the series progressed, they REMOVING Uy's name from the top credit billing to BENEATH Austen's name.

I think mainstream companies (pardon me, at least one particular mainstream company) is too afraid and ignorant about letting manga creators tell the kinds of stories they want to tell, and feel safer plugging them on X-Men this or Spider-man that, because there will be little to no deviation from the norm.

[Pete2525]

Here's an idea: I know that Marvel had in the past licensed its properties to Japan - i'm not so sure about DC, but they migth have as well. How about publishing in the US the Spiderman and X-Men manga that were created in Japan?

[Troy Brownfield]

Originally posted by Pete2525
The Japanese title of "Apocalypse Meow" was actually "Cat Shit One" - you can sorta see why they changed it

I have a question for you - why do you only review obscure titles? Not that I am a huge fan of ultra-mainstream manga, but some of the stuff you review seems like one of the "1001 disposable ADV titles no-one ever heard of or ever will". I am not saying that the 2 manga you reviewed today fall into this category - I have not read them and so can't tell if they do or not, but a lot of the stuff you review does seem to fall into this category.

That's a fair question. Here's my take:

I've reviewed plenty of things like Crying Freeman and Battle Royale, but I prefer to talk about other titles for the simple fact that you may not have heard of them. It's like when Siskel and Ebert reviewed "The Killer" in 1989; I had no idea who the hell John Woo was, but it sure made me want to find out.

Granted, you may not be impressed by some of the work that I review, but at least it's new to you. I could review every installment of DBZ as it came out, but the doing of that would bore me silly even if I liked DBZ (which I do).

SO...I like spreading around the attention for other titles. And if it seems like I have more ADV, that's simply because ADV is super-fast on the snap and willing to send out early advance copies for review. All of the companies are good about providing advance material for review, but ADV is speedy and regular.

That said, I also covered the brand-new Infinity line a couple of installments back, and have given ink to Viz, CPM, Comics One, Tokyopop, and CMX repeatedly. I try my best to be equitable, and that includes spending time on smaller titles.

So thanks for asking; I hope that explains my perspective. What do the rest of you think: too obscure? More mainstream? Discuss.

[Jason Seaver]

Originally posted by MattBrady
[b]Still though, the inclination for the big companies is to get ahold of a prodigious talent and then . . . put them on Uncanny X-Men. While I understand that strategy, wouldn’t it be wise to capitalize on the creator’s own steam and let them either do an out-of-continuity mini-series or an original work under the company’s banner?

I seem to remember that in a lot of cases, the artists in question wanted to do X-Men or Batman. If they can get published in their native country, what's the draw for working for Marvel or DC unless you want to work one a property that the company owns? The money's probably better for a Japanese creator in Japan.

Unless, of course, I'm mistaken about the amount of name recognition manga artists get in the US. I must admit, I don't give their names much notice when I'm buying the books, but I readily admit that I'm not a representative sample.

[Pete2525]

Originally posted by Troy Brownfield
That's a fair question. Here's my take:

I've reviewed plenty of things like Crying Freeman and Battle Royale, but I prefer to talk about other titles for the simple fact that you may not have heard of them. It's like when Siskel and Ebert reviewed "The Killer" in 1989; I had no idea who the hell John Woo was, but it sure made me want to find out.

Granted, you may not be impressed by some of the work that I review, but at least it's new to you. I could review every installment of DBZ as it came out, but the doing of that would bore me silly even if I liked DBZ (which I do).

SO...I like spreading around the attention for other titles. And if it seems like I have more ADV, that's simply because ADV is super-fast on the snap and willing to send out early advance copies for review. All of the companies are good about providing advance material for review, but ADV is speedy and regular.

That said, I also covered the brand-new Infinity line a couple of installments back, and have given ink to Viz, CPM, Comics One, Tokyopop, and CMX repeatedly. I try my best to be equitable, and that includes spending time on smaller titles.

So thanks for asking; I hope that explains my perspective. What do the rest of you think: too obscure? More mainstream? Discuss.

I think it is good to mix obscure and mainstream titles. Not everything mainstream is crap and not everything obscure a gem. I am not saying that you should review every volume of DragonBall Z i just feel that some of the titles you review are not the best. What about stuff like Blue Spring, The Walking Man, Doing Time, Kinderbook, Gunslinger Girl (incidentally from ADV ), Aria (another ADV title not many know about), Club 9 (a great title but noone talks about it) - all the titles I have just listed are pretty obscure. What about also reviewing some shoujo/josei manga? Again, no need to get ultra-mainstream, but for instance Tramps Like Us about a woman who keeps a boy as a pet, or Basara about a girl disguising herself as her twin brother in order to lead a revolution against a tyrant, or Please Save My Earth about alien scientist who died on the moon and were re-incarnated as humans on earth? What about reviewing some classics/older works - maybe even some stuff that was published in the US a while back?

This is of course your column and you can write anything you want here - i'm just throwing some suggestions out there

[Sambo253]

Troy I'm a little confused. First you somewhat admonish the big two for putting Japanese talent on Uncanny X-Men, and then suggest having the talent work on Swamp Thing, Punisher or Thor.

I more or less envisioned having Marvel/DC bring over the talent and letting them come up with their own series for a couple of reasons. Like Michael C Lorah said it'd be a pushing of creator name instead of franchise names which would ideally in the long run widen the market. Plus I'd think that a manga artist who is used to having their own characters might be stiffled on a 40 year old franchise where they can effect no drastic changes.

Also the mainstream readers still don't seem to take too well to manga artists on "their" books. Some U.S. super-hero fans still think manga is an art style, so if a manga artist is given the reins of say Swamp Thing and writes it with a more Japanese sensibility I don't know how well that'd go over.

I'm just of the school of thought that putting manga creators on DC and Marvel's franchise characters is one of the most counter-productive moves possible.`

[Troy Brownfield]

Originally posted by Pete2525
I think it is good to mix obscure and mainstream titles. Not everything mainstream is crap and not everything obscure a gem. I am not saying that you should review every volume of DragonBall Z i just feel that some of the titles you review are not the best. What about stuff like Blue Spring, The Walking Man, Doing Time, Kinderbook, Gunslinger Girl (incidentally from ADV ), Aria (another ADV title not many know about), Club 9 (a great title but noone talks about it) - all the titles I have just listed are pretty obscure. What about also reviewing some shoujo/josei manga? Again, no need to get ultra-mainstream, but for instance Tramps Like Us about a woman who keeps a boy as a pet, or Basara about a girl disguising herself as her twin brother in order to lead a revolution against a tyrant, or Please Save My Earth about alien scientist who died on the moon and were re-incarnated as humans on earth? What about reviewing some classics/older works - maybe even some stuff that was published in the US a while back?

This is of course your column and you can write anything you want here - i'm just throwing some suggestions out there

I feel that this is a good discussion. For the record, I've tried to avoid reviewing too many things that I've covered in Newtype USA for a couple of obvious reasons (one, I'd just like to do new things, and two, there are legalities in a couple of circumstances).
I reviewed Aria and Gunslinger Girl there, for example; I did once do Apocalypse Meow for them, but I think it's an interesting title and given current events, merited mention here in a shorter form than my original magazine review.

As for classics, I've covered the aforementioned Crying Freeman, Fist of the North Star, Eagle (which I certainly feel earns that title), and others which might fit that label.

I believe that I've hit on a good mix of new, old, and discussion topics. I'm constantly tinkering with what I do here, and I'll probably still continue to mess with it.

[Brian Denham]

Why would we want any of the top Japanese creators to re-imagine Marvel or DC characters?

I loved Kia doing Batman a few years ago. But besides this as a novelty what would be the point of these amazing creators to redo any American comic?

I would rather see these top flight Japanese creators create their original books and characters than have them come over to take over Devil Dinosaur or Lois Lane.

Most American Superhero fans don't really like "manga" art anyway. They would bitch and moan if Shirow came over and drew an Iron Man run or Green Lantern.

Japanese creators are doing work in Japan that is on a global scale. Even many obscure titles in japan sale more than anything produced by Marvel or DC.

So why would a popular Japanese creator come to a small market like American superhero comics and create a new version of a character older than many readers?

That's like getting Harrison Ford to act in a high school play.

[Michael C Lorah]

I seem to remember that in a lot of cases, the artists in question wanted to do X-Men or Batman. If they can get published in their native country, what's the draw for working for Marvel or DC unless you want to work one a property that the company owns? The money's probably better for a Japanese creator in Japan.

I'm starting to think that for original material that is aimed at the book store market, the traditional book publishers are probably going to start over-taking traditional comic book publishers in the next ten to fifteen years, simply because the freedom is better (not that mainstream publishers don't have their own editorial hoops, but none of those hoops will necessarily involve decades of continuity and characters that the creator has no real ownership of or financial stake in) and, for the top sellers who can rake in the royalties, the money will probably be better.

Also, while I would like more focus on original material, I am still a super-hero fan. If, say, Masakazu Katsura (picked mostly because he's noted as a Batman collector) really wanted to do a Batman story, I'd love to read it. But, personally, I'll be reading whatever books of Katsura's are published in English, be it VGAi, I's, Shadow Lady or Batman simply because I dig Katsura's work, not necessarily because it was a specific character.

[Troy Brownfield]

Originally posted by Brian Denham
Why would we want any of the top Japanese creators to re-imagine Marvel or DC characters?

For the same reason that The Rolling Stones would occasionally record ballads or inject Morrocan influences into songs: if you're the world's greatest rock and roll band, you want to sometimes stretch or potentially broaden your audience.

[Cientista]

Originally posted by Brian Denham
Why would we want any of the top Japanese creators to re-imagine Marvel or DC characters?
(...)
Japanese creators are doing work in Japan that is on a global scale. Even many obscure titles in japan sale more than anything produced by Marvel or DC.
(...)
That's like getting Harrison Ford to act in a high school play.

I think you have a point there. I'm just thinking that insisting on japanese creators to go over the ocean just sounds a lot like the typical "americacentric" view of the world. If they're already doing excellent work in Japan, why does it seem so appealing to convince them to do work for Marvel or DC? I'm not saying that they shouldn't if they wanted to, but... it's really irrelevant where they're doing their work.

So, you americans always have to have the best that there is?

[Alfonso]

Originally posted by Pete2525
Here's an idea: I know that Marvel had in the past licensed its properties to Japan - i'm not so sure about DC, but they migth have as well. How about publishing in the US the Spiderman and X-Men manga that were created in Japan?

While I'm not sure if they were the official stuff, about eight or so years ago Marvel published two series, Spiderman: The Manga and X-Men: The Manga. Both flopped pretty hard, saleswise, but also keep in mind that this was before manga really started to take off, as well as the fact that no one know who the creators were, much less the names of many manga creators at all.

[Sesshomaru]

Here's an idea: I know that Marvel had in the past licensed its properties to Japan - i'm not so sure about DC, but they might have as well. How about publishing in the US the Spiderman and X-Men manga that were created in Japan?

I'd love this , as long as marvel dont butcher scripts and give them a free pass to to their job without too much editorial interferences . By that i mean that they should be allowed to do a real manga with those characters , not comics with manga design or influences . Let them do their stuff in B&W as well if they want to .

Also , still in the spirit of doing real manga series , let them keep the same artists and writers on their titles .No crappy artists as fill in and rotative teams

That was a dream i always had , back in the day of the x-men vs street fighter and marvel vs capcom games .

[Landry]

How about selling Marvel and DC mainstream stuff in Japan? I mean seriously, with teh Spiderman movies and FF coming why not sell those titles in Japan.

[beta-ray]

Was "Snikt!" in continuity?

[Alfonso]

Originally posted by Landry
How about selling Marvel and DC mainstream stuff in Japan? I mean seriously, with teh Spiderman movies and FF coming why not sell those titles in Japan.

Think that's already happening. I wouldn't know, I don't live in Japan, but I've read that Marvel and DC comics are distributed to tons of other countries.

[Michael C Lorah]

Originally posted by Troy Brownfield
So thanks for asking; I hope that explains my perspective. What do the rest of you think: too obscure? More mainstream? Discuss.

I like a good mix of somewhat obscure and more obvious titles. So far, I've no real complaints with the titles selected.

There is one thing that I'd like to see in more reviews, but I'm not sure if this is something that you have any control over. I'm always interested in knowing how many books make up each series. I read Dragonball 1 (and Dragonball Z 1) and while it was good (Z merely okay), I didn't really enjoy it enough to pursue 30-some volumes.

The biggest thing preventing me from jumping into more manga series (and several American series as well) is simply not knowing what type of investment is going to be required. I had no problem sticking with Lone Wolf & Cub for 28 volumes, but I faded away from 100 Bullets after 7. Some books can keep me coming back; most times, I just want to get in, read a great book (or three), and get out.

[Troy Brownfield]

Originally posted by Michael C Lorah
I like a good mix of somewhat obscure and more obvious titles. So far, I've no real complaints with the titles selected.

There is one thing that I'd like to see in more reviews, but I'm not sure if this is something that you have any control over. I'm always interested in knowing how many books make up each series. I read Dragonball 1 (and Dragonball Z 1) and while it was good (Z merely okay), I didn't really enjoy it enough to pursue 30-some volumes.

The biggest thing preventing me from jumping into more manga series (and several American series as well) is simply not knowing what type of investment is going to be required. I had no problem sticking with Lone Wolf & Cub for 28 volumes, but I faded away from 100 Bullets after 7. Some books can keep me coming back; most times, I just want to get in, read a great book (or three), and get out.

Hey,

Excellent point! Often, with brand-new titles, I get press info that indicates their duration. For example, "Ruler of the Land" came with a press sheet that gave the number of future volumes.

Dragon Ball, to follow that example, lasts 42 volumes between DB and DBZ.

When I have that info, I'll now be sure to make an effort to include it.

Thanks!
Troy

[Troy Brownfield]

Originally posted by Cientista
I think you have a point there. I'm just thinking that insisting on japanese creators to go over the ocean just sounds a lot like the typical "americacentric" view of the world. If they're already doing excellent work in Japan, why does it seem so appealing to convince them to do work for Marvel or DC? I'm not saying that they shouldn't if they wanted to, but... it's really irrelevant where they're doing their work.

So, you americans always have to have the best that there is?

I didn't insist on anything. It was just conversation. Like anyone would listen to me if I did insist on anything. If I could compel an internationally acclaimed talent to do something for me, rest assured it would involve Monica Bellucci and not manga.

And yeah, that's all humor there folks (well, mostly).
Good conversation, here.

[Shawn Fumo]

I've heard that American superheros have tended to have a hard time selling in Japan overall, though some cartoons like Powerpuff Girls was very popular and I think Teen Titans has done well. No idea how well things like Justice League of done...

When you consider just how large their internal comic output is, I think it is harder for works from other countries to break in. I've heard there's a bit more overlap with French BD, though, just because of the sensibilities involved.

As far as bringing Japanese creators over here to do original work, that could be nice, but you also have to wonder about the implications. The majority of the creators don't have a huge knowledge of the US market. They are also usally pretty busy. So what is the motivation for them to work for a US company? Since so much stuff is getting licensed now anyway, wouldn't it be easier for them to continue to work with a local company for a dependable income for an audiance they are more familiar with, and then hope it gets licensed in other countries down the road?

I'd guess that it'd be a bit more appealing to some of the more "underground" creators in that they could be more experimental with an art style or story that might not be as well-received in Japan. But then again that sort of creator could be a harder sell to fans in the US...

Shawn