Dojin Work

The dojin (self-published comics) scene is Japan is huge. With some artists selling multiple thousands of copies of their work it’s virtually a self-sustaining business within the world of manga. The lure of fame and fortune can be strong, particularly for protagonist Najimi who think it an way to sell out and make an easy living. Failing to take into account that drawing a comic is hard, let alone trying to actually sell your stuff, especially if your artwork stinks, we follow Najimi into a world populated with geeks and freaks.

A quick flick through a volume of this series won’t reveal a thing about this manga. The unglossy artwork does well to keep its hilariously jaded and mean sense of humour well under wraps from the passing eye, making the joy of reading this manga stronger as anyone seeing you read won’t have a clue to the filth being discussed within it. It’s no big secret that some dojin comics are porn, of which Dojin Work shows nothing. However the psychological impact on a creator making their first porn comic is hilarious (‘it’s like masturbating in public’ we’re told).

As time goes on Najimi’s sales steadily rise from single figures to double digits, against her friends who all regularly sell in the thousands. She gains a rival who issuitably awful and the two battle it out to get the best sales. Best character of all Tsuyuri who is comfortable with her status as a pervert and subtly manipulates her friends into making the worst and most embarrassing decisions on their creative journey. The whole thing is totally understated, but out of all the yon-koma available in English this is probably my favourite.

Of the six volumes, Anime Works only published up to the 4^th one and exists as one of my biggest wants of unfinished manga. They did also release the 12 episode anime series which is worth checking out as an emergency backup. If you’re familiar with the Comiket scenes from the likes of Genshiken and Lucky Star, you might be tempted to take a cynical glimpse at this anti-Bakuman series.

Tenjo Tenge

Soichiro Nagi and Bob Makihara are a couple of street punks looking to conquer their high school – a plan which promptly fails as they get the crap beaten out of them. It turns out Todo High is a mess of inhumanly strong fighters and martial aritsts who don’t take kindly to having some newbies start causing a ruckus. Seeking refuge at the Juken Club, a dissident martial arts group populated with two female hotties and one male loser, they begin their training to fight back.

In short: Tenjo Tenge is so awesome it doesn’t really need a plot.

Tenjo Tenge is not to be confused with Tenjho Tenge though, oh no. The difference in removing that ‘h’ is indicative of this book being an entirely different beast to CMX’s previous ill-advised release of the same manga. Tenjo Tenge is all about the boobs and the blood and makes no apologies for it. So CMX choosing to edit out the worst parts (i.e. the selling points) seems like a pretty bizarre decision. Needless to say the hardcore fans went apeshit at the idea of a manga being censored, boycotting the entire company and demanding an uncut version.

With the event of CMX being unceremoniously (and somewhat unfairly) shut down, Viz jumped at the chance to give the series a proper go leaving in all the action in larg format double volumes editions and even inserting colour pages. Basically it’s everything that was asked for –I just hope the fans who moaned at CMX choose to back up their words with their wallets. As for the manga itself, it’s refreshingly OTT and thoroughly disgracefully stupid. If seeing muscle-bound freaks and scantily clad girls beating seven shades of shit out of each other I’d struggle to think of anything more earnest and relevant than this one.

Blacksad

I’m going to stretch a bit outside of my safe zone and check out some comics to time that are not manga-related at all. It’s in keeping with the Japanese definition of manga at least (comics, right?), and if that explanation doesn’t gel then fine it’s my blog so I can write about whatever I fancy! ^_^

In terms of American comics I’ll be honest and say most mainstream superhero comics bore me. There have been shockingly few new significant characters introduced over the last couple of decades, and the old ones are so ingrained that no one dares change anything about them, which kind of kills any attempt at credibility in the drama as you know you’re pretty much guaranteed a predictable happy ending each time. Manga’s a bit more risky and suits my taste, but every so often I still get a little worn out with that too start to crave something… different. And so I turn my eyes to the mainland…

Known locally as bandes dessinées, or simply BD, the French and Belgian comic industry is well-established with comic volumes regularly selling in the hundreds of thousands. Not as big as Japan, but I’d hazard bigger than the US and certainly more so than in the pitiful UK. A standard volume is around 50-odd pages, A4-ish in size, hardback and therefore quite expensive. They’re premium goods with titles seemingly holding their value several years after their initial release. Aside from the anomalies such as Asterix and Tintin, most BDs are inexplicably ignored and unknown in English-language territories, but thankfully the walls are slowly bringing broken down.

John Blacksad is a private investigator cat who works in a world where corruption, sleaze and crime run rife throughout society. This is pulp territory of crime fiction with an animal twist. Mammals and reptiles mix as well as black horses and white wolves in this tense 50s-style world where prejudice only barely runs under the surface. The animal designs create archetypes that enhance characterisations rather than distracting from the plot or making it look silly. There’s a strong style to this substance, and the sublime watercolours brim every page with a finesse that is very rarely seen in comics of any sort.

Dark Horse released a volume that compiles the first three comics into one solid hardback. It’s lovely stuff and serves as a real showcase to the work. A fourth volume did come out in France last year, but as yet there’s no sign of a translated release and as years go by between individual releases, it might be quite a long while before a second triple-volume book is feasible (assuming it would even be considered). All the same Blacksad is an amazing comic, and well worth risking regardless of your normal taste in comics.

Monster Men Bureiko Lullaby

Some manga you might want to hide from your parents, but this one you might want to keep safely buried away from everyone you’ve ever met. Quite what kind of possessed creature you’d have to be to produce a manga like this, I have no idea. That it was even considered for translation, let alone actually released over here, is something worthy of my respect. Everyone involved in this book has major cojones, or simply don’t care. And that also applies to anyone who attempts to read this.

Consider this a warning then that this is a pretty obscene and depraved manga. Comparisons to Robert Crumb are absolutely justified…

Containing a series of short stories, the first of which depicts a penis that doesn’t want to be used for rape any more, and so knocks its owner out, flips the main body upside down and takes control as the main head (look at the front cover – he’s walking on his hands, see?). This is just for starters…

Serialized originally in Garo magazine, this is underground manga with humour about as dark as it gets. Sane people will be repulsed as they read a later story about a mutant sperm that becomes sentient from being ejaculated in the middle of a nuclear explosion, and goes on the depict his life as he grows up. It’s probably not wise describe further what else goes on in the book, but needless to say it involves a lot of penises, masturbation, most/all orifices, necrophilia, sex from inside the womb (you read that right), and pretty much any combination of all the above.

Certainly not for prudes or the judgemental. This is truly dangerous waters and if you’ve read it don’t be offended if I then have nothing to do with you.

Genkaku Picasso

For more cynical and world weary manga readers it’s somewhat easy to skip out on any manga sporting the Shonen Jump logo on it. Expectations are low with a near-guarantee of juvenile action stories (I can say it because I love them). But while the heavy hitters such as One Piece and Naruto duke it out at the top of the sales charts, Viz somehow decided to sneak in this bizarre little curio when no one was looking.

Usamaru Furuya may be familiar to more experimental readers from Lychee Light Club which was recently published by Vertical, and Short Cuts from Viz’s own retired PULP line. Both books are aimed at older audiences and depict strong violence, bizarre subject matter and a quirky sense of humour. Even Furuya voices surprise at being published in such a mainstream manner, but despite the change of target audience the artists is still sticking to his creative roots.

Hikari Hamura loves to draw, to the obsessive extent that his classmates nickname him Picasso. He is introverted and hates being distracted from his passion, but due to ‘certain circumstances’ (insert spoiler here) he ends up with the power to be able to sense and draw out the hearts of those around him. He is forced to interact with them more frequently, much to his annoyance, but by entering the world of the drawing he can help people overcome their deep-seated issues and gradually get to know his new found friends.

It’s a strange concept, but one that works safely in Furuya’s technically able arms. His artwork is very strong and switches to a penciled look when Picasso enters one of his drawings, creating a distinct look to both worlds. The surreal figments found within Picasso’s drawings are extremely weird and are gradually interpreted and understood as the chapters evolve. It’s a bit of a psychology session, but moreover it’s about learning to accept oneself and others without getting all emo. In fact its oddball nature and self aware sense of humour makes this a lot of fun. It’s pretty short at 3 chunky volumes so is definitely worth a shot.

Laputa - Castle in the Sky Complete Storyboards / 天空の城ラピュタ スタジオジブリ絵コンテ全集

With a full run already out on DVD, it’s now the turn of Blu-Ray to work its way through the Ghibli library. Hi-def masters have been slowly emerging from Japan, and gradually making their way to western territories. The films are as good as ever and the picture quality is amazing, in fact I’d be surprised if you weren’t considering buying them if you didn’t own them already.

One particular item that got my attention on these releases was the storyboards that are found in most of the extras menus. They are small sketches made in preparation of making the film dictating motion, camera angle and overall flow of the work. The DVDs provided an alternate angle option to view the storyboards in real time over the actual film, while the Blu-Rays generally have a ‘picture-in-picture’ method where a corner given over to them and both run in tandem. In both cases a quick-fire use of a pause button is required otherwise it’s a case of blink and you’ll miss it for many of the drawings. The Blu-Ray release of My Neighbours the Yamadas runs things a little differently as the storyboards are scanned in separately for a 300+ page browsing trawl. But there is an alternative to staring at the screen all day…

For those crazy or hardcore enough to want to check out the storyboards properly, Ghibli has printed virtually their entire output over in Japan. All of the Ghibli films and a good chunk of both Hayo Miyazaki’s and Isao Takahata’s older output are also available. They’re a little pricy, but considering these are normally between 400-600 pages, with Laputa here weighing in at a particularly shelf-busting 700 pages, you get an insane amount of content per book. Drawn by Miyazaki in the planning stages, each page contains five panels which are fully annotated depicting motion, camera movement and staging. Naturally as the books remain untranslated some of the nitty gritty film-making details are lost, but the pictures are clear and instantly recognisable from the final product and give a good sense of how the scenes are developed.

I really enjoy browsing this book as it’s remarkable to see a complex composition or mannerism being portrayed in just a few scant lines. It just proves to me that a good artist doesn’t need to be superbly detailed in their work, or even necessarily all that neat, just the ability to depict your idea with clarity in quite inspiring in a world of relentless pixel-perfect CG.

If you have a particular favourite Ghibli film where you absolutely love to pore over every detail that you can find, then it’s definitely worth treating yourself to one of these books. For hardened Ghibli obsessives then, but so worth it…

Leek & Sushi II - Manga Cupcakes

For the last few years the Japanese Embassy have been holding a comic drawing competition entitled ‘Manga Jiman’ where they ask entrants to take a set theme and then make a short comic about it. Style and content is up to the artist, with many winners adopting atypical/non-manga styles as well as the expected super-shiny artists. It’s an exciting prospect for anyone interested in fresh talent with lots of previously unseen artists making their first steps into comic-making. The competition allowed lots of new stories to be made, but aside from the winners’ exhibiton there was no real place to read them. It only made sense for them to be put into a book…

Enter Itch Publishing who recruited as many of these comics as possible and printed the highlights for the world to read. The second anthology in the Leek & Sushi series, the year’s theme of the competition was ‘The Sun’ and boasts 20 comics. That's a hell of a lot of content.

There may be those of you rolling your eyes yet again at the idea of non-Japanese making ‘manga’, but to be honest the world’s become a smaller place with many modern styles becoming a cocktail of influences from many areas. We’re talking Scott Pilgrim, the recent X-Men anime, Stan Lee’s manga series Ultimo and a generation of fans who simply don’t give a crap where something’s come from so long as it’s good. As a massive manga fan I understand that there are pros and cons to both sides of the argument and while I admittedly still bear a strong bias towards works from Japan, there's so a lot of good material out there that doesn't deserve the turning up of noses.

Basically the point is that there are comics being made in this country that sit outside of the typical sci-fi/superhero or the kids-only crowds. I’m not telling you what to like, but you might be missing out on something cool you wouldn’t normally consider. Leek & Sushi is a pretty good place to start as you get a nifty cross-section of artists for a taste of what’s out there. In case you weren’t aware the London Expo is at the end of the month, an event with a bustling Comic Village packed with comic creators of all types and styles. I recommended visiting and having a dig around, you just might find something worth your time…