- Chris

More Matsumoto!

GO GO MONSTER anyone? Ask Viz to make It happen…

EDIT: August 1st 2008: Here’s the official VIZ PR.

VIZ MEDIA’S TEKKONKINKREET

BY TAIYO MATSUMOTO

WINS 2008 EISNER AWARD

 

Edgy Series About Two Miscreant Boys’ Adventures In A Surreal Metropolis Is The Only Japanese Manga Title To Win This Year

 

San Francisco, CA, August 1, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced that its manga, TEKKONKINKREET: BLACK & WHITE, by acclaimed creator Taiyo Matsumoto, won a 2008 Eisner Comic Industry Award for the Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Japan. Named for pioneering writer and comic artist Will Eisner, the awards recognize exemplary comics, graphic novels and other pop writings and are given each year as part of the annual Comic-Con International convention.

 

The manga, which is published by VIZ Media under its Signature imprint, was also the inspiration behind the Tekkonkinkreet animated feature film from Sony Pictures directed by noted visual effects artist and producer Michael Arias (The Abyss, Princess Mononoke, The Animatrix).

 

TEKKONKINKREET: BLACK & WHITE presents a gritty depiction of urban and social chaos surrounding a pair of outcast kids. Orphaned on the mean streets of Treasure Town, Black and White steal and fight to survive but remain fiercely loyal to each other. The result? The citizens of Treasure Town are afraid of them, the police are afraid of them, and even the local yakuza gangsters are afraid of them…and when a crime boss known as the “Rat” returns to Treasure Town, a confrontation is set to occur.

 

VIZ Media released TEKKONKINKREET: BLACK & WHITE in August 2007 and bundled all three volumes of the original series into a new, premium omnibus edition that includes a color poster insert and 12 additional full-color manga pages – the first time these pages were published in the U.S. An insightful interview with Michael Arias and screenwriter Anthony Weintraub is also featured in the foreword. TEKKONKINKREET: BLACK & WHITE is rated “M” for Mature Audiences and has a Suggested Retail Price of $29.95. In addition to TEKKONKINKREET: BLACK & WHITE, Matsumoto’s other notable works include BLUE SPRING and NO. 5 (both published by VIZ Media) and PING PONG, which was also adapted into an award-winning live action film that is available domestically from VIZ Pictures.

 

“We are extremely honored to have TEKKONKINKREET: BLACK & WHITE recognized by the comics industry with this notable award,” says Alvin Lu, Vice President, Publishing, VIZ Media. “Taiyo Matsumoto has won international critical acclaim for his honest and unflinching depictions of young peoples’ lives and for his unique, immediately recognizable art style that blends both Japanese and European influences. We invite everyone to explore this award-winning series now available in a gorgeous omnibus edition from VIZ Media!”

 

About VIZ Media, LLC

Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), is one of the most comprehensive and innovative companies in the field of manga (graphic novel) publishing, animation and entertainment licensing of Japanese content. Owned by three of Japan’s largest creators and licensors of manga and animation, Shueisha Inc., Shogakukan Inc., and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions, Co., Ltd., VIZ Media is a leader in the publishing and distribution of Japanese manga for English speaking audiences in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and South Africa and is a global ex-Asia licensor of Japanese manga and animation. The company offers an integrated product line including magazines such as SHONEN JUMP and SHOJO BEAT, graphic novels, and DVDs, and develops, markets, licenses, and distributes animated entertainment for audiences and consumers of all ages. Contact VIZ Media at 295 Bay Street, San Francisco, CA 94133; Phone  (415) 546-7073 ; Fax (415) 546-7086; and web site at www.VIZ.com.

 

###

I was happy to read that Kazu Kibuishi really enjoyed Taiyo Matsumoto’s Tekkon Kinkreet, particularly since he says it was the interview I published that pushed him to finally pick the book up off his to-read pile. The piece he wrote on approaching Matsumoto’s work, and the book itself, is also really interesting. I’m aware that when you push a creator or a work really hard, people (particularly hardcore comics readers) tend to bristle. The number of comments in my feed reader in a given week that are some variation on living or not living up to the “hype” is kind of ridiculous… Anyway, Kazu lays his thought-processes on engaging the work bare, and like I said, it’s worth reading.

So this means that yes Jim, you have to read it again.

- Christopher

- Chris

INTERVIEW: TAIYO MATSUMOTO
By Kansai Takita
Conducted October 1995
Translated into English by Kansai Takita
English re-write by Christopher Butcher

Since when have clever writing and bold art styling become so appreciated? TAIYO MATSUMOTO emerged like a penetrating black hole of negative space into a sandstorm of tiny details. The brilliance of intense pitch-black darkness—like a photo-negative of the sun—assaults our eyes. The entire spectrum of Matsumoto’s world is focused in this interview, a sum of words.

## The Beginning of Taiyo Matsumoto’s Manga Career

TAKITA: Have you been drawing manga since childhood?

MATSUMOTO: I have always enjoyed drawing manga, but I was more of a soccer player as a child. I started drawing manga seriously while in University. When I was at Wako University, I saw an illustration in the book that introduces various clubs at school, and then joined ‘Comic Study Group’. Up to that point, I was definitely a physical type. When I asked the other club members when we started practicing, I was told there was no such thing as practice! At that time, I had absolutely no knowledge of how to create comics—not even about toning. I had to be taught the basics, like not drawing on both sides of the paper.

TAKITA: You made your debut in Comic Morning Magazine [with the series STRAIGHT].

MATSUMOTO: There was a special edition of “Comic Morning” called “Afternoon” which was just being issued. It was in “Afternoon” where my first work appeared. I was a university student then.

TAKITA: Who were your favorite comic artists at the time?

MATSUMOTO: I was a fan of Comic Morning contributor Seiki Tsuchida, I decided to apply there with my work because of him. 1

## Taiyo Matsumoto’s Cousin, Santa Inoue

TAKITA: Did you start drawing comics at the same time as your cousin, manga artist Santa Inoue? 2

MATSUMOTO: Santa was born in France, and I used to bully him because his Japanese was terrible. I think it was into our late teens when we became close friends. He was very bright. He has been contributing his manga to Shueisha and other publishers since his early teens, he started very early. His style is not “tardy” and very sharp, you know. It may be because Santa was born in France that his comic has no “wabi-sabi” (an expression derived from the Sadoh, Japanese tea ceremony, implying simple tranquility). 3

TAKITA: Do you regard him as your rival?

MATSUMOTO: I do have a sense of friendly rivalry with him… I wouldn’t want to do anything unseemly.

## Moving from STRAIGHT to ZERO.

TAKITA: Next you moved onto the “Big Comic Spirits” magazine from “Comic Morning”.

MATSUMOTO: I had a lot of freedom working with “Big Comic Spirits.” I wrote my manga ZERO as I was asked to do a drama featuring a boxing story.

TAKITA: You made a dramatic change in your drawing style between STRAIGHT and ZERO.

MATSUMOTO: I was covering the Paris-Dakar Rally when I was 22. I had little interest in the Rally itself and spent a lot of time at bookstores. The drastic change in my drawing may have been the result of the comics I came across in the French bookstores. 4

TAKITA: Does that mean that you were influenced by French comics artists like Moebius and Enkil Bilal?

MATSUMOTO: Yes, I was. The number of really great comics artists in France were fewer than I had anticipated, but those who were great were exceptionally marvelous. They had a tremendous impact on my work.

TAKITA: Did you work out the story of ZERO before you began drawing it? Traditionally a boxing manga portrays the character growing up and coming of age, but that isn’t the case with ZERO.

MATSUMOTO: Yes, I had my story prepared. ZERO starts with a 30 year old boxing champion as the main character. At first, the publisher was against beginning the story that way.

TAKITA: In ZERO your line had changed, but the fundamental story resembles that of STRAIGHT.

MATSUMOTO: Yes, that’s true. With ZERO, I had completed what I could not accomplish in STRAIGHT. Although STRAIGHT was originally about a 40 year-old relief pitcher, I was asked to change him to a 19 year-old relief pitcher because I was young myself then. I had a specific desire to draw a story about a middle-aged man.

## Background on Matsumoto’s works BLUE SPRING and HANA-OTOKO (A Boy Meets A Papa and Baseball).

TAKITA: Your manga BLUE SPRING feels new, in the sense that it observes punk kids from an objective point of view, normally comics about punks are done by punk artists themselves. Was your high school like the one depicted in BLUE SPRING?

MATSUMOTO: Well, my high school has been closed down. The students really only became rough after it had been decided that the school was to be closed. I love drawing teenage punks, they became my dear friends and I was a fan of them. Although I felt that the story in BLUE SPRING “The Family Restaurant Is Our Paradise!” was pretty well done, I had written “This Is Bad” 5 to complete the book. I was amazed by how I could rapidly change my work. I thought I had an unbiased attitude to my subjects, but I found it impossible to be impassive. At the end I was forcing myself to draw punks objectively and the consequence is “This Is Bad.”

TAKITA: “Revolver” is based on an original story by Carib Marley (a writer and a great fan of Bob Marley!). How did you two collaborate on the work?

MATSUMOTO: He had finished the original story as one piece and kindly said that I could cook the material as I wished. I was a fan of Carib Marley, and it happened that we had the same editor. “Revolver” was the very first work I did based on someone else’s story.

TAKITA: Your manga HANA-OTOKO is set in Shonan, a seaside area.

MATSUMOTO: I used to live in Sagami-Ohno. But I had a feeling, while I was strolling through the Shonan area, it might just be the right environment for creating HANA-OTOKO, so I had moved to Fujisawa. It was pretty lonesome living by myself, so I asked Kazunari Eifuku 5a and Santa Inoue to move there with me.

TAKITA: HANA-OTOKO resembles Kei Nemoto’s manga NATURAL. 6

MATSUMOTO: I found out about that afterwards. Santa is a fan of Nemoto’s works and seems to be on good terms with Nemoto. I am a fan of Yoshikazu Ebisu’s 7 works, particularly TEACHERS IN HELL and NO MORE THINKING. I think they’re great manga.

## TEKKON KINKREET and Action Comics

TAKITA: You are particular about the movements of a human body. Do you like action comics?

MATSUMOTO: I like comics with action especially in a serialized comic. Specifically, I prefer to draw sports stories where the action can be depicted more naturally, as compared to something like a gangster action comic. Another reason I prefer to draw sports comics is that I enjoy drawing the little details that belong to sports, like a catcher’s mitt or the number on a player’s back in a baseball manga.

TAKITA: How about a soccer comic?

MATSUMOTO: Doing a soccer comic is hard. 22 players need to appear in one game. I would need 20 volumes to do a soccer comic, but I feel most comfortable with work that’s about three volumes long.

TAKITA: Did you pick the setting for TEKKON KINKREET as the near-future because you had action comics in mind for this particular work?

MATSUMOTO: It would have been more effective to see a boy running down a building wall in animation, I couldn’t achieve the effect I had envisioned in a single drawing. 8

TAKITA: Even though it’s a single drawing, your expression of movement is so rich. You use techniques like abbreviating dialogue and very specific framing and composition in TEKKON KINKREET, did you do that all on instinct?

MATSUMOTO: If I try to write all of the dialogue, the story would be too long. Even when I read other people’s comics, I’m inclined to skip some of lines of dialogue. So I abbreviate it as much as possible in my work.

##The Vector Of Creation

TAKITA: What are you interested in creating next?

MATSUMOTO: The next material that I am interested in is table tennis. I’d like to do a high school version of Shinsen Gumi in Ryotaro Shima’s “Burning Sword” (a historical novel where a group of samurai called Shinsen Gumi have risen to protect the Emperor toward the end of Edo Period). 9

TAKITA: There is already Monoru Furutani’s GO! INA JUNIOR HIGH TABLE TENNIS CLUB!

MATSUMOTO: Whenever I mention that I want to do a table tennis manga next, I’m always reminded of that. What I’m going to do is a story with a main character who is a genius. I’ve been researching and the series will appear serially in “Big Comic Spirits” magazine.

TAKITA: It may sound trite, but why have you chosen to become a comic artist and not a novelist or a film director?

MATSUMOTO: When I was deciding what I should do for life, there were so many comic artists that I had incredible respect for, like Minetaro Mochizuki 10, Seiki Tsuchida and Katsuhiro Otomo 11. Under the circumstances, I could think of no other way to tell stories than becoming a comic artist.

TAKITA: Mochizuki’s FLUTTER GOLDFISH is really funny.

MATSUMOTO: When I read that, I was relieved that I don’t have to draw women. Many people had said that my weak point was that I couldn’t draw women in the same way that, if I were a pitcher, I couldn’t throw a curve ball.

TAKITA: TEKKON KINKREET has become a play directed by Makoto Sato in a black tent. What do you think of the play? 12

MATSUMOTO: I had expected more changes from the original, but on the contrary, it was loyal to the original work and most of lines used were exactly the same as those in the actual comics. Having seen that play, I wanted to write a play myself.

## The Future

TAKITA: What do you think of multimedia, personal computers, and so forth?

MATSUMOTO: Currently, I am working on a CD-ROM 13. At first, I was asked to make a CD-ROM of TEKKON KINKREET, but I did not want the comic which was meant to be read as in two-page spreads to be conformed to a style where every panel had to be clicked and read one-at-a-time. So I am doing an original work for a CD-ROM. I still don’t have a feel for it, but I’m flattered that many young people have an interest in my work.

TAKITA: The art book 100 and manga NIHON NO KYODAI (Brotherhood of Japan) are your newest works. Could you tell us about your future plans?

MATSUMOTO: Manga creator Mr. Aihara 14 has already done a ninja comic. I’d like to do a ninja comic myself, using vivid contrast without toning, possibly in a monthly or bi-monthly serial. The world of ninja is so cruel and dirty, yet it has a strong aesthetic. When I am a little older with more drawing ability, I would like to draw that world of wabi-sabi. 15

##A message for the readers

TAKITA: Would you like to leave a message for the readers?

MATSUMOTO: Please do not believe in comic artists’ words. I think comics are like fake magic. To keep itself entertaining, it creates a secret device, and we are not creating comics out of supernatural power. Sometimes there are readers who have false idea about drawing comics are about using supernatural power. (^^;;)

TAKITA: Indeed, that may happen, as a manga leaves the hands of an artist once it is published and starts to walk by itself. Thank you for joining us today.

END

October,1995
INTERVIEWED by TAKITA KANSEI

The original interview may be available online by clicking this link.
–

END NOTES

1. Seiki Tsuchida has not yet been published in English. For more on him though, check out these links.

Links on Seiki Tsuchida:
A fun post on his series “KING OF EDITORS”: http://community.livejournal.com/mangacast/514236.html
Biography of Seiki Tsuchida: http://users.skynet.be/mangaguide/au1959.html.

2. Santa Inoue is best known in North America for his series TOKYO TRIBES, published in English by Tokyopop. A sensational Japanese gangster fantasy, the series has legions of dedicated fans in Japan, and has led to an anime, fashion lines, and many other licensed goods. Unfortunately it looks as though TT has been cancelled by the publisher, with only six of 11+ volumes translated. Santa Inoue is no relation to manga-ka Takehiko Inoue, author of VAGABOND.

Links on Santa Inoue:
Santastic! The official Santa Inoue store: http://www.santa.co.jp/
Tokyopop Publisher Stu Levy interviews Inoue in a video interview: http://youtube.com/watch?v=85XTK8kJUwA (Apparently this is just part 1 of an 8 part interview, but I can’t find parts 2-7 anywhere. Sigh. Tokyopop.)

3. This description of “wabi-sabi” comes from the original interview, however the actual idea is much more complex and nuanced. For more on “wabi-sabi”, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi.]

4. I feel it important to note that Matsumoto created the action tour-de-force NO.5 (Number 5) in the early 2000s, which has a very deliberate and acknowledged tip-of-the-hat to the comics of Moebius and Enki Bilal.

5. In the original Japanese version of BLUE SPRING, the story referred to here is called “Oh, I Give Up”, and is the last story in the book.

5a. Kazunari Eifuku: I couldn’t find any information on this person, save a thank-you credit in Usumaru (Short Cuts) Furuya’s SUICIDE CIRCLE. It is interesting to note however, that Matsumoto would later go on to work with a fellow named Issei Eifuku, and Issei Eifuku seems only to be credited with being the writer on Matsumoto’s newest work, TAKEMITSU ZAMURAI.

6. I can find no record of this manga anywhere. However, the artist that they seem to be referring to here is likely “Takashi Nemoto” who is sometimes mistakenly referred to as “Kei Nemoto.” Nemoto is a seminal, influential figure in underground comics in Japan. His first published work in English appeared in the now hard-to-find collection COMICS UNDERGROUND JAPAN, and his first major work, MONSTER MEN BUREIKO LULLABY, will be published in English by PictureBox Inc. in Fall 2008.

Links on Takashi Nemoto:
The official English Takashi Nemoto website: http://www011.upp.so-net.ne.jp/TOKUSYUMANGA/text/genre14.htm
Information page for PictureBox Inc.: http://www.pictureboxinc.com/product/id/306/

7. Ebisu Yoshikazu’s work is generally untranslated in North America, except for a short story in COMICS UNDERGROUND JAPAN. However, a panel of his work graces the front cover to Frederk L. Schodt’s seminal book on manga, Dreamland Japan, and an appreciation of the artist appears in that book.

8. Obviously, this interview was conducted far before TEKKON KINKREET was animated. The animated version of TEKKON KINKREET was released in 2007 by Sony Pictures.

9. The work described here would eventually become Matsumoto’s biggest hit, the five-volume manga series PING PONG. The PING PONG manga spawned a live-action movie that has been released in North America by Viz Pictures Releasing. The manga has not yet been translated for North America, but is available in scanlations.

10. Minetaro Mochizuki is the author of DRAGON HEAD, published in English by Tokyopop, and it is quite good. Mochizuki is better-known in Japan for his comedy series FLUTTER GOLDFISH, though, which is untranslated.

11. Katsuhiro Otomo is the creator of the smash-hit manga and anime AKIRA. AKIRA manga was until-recently available from Dark Horse Comics, and the AKIRA animated film is available on DVD from Sony Pictures. In addition, Otomo’s STEAMBOY and MEMORIES animated films are available from Son Pictures, and his manga DOMU was until-recently available from Dark Horse Books.

12. Sorry folks, I couldn’t find any more info on this stage adaptation, or even much about what a Black Tent play is. HOWEVER! It looks like Matsumoto actually DID write a play. I found a book on Amazon Japan that seems to be a combination of the comic that the play is based on and the complete script for the play. It’s called, and I quote, “Mezasu hikari no aru saki / or Mono, moshikuha, paradise”. He also created the script for an original black tent play in comics form, which became the graphic novel HANA. Both plays have been performed in front of an audience, and published as books.

13. CD-ROM? No idea. I couldn’t find any info on this.

14. “Mr. Aihara” here may actually refer to Koji Aihara, the author of EVEN A MONKEY CAN DRAW MANGA (released in English by Viz, out of print), as Aihara did create a well-regarded Ninja comic.

15. “I’d like to do a ninja comic myself, using vivid contrast without toning, possibly in a monthly or bi-monthly serial.” Matsumoto did adopt a very edgy and high-contrast style later in his career, and he’s using it to illustrate his current manga series TAKEMITSU ZAMURAI, with author Issei Eifuku. It’s very interesting.

Japanese book display featuring the work of Taiyo Matsumoto. Photo by Christopher Butcher.

–

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF JAPANESE WORKS BY TAIYO MATSUMOTO

I’ve compiled as thorough a bibliography of Japanese language releases by Taiyo Matsumoto as one can without a thorough grasp of the Japanese language. I’ve also tried to find cover images for each entry, and made specific note of if and where these books are available in English, by hook… or by crook. I should also note that Matsumoto has begun illustrating book covers and interiors for various prose stories, and a search of his name on Amazon Japan will bring up 3-5 books not listed below. In general, he has just provided cover illustrations for these work, and so I haven’t included them here (they’re real pretty though…).

STRAIGHT Volume 1
Publisher: Kodansha, January 1989
English Availability: No
420 yen

STRAIGHT Volume 2
Publisher: Kondansha, December 1989
English Availability: No
430 Yen

ZERO Volume 1 (New Edition)
Publisher: Shogakukan, May 1991 (Reissued September 95)
ISBN-13: 978-4091847355
English Availability: No
900 Yen

Zero Volume 2 (New Edition)
Publisher: Shogakukan, August 1991 (Reissued September 95)
ISBN-13: 978-4091847348
English Availability: No
900 Yen

Hana Otoko (A Boy Meet A Papa And Baseball) Volume 1
Publisher: Shogakukan, May 1992 (reissued October 1998)
ISBN-13: 978-4091857316
English Availability: Scanlations, http://www.mangascreener.com/
900 Yen

Hana Otoko (A Boy Meet A Papa And Baseball) Volume 2
Publisher: Shogakukan, August 1992 (reissued October 1998)
ISBN-13: 978-4091857323
English Availability: Scanlations, http://www.mangascreener.com/
900 Yen

Hana Otoko (A Boy Meet A Papa And Baseball) Volume 3
Publisher: Shogakukan, October 1992 (reissued October 1998)
ISBN-13: 978-4091857330
English Availability: Scanlations, http://www.mangascreener.com/
900 Yen

Blue Spring (Aoi Haru)
Publisher: Shogakukan, May 1993 (Reissued December 1998)
ISBN-13: 978-4091857347
English Availability: Print Edition, Viz, http://www.viz.com
English Availability: Film Adaptation, Artsmagic, http://www.artsmagicdvd.com/home/index.html
920 Yen

Tekkon Kinkreet Volume 1
Publisher: Shogakukan, March 1994
English Availability: Print Edition (as Black & White Volume 1), Viz, Out of Print
English Availability: Film Adaptation, Sony Pictures, http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/tekkonkinkreet/
850 Yen

Tekkon Kinkreet Volume 2
Publisher: Shogakukan, May 1994
ISBN-13: 978-4091847324
English Availability: Print Edition (as Black & White Volume 2), Viz, Out of Print
English Availability: Film Adaptation, Sony Pictures, http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/tekkonkinkreet/
850 Yen

Tekkon Kinkreet Volume 3
Publisher: Shogakukan, July 1994
ISBN-13: 978-4091847331
English Availability: Print Edition (as Black & White Volume 3), Viz, Out of Print
English Availability: Film Adaptation, Sony Pictures, http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/tekkonkinkreet/
850 Yen

Brothers of Japan (Nippon No Kyoudai)
Publisher: Magazine House, October 1995
Hardcover
ISBN-13: 978-4838707508
English Availability: No
1,100 Yen

100
Publisher: Shogakukan, November 1995
100 Pages, Artbook, Hardcover, Oversized, Full Colour
ISBN-13: 978-4091997210
English Availability: No
2,500 Yen

Ping Pong Volume 1
Publisher: Shogakukan, June 1996
ISBN-13: 978-4091847362
English Availability: Scanlations, http://www.kefi.org/
English Availability: Film Adaptation, Viz, http://www.pingpong-movie.net/
900 Yen

Ping Pong Volume 2
Publisher: Shogakukan, November 1996
ISBN-13: 978-4091847379
English Availability: Scanlations, http://www.kefi.org/
English Availability: Film Adaptation, Viz, http://www.pingpong-movie.net/
900 Yen

Ping Pong Volume 3
Publisher: Shogakukan, February 1997
ISBN-13: 978-4091847386
English Availability: Scanlations, http://www.kefi.org/
English Availability: Film Adaptation, Viz, http://www.pingpong-movie.net/
900 Yen

Ping Pong Volume 4
Publisher: Shogakukan, June 1997
ISBN-13: 978-4091847393
English Availability: Scanlations, http://www.kefi.org/
English Availability: Film Adaptation, Viz, http://www.pingpong-movie.net/
900 Yen

Ping Pong Volume 5
Publisher: Shogakukan, August 1997
ISBN-13: 978-4091847409
English Availability: Scanlations, http://www.kefi.org/
English Availability: Film Adaptation, Viz, http://www.pingpong-movie.net/
900 Yen

101
Publisher: Shogakukan, May 1999
100 Pages, Artbook, Oversized, Hardcover, Full Colour
ISBN-13: 978-4091847324
English Availability: No
2,500 Yen

Mezasu hikari no aru saki or Mono, moshikuha, paradise
Publisher: Freestyle, May 2000
165 Pages, Hardcover, Text only (play)
ISBN-13: 978-4939138010
English Availability: No
About: This play was written by Taiyo Matsumoto to be performed in black tent.

GOGO MONSTER
Publisher: Shogakukan, November 2000
455 Pages, Hardcover, Slipcase
ISBN-13: 978-4091793416
English Availability: No
2,625 Yen 

Edit: In February 2009 Viz Media announced that they would be doing an all-in-one edition of GO GO MONSTER, to be released November 2009 for $24.95. Format is unkown at time of posting.

No. 5 Volume 1
Publisher: Shogakukan, November 2001
146 Pages, Oversized
ISBN-13: 978-4091882011
English Availability: Print Edition, Viz, Out of Print
860 Yen

No. 5 Volume 2
Publisher: Shogakukan, May 2002
138 Pages, Oversized
ISBN-13: 978-4091882028
English Availability: Print Edition, Viz, Out of Print
860 Yen

Hana
Publisher: Freestyle, December 2002
80 Pages, Oversized, Hardcover, Dust Jacket
ISBN-13: 978-4939138096
English Availability: No
1,680 Yen
ABOUT: Matsumoto created this script for a black tent theatre performance as a penciled comic story, and then revised it into a full length 80 page graphic novella.

No. 5 Volume 3
Publisher: Shogakukan, March 2003
Oversized
ISBN-13: 978-4091882035
English Availability: No
860 Yen

No. 5 Volume 4
Publisher: Shogakukan, August 2003
128 Pages, Oversized
ISBN-13: 978-4091882042
English Availability: No
860 Yen

No. 5 Volume 5
Publisher: Shogakukan, January 2004
138 Pages, Oversized
ISBN-13: 978-4091882059
English Availability: No
860 Yen

No. 5 Volume 6
Publisher: Shogakukan, June 2004
134 Pages, Oversized, Dust Jacket
ISBN-13: 978-4091882066
English Availability: No
860 Yen

No. 5 Volume 7
Publisher: Shogakukan, November 2004
? Pages, Oversized, Dust Jacket
ISBN-13: 978-4091882073
English Availability: No
860 Yen

No. 5 Volume 8
Publisher: Shogakukan, February 2005
? Pages, Oversized
ISBN-13: 978-4091882080
English Availability: No
860 Yen

No. 5 Omnibus Edition Volume 1
Publisher: Shogakukan, November 2005
Collects Volumes 1 & 2 of the original edition
ISBN-13: 978-4091886118
English Availability: No
1,100 Yen

No. 5 Omnibus Edition Volume 2
Publisher: Shogakukan, November 2005
Collects Volumes 3 & 4 of the original edition
ISBN-13: 978-4091886125
English Availability: No
1,000 Yen

No. 5 Omnibus Edition Volume 3
Publisher: Shogakukan, December 2005
Collects volumes 5 and 6 of the original series
ISBN-13: 978-4091883049
English Availability: No
1,000 Yen

No. 5 Omnibus Edition Volume 4
Publisher, Shogakukan, December 2005
Collects volumes 7 and 8 of the original series
ISBN-13: 978-4091857323
English Availability: No
1,100 Yen

Tekkon Kinkreet All-In-One Edition
Publisher: Shogakukan, December 2006
611 Pages, Oversized, Dust Jacket
ISBN-13: 978-4091810335
English Availability: Print Edition, Viz, http://www.viz.com
English Availability: Film Adaptation, Sony Pictures, http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/tekkonkinkreet/
1,600 Yen

Takemitsu Zamurai Volume 1
Publisher: Shogakukan, December 2006
ISBN-13: 978-4091810342
English Availability: No
900 Yen

Takemitsu Zamurai Volume 2
Publisher: Shogakukan, May 2007
ISBN-13: 978-4091813206
English Availability: No
900 Yen

Takemitsu Zamurai Volume 3
Publisher: Shogakukan, October 2007
ISBN-13: 978-4091815880
English Availability: No
900 Yen

Takemitsu Zamurai Volume 4
Publisher: Shogakukan, March 2008
ISBN-13: 978-4091818485
English Availability: No
900 Yen

–

Thanks to Abhay Khosla for looking this over and for the kind words of support. And if you’re Kansai Takita, thank you very much for conducting this interview in the first place. I’m sharing it here in the same spirit that you originally conducted and posted it; so that people will read good manga. That said, it’s quite clearly your work, so feel free to tell me to take it down if it isn’t to your liking.

Thanks for reading,

- Christopher

Actually, I’m not so much picking the winners as picking the books I want to win… I realize that my tastes and those of the voting public are very different, in general, but what the hell, let’s Rock The Vote! Speaking of which, to take my word for it and go vote yourself, check out http://www.eisnervote.com/ only comics industry professionals are eligible, but chances are you’re a comics industry professional, so go for it!

Best Short Story
“Book,” by Yuichi Yokoyama, in New Engineering (PictureBox)
“At Loose Ends,” by Lewis Trondheim, in Mome #8 (Fantagraphics)
“Mr. Wonderful,” by Dan Clowes, in New York Times Sunday Magazine
“Town of Evening Calm,” by Fumiyo Kouno, in Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms (Last Gasp)
“Whatever Happened to Fletcher Hanks?” by Paul Karasik, in I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! (Fantagraphics)
“Young Americans,” by Emile Bravo, in Mome #8 (Fantagraphics)

Despite some truly solid (and surprising) selections in this category, Town of Evening Calm is both excellent and Important thanks to its weighty insights into tragedy and human nature, and general under-ratedness. A category this strong doesn’t come along too often and anything here probably could have taken this category, it’s all fantastic stuff. That said, I’d be surprised if Karasik’s Whatever Happened to Fletcher Hanks doesn’t win.

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)
Amelia Rules! #18: “Things I Cannot Change,” by Jimmy Gownley (Renaissance)
Delilah Dirk and the Treasure of Constantinople, by Tony Cliff (self-published)
Johnny Hiro #1, by Fred Chao (AdHouse)
Justice League of America #11: “Walls,” by Brad Meltzer and Gene Ha (DC)
Sensational Spider-Man Annual: “To Have or to Hold,” by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca (Marvel)

Not to diss the excellent Johnny Hiro #1, but Fraction and Larroca brought their a-game to this one, and it shows. This is also something of a protest vote, considering Casanova wasn’t nominated for anything… To be fair, I haven’t read Tony Cliff’s mini.

Best Continuing Series
The Boys, by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson (Dynamite)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, by Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughan, Georges Jeanty, and Andy Owens (Dark Horse)
Naoki Urasawa’s Monster, by Naoki Urasawa (Viz)
The Spirit, by Darwyn Cooke (DC)
Y: The Last Man, by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, and Jose Marzan, Jr. (Vertigo/DC)

I guess my manga fandom is showing here, but despite solid efforts from Ennis and Cooke, there’s one book that gets everyone at the store genuinely excited when it shows up at the store, and that’s Monster. It’s an amazingly well put-together comic, and the number one story I’d recommend to someone who thinks that they aren’t a “manga fan” now that Dragon Head is over. Actually, that said, Monster is better-drawn and more accessible, I think, than Dragon Head, so it’s got that going for it too. This is going to be a tough category…

Best Limited Series
Atomic Robo, by Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegender (Red 5 Comics)
Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born, by Peter David, Robin Furth, and Jae Lee (Marvel)
Nightly News, by Jonathan Hickman (Image)
Parade (with Fireworks), by Michael Cavallaro (Shadowline/Image)
The Umbrella Academy, by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá (Dark Horse)

Surprise hit of the year. I’ve only read the first few Atomic Robo and they were good, but Umbrella Academy takes it by virtue of being both surprisingly good and having a great ending.

Best New Series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, by Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughan, Georges Jeanty, and Andy Owens (Dark Horse)
Immortal Iron Fist, by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, David Aja, and others (Marvel)
Johnny Hiro, by Fred Chao (AdHouse)
The Infinite Horizon, by Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto (Image)
Scalped, by Jason Aaron and R. M. Guéra (Vertigo/DC)

This was actually a tough one for me, because Infinite Horizon and Iron Fist are still in my to-read pile, and Buffy Season 8 is shockingly good (and sells bucketloads). But Johnny Hiro really is a solid read, and I’m glad to see an entirely indy ongoing single-issue series do well, so it’s getting a ‘political’ vote from me…

Best Publication for Kids
Amelia Rules! and Amelia Rules! Funny Stories, by Jimmy Gownley (Renaissance)
Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, edited by Jeremy Barlow (Dark Horse)
Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 and Mouse Guard: Winter 1152, by David Petersen (Archaia)
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, by Peter Sis (Frank Foster Books/Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Yotsuba&!, by Kiyohiko Azuma (ADV)

No contest.

Best Publication for Teens
Laika, by Nick Abadzis (First Second)
The Mighty Skullboy Army, by Jacob Chabot (Dark Horse)
The Annotated Northwest Passage, by Scott Chantler (Oni)
PX! Book One: A Girl and Her Panda, by Manny Trembley and Eric A. Anderson (Shadowline/Image)
Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow, by James Sturm and Rich Tommaso (Center for Cartoon Studies/Hyperion)

Aw man, that’s really tough. First off, I think it’s important to note that three of the entries here are historical fiction, which is probably a rarity in a “best publication for teens” category. Also, the lack of Naruto is sort of galling. All of that aside, for me it came down to Laika, Northwest Passage, and Satchel Paige, all of which are really great books that I would recommend. The tie-breaker was that I voted for the Canadian book, because that’s how I roll.

Also, I wouldn’t normally take time out to slam a book, but I’m going to make a special allowance here: PX! is a truly, truly awful book, and it is downright depressing that it has received an Eisner nomination.

Best Humor Publication
Dwight T. Albatross’s The Goon Noir, edited by Matt Dryer (Dark Horse)
Johnny Hiro, by Fred Chao (AdHouse)
Lucha Libre, by Jerry Frissen, Bill, Gobi, Fabien M., Nikola Witko, Hervé Tanquelle et al. (Image)
Perry Bible Fellowship: The Trial of Colonel Sweeto and Other Stories, by Nicholas Gurewitch (Dark Horse)
Wonton Soup, by James Stokoe (Oni)

Man, I know the mainstream comics contingent is all over The Goon, which is a solid read, but Perry Bible Fellowship is just so, so good that I can’t imagine anything even coming close. Well, except for next year when Achewood: The Great Outdoor Fight takes the category in a landslide…

Best Anthology
Best American Comics 2007, edited by Anne Elizabeth Moore and Chris Ware (Houghton Mifflin)
5, by Gabriel Bá, Becky Cloonan, Fabio Moon, Vasilis Lolos, and Rafael Grampa (self-published)
Mome, edited by Gary Groth and Eric Reynolds (Fantagraphics)
Postcards: True Stories That Never Happened, edited by Jason Rodriguez (Villard)
24Seven, vol. 2, edited by Ivan Brandon (Image)

Everything I want from an anthology, even when I’m disappointed with or confused by their choices I can still respect them, and several volumes of this were absolutely top-notch. Add Mome to your purchases today.

Best Digital Comic
The Abominable Charles Christopher, by Karl Kerschl, www.abominable.transmission-x.com
Billy Dogma, Immortal, by Dean Haspiel, www.deanhaspiel.com/immortal.html
The Process, by Joe Infurnari, www.theprocesscomic.com
PX! By Manny Trembley and Eric A. Anderson, www.pandaxpress.com
Sugarshock!, by Joss Whedon and Fabio Moon, http://www.myspace.com/darkhorsepres…m=1&storynum=2

I can’t even conceive of how Joss Whedon will lose this one, and I’m kind of amazed that the print collection of Perry Bible Fellowship could be nominated for a great book, but not as a ‘digital comic’. That and fucking “Panda Extreme” shows up again, tunder’n jaysus. I’m writing in Achewood, by Chris Onstad for what I hope are obvious reasons, no disrespect to my nominated friends.

Best Reality-Based Work
Laika, by Nick Abadzis (First Second)
The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam, by Ann Marie Fleming (Riverhead Books/Penguin Group)
Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow, by James Sturm and Rich Tommaso (Center for Cartoon Studies/Hyperion)
Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm, by Percy Carey and Ronald Wimberly (Vertigo/DC)
White Rapids, by Pascal Blanchet (Drawn & Quarterly)

Uh, heh, despite still liking Laika and Satchel Paige… White Rapids is really, really good. Truly beautiful and unique, delivering a wholly conceived experience to the reader. Most interestingly, White Rapids is one of my husband’s fav comics from 2007 as well, he took to it surprisingly quickly and thought it was fantastic. He’s not a big comics reader, but I do think it’s interesting to see what he reacts to and why…

Best Graphic Album—New
The Arrival, by Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic)
Bookhunter, by Jason Shiga (Sparkplug Books)
Essex County, vols. 1-2: Tales from the Farm/Ghost Stories, by Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
Exit Wounds, by Rutu Modan (Drawn & Quarterly)
Percy Gloom, by Cathy Malkasian (Fantagraphics)

Top notch. I liked Lemire’s work a great deal, and Shiga’s book is pretty fantastic as well, but I just think Exit Wounds is really thoroughly conceived and executed, and it spoke to me in a way that the other books didn’t…

Still, congrats to my friend Jeff Lemire for what’s probably the most prestigious award nomination on the list, and on his second and third books ever!

Best Graphic Album—Reprint
Agents of Atlas Hardcover, by Jeff Parker, Leonard Kirk, and Kris Justice (Marvel)
Gødland Celestial Edition, by Joe Casey and Tom Scioli (Image)
James Sturm’s America: God, Gold, and Golems, by James Sturm (Drawn & Quarterly)
Mouse Guard: Fall 1152, by David Petersen (Archaia)
Super Spy, by Matt Kindt (Top Shelf)

While this is either the second or third edition of some of this material, I thought that this collection was surprisingly underrated when it was released this year. Sturm’s The Golem’s Mighty Swing is a fantastic work, and it and the other two stories collected here are some pretty amazing comics material… No disrespect intended to any of the other nominees, but I think Sturm’s work is really a cut above.

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Strips
(The Complete) Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, by Winsor McCay (Ulrich Merkl)
Complete Terry and the Pirates, vol. 1, by Milton Caniff (IDW)
Little Sammy Sneeze, by Winsor McCay (Sunday Press)
Popeye, vol. 2: Well Blow Me Down, by E. C. Segar (Fantagraphics)
Sundays with Walt and Skeezix, by Frank King (Sunday Press)

While the sheer size and overall quality of Sundays with Walt and Skeezix is truly impressive and will likely make it a shoe-in for the award, I think the Little Sammy Sneeze collection is actually a better book. It’s complete, which is a point in its favour, and its production is unique offering more than just a collection of the work, but insight into the time and world in which the strips were published through other period-appropriate strips also published in the book (it even comes with a decorative tissue-box cover!) Granted, on that front the superlative amount of work going into D+Q’s Walt and Skeezix collection should have made it the winner as each volume contains more than 90 pages of extra material, but somehow it didn’t make the nom list… I feel like these awards really do come down to having someone on the nomination committee to champion a work…

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books
Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus, vol. 1, by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko (Marvel)
Apollo’s Song, by Osamu Tezuka (Vertical)
The Completely MAD Don Martin, by Don Martin (Running Press)
Daredevil Omnibus, by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson (Marvel)
I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! by Fletcher Hanks (Fantagraphics)

Easy win.

Best U.S. Edition of International Material
The Arrival, by Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic)
Aya, by Marguerite Abouet and Clement Obrerie (Drawn & Quarterly)
Garage Band, by Gipi (First Second)
I Killed Adolf Hitler, by Jason (Fantagraphics)
The Killer, by Matz and Luc Jacamon (Archaia)

Man, this is all good stuff. Like, really good. I was really tempted not to pick Garage Band because the English edition is so much smaller than the European edition, and consequently loses ‘something’ in the reduction in size (in my humble opinion), but it’s still excellent so I’ll try not to nitpick it out of the running. But honestly, this book deserved to be printed at its original size… hopefully as First Second matures they can go back and do ‘special editions’ of some of their earlier works in something approaching the European format…

I also recommend you run right out and read Aya which is an excellent, excellent read. Jason’s I Killed Adolf Hitler is also a career highpoint, but I feel like everyone should be buying his stuff anyway… Geez, tough category. Particularly since The Arrival will probably take it…

Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Japan
The Ice Wanderer and Other Stories, by Jiro Taniguchi (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
MW, by Osamu Tezuka (Vertical)
Naoki Urasawa’s Monster, by Naoki Urasawa (Viz)
New Engineering by Yuichi Yokoyama (PictureBox)
Tekkonkinkreet: Black & White, by Taiyo Matsumoto (Viz)
Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms, by Fumiyo Kouno (Last Gasp)

As soon as I saw Tekkon Kinkreet I knew I’d have to pick it, it’s a truly phenomenal edition of the material with all of the colour pages restored, additional art and illustrations, a superior book-size, and a bunch of extras. Oh, and the graphic novel itself is fantastic.

But all of these books are fucking great, and excellent reminder of what a great time it is to be a manga reader in North America. All of these are worth your time and money, no lie. Run out and buy them all from the magical store that has them all in stock at once. Or, you know, The Beguiling.

Best Writer
Ed Brubaker, Captain America, Criminal, Daredevil, Immortal Iron Fist (Marvel)
James Sturm, Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow (Center for Cartoon Studies/Hyperion)
Brian K. Vaughan, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Dark Horse); Ex Machina (WildStorm/DC), Y: The Last Man (Vertigo/DC),
Joss Whedon, Astonishing X-Men (Marvel); Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Dark Horse)
Brian Wood, DMZ, Northlanders (Vertigo/DC); Local (Oni)

Well, the book I enjoyed most up there is Criminal, so 2007′s best writer must have been Brubaker. Awards are weird.

Best Writer/Artist
Jeff Lemire, Essex County: Tales from the Farm/Ghost Stories (Top Shelf)
Rutu Modan, Exit Wounds (Drawn & Quarterly)
Shaun Tan, The Arrival (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic)
Chris Ware, Acme Novelty Library #18 (Acme Novelty)
Fumi Yoshinaga, Flower of Life; The Moon and Sandals (Digital Manga)

Uh… yeah. I mean, everyone else here is clearly very talented, but… Chris Ware?! Yikes. I also think it’s kind of weird that Darwyn Cooke didn’t get a nom in this category for The Spirit…

Best Writer/Artist—Humor
Kyle Baker, The Bakers: Babies and Kittens (Image)
Fred Chao, Johnny Hiro (AdHouse)
Brandon Graham, King City (Tokyopop); Multiple Warheads (Oni)
Eric Powell, The Goon (Dark Horse)
James Stokoe, Wonton Soup (Oni)

I wonder if Kyle Baker and Eric Powell will cancel each other out? Anyway, Brandon Graham totally hit this year, and his stuff is fun, funny, and sexy. That said I just gotta bitch here: How the fuck did Mal not get nominated for Scott Pilgrim? That shit is retarded. I’d demand a write-in but that would likely be pointless. I almost, almost, want to go and check to see who was on the nominating committee, but I’ll try not to be that petty or vengeful. But seriously, what the fuck?

Outbursts like this are why I’ll likely never be an Eisner judge. I’d rather keep it real though. Or something. Christ, this is a bad idea isn’t it? Oh well. Too late to turn back now.

Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team
Steve Epting/Butch Guice/Mike Perkins, Captain America (Marvel)
Pia Guerra/Jose Marzan, Jr., Y: The Last Man (Vertical/DC)
Jae Lee, Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born (Marvel)
Takeshi Obata, Death Note, Hikaru No Go (Viz)
Ethan Van Sciver, Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps (DC)

That’s just a weird choice, so what the hell… it’s not like he’s not incredibly talented…

Actually, it’s at times like these I don’t envy the folks in charge of the Eisner Awards, trying to determine what is or isn’t eligible across a spectrum of comics projects so broad that most classifications are essentially meaningless…

Best Painter or Multimedia Artist (interior art)
Ann-Marie Fleming, The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam (Riverhead Books/Penguin Group)
Eric Powell, The Goon: Chinatown (Dark Horse)
Bryan Talbot, Alice in Sunderland (Dark Horse)
Ben Templesmith, Fell (Image); 30 Days of Night: Red Snow; Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse (IDW)

Props to Templesmith, he’s a talented guy, but it’s rare that you get to describe a book as a “Tour-de-Force” and Alice in Sunderland totally qualifies. If you’ve got thirty bucks burning a hole in your pocket, it’s worth owning.

Best Cover Artist
John Cassaday, Astonishing X-Men (Marvel); Lone Ranger (Dynamite)
James Jean, Fables (Vertigo/DC); The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse); Process Recess 2; Superior Showcase 2 (AdHouse)
J. G. Jones, 52 (DC)
Jae Lee, Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born (Marvel)
Jim Lee, All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder (DC); World of Warcraft (WildStorm/DC)

All of these fellows are quite talented, turning out some solid cover art, but how can you not love what James Jean is doing…?

Best Coloring
Jimmy Gownley, Amelia Rules! (Renaissance)
Steve Hamaker, Bone, vols. 5 and 6 (Scholastic); Shazam: Monster Society of Evil (DC)
Richard Isanove, Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born (Marvel)
Ronda Pattison, Atomic Robo (Red 5 Comics)
Dave Stewart, BPRD, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cut, Hellboy, Lobster Johnson, The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse); The Spirit (DC)
Alex Wald, Shaolin Cowboy (Burlyman)

Amelia Rules for best colouring? Are you serious? It’s not bad, but… wow, could not have seen that coming. Meanwhile, Dave Stewart is just awesome, working in a number of different styles and moods depending on the book. he works on. Not to take anything away from the other artist, but Stewart’s just top-notch. My second-choice would go to Hamaker who I think started out awesome on Bone, and has only gotten better with every book.

…and I didn’t pick a picture of Stewart winning the award in 2006 as any sort of justification for him winning in 2007, it’s just the only picture of him I could find online. Although, it is a pretty good justification…

Best Lettering
Jared K. Fletcher, Catwoman, The Spirit (DC); Sentences: Life of MF Grimm (Vertigo/DC)
Jimmy Gownley, Amelia Rules! (Renaissance)
Todd Klein, Justice, Simon Dark (DC); Fables, Jack of Fables, Crossing Midnight (Vertigo/DC); League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier (WildStorm/DC); Nexus (Rude Dude)
Lewis Trondheim, “At Loose Ends,” Mome 7 & 8 (Fantagraphics)
Chris Ware, Acme Novelty Library #18 (Acme Novelty)

Okay, Gownley for best lettering too? I know this is going to look like I’m attacking him or his work, and I’m not, but sometimes having someone pulling for your book on the nominating committee isn’t necessarily a good thing… The nominations just end up looking strange when someone decides that they like your book SO MUCH that they get it nominated in every category it’s eligible for. Anyway, whatever, please don’t send hatemail. But yeah, it just looks weird to me.

But then I’m the kind of asshole that wants to see Chris Ware get the best lettering award again, so I can be safely ignored.

Special Recognition
Chuck BB, Black Metal (artist, Oni)
Matt Silady, The Homeless Channel (writer/artist, AiT/PlanetLar)
Jamie Tanner, The Aviary (writer/artist, AdHouse)
James Vining, First in Space (writer/artist, Oni)

On my ballot I selected Chuck BB, and he’s a solid choice but the more I think about it the more I realize that Jamie Tanner is doing something really different with his work, and it’s kind of unsettling and it has a lot of potential. I feel like he probably needs the special recognition a little more than the other guys…

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism
Comic Art #9, edited by Todd Hignite (Buenaventura Press)
Comic Foundry, edited by Tim Leong (Comic Foundry)
The Comics Journal, edited by Gary Groth, Michael Dean, and Kristy Valenti (Fantagraphics)
The Comics Reporter, produced by Tom Spurgeon and Jordan Raphael (www.comicsreporter.com)
Newsarama, produced by Matt Brady and Michael Doran (www.newsarama.com)

Although I didn’t like the cover, I think there’s just a consistent vision and execution with Comic Art that’s really, really impressive, and aspirational. I feel like it’s perhaps a little too esoteric at times and seeing where the magazine goes with the next issue will be very interesting. I also think the Journal has a lot of potential, if it can just get its shit together… Honestly, the elephant in the room is The Comics Reporter, because Spurgeon is doing some amazing, amazing stuff. I feel if that site was distilled down to a 300 page glossy magazine every year it’d be no contest (actually, that’s not a bad idea). But it’s not, and so…

Photo of Comic Art publisher Alvin Buenaventura at San Diego Comic Con 2007.

Best Comics-Related Book
The Art of P. Craig Russell, edited by Joe Pruett (Desperado)
The Artist Within, by Greg Preston (Dark Horse)
Manga: The Complete Guide, by Jason Thompson (Del Rey Manga)
Meanwhile . . . A Biography of Milton Caniff, by R. C. Harvey (Fantagraphics)
Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean, by Douglas Wolk (Da Capo Press)
Understanding Manga and Anime, by Robin Brenner (Libraries Unlimited/Greenwood Publishing)

This is a really, really tough category to pick because these books are miles apart from one another in terms of aims and production. It’s apples to oranges here, and so I just picked the only one I’ve read all the most of so far. Which isn’t to say that Jason Thompson’s massive manga tome isn’t deserving of a win; it’s awesome and should get all kinds of awards. But R.C. Harvey’s Milton Caniff biography is an intimidating achievement, a 900 page biography of a cartooning great that I am never going to find time to read in my entire life. Or an art book, or a photo book, or a couple books of essays. Maybe the medium is big enough for a couple of sub-categories here?

Best Publication Design
(The Complete) Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, designed by Ulrich Merkl (Ulrich Merkl)
Complete Terry and the Pirates, designed by Dean Mullaney (IDW)
Heroes, vol. 1, designed by John Roshell/Comicraft (WildStorm/DC)
Little Sammy Sneeze, designed by Philippe Ghielmetti (Sunday Press)
Process Recess 2, designed by James Jean and Chris Pitzer (AdHouse)
Sundays with Walt and Skeezix, designed by Chris Ware (Sunday Press)

I honestly think Process Recess 2 is a nicer book than the big Walt and Skeezix. I know this is heresy, but PR2 is inviting, Sundays is intimidating, and that’s where the break is. Of course, both Rarebit Fiend and Sammy Sneeze are both beautiful, beautiful books that should win awards as well. We’re lucky to live in a time when such care and attention is placed on making great books look beautiful…!

–

…and we’re done! How wrong did I get it? Feel free to let me have it in the comments section, I can take it.

- Christopher

Photo credits: Top photo of Will Eisner from http://www.montillapictures.com/. Achewood strip from http://www.achewood.com. Photo of Ed Brubaker from http://centralcrimezone.blogspot.com/2008/03/ed-brubaker-interview-by-duane.html. Chris Ware self-portrait by Chris Ware. Photo of Brandon Graham by ?? (I can’t find the attribution, contact me if this is your photo.) Photo of Takeshi Obata from http://student.nu.ac.th/deathnote/Magaka.html. Photo of Bryan Talbot by Christopher Butcher. Photo of Dave Stewart from Silver Bullet Comics, http://www.silverbulletcomics.com/news/story.php?a=542. Photo of Todd Klein by Todd Klein. Jamie Tanner @ TCAF, photo by Tugboat Press, http://www.flickr.com/photos/tugboatpress/. Photo of Alvin Buenaventura by Christopher Butcher. All book covers copyright © and trademark their respective owners.

The thing about Japan is, it’s where I’ve always wanted to go, and having been there, part of me thinks that it’s where I want to be. That’s not to say that I’m blind to the socio-economic realities of what that means; I’m aware that even the most acclimatized westerner is still gaijin, and that it would never really be my home the way Canada is. But Japan is, in many ways, the realization of many of my dreams about comics and culture, and about society as a whole. I can’t say that a day has gone by since I got back that I haven’t thought about returning. I feel like I only scratched the surface of the country during my last visit there, and despite frequently being hot, sweaty, tired, and wet (typhoon!), I was never, ever bored.

This is my last Japan Travelogue post, bringing us right to the end of my trip. The last two days marked a significant downturn in the lack of pictures taken, owing partly to the novelty of picture-taking wearing off a little, and partly due to the fact I lost the camera. Well, heh, I actually left it in the Ramen Museum overnight and had to rush back to Yokohama on the day of our flight out of Japan to pick it up.

Incidentally, I’d like to thank everyone for reading and enjoying these posts, particularly the people who’ve told me that they never had any interest in visiting Japan until visiting my blog. That means an awful lot to me, that’s why I’m here really: To Share The Joy. :)

With that, click “continue reading” to find out about my last two days in Japan.

We set out reasonably early (for us) because we had a lot to fit into our last day! I decided that we couldn’t do Tokyo without putting in at least a cursory visit to Shibuya, to the famous 6-way crosswalk most recently caught on film in “Lost In Translation” I believe.

The train station at Shibuya had an elaborate newsstand/bookstore, with plenty of advertising for forthcoming and recently released manga. It’s kind of shocking to think that popular shonen series Fullmetal Alchemist was up to volume 17 last August, with volume 17 set to be released in North America less than a year later… It was also neat to see advertising for comics, and retailers savvy enough to make a living off them.

Shibuya station had a number of neat statues, but somehow we couldn’t find the most famous one of Hachiko the dog, even though it was broad daylight. The space in front of Shibuya JR Station is an incredibly popular meeting spot, filled with pedestrians of all stripes. I felt we fit in reasonably well here, which is kind of a rarity for two hulking white dudes in Japan.

Later that evening we ended up back in Shibuya, so we decided to take another crack at finding the mythical dog, and look, he was right in front of the station (just like the real Hachiko). If you’re not familiar with Hachiko, it’s a very cute story about a dog who came to wait for his owner at the station every day at the same time. The owner, a professor at Tokyo University, eventually passed away but the dog would still come every day in the hopes that his master would be there. Bittersweet…

Meanwhile, back in the daylight… The square in front of the station was host to a large political protest! Apparently North Korea is abducting a lot of fucking Japanese, while the government is accused of being too afraid to do anything about it. Lots of faces being held up, I wonder why this isn’t more of an international issue? At any rate, this was our second or third brush with politics in the two weeks we were visiting, which was kind of interesting.

This is the big Shibuya crossing from the thick of it. We were there in a non rush-hour setting so it wasn’t as busy as normal. I was kind of hoping to be crused by a throng of people, but no dice. We did want to get a good photo of the crossing, so we went into the store with the Starbucks.

EDIT: I forgot that we took a photo of the crosswalk later that night with our cell-phone camera! Here’s a pic.

I just remembered that there was some sort of holiday some that day (you can see that the streets are blocked off in Ginza as well) so it really isn’t as busy/cool as it could be.

It turns out that store is Tsutaya, a cool-ass retailer of music and DVDs and video games… and because this is Japan, manga as well! Shown above is the large promotional effort for the soon-to-be-released (then) new Final Fantasy video game, Crisis Core. The game will be out in English later this year.

The Japanese LOVE 24, apparently. Or someone expects that they will anyway.

The best-seller wall in the music section. I can’t believe it’s been like 15 of these posts and I haven’t mentioned this, but do you know what the number-one, bestselling CD and single for our time in Japan was?

Beautiful World, by Utada Hikaru. Which just happens to be the theme song to the new Neon Genesis Evangelion theatrical films, released while I was in Japan. This song put a near-surreal Otaku stamp on almost my entire trip; it was omnipresent, playing in every store and every video screen that featured music videos. The ‘cool’ stores, the otaku stores (where you could buy the single with a limited edition Rei Ayanami slipcase), it was everywhere. Even stranger? Way bay in the late 90s, Utada Hikaru was the first J-Pop singer I ever really heard, or could identify by name (the second was Namie Amuro). We even had one of her import singles in my house (my brother owned it: he was kind of in lust with her…). Full circle.

Edit: My brother told me that I was wrong, and in fact, he was completely in love with Namie Amuro before he was in love with Hikaru Utada… I really disliked Namie Amuro’s music though, so I apparently blocked that right out of my mind. Let’s go with: Utada Hikaru was the first J-Pop music I heard that I actually liked…

So we went to the second floor to get a picture, but a hundred other people had the same idea as me (not to mention the huge lineup of folks coming to buy coffee) so we decided to skip the photo and head to the basement… for manga! A ton of manga! Coming off the escalator we walking through a section dominated by shojuo (and yaoi) material.

At this point, it’s important to note that Tsutaya had my favourite manga selection and layout of anywhere on the trip. The tightly-packed used book emporium Mandarake was absolutely amazing for a hardcore fan and I could have spent a long time digging through their collection of stuff. But the thing that really makes Tsutaya work is their merchandising, they have it down pat and the whole manga section looks like it was maintained by someone who really cared about the work… And who liked great stuff! For example:

The Taiyo Matsumoto display.

Notice the hearts. Heh, anyway, by the end of the trip I owned more-or-less everything on this display, but the one thing I had never seen before was this:

A special smaller, 4-volume edition of Matsumoto’s Sci-fi adventure series No.5 (Number Five). You can see the regular-sized editions just to the right there. Apparently the larger album-sized work was collected in a size a little bit more… digestable to Japanese manga fans, collecting two of the previous-format editions at a time (with a spiffy prisma-foil logo!). No. 5 has the dubious distinction of being “the lowest selling Viz manga of all time” but it’s really outstanding stuff, at least what I’ve read of it. I hope (hope) that it’s eventually continued here in North America… maybe a physically smaller format with fewer total volumes in the series will aid that…? Maybe? Anybody?

Another great artist-oriented display was dedicated to Naoki Urasawa, creator of Monster. This display featured everything you might want to buy from Urasawa, including every volume of his popular 20th Century Boys and its continuation (not a sequel) 21st Century Boys, so-titled to mark the passing of the millennium. I ended up picking that book on the middle-left, simply titled Urasawa, as it was a 568 page tome that collected all of his early short stories in one place for about 10 bucks. It’s really neat watching his work develop over the course of the series, and I was amazed that even though I can’t “read” the work, it’s actually pretty easy to “read” the work and follow along with what’s going on thanks to his strong storytelling skills. I can’t see this ever making it to North America, and I’m glad I picked it up while I was there!

Tsutaya also had an outstanding selection of independent and “alternative” manga, with lots of beautiful little signs recommending books to check out. I bought a few things at random here just cuz, which is a sign that your merchandising is working. Collecting all of the more unique and interesting work in one (prominently located) space? Makes a lot of sense.

More indy/alt manga, including the new edition of Hell Babies, the artbook collecting work from Junko Mizuno. I bought that one. Just to the right of Junko’s artbook is a new(ish) three volume manga series by Mizuno that I picked up as well, and it’s just as strange and cute as her other stuff… I think I read somewhere that it’s been picked up for release in North America? Maybe by JAPress. Anyway. I spent as long as I physically could flipping through these and deciding on stuff to buy, but Andrew was getting a little impatient, and rightfully so: We had to get to the Kabuki!

Goodbye Tsutaya, you’ll live in my heart forever.

Fun-fact: The JR trains have screens that show where you are on your train line, and how many minutes it is to all of the other stations near you.

These maps flip between Japanese (both Kanji and Hiragana), and English (romanji). It is fantastically easy to navigate the Tokyo train system.

It also shows you all of the connections to all of the other lines, which (helpfully) have their own colours too. Tokyo has the best goddamned transit I have ever witnessed.

We pulled into the fashionable high-end Ginza district of Tokyo. There was a giant video screen with various computer generated bodies doing aerobics, but they all had the head of a creepy old man. It was very “Creepy Richard”.

There’s a lot of money in Ginza, with the area nearest the JR station being very office- and business-oriented. We decided that we’d walk from the JR Train Station down to the Kabuki theatre to see the sights along the way. One the one hand I’m glad we did, as it really is a beautiful, and relatively “old” area of town…

…on the other hand, it was like 90 degrees outside and even in the shade, I couldn’t help sweating. Uggggh. If you just want to get to the Kabuki theatre, my recommendation is to hop on the subway from the Train Station, pay the dollar or whatever it is, and arrive quickly and coolly. But the pictures would have been much less interesting to you, I suppose.

Apparently it was some sort of holiday so many of the shops and businesses were closed for the day. This was the window display in the lobby of a high end boutique… It was absolutely incredible.

We stopped for a drink along the way, and found what I think might have been my favourite drink of the whole trip: Kirin Lemon Black. It’s like a slightly sweet carbonated lemonade with a real undertaste of ginger to give it a kick. Plus it was branded with Pirates of the Caribbean, which is something I guess? Anyway, my opinion of the drink may have been artificially inflated as I was so incredibly thirsty.

Outside one of the more exclusive-looking restaurants was this picture, of Ginza’s glamourous past. The writing on the sign says “Lunch: 7,350 yen, Dinner: 10,500 yen”. Or between 70 dollars and 100 dollars. Or so.

This little guy (used in my Valentine’s post) is one of the icons for Tenshodo, a model train and high-end jewelry maker.

So: Kabuki. Long story short, we got there and there was a two hour wait to get a chance to buy tickets. I kind of freaked out a little at the idea of waiting 2 hours to get a chance to buy tickets, to wait an hour for the show, for something I didn’t really want to see in the first place? So although we had planned to see Kabuki that day… We did not. Sorry Japan! Perhaps in the future!

We took the subway to the train station. The subway had a barber shop in it.

We went to Ramen Town! The Ramen Museum! It’s in Shin Yokohama, which is far enough away from Tokyo that it’s actually considered it’s own city (and not a suburb), but still only about 35-45 minutes away by JR train. Of course, if you’re like us and had a JR pass that let us use any train we wanted for one low price, you take the Shinkansen (bullet train) and you get there in like 8 minutes. It’s a little like taking a flight from JFK to Newark, rather than taking the subway… It’s quicker, but the locals will think you’re retarded…

On the top floor is the Raumen Museum (I’m just gonna spell it “ramen” from now on, since that’s how we spell it in North America…). Thrill to different balls of ramen!

See the different textures of Ramen!

Look! It’s cones… FILLED WITH GRAIN!

The Ramen Museum!

Heh, seriously though, the ramen museum IS really cool, because in the basement of the building is Ramen Town, a recreation of old-timey Japan that sells the best ramen you will ever eat.

So you enter ramen town and there’s one floor of old-timey buildings, a bar, games, etc. Then you descend into the lower level, and you’re surrounded by top notch ramen! The best ramen shops in Japan are invited to open up a sattellite restaurant here in Shin-Yokohama (new Yokohama) and serve their own local style of ramen. It was pretty cool.

The lamp-shades on the way down to Ramen Town were made of ramen.

It’s seriously like being in M*A*S*H* a little. You’re in these tight winding streets, there’s Japanese Enka (country) music playing over tinny speakers, and everything is perfectly recreated (except for the Japanese families wearing jeans and golf shirts). THis is the outside of a candy store, selling old-timey candy.

I really liked how they weren’t afraid to embrace the somewhat seedier aspects of the past alongside the more family-friendly ones. Gentlemen’s clubs, bars, police boxes, all of them were included in the re-creation.

That’s “Club Noa Noa” in Japanese… This was particularly neat because our hosts’ son is named Noa.

So you’re exploring and then you walk around a corner and…

It opens into the first floor, complete with painted twilight-sky.

Our friend David joined us for dinner, because even when you’re living in Japan, you can’t resist going to eat the best ramen in all of Japan.

Tourist shot.

The actual ramen restaurants were quite modest after everything we’d seen outside, but the food was pretty spectacular I have to say. I’d go back in a heartbeat, even if we had to take the regular train.

And as I mentioned, this is the point at which I forgot the camera in the ramen restaurant. Sigh. Sorry Nathalie! But I got it back in one piece, which was nice.

This took us to our last day. We needed to be at the airport by 4pm, which meant that we needed to sprint down to Shin Yokohama to pick up the camera, and then maybe poke around and find something to do for a few hours before heading to the airport. Unfortunately, we were kind of exhausted at the end of our trip, and slept in a little later than intended. We made it down to Shin Yokohama just after lunch, where our camera was waiting at the admission booth of the Ramen Museum for us. We were very happy to see it again, and the people at the museum were super cool.

So basically, we didn’t really have time to go anywhere, but we had too much time to just sit around the airport. And we hadn’t had lunch. So I decided that I would spend some of my remaining yen trying every single McDonald’s food item that was not available in North America. As a public service. Because I am willing to go to the very depths of gastronomy for you, my readers.

Clockwise from the Coke, that’s a) fries (for Andrew), b) McPork burger, c) Teriyaki McBurger, d) Tsukehime Burger (with cheese), e) Ebi Filet-O. Grand total: about $12.

The McPork Burger was actually surprisingly alright. It’s very peppery burger (made of pork rather than beef) with a peppery sweet sauce. It tasted exactly like McDonald’s food.

The Teriyaki McBurger was… pretty fucking gross. Apparently this is one of the most popular burgers at McDonald’s, but it’s just dripping with teriyaki sauce. It didn’t taste bad or anything, but I couldn’t see myself ordering this ever again… It had a reconstituted feeling to it. Tastes exactly like McDonald’s food.

Oh, the Ebi Filet-O. Ebi is Japanese for shrimp. This is basically a croquette with baby shrimp floating in it, with a flavoured mayonaise on top… or tartar sauce, or something… This is incredibly unnatural, if for no other reason than the fact that you can’t filet a shrimp, shrimp have no bones. That and there are weird texture things, where you’re eating the burger and it’s got a deep-fried croquette flavour (sort of like a less-fishy filet-o-fish), but then you encounter a whole baby shrimp and it’s differently chewy and slightly strange. The overall flavour is okay though… It tastes like McDonald’s food.

As mentioned previously on this upate, the Tsukihime Burger features a poached egg, cheese, poorly-cooked bacon, and a weird flavoured mayo… It’s only available once per year in honour of the moon festival (autumn solstice) and features an awesome package. As for how it tastes? Say it with me now… Like McDonald’s Food. I mean, sure, it all comes together in an interesting way, and it’s less offensive in texture than the Teriyaki McBurger. But it’s still not something I would want to eat all year round… or say, any other time than on a special trip to Japan…

I had already made three or four posts about my trip to Japan by the time this little McDonald’s visit rolled around, and I knew this would make for a great entry… but I still don’t recommend eating this much McDonald’s food ever. Still, when in Rome eh? And luckily I didn’t end up “paying the price” for this at all, which was great… my last meal in Japan was, fittingly, fresh sushi, which was a much better note to go out on.

So this was the end of Japan, for me, the very last photo in the camera is a smiling shot in a ShinYokohama McDonalds, just before the batteries died. I think it sums up the trip: happy, tired, slightly glassy-eyed, and full.

So, in short: best time of my life. I’d go back in a second.

Thanks to David, Kiko, Noa, and especially Andrew for a great trip.

Hope you enjoyed everything guys!

- Chris

Just as an FYI, we’re down to 5 copies left of the new edition of Tekkon Kinkreet by Taiyo Matsumoto here at The Beguiling, from our initial order of 100. So, you know, 95 copies in 5 months, not bad. I’d been slacking at recommending it lately and when I remembered it I hand-sold another 5 last week. I’m gonna try and sell out by Friday, wish me luck!

- Chris

P.S.: You really should buy it.
P.P.S.: For comparison’s sake, we’ve sold about 250 copies of Naruto Vol 15, which debuted at around the same time. At its $30 price tag though, Tekkon made us more money.
P.P.S.: I didn’t even buy a copy! Viz gave me one. :D

From Dirk Deppey at Journalista:

Dirk pretty-much missed the point, as he is wont to do anytime anyone takes the argument to him. I like his writing and he seems like an affable enough guy, but he certainly does like to pout when when anyone calls him on anything. So for the record: Scanlations are not wrong; scanlations are the wrong suggestion for a journalist looking to recommend mature manga on a newspaper’s website. As for the critic’s-choice points? Completely besides the point, again, as it isn’t about which work is more indy or arty than which, but what’s going to open up the market for similar work; The one just solicited prior to release, or the one thats a few years old with the print runs set?

“Don’t get me wrong. Matsumoto’s comic isn’t by any means a bad read — as crime-themed fight comics go, it’s an enjoyable little bit of fluff — but if you’re going to hold a book up as an adult’s alternative to Naruto, shouldn’t it be something other than a mildly more mature version of same? You don’t even need to leave Matsumoto’s own back catalog to find worthier books for grown-ups; his Blue Spring is a dark and absorbing look at teenage restlessness that satisfies in ways Tekkon Kinkreet simply can’t match. Hell, even the out-of-print No. 5, while no titan of depth or complexity itself, at least offers a wildly inventive, surreal formalism that fairly leaps off the page, somewhat elevating the two-volume series above standard genre fare. Of the three Taiyo Matsumoto works to be translated for English-reading audiences so far, Tekkon Kinkreet is actually the weakest of the lot. I hate to break it to Butcher, but I strongly suspect that Guardian readers aren’t any more likely to consider this book an interesting alternative to prose literature than they will Naruto or Hot Gimmick.”

Blue Spring sold terribly, and the two volumes of No.5 are considered by Viz to be their worst-selling books of all time. I own and love them both, but when we’re having a discussion about reaching the broader audience with work that’s more mature, and opening up the market to more of that material, holding up two books considered as sales failures by their publisher isn’t the way to go. Especially because both of those books probably sold better than the majority of Fanfare’s output. What Tekkon has going for it is a massive mainstream media push thanks to a DVD release by the creator of The Animatrix, which sold a lot of fucking DVDs. While I love Tekkon and think its of high quality and recommend the hell out of it, I also recognize that there are other works that are more literary and of higher aspirations; I’m not an idiot. But I also think that getting behind books that do have the capacity for mainstream success, making the category more profitable (or profitable at all) is more important than bemoaning our lot or sending readers out to the grey market.

Having a Beguiling employee berating me for spotlighting “low-print run books with poor bookstore distro” over comics like Tekkon Kinkreet is the single most perplexing and dispiriting way to start a week that I can imagine at the moment. By this logic, Thunderbolts is a better introduction to the possibilities offered by Western comics than It’s a Good Life if You Don’t Weaken, the latter of which cannot be found at either of the two chain bookstores closest to me — and you now know what that means.

I hope Dirk is well and truly recovered from being perplexed and dispirited, mostly because it was of his own doing. His example above is the best example of a straw-man argument I can come up with today, a few steps further afield than simple apples and oranges. If someone were doing a fall preview and I decided to push the new Thunderbolts collection instead of Shortcomings, that might be one thing, but the situation that went down was more akin to Dirk pushing those great, more-or-less out of print books that Zack Sally published (Diary of a Mosquito Abatement Man by Porcillino, and his own Recidivist) and some random shit on scans_daily… instead of the Ware-edited “Best American Comics 2007″. The latter suggestion at least has a chance to sell, and a lot to recommend it, even though there might be better books coming out… the former two suggestions are entirely irrelevant.

(Besides that point, anyone who thinks that Tekkon Kinkreet is on an even keel with Ellis’ Thunderbolts simply hasn’t read one of the two books, or either of them. Not even Ellis would make this claim.)

Finally — and I realize that it might not occur to a brick-and-mortar retailer to think of it — the books published by Fanfare/Ponent Mon are in fact available online through such outlets as Waterstone’s and Amazon.co.uk. To get you started, here are the listings for Kan Takahama and Jiro Taniguchi. For that matter, I’m sure Forbidden Planet International would be glad to sell you a book or two through their website. Welcome to the 21st century.

Hahaha… Yeah, of course. Welcome to the 21st century, us brick and mortar retailers might not be able to figure out that Fanfare/Ponent Mon’s books are available online. Whatever, I’m glad the books are available to people who want them, but those print-runs are already set, and my friend Stephen at Fanfare has made it quite clear that the endeavour is a labour of love for him, likely to continue virtually regardless of sales (though he was quite happy at JAPAN and MARIKO PARADE needing to go back for new printings, recently). When it comes to publishers with deep pockets being willing to license and publish work for grown-ups, sales are king and it makes a lot more sense to push the books that are coming out… or books that are legally available at the very least, than to not.

Anyway, I’m glad that, at the very least, I “perplexed and dispirited” Dirk enough to actually do the work and send people over to Forbidden Planet to buy some good books… I suppose sending them to The Beguiling’s Book Store would have weakened his argument that The Beguiling (or the online-since-he-was-12 representative of said brick-and-mortar retailer) had no idea about online book sales. Ah well.

I’ll keep making noise about good books that you should be buying, and even picking my battles. Wish me luck.
- Christopher

Over at SFGate.com (the online home of the San Francisco Chronicle), columnist Jeff Yang compares and contrasts the new graphic novel collection of Taiyo Matsumoto’s TEKKON KINKREET with… a Disney Cruise Lines vacation. It’s the first major press I’ve seen for the graphic novel, and while I’m tempted just to circulate a link for every single review or mention of the book, I probably won’t be doing that (I am still in Japan after all). I did want to point this column out because it’s great though, getting to one of the essential themes of the book and really laying it out in a smart, accessible way (and it’s incredibly positive too…). Apparently the book actually shipped to comic stores today (yesterday?) so I hope you’ve all already picked up your copy and are working your way through it… I also hope that after this column, the fine retailers in San Francisco feel as though they’d ordered enough copies :).

Go check out the article and lemmie know whatcha think.

- Christopher

The good folks at Viz have provided me with the details of their forthcoming release of TEKKON KINKREET: BLACK & WHITE ALL IN ONE EDITION, the all new edition of Taiyo Matsumoto’s fantastic manga. Previously released in English under the Pulp banner as BLACK & WHITE, the three-volume series was a little-seen gem from one of Japan’s most talented and innovative manga-ka. Now, in conjunction with the forthcoming animated adaptation of the story from Sony Pictures, Viz are re-releasing the entire series in one mammoth volume, in a format that even surpasses the Japanese edition of this book.

The book will be a softcover with dustjacket, similar in to Viz’s release of Matsumoto’s (unfinished) series NO.5. The above image is the front cover of the dustjacket featuring one of the series’ young protagonists, Black. The back cover (which I can’t show you, sorry!) will feature the other protagonist, White. Purists may note that this image is not the same as the Japanese cover for this edition, but fret not! Underneath the dust-jacket, the physical book will have a close approximation of the Japanese cover, shown here.

What else is in store for this edition, that will make it an absolutely essential purchase, even for people who bought it the first time? Here are the official stats on the collection:

Official title: TEKKONKINKREET: Black & White
Price: $29.95
Release date: September
Official Movie Site: http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/tekkonkinkreet/index.html
Size: 7 1/8″ x 10 1/8″, the same size as the recent re-release of Nausicaa
Orientation: Western Style, L-to-R

Bonus Material:
- Poster Insert, Measuring 7 1/8″ x 20 1/4″, in full colour
- Approximately 12 full colour manga pages. In colour for the first time in North America, and even the Japanese All-in-One edition did not feature these pages in colour!
- Foreword Q&A with TEKKON KINKREET movie director Michael Arias and screenwriter Anthony Weintraub.

This is just-about the best presentation of this material that I can think of, and the material itself is among my favourite manga ever (if not my favourite stuff). I’ve posted about Matsumoto and BLACK & WHITE before, and this September you’re going to to get your opportunity to pick it up for yourself and find out what all the fuss is about. Make sure you do!

The TEKKON KINKREET: ALL IN ONE EDITION is in Previews NOW! (the Booster Gold Cover, not the Black Canary Wedding Cover). Reserve a copy with your local comic book store owner before this Tuesday when their orders are due! Unless you shop at The Beguiling, because we’re ordering like 150 of these.

- Christopher

Thanks to the heads-up from Matt Fraction in the comments section, we now know that PING PONG the 2002 film adaptation of the Taiyo Matsumoto manga we talked about yesterday opens in New York City. Edit: It might only be playing tonight?

The New York Times reviewed the film and mentioned where it’s playing, and they seemed to really like it. Maybe you will too?

Most interesting? It’s being released by “Viz Pictures”, which strongly implies a DVD release from Viz, and if that does well, who knows? EDIT: Who knew? Apparently, Viz Pictures has a website? Check it out at http://www.viz-pictures.com/ and see the info for more screenings, in Chicago and Seattle.

- Christopher

So it occurs to me that my enthusiasm for Taiyo Matsumoto a few days back may have been met with blank, questioning stares from much of my audience. I realise I haven’t been going on quite as incessantly about Matsumoto-sama as of late, and what with the recent upswing in visitors, well… context! So, here’s some background.

Background: Taiyo Matsumoto (松本大洋) is a popular manga creator in Japan. Matsumoto started as a manga creator later in life and was originally interested in professionally pursuing sports, and specifically soccer. He spent time in Europe in his early 20s where he picked up artistic influences from graphic novel creators like Moebius, Enki Bilal, and Prado. He’s cousins with manga creator Santa Inoue, the creator of Tokyo Tribes. Nearly all of his work is published in Japan by Shogakukan, one of the parent companies of North American publisher Viz Media LLC. It is unlikely that his work will appear in North America from any other publisher besides Viz.

English Works: Taiyo Matsumoto’s work generally falls into the category of “Seinen” or “Young Men’s” manga, meaning older than the Shonen manga that totally dominates the sales charts in North America. Besides that, it’s pretty ‘artsy’ for Seinen manga, thanks largely to it’s European influences, and you add it all together and it historically hasn’t sold very well at all in North America…

Matsumoto’s first work published in North America is Black & White, which debuted in the first issue of Viz’s monthly manga magazine Pulp, a magazine dedicated to showcasing manga for an “Adult” audience. Features two homeless street urchens who beat the tar out of people while their city crumbles around them. Black and White was collected, complete, in three trade paperback editions, all of which are thoroughly out of print. You can read reviews of Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3.

Matsumoto’s next English-language work is No. 5 (“Number Five”), released straight to graphic novel by Viz in a size closer to standard-format North American comics (mirroring the Japanese collections, it should be noted). It shows deep influences by European creators in its globe-spanning science fiction story setting, but is probably the most relentlessly creative work I’ve seen from him in any language. Only 2 volumes of the 8 volume series were released in English, and they’re both out of print too, making this series incredibly frustrating to read and/or collect, despite how excellent it is. You can read reviews of Volume 1 and Volume 2.

The most recent English-language collection of Matsumoto’s work is Blue Spring, a collection of short stories about the author’s teenage years. It’s an intense collection of work, with narratives that range from traditional to very experimental. It’s mostly very early work, but it’s really very cool and luckily still in print! Here’s a review of the book.

Last year, a short story by Matsumoto entitled “Kankichi” appeared in the anthology Japan: As Viewed by 17 Creators, published by Fanfare/Ponent Mon. It’s a short folktale and very different from most of his recent work, so far as I can tell. The book is great anyway though, and worth owning. Read Jog’s review.

Adaptations of Matsumoto’s Work: Despite being fairly commercially unpopular here, Matsumoto’s work really broke through to mainstream Japanese society thanks to a film adaptation of his manga Ping Pong (not to be confused with the raunchy comedy manga/anime Ping Pong Club). It’s sort of like the Frank Miller effect, actually, where a popular adaptation funnels a huge audience into the many existing works of that creator… Couldn’t happen to a better guy. There are several adaptations of Matsumoto’s manga available in other media.

Blue Spring (Aoi Haru): Based on two of the short stories from the Blue Spring collection, the 2001 film of the same name is dark and fucked up and doesn’t end on a happy note. As their high-school society crumbles around them, a gang of teenagers start to push at the limits of their despair. I really liked it, but I wouldn’t recommend it as an introduction to Matsumoto’s work… Apparently, this got a domestic U.S. release! Review.

Ping Pong: Based on the five-volume manga series, this 2002 film explores the changing nature of friendship and heroism. It asks the question whether it’s better to love something and try your hardest, or to be the best and not care? Utterly remarkable and wonderful film, the best movie I’ve ever seen about sports and competition, and utterly accessible to people who are afraid of Japanese film. This movie did get an official U.K. release but nothing in North America. Worse still, the manga that this film is based on are fucking awesome, but not available in North America. There are scans floating around if you look hard enough. Review.

Tekkon Concrete: A 2006 animated adaptation of the series Black and White. A malevolent outside force is remaking the city in its own twisted image, and only two ultra-violent homeless boys can stop it. Pure spirit, pure strength, beautifully animated! A U.S. DVD release is planned for the fall, and the film should be hitting a bunch of digital film festivals around North America this year.

Resources: Here’s a bunch of stuff about Matsumoto I was able to dig up on the internet:

Background:
Taiyo Matsumoto profile at Lambiek: http://lambiek.net/artists/m/matsumoto_t.htm
Taiyo Matsumoto profile/bibliography: http://users.skynet.be/mangaguide/au1128.html
There was a great interview with Matsumoto online at one point, but it looks like it’s gone forever. :-/. In this thread you can see Abhay Khosla and a few other creators freaking out over how good it was, which is better than nothing: http://www.comicscommunity.com/boards/pop/?frames=n;read=24575&expand=1

EDIT: Yeah! Thanks to commenter Matthew for finding this: http://web.archive.org/web/20040803161149/http://www.inter-g7.or.jp/g2/manga/HTML/GHTML/MATIN.html

Manga:
Shogakukan’s Taiyo Matsumoto Mini-site (J): http://www.shogakukan.co.jp/taiyo/
Taiyo Matsumoto Manga available in Japanese: http://www.s-book.com/plsql/com2_writer?isbn=4091882013
Taiyo Matsumoto Japanese Manga at Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/3aerp5
Taiyo Matsumoto Manga available in French: http://tinyurl.com/284wqc

Movies:
Taiyo Matsumoto at IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1137219/
Tekkon Concrete Movie Homepage: http://www.tekkon.net/index.html

–

Hope you enjoyed this brief overview of one of my favourite manga-ka. Rush out and pick up Tekkon Concrete (Black and White) when the new all-in-one manga version is released this fall.

- Christopher

From an interview with Viz EiC Alvin Lu in today’s Publisher’s Weekly Comics Week:

“We’re looking to continue in other areas as well, like the Viz Signature line [a new line for older and more adventurous manga readers]. We’re looking to continue pushing that, and we’re looking to acquire titles this year and next. We’ve got Uzumaki and Gyo by Junji Ito and we’re excited about that. We’ve also got a new title this fall—a repackaging of Black and White [by Taiyo Matsumoto]. That’s the old title. The new title is Tekkon Concrete, which is [also] the title of the anime that will be coming out. That’s being released by Sony. It’s making the festival circuit now and will be released on DVD by fall.” - Alvin Lu.

Yes.

Alvin told me about this at New York and I (quite surprisingly) kept my big mouth shut about it. But yeah, a new edition of Matsumoto’s Black and White this fall and, if what we talked about is correct, it’ll be a single-edition, and probably in the “Phoenix” size rather than the standard-format manga size. Which is goddamned awesome. Buy it. Buy it. Buy it.

- Christopher
[Image from the Tekkon Concrete Japanese Movie Website.]