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Manga Thread of Reading Comics Backwards

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I have! It's been ages since I read Bone, but I know that Tezuka and Buddha in particular was a HUGE influence on Scott McCloud, who was producing work in the same wheelhouse around that time. Of course, McCloud only found Tezuka's work because he used to work in the same neighbourhood as a Japanese bookstore and would look through the imported untranslated manga they carried...

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Just realized Azumanga Daioh turned 15 this year. Fuuuuuck I'm ooooooold.

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Posting this here and in the Kickstarter thread:

 

Digital Manga Publishing is currently organizing a Kickstarter to publish 31 of Osamu Tezuka's best untranslated work (Three-Eyed One, Rainbow Parakeet, Alabaster, Wonder 3, Birdman Anthology, and Vampires), all by next year. Their previous English translations of Tezuka's work -Barbara, Triton of the Sea, Atomcat, and Unico- have been consistently excellent and an extremely valuable effort in bringing some of Tezuka's often overlooked work to English audiences for the first time. They're asking for $380,000 for the first two series, with stretch goals of $475,000 and $589,000 for each additional two series. It seems like a lot, but I cannot stress enough how worthwhile this project is.

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Posting this here and in the Kickstarter thread:

 

Digital Manga Publishing is currently organizing a Kickstarter to publish 31 of Osamu Tezuka's best untranslated work (Three-Eyed One, Rainbow Parakeet, Alabaster, Wonder 3, Birdman Anthology, and Vampires), all by next year. Their previous English translations of Tezuka's work -Barbara, Triton of the Sea, Atomcat, and Unico- have been consistently excellent and an extremely valuable effort in bringing some of Tezuka's often overlooked work to English audiences for the first time. They're asking for $380,000 for the first two series, with stretch goals of $475,000 and $589,000 for each additional two series. It seems like a lot, but I cannot stress enough how worthwhile this project is.

 

I've been reading a few more Tezuka Budda recently and I'm only just starting to get a sense of just how damn good and how important he is. Its amazing the stuff he was doing with pacing, and framing, not to mention just his sheer storytelling chops.

 

So its a shame to see that kickstarter really struggling for traction, looking at it i feel like if they had focused on getting one series out, and really sold why that work was important within the Tezuka canon it might have stood a better chance, as it feels like they are sorta going for a scatter gun approach (& their pricing model feels a bit weird too). I'm sure they had legit reasons for going the approach they did, but sadly they key things in a succesfull kickstarter are a nice low entry point, a pitch which can be easily spread by social media, both of which build the most important thing of all, momentum. and it really feels this campaign is a miss on all those things :(

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So who else likes them Japanese comics? I thought this would be better than clogging up the comics thread where manga posts can get overlooked.

 

I normally stick to vintage manga, mostly work published prior to 1980, but lately I'm in the mood for something modern. I could re-read what's available of Wandering Son, maybe? How's Knights of Sidonia? I hear that's good.

 

Ohh I loooooooooove manga! I generally go to this site named Mangafox.me and there I find a number of reaalllllllllyyyy good serieses including the very popular ones. My personal favorite is Noblesse, which I am following at present and actually for last 3 years! :)

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Just finish A Girl by the Seaside by Inio Asano. It's cool how it takes love and peels it apart into authentic and inauthentic, cleans and puts them in different cells to be observed and clearly marked. Themes deal with altruism and attraction in immature love. As expected from Asano, the art beautifully pushes the disaffected realism of the story.

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There are some pretty interesting recommendations here.

My latest/only great manga was Berserk which was a sad experience to complete because I doubt anything as good will be around for a while.

I'm currently trying to fill its hole with the somewhat average King of Hell and Uzumaki.

I think I'll be sure to check out Fuan no Tame, Junji Ito, and Bride's Story.

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I just finished Nijigahara Hologram. It was incredibly opaque and I'll definitely have to read it once again just to understand how the plot went down, but I have a feeling it'll be worth it.

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I just finished Nijigahara Hologram. It was incredibly opaque and I'll definitely have to read it once again just to understand how the plot went down, but I have a feeling it'll be worth it.

I recommend reading these very insightful pieces:

http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2014/04/nijigahara-nihilism/

http://mercurialblonde.tumblr.com/post/78218267072

http://mercurialblonde.tumblr.com/post/79663553622

 

NH is definitely on my top five comics for the year

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Comixology is having a manga sale! I don't know how long it will last, but I'm so getting all of Dr. Slump! ALL OF IT!

 

EDIT: Before Comixology didn't allow EU costumers to buy US comics, but I could with proxy programs, but now.... They won't accept money from a non-US country.

 

Well, there goes my chance to get Dr. Slump.

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Girl Friends and Blue Flowers are the only ones I've read that I think are genuinely enjoyable. Girl Friends is a super saccharine take on it, while Blue Flowers is an emotionally understated take, that reads like a deconstruction of yuri tropes (Catholic all girls schools, older sister figures, etc), by the woman who made Wandering Son. I'm not that well read in it though.

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I'm a giant fan of A Bride's Story! And a series called Eternal Sabbath. Has anyone else read that one?
 

I've been reading the I am a Hero and the webtoon Cheese in the Trap (it's become one of my all time favorites). They're both incredibly good! 

 

Cheese in the Trap is apparently going to become a K-drama this year. 

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Just binge-read Billy Bat. It asks the question we've all been thinking: What if Mickey Mouse was actually a time-transcending elder god who has shaped the whole of human history and Disney's belligerence towards knockoffs was actually a bid to monopolize its power?

 

Well, sort of.

 

It's fucking good. Fucking Naoki Urusawa. Goddammit.

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This last year I've been reading the very nice Vinland Saga omnibuses and it's so good. Beautiful artwork (by the guy who made Planetes before) and a gripping tale of vikings and their conquests. Not campy, but both subtle and violent.

 

vinland_saga_v01_p132_133.jpg?v=11204586

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Comixology is having a manga sale! I don't know how long it will last, but I'm so getting all of Dr. Slump! ALL OF IT!

 

EDIT: Before Comixology didn't allow EU costumers to buy US comics, but I could with proxy programs, but now.... They won't accept money from a non-US country.

 

Well, there goes my chance to get Dr. Slump.

 

You can get round that. Comixology has a deal with some US comic book stores kinda like amazon affilates. You can buy gift card in dollars through the stores and send them to yourself. I use https://comicsconspiracy.comicretailer.com/ 

 

Just binge-read Billy Bat. It asks the question we've all been thinking: What if Mickey Mouse was actually a time-transcending elder god who has shaped the whole of human history and Disney's belligerence towards knockoffs was actually a bid to monopolize its power?

 

Well, sort of.

 

It's fucking good. Fucking Naoki Urusawa. Goddammit.

 

A friend of mine has been reading the newest untranslated chapters to myself and another friend over the internet while we look at the scans and if you thought Hitler and JFK were controversial things to incorporate you ain't seen nothing yet. 

 

We started a podcast just to talk about billy bat called manga machination which is me (since i never read it before) and them (who have) talking about chapter by chapter and wondering what is going on and what is the difference between the bats (we have an answer we are pretty sure is right although recent chapters may cast some doubt on it, I am still convinced golden cola has an important part to play)

 

You description of the series is perfect.

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Just finished Abandon the Old in Tokyo by Yoshihiro Tatsumi and have started Good-Bye. I really like both of them. I hadn't heard of Tatsumi before (I don't really read much manga besides like Shigeru Mizuki's stuff), but I was going through some of my old issues of Optic Nerve by Adrian Tomine and in the front matter of one he had his upcoming projects which included working on Drawn and Quarterly's English releases of Tatsumi's work. The way AtOiT collects a bunch of small stories dealing with these quiet and depressing/disturbing moments of urban life is definitely something that is reflected in Optic Nerve (in the issue where Adrian Tomine said he was going to be working on it he even states that Yoshihiro Tatsumi is one of his favorite cartoonists).

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I'm getting a sort of weird nostalgia for the manga I was reading back in high school and college, namely Sexy Voice and Robo. That is a damn good manga.

 

Qksy32y.jpg

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