For more than 40 years, Rumiko Takahashi has been one of Japan’s premiere manga creators. Many of her titles center around “yokai” – Japanese ghosts and monsters. While some are specifically modeled after mythical beings well-known to Japanese, some are original creations. Patrick I-W has been looking into Takahashi’s monsters for one of his comics-themed presentations, and he fills us in on his findings in this episode.
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Horror writer H.P. Lovecraft understood that it was more upsetting to let the reader imagine the horrific thing, than to actually show it. So, can one really do Lovecraft in comics effectively?
In volume 1 of his comics adaptation of Lovecraft’s H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Volume 1 (Manga)
Plugs
Kumar’s novel: Tanuja Ramachandran: Hunter-Seeker
Emmet’s short comics story: Something Wicked 2019
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This week, Critiquing Comics favorite Kristin Tipping talks about the background to Evil Witch Allie and A Book for Sad Pets. Why did her art style change on Evil Witch Allie, and why did volume two seem more confident than volume one? Why is the tone of A Book for Sad Pets so desperate? Plus, her experience in going to school to make comics, and more.
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In the manga world. Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira has Watchmen-like status. But, as with Alan Moore, the work that caused a sensation overshadows the creator’s excellent previous work. In this case, that’s Domu: A Child’s Dream, originally published in Japanese in 1980-81, and (criminally) out of print in English for nearly two decades now. In this episode, Alberto Melendez (co-creator of the recently-critiqued AntFarm) joins Tim to discuss this forgotten gem.
Review by Seth T. Hanhe on goodokbad.com
Review by Evan Krell on anigamers.com
Read Domu on super-cheesy site Kissmanga (site no longer exists 4/17/24)
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Pro basketballer Johnny O’Bryant has long been a fan of manga. But he wanted to see manga-type stories showing people of other races, with characters he could more closely identify with. So he created comics publisher Noir Caesar and hired creators to make his vision happen. Tim and Mulele talk with Johnny about balancing his two careers, his story ideas, and what’s coming next. Then, we read some of the comics and find out what the fuss is about.
See the Primus 7 video trailer
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This time we look at the second anthology from Tokyo Collective, called Monogatari. The title is Japanese for “story” and is made up of words meaning “thing” and “talk about,” and the stories in this book do indeed talk about things — things that are found in Tokyo. We discuss our favorites, and others that we found less compelling.
Also: Are America’s Big Two comics companies headed for a cliff? We look at recent articles by Matt McGloin on Marvel and DC‘s business woes, and consider what it might mean if the Big Two went under.
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How one culture perceives aspects of another culture is always interesting to observe. Our old friend Patrick Iijima-Washburn has been looking at how American comics portray ninja warriors and, conversely, how Japanese comics portray cowboys. Tim gets his observations on the matter.
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This time Tim and Mulele critique two superhero comics submitted by their creators:
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A werewolf. A female assassin. A grieving father. Varga Balint Bank and Vadas Mate’s Fallen Ones weaves their stories together in a well-thought-out way.
The Five of Us: It All Starts Here, from Sean Conway, Bangkit Myarso, Arief Reza Erlangga, and Dreadink, gives us a group of young African-American men who happen onto Power Rangers-type powers. Yeah, but what’s the actual story here?
Tim and Mulele review.
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Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto, about a school for ninja, ran from 1999 to 2014. What’s appealing about this series to kids? In this episode, Kumar asks a kid — his own 10-year-old son, Ashwin! Kumar’s been reading it himself, so father and son exchange takes on the comic, including what it was about the anime version that didn’t measure up to the manga, and Ashwin’s favorite Naruto character.
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