Tuesday, February 16, 2010

EARLY MANGA DAYS: A CHRONOLOGY

I started compiling this list over on the site MyAnimeList, which has a cool community called "The Alternative Manga Club" that I've been posting on. Since it's a bit hard to comment on that thread without being registered, I decided to move it here. Please help fill in details below!

I'm trying to compile a chronological list (by publication date) of very early manga from Japan published in English. Specifically, I wanna list everything that was translated and published in America (or in bilingual editions in Japan, in Europe, etc) prior to the big explosion at the end of the 80s by Viz and Dark Horse, etc.

(Thanks so far to Joe McCulloch, Azraelito, pekochan, Deb Aoki, and Fred Schodt for their additions)

1971
+ Concerned Theatre Journal (CTJ), Volume 2, Issue #1


Featuring:
  • Sakura Illustrated ("Sakura Gaho") by Akasegawa Genpei   [1971]
  • Red Eye ("Akame") by Shirato Sampei [1969]
  • The Stopcock ("Nejishiki") by Tsuge Yoshiharu [1969]
Scans, downloads, and details on Same Hat


1977
+ Star*Reach #7 (January)

"The Bushi" written by Satoshi Hirota & art by Masaichi Mukaide
Great piece on Random Manga Experiments about Mukaide
Star*Reach bibliography
comics.org

1978
+ BAREFOOT GEN Vol.1 by Keiji Nakazawa

Published by Project Gen in April
Photos and details on Same Hat

+ Imagine #3 (August)
"The Spider Thread" by by Masaichi Mukaide
MyComicShop

+ Imagine #4 (November)
"The Awakening of Tamaki" written by Lee Marrs & art by Masaichi Mukaide
MyComicShop

1979
+ BAREFOOT GEN Vol. 2 published by Project Gen
From Frederik Schodt's bibliography page

+ Imagine #6 (July)
"Salvation" by Masaichi Mukaide
MyComicShop

1980
+ Heavy Metal, March issue: "Violence Becomes Tranquility" - Kaze Shinobu
+ Heavy Metal, December issue: Front Cover by Hajime Sorayama
Scans and details on Same Hat
List of full issue contents

+ Epic Illustrated #4 (Winter):
Article: "Portfolio: The Art of Shotaro Ishimori" by Gene Pelc & Archie Goodwin
List of full issue contents

+ Food Comix: "When Socrates Drinks, Everybody Drinks!," by Akira Narita with Fred Schodt and Leonard Rifas
Published by EduComics, San Francisco

1981
+ Heavy Metal, August issue: Back Cover by Hajime Sorayama
Scans and details on Same Hat
List of full issue contents

+ The Rose of Versailles Vols. 1 & 2, by Riyoko Ikeda,
Published in bilingual editions by Sanyusha in Japan

1982
+ Epic Illustrated #10 (February issue): "Heart And Steel" - Kaze Shinobu
List of full issue contents

+ I Saw It! The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima: A True Survivor's Story by Keiji Nakazawa
Published by Educomics
Wikipedia

1983
+ Epic Illustrated #18 (June issue):
"Article: The Art Of Go Nagai" - Jo Duffy
"Oni" - Go Nagai
List of full issue contents

+ Manga translated & excerpted in Frederik Schodt's Manga! Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics:
- Phoenix by Osamu Tezuka
- Rose of Versailles by Ryoko Ikeda
- Ghost Warrior by Leiji Matsumoto
- Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa

+Bilingual edition Urusei Yatsura by Rumiko Takahashi
Published by Shogakukan, at least 3 volumes were released
Listing on Bunkoudo

1984
+ Epic Illustrated #26: "Landed" - Keiichi Koike
Scans and details on Same Hat

1985
+ RAW v. 1 n. 7
Edited/published by Françoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman
Featured an insert of Yoshiharu Tsuge's "Red Flowers"
along with comics by Terry Yumura; Yosuke Kowamuro; Sugiuro Shigeru;
Indy Magazine article by Bill Kartalopoulos

1986
+ Golgo 13 No. 1: Into the Wolves' Lair by Takao Saito
+ Golgo 13 No. 2: Galinpero by Takao Saito
+ Golgo 13 No. 3: Ice Lake Hit by Takao Saito
All published by Lead Publishing

1987
+ Golgo 13 No. 4: The Ivory Connection
Published by Lead Publishing

+ Samurai Son of Death by Sharman DiVono & Hiroshi Hirata
Published as Eclipse Graphic Novel #14
My Comic Shop listing

+ Legend of Kamui by Sanpei Shirato
Published by Eclipse/Viz starting in May
eBay listing

+ Mai the Psychic Girl by Kazuya Kudō & Ryoichi Ikegami.
Published in May by Eclipse/Viz
Covers and details on Same Hat
eBay listing

+ Area 88 by Kaoru Shintani
Published by Eclipse/VIP
eBay listing

+ Lone Wolf & Cub by Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima
Published in May by First Comics
eBay listing

+ Xenon by Masaomi Kanzaki
Published by Eclipse/Viz
MyComicShop

1988
+ Cheval Noir #1 (comics magazine)
"Angel Fusion" by by Keisuke Goto and Hiroyuki Kato
Published by Dark Horse

+ Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo
Published by Epic Comics
eBay listing
Background on publication history
Same Hat post about Steve Oliff's color guides

+ Mazinger by Go Nagai
Published by First Publishing
MyComicShop

+ Dirty Pair by Haruka Takachiho
Published by Eclipse Comics
eBay listing

+ Appleseed by Masumune Shirow
Published by Eclipse Comics
eBay listing

+ Outlanders #1 by Johji Manabe
Published by Dark Horse / Studio Proteus
eBay listing

+ Justy by Tsuguo Okazaki
Published by Viz
MyComicShop

+ Crying Freeman by Kazuo Koike & Ryoichi Ikegami
Published by Viz
MyComicShop

+ Pineapple Army by by Kazuya Kudo & Naoki Urasawa
Published by Viz
MyComicShop

+ Good-Bye and Other Stories by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
Published by Catalan Communications
(A "semi-legal" book, translated from Spanish into English by Catalan)

1989
+ Rumic World by Rumiko Takahashi
Published by Viz
Issue 1: Fire Tripper
Issue 2: Laughing Target
MyComicShop

+ Lum #1-8 by Rumiko Takahashi
Published by Viz (May - December)
MyComicShop

+ Baoh by Hirohiko Araki
Published by Viz
MyComicShop

+ Panorama of Hell by Hideshi Hino
Published by Blast Books
Noted by Fred Schodt as the first manga published "unflipped" in English

+ Cyber 7 by Shuho Itahashi
Published by Eclipse Comics
MyComicShop

+ Golgo 13 #1 - The Impossible Hit by Takao Saito
Published by Lead Publishing
eBay listing

+ Dominion #1-6 by Masamune Shirow
Published by Eclipse
MyComicShop

1990-1991
+ Golgo 13 #2: Hopper the Border
Published by Lead Publishing

+ RAW v. 2 n. 2
Edited/published by Françoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman
"Oba's Electroplate Factory" by Yoshihiro Tsuge

+ Black Magic #1-4 by Masamune Shirow
Published by Eclipse
MyComicShop

+ Monkey Brain Sushi: New Tastes in Japanese Fiction
Published by Kodansha International
Features: 38 page manga by Michio Hasauchi called "Japan's Junglest Day."

+ Grey by Yoshihisa Tagami, published by Viz [eBay]
+ Lost Continent by Akihiro Yamada, published by Eclipse [eBay]
+ Hotel Harbour View by Natsuo Sekikawa & Jiro Taniguchi, published by Viz [MyComicShop]
+ 2001 Nights by Yukinobu Hoshino, published by Viz [MyComicShop]
+ Saber Tiger by Yukinobu Hoshino, published by Viz [MyComicShop]
+ Shion Blade of the Minstrel by Yu Kinutani, published by Viz [eBay]
+ Cobra by Buichi Terasawa, published by Viz [MyComicShop]
+ Horobi, published by Viz [MyComicShop]
+ What's Michael by Makoto Kobayashi, published by Eclipse [MyComicShop]

NEEDS TO BE CONFIRMED/DATED
MANGA 1984
- Front cover by Hajime Sorayama
- Two Warriors by Hiroshi Hirata
- Down Time by Yosuke Tamori
- The Mask of the Red Dwarf Star by Yukinori Hoshino
- Olai Portfolio by Noriyoshi Olai (illustrations)
- Watermelon Messiah by Otomo Katsuhiro (wordless)
- Midsummer Night's Dream by Lee Marrs & Keizo Miyanishi
- The Great Ten by Noboru Miyama
- Schizophrenia by Youji Fukuyama
- The Promise by Masaichi Mukaide
- Cat in Animation by Masayuki Wako (wordless)
- Back cover: Hiroshi Hirata
This book was published in Japan and exported to America. This 88 page book contains color and B&W entries.
Complete analysis and descriptions by Job on the Savage Critic blog

1977: Star*Reach #7 includes a story by Satoshi Hirota/Masaichi Mukaide

Ostensibly, the first English "Manga" was Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama's "The Four Immigrants" comics, created in the 1920s while he was living in the United States. These comics were translated by Frederik Schodt and published by Stone Bridge Press in 1998
Further reading on Fred Schodt's site

MORE READING:
+ "Manga: Another SF/F Trend Missed by SF/F?" by Cynthia Ward (published in Locas Online)
Cynthia states in this article (among other great tidbits):
Eclipse/Viz followed these titles with several SF manga (Appleseed, Cyber 7, Cosmo Police Justy, Dominion, and Xenon: Heavy Metal Warrior).

+ The Age of Fake Manga - a fantastic collection of American comics created in the 80s that mimicked the style of manga, including: Ninja Funnies, The Fat Ninja, Eagle (a ninja comic unrelated to the Sawaguchi political manga), Shuriken, Mecha, Gigantor & Speed Racer remakes, Metal Bikini, and Rion 2990. CHECK THIS OUT!

ABOUT PUBLISHING TSUGE IN RAW:
From Indy Magazine article by Bill Kartalopoulos
Mouly: We did go see all of those people while we were in Tokyo in 1983, so we managed to find out about them even before we went... We also very very early on made contact with Kosei Ono... Kosei Ono is a book critic, and a writer, and a scholar of comics and he's the one who put us in touch with Tsuge and, a really smart guy. So we basically made connections with the right people.

It's the only time that Tsuge published outside of Japan. He just won't allow it. He let it happen with a book that just came out in France this year, ten years later. It was basically because Kosei Ono vouched for us, and Tsuge gave us permission for "Red Flowers." And of course we had to do it as an insert. He didn't want it blown up in Raw, and he liked the idea that it would have its own format, that he would be presented. The reason that he doesn't want to be published anywhere else is that he contends, and I can see, if you read his books you can understand what he means, that if you truly want to understand his work, you have to go move to Japan, learn Japanese, and then you can understand his books.

Karasik: The translations that I did of Tsuge's remarkable tales remain the Raw work of which I am proudest. My close pal, Akira Satake, who is one of the best banjo players in the world and quickly becoming one of the best ceramicists, as well, was familiar with Tsuge's work and would do a rough translation of the story. Because he and I are so close, even though I do not understand Japanese, I was able to take his translations into vernacular English while retain what I believe and hope is the intonation and intention of Tsuge's original work. Footnoting the "Red Flowers" was Art's bright idea. It gave us a way of explaining the sound-effects, inflection and subtleties inherent in the original Japanese which would be lost to Western readers.

Mouly: It turned out that Tsuge loved the idea of having footnotes, we loved the idea of having footnotes. It was nice, we liked the idea of a comic strip with footnotes. It slows down the reading, which was the same project that we had as well.

PLEASE ADD ANY ADDITIONS IN THE COMMENTS AND I'LL UPDATE THIS POST! Adding images today.

46 comments:

Rick K. said...

I was going to bring up "Rion 2990" until I did a little bit of Google research on it, and realized that it was actually made in the USA.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/terrible2z/2737214628/

Cut me a little slack... I don't think I've read that book since 1988 or something...

Ryan S said...

@Rick: Dude!!! What is this business? I'd never heard of this comic but it looks oddly amazing. This can be part of a parallel effort: First OEL manga ! I think this might win for being before Toren Smith's DIRTY PAIR.

thanks for sharing this gem!

tomorrowboy 2.9 said...

Good-Bye and other stories - (Catalan Communications, 1988)

Illegal Tatsumi book published by a legitimate publisher! Translated from Spanish.
Most of the stuff has been reprinted in the more recent books, but there was an insane story about a dead baby in a sewer with a different art style that I don't think has been seen in English otherwise?
I lent my copy to a coworker and never got it back!

Rick K. said...

I actually bought a copy in 1986... might even still have it in a long box at my dad's house.

The comic is very reminiscent of Astro Boy, and the style of art is extremely close to Osamu Tezuka.

I want to say I saw a copy of issue #2 once... not sure if they ever finished all 4 issues... this was during the great glut of black and white indie comic books of the mid 80s.

Ryan S said...

Was going to add ROBOTECH II: SENTINELS but realized it was created by Americans-- the Waltrip brothers

Azraelito said...

Lost Continent!

Brilliant manga of Akihiro Yamada that was serialized in six comics. The publisher was Eclipse and it was in 1990!

The three first graphic novels of viz in 1990 were Hotel Harbour View by Natsuo Sekikawa and Jiro Taniguchi, Saber Tiger by Yukinobu Hoshino and Shion blade of the minstrel by kaoru shintani!!

Saludos

keep up the good work!

Julia said...

Also early Viz: 2001 Nights, Grey, Justy.

Do the Star Blazers ones count? They used the animation cells as the artwork.

I really wish I had access to my full comics collection. I had a lot of these early manga.

Ryan S said...

@Azraelito: Thanks for the suggestions! I'll track those down on eBay and add them to the list. It gets really complicated around 1990 as the first boom starts-- thanks for your earlier help with the pre-90s magazine publications.

@Julia: Thanks! I dunno about 2001 Nights, but Grey was first published in Spring of 1990 so it definitely counts as early in the chronology. Please keep adding suggestions as you think of them :)

Azraelito said...

-Checking mycomicshop I forgot some!!

Baoh in 1989 viz!!

series of 8 comics!!

http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=117831

-2001 nights in 1990 viz!!

series of 10 comics!!

-Cobra in 1990 viz!!

12 comics!!

http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=122701

-Crying freeman 1988 viz!!

http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=123931

-Horobi 1990 viz!!

http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=134491

-Horobi 1990 part two viz!!

http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=134501

http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=159921

- Justy 1988

8 comics

http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=134501

-PINEAPPLE ARMY GREAT MANGA OF kazuya kudo and urasawa!! it was in 1988 viz!!

10 comics

http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=145661

And that is all for Viz!!

I hope this has helped!!

Saludos otra vez!!

Azraelito said...

Cyber 7 from shuho itahashi from 1989 and from eclipse

first series 7 comics!

second series alias second boo two: rockland!!

http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=124111http

//www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=124121

1990 of eclipse, first books of makoto kobayashi!!

http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=162891

-1987 xenon by masaomi kanzaki in eclipse

23 comics

http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=164421

-the best site of eclipse!!It has all the work that has been published, like the one I post about heavy metal and epic illustrated!!

check radio boy the first parody manga by chuck dixon and friends!!

http://www.luckymojo.com/comicswarehousea.html

I think that is all for me!!

No more links and mangas come to my mind or knowledge!!

have fun with this!!

Saludos

Ryan S said...

@Azraelito: Amazing contribution!! Thanks so much for all this great information. Adding it in to the site now. Tonight I'm gonna take some time to add pictures to beef up this post.

BTW, i thought you might like this post if you hadn't seen it already:
http://hokutonofogie.blogspot.com/2010/02/twenty-five-years-fights-kenshiro-all.html

Unknown said...

Mangajin which started in 1990 (I think, my first issue is v1 #6 which is dated 12-90), had several titles to help teach Japanese. They started serializing the original Galaxy Express 999 in v1 #6. Same issue also has chapters from Pocket Story by Mori Masayuki, Tanaka-kun by Tanaka Hiroshi, and Dai-Tokyo Binbo Seikatsu Manyuaru. I have more issues if you're interested.

Unknown said...

The Captain Harlock comic is more like an OEL. It was drawn by Ben Dunn, not Leiji Matsumoto.

Ryan S said...

@phoenix.fire: Oh nice, I had totally forgotten about Mangajin though now i remember it pretty fondly from later in the '90s. I'd be interested in adding items from its first year of publishing (1990) to this list.

Good catch on Captain Harlock! I didn't realize it was (like Robotech) a "tribute" remake by americans and not a licensed title first published in Japan. Updating accordingly!

Thanks!

Connie C. said...

There's a Mazinger manga from 1988 published by First Publishing. It was apparently created for the American market, but it was drawn by Go Nagai and translated from Japanese, so I don't know if you want to add that or not. It's pretty rad.

Also... oops, a bit later than I thought, but how about the Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past manga drawn by Shotaro Ishinomori? Ran in Nintendo Power in 1992, then was collected in 1993. It was created for the American market, again, and it's a bit after what you have here, but it might be suitably obscure.

Dunno how precise you wanted to be, but the dates in the Viz Spectrum editions are: Saber Tiger May '91, Shion September '90, and Hotel Harbor View October '90. Xenon is also a Eclipse/Viz comic (you can see the Viz logo in the lower right corner on the covers at MCS). The collections are straight-up Viz Top graphic novels, or at least the fourth one from 1992 is.

My roommate has a ton of Star Reach comics, I'll dig through them to see if I can find that 1977 story you mentioned.

This is an amazing list, by the way, and that's an incredibly interesting anecdote about Tsuge at the bottom. Thanks for going to the trouble of compiling all this. I'm really interested in old, obscure manga published in English, and there's a number of things here I'm going to have to pick up.

Ryan S said...

@Connie: Thanks for all those great additions and tidbits! I'm gonna do some legwork now and find those listings and update the page accordingly :)

Please report back any other cool findings!!

It sounds like our interests are cut from the same cloth-- My plan is with another 5-6 hours of research this post/page can turn into a complete resource for everything related to the first decade of Manga publishing in English!

Unknown said...

Couple more from Viz when they were Viz Communications. Fire Tripper and Laughing Target as well as Lum came out as comics in 1989-90. I also remember Mermaid Forest coming out after Fire Tripper and Laughing Target. The last two can be found on eBay.

Ryan S said...

@phoenix.fire: Thanks for those! Just added the two Rumic World issues and Lum #1-8 to the 1989 section of the list :)

Anonymous said...

2001 Nights is by Yukinobu Hoshino and was first published by Cadence Books in 1996: http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?gns=y&pubid=24651

There are a number of Cadence titles there, actually, so that might give you more leads.

The horribly coloured-in Silent Möbius manga from Viz also seems to be stirring some memories, but I can't confirm the publisher or date (looks like 1999-2003?).

victorm said...

Don't forget Dark Horse's "Cheval Noir."

Cheval Noir #1 (8/89) has a sixteen page story by Keisuke Goto and Hiroyuki Kato. It was called "Angel Fusion."

Cheval Noir #24-26 serialized a story by Masashi Tanaka called "In Dreams."

Cheval Noir #40-4 had another story by Tanaka, entitled "Demon."

Ryan S said...

@fluffyduck: Thanks for that intel! Good to know about 2001 Nights-- I think mid-to-late '90s is more recent than I'm going for in this list... there's so much cool stuff coming out around that time that I will defer to Jason Thompson's Manga: The Ultimate Guide for those titles. But keep me posted if you think of stuff from that era, I just updated the list.

Ryan S said...

@victorm: Thanks!! I will add that first issue of Cheval Noir. I was just looking at the covers on eBay last night and thinking about trying to buy some of those books. So many interesting artists from the late-80s and early-90s.

Many thanks for your help!

Azraelito said...

2001 nights was first published in viz in 1990. It was a maxi series of 10 numbers! Please dont correct that info.

here..

http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?q=2001+nights&pubid=&PubRng=&GrdRng=

Cadence was the responsible of publishing that in three volumes with an introduction of fred burke!

Saludos

Ryan S said...

@Azraelito: Oh nice! A manga history flamewar! (not really...)

This is fun for me, to learn all this from you guys. Just re-added 2001 Nights to the 1990 section :)

Thanks!

Ryan S said...

HEY ALL! So I just took my lunch break to go to Book Buyers near my office. It's a silicon valley used book shop, which has a TON of manga tankobon, and early Viz issues. A certain Viz editor's father used to live & work near the shop, so gems from Viz history show up all the time-- like the entire run of PULP for a buck an issue, etc.

I just stopped by and, using this list as my guide, found some GEMS. Issues were .95 cents and the TPBs were 2 bucks (I know):

+ Rumic World #1: Fire Tripper

+ Grey #1

+ Mai the Psychic Girl #1-6, featuring 3 essays in a series called "The Manga Story" by Fred Patten, Fredrik Schodt, and James Hudnall

+ Area 88 #1-3

+ Barefoot Gen Vol.2, the New Society Publishers edition with essays by Fred & Jared

+ Shuriken #1-8 of 1985 OEL original

Ryan S said...

@Azraelito: BY THE WAY, I grabbed a copy of AREA 88 #1 to send you as a small thanks :)

Azraelito said...

Yeap more stuff!!

1976- Star Reach Productions

Imagine number 3

"The Spider Thread." Inspired by Atutagama's short story. Story and art by Masaich Mukaide.

http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=552761

Imagine number 4

The Awakening of Tamaki, a b&w Asian fantasy written by Lee Marrs with art by Masaichi Mukaide

http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=552761

Check this one please, apart from the manga story. It has a story written by Paul Levitz(publisher of dc) and Steve Ditko, that is really great!!!

Imagine 6

"Salvation" a 2 page, humor/religious story by M. Mukaide;

http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=552761

The three stories are really nice, the art is incredible! Mike Friedrich is also the responsible for the book of manga that metroscope published. He was really an avant garde publisher, when no one was ever thinking of japanese authors, he decided to publish things!! Very cool!! If I found the interview were he explains things, I will post it!

Saludos

Ryan S said...

@Azraelito: Thanks for these great additions. I wasn't familiar with Imagine before this--- As you can tell, European-inspired anthologies from the late-70s/early-80s is a big blind spot in my comics education, so this has been great for me to learn! I spent some time finding issues of the UK anthology TABOO last year (where Charles Burns, Jodorowsky, FROM HELL were published) but never this or EPIC before this conversation started.

I'm gonna try to slowly order and track down these things!

I just added one more to the list Star*Reach #7 with confirmed Mukaide story. In the bibliography I linked to there you can see that person claiming that story as the first even manga in english :)

Keep sharing the goodies as you find them! Thanks again!

Azraelito said...

I love anthologies!!

Ja ok, there are a lot of incredible anthologies that you must read!! Epic Illustrated is a great one to start!

Taboo is very difficul to find and very expensive. The only number I would buy is the one were there is an interview to jodorowsky and he is talking about the dune movie. There is art of moebius that is incredible. There are numbers with neil gaiman and michael zulli doing sweeney todd. There is stuff from bissette, veitch, eddie campbell and others!!

the checklist

http://www.enjolrasworld.com/Richard%20Arndt/Taboo.htm

more things!!

The new comics anthology published by collier books, has the first story of suehiro maruo and it is from 1991.

http://www.amazon.com/New-Comics-Anthology-Daniel-Clowes/dp/0020093616/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266632842&sr=8-1

Checking dreamland japan of fred schodt!!

Food comics 1 of educomics has a story done by akira narita without sex!!

Apart from this, I have found something very cool. They released a limited book of shigeru mizuki in english that included five great stories of him. This one was never sold publicly. It was in 1993, I know it doesnt have anything with this, but the info was cool!

Mangajin are 69 numbers, I dont have the checklist or the exact date of release!!

And that is all, I made an effort and keep my eyes open. Now I am really going to sleep!

Saludos

Ryan S said...

@Azraelito: hahaha, go to bed dude!

Oh yeah, Taboo-- i was really obsessed with it a few years ago, and I have issues 2-6. My girlfriend bought me a few copies at a science fiction writer's convention, and i found another few a used shop. It's not exactly my kind of thing, but I was really happy to see the Moebius stuff and a few shorts by Charles Burns that I scanned and xeroxed to decorate my wall :)

Which Maruo comic is in New Comics Anthology? It's his Michael Jackson "BAD" satire comic? That one is originally in New National Kid-- it's so stupid!!! Haha, but it's cool to see Maruo's first publication in English.

I am gonna read all the issues of EPIC I found tonight. I'm looking forward to it, especially the Go Nagai stuff. There is an early edition of Devilman that was released in English-- I think maybe a bilingual edition in Japan? I need to look it up again.

Thanks for the research help--it's like nerd wikipedia up in here. I'm gonna start digging around about that Food Comic from educomics tomorrow. Evan used to have a subscription to Mangajin, I think he has all the old issues back home somewhere.

The funniest thing I found is the manga-inspired ninja comic SHURIKEN, from Victory Press in 1986. it is so shitty looking, but it's really heartfelt and sweet. There is a nice essay in the front by the creator about how much he loves Tezuka and Leiji Matsuomoto-- i'll scan it and post it before I leave for Japan next week.

saludos,
Ryan!

Unknown said...

And the memories just keep flooding back.

Black Magic from Eclipse 1990 4 issues
http://www.mycomicshop.com/comicbooks/item?IID=4228091

Dominion from Eclipse 1989 6 issues
http://www.mycomicshop.com/comicbooks/item?IID=9494001

I can vaguely remember a Black Magic M-66 comic that I thought was from Dark Horse with a black cover and silver embossed figure of the female robot that was available around 1990, but I couldn't find it anywhere.

Ryan S said...

@phoenix.fire: oh nice! I was just looking at the Dominion trade paperback reprint earlier this week. Great addition-- just put them in the blog post list :)

Anonymous said...

hich Maruo comic is in New Comics Anthology? It's his Michael Jackson "BAD" satire comic? That one is originally in New National Kid-- it's so stupid!!! Haha, but it's cool to see Maruo's first publication in English.

I am gonna read all the issues of EPIC I found tonight. I'm looking forward to it, especially the Go Nagai stuff.

regards,
misterhex
www.animeshippuuden.com

John said...

Blast Books first published Hideshi Hino's "Panorama of Hell" in authentic right-to-left format in 1989.

The publication info page in my copy says, "First Edition 1989."

Ryan S said...

@John: Thanks! Adding that now

Leonard Rifas said...

Thanks for your list. I'm glad to see Akira Narita's appearance in _Food Comix_ remembered by Azraelito in this thread("When Socrates Drinks, everybody drinks!," by Akira NARITA with Fred Schodt and Leonard Rifas,_Food Comix/cs_,
EduComics, San Francisco, 1980.)
My one-person company EduComics also attempted to serialize Keiji Nakazawa's _Barefoot Gen_ in comic book format under the title _Gen of Hiroshima_. Gen of Hiroshima #1appeared in January, 1980; Gen of Hiroshima #2, appeared in April, 1981.

Regards,
Leonard Rifas
rifas@earthlink.net

Ryan S said...

@Leonard: Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by this thread! I have now added the Nakata reference from Food Comix!

Many thanks for all your contributions via EduComics in pioneering the English releases of these comics :) I don't believe we've met, but were both in attendance last year or so of the event where Fred was awarded the honor by the Japanese government at the Consulate?

My best!
Ryan

Victor M. said...

Hi Ryan-

Last Gasp put out a comic called "Cannibal Romance" in 1986. It has mostly underground cartoonists except for the very first story, which is eight-page short called "Warashi." The creator for that one is a "Mr. Tero."

HARUKU said...

The date listed for Barefoot gen is incorect. An condensed first english volume of Barefoot Gen was published on August 6, 1977 before the April 1978 release of the full volume in English.

Ryan S said...

@Victor: Thanks, I'll talk to my friends at Last Gasp and see if I can track down a copy

@HARUKA: I've never seen that book, do you have further details (or scans of a copy?). I'd never heard note of that release til now :)

Ryan S said...

@HARUKA: The date listed here is from the Barefoot Gen copy I have, and matches with Fred Patten's timeline in Watching Anime, Reading Manga: http://www.samehat.com/2008/06/first-american-edition-of-japanese.html

If there is an earlier edition, I'd love to confirm it (and get a copy myself)

Leonard Rifas said...

That "condensed first english volume of Barefoot Gen" sounds like the black and white sampler pamphlet that Project Gen put together to help them find an English-language publisher. That's how I discovered _Barefoot Gen_. I never owned a copy (or saw more than one of them), but it remains possible that my photocopy of that booklet may surface some day.

Ryan S said...

@Leonard: Ahhh, what an artifact that'd be--- I'll bug Fred and see if he knows anyone who knows anything too! :)

Carlo Bernhardi said...



Hello as part of my 80's and 90's UK anime fandom Blog, I have been posting what is left from my own collection of translated manga (http://anime-nostalgia-facility.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/manga-in-80s.html ) & http://anime-nostalgia-facility.blogspot.co.uk I have founf sites like www.mycomicshop.com DO NOT have the correct dates, is is best to hunt down this old Manga for the dates and you can find dated Addverts too!! May I Add your blog to my "Well worth a look"links?? Bye for now Carlo Bernhardi

WG said...

In 1991 Kodansha International published Monkey Brain Sushi: New Tastes in Japanese Fiction, edited by Alfred Birnbaum (ISBN: 4-7700-1543-7). Included were stories by Haruki Murakami, Osamu Hashimoto, Masahiko Shimada, Genichiro Takahashi and Amy Yamada as well as a 38 page manga by Michio Hasauchi called "Japan's Junglest Day."

TedAndru said...

the CTJ scans site is down. Anyone have the files?