Wednesday, November 12, 2008

CHIP KIDD BAT-MANGA EVENT IN SF!

Hot news for Bay Area folks... Chip Kidd will be giving a public presentation and book signing in support of "Bat-Manga! The Secret History of Batman in Japan." The event is free to the public at 6PM on Thursday (11/12/08) at the 111 Minna Gallery in SoMa!



The Bat-Manga "cover controversy" buzzing around blogs aside, the book is an incredible and strange artifact, and my good friend Anne Ishii (ex-Vertical) did the translation for Jiro Kuwata's wild-ass manga pages included in the book. I had the luxury of attending a similar talk by Chip about the project (with Anne during MoCCA in June) and loved the presentation, unseens images and Chip's theatrical recreation of Batman vs. Lord Death Man!

Details from Last Gasp's blog:

Last Gasp is proud to host a reading and book signing with Chip Kidd for his newest book BAT-MANGA. See you Thursday, November 13 at 6pm at 111 Minna Gallery!

In 1966, during the height of the first Batman craze, a weekly Japanese manga anthology for boys, Shonen King, licensed the rights to commission its own Batman and Robin stories. A year later, the stories stopped. They were never collected in Japan, and never translated into English. Now, in Chip Kidd’s BAT-MANGA! The Secret History of Batman in Japan hundreds of pages of Batman-manga comics more than four decades old are translated for the first time, appearing alongside stunning photographs of the world’s most comprehensive collection of vintage Japanese Batman toys, courtesy of Saul Ferris.



This is the Dynamic Duo as you’ve never seen them: with a distinctly Japanese, atomic-age twist as they battle aliens, mutated dinosaurs, and villains who won’t stay dead. And as a bonus: Jiro Kuwata, the manga master who originally wrote and drew this material, has given an exclusive interview for the book.

More than a dazzling novelty, BAT-MANGA! is an invaluable, long-lost chapter in the history of one of the most beloved and timeless figures in comics. The signed, limited hardcover edition will have a distinctly different cover, full-color printed endpapers, and an amazing extra adventure written by Jiro Kuwata (not included in the paperback), about a band of rogue alien robot art thieves at large in Gotham City. Who Could possibly stop them?!

About the Author
Chip Kidd is a graphic designer and writer in New York City. His two previous books about comics for Pantheon were Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz and Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross. Both won the Eisner Award and were national bestsellers.

Author Reading
Thursday, November 13-San Francisco
6pm @ 111 Minna Gallery, 111 Minna St., San Francisco, CA 94105

2 comments:

Sophia Foster-Dimino said...

I saw this book in a store. The cover absolutely seduced me. I'm actually trying to save up money to buy it, to be honest. I guess I am not familiar with this controversy though?

Anonymous said...

Incredible!!

I am waiting for this!it has to arrive in two weeks!!

It is so bizarre and cool!really great work for kidd of looking and doing all the job to have the rights to have publish this!!

I hope others publishers learn to find books like this...

saludos...