I still think it’s funny that no spellchecker recognizes manga as a word. Anyways, first off I’ll have to pretend to apologize for not updating much lately. I’ve suddenly become obsessed with drawing and I’m having a blast doing so. Am I any good? Probably not but I’m sure having fun with it. This all came about as I was searching the internet for webcomics. There are hundreds of them and a good chuck of them are as crappy as all hell. So I thought, if they can do it, why can’t I? Not that I’m looking to draw a webcomic, it’s more to the point that I might as well try to draw too. Who knows, maybe in ten years I’ll be a great artist. Probably not, but you never know.
But back to the task at hand. I’ve been a bit burned out on super heroes lately and I’ve really been looking for other things to read. I’ve talked about Scott Pilgrim, Questionable Content and Shaman Warrior as a remedy to my super hero woes. And now, it’s a couple of great manga titles. Yes me, reading manga. The majority of manga does nothing for me, I find nothing in titles like Dragonball, Naruto, Deathnote—I hate any title where some random comedy happens in the middle of a fight and their faces get all huge and eyes bug out or they start crying gigantic tears. That sort of manga is not for me. Luckily, Viz puts out a Signature line that has some great titles. I’ve always been a fan of Blade of the Immortal, but who doesn’t like some bad ass samurai action? But these are far from it and also far from the buggy eyed silliness.
So Patrick Pugh who I do the webcomic Nat and the Beanstalk and who used to manage our Valley store was the one who got me to read Solanin. Solanin follows a group of friends, but focuses on Meiko and her boyfriend Naruo who are stuck in that limbo between school and the rest of your life, trying to figure out what will make them happy, the pressures of family and the aimlessness that seems to surround them. It’s written and drawn by Inio Asano who has some of the best art I’ve seen in a long time. One thing many manga artist capture more often than America comics is style. This book is full of that. So much thought is put into how their clothes look, how the musical instruments look, etc—everything looks cool. For me, only Paul Pope and Jim Mahfood really bring that to American comics.
But regardless, Solanin is an amazing story, made me laugh, made me sad and I was disappointed when the story was done. But damn did it end well. I’ve ordered Asano’s other two Viz books, What a Wonderful World Vol 1 and 2 and I’m really looking forward to them. I’m sure you’ll have to listen to what I have to say about those too!
Next up is Saturn Apartments Vol 1. The story is set in the future where the Earth has been turned into a nature reserve and people now live in a gigantic structure that forms a ring around the Earth. Written and drawn by Hisae Iwaoka, Saturn Apartments follows the life of young Mistu, son of a window washer who takes up his deceased father’s job. Mistu must figure out a way to fit into his father’s former life while at the same time still trying to deal with his father’s death on the job. The characters are fantastic and again the art has such a style to it. It was what drew me to the book in the first place.
So that it’s for this episode. Check back in a few days for this week’s new comic releases. As for me, back to drawing obsessively.
Berserk is bar none the greatest Manga ever made in my opinion so try checking it out if your getting more into Manga. Also JoJo’s bizarre adventure is very good as well check it. You can download ****
Berserk was alright, I couldn’t stick with it though. I edited your comment and removed the link. Downloading scans of manga off the internet is why the American manga market has crashed and burned.