Saturday, February 14, 2009

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Holy crapola, look what they had at the local book shop (not comic shop)...


Pluto Vol. 1 and 20th Century Boys Vol. 1!!!

I just read Pluto and now my GF and I are about to swap manga. Pluto is... well, it's just fucking incredible. I got teary-eyed two or three times, and the translation (by Fred Schodt and Jared Cook) and editing/production is immaculate. FUCK YES, YA'LL.

Naoki Urasawa, I bow down to you :)

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Damn,amazon! Taking so long to release these volumes. I'm so jealous, dude... Happy VD-Day!!

Anonymous said...

Thems some sexy looking volumes. Time to increase the Awesome Manga Budget, I think.

Eoin Marron said...

Can't wait to get Pluto, I've read a bit of the first volume and its fantastic stuff.
I haven't read 20th Century Boys yet though, it wouldn't be something I'll be picking up too soon...

Anonymous said...

My brother and I picked up our copy of 20th Century Boys yesterday too. Viz really did a great job on it. I'm thrilled, plus they look like they're planning to publish them at a pretty fast clip as well. Kudos Viz!

JE said...

Picked those two up at the same time as Taniguchi's 'The Quest For The Missing Girl' for the manga trifecta.

From what you've said, can't wait to start with Pluto...

tomorrowboy 2.9 said...

My most recent awesome Tezuka discovery, was a collection of like 30 postcard reproductions of the covers to loads of Tezuka's early comics. If I can find a scanner I might start putting them online.

Ryan S said...

@rizzah: SF and this area has the hook-up on Viz goods... I guess having them right in town is helpful? The direct market shops don't usually get these books until later, but Books Inc (a small Bay Area bookstore chain) and Kinokuniya always get stuff about a week or weekend before other places.

@Hige: If you have to choose just one, go for Pluto... but both are definitely worth the cover price.

@m: Sorry, my Swedish friend... Hope they arrive soon!

@Eoin: Why not 20th century boys? I guess folks say it peters out in the end... I've only read the first volume (in Japanese) before getting it in English, so I can't attest whether any of that stuff is true...

@Harley: Nice! Yeah, it definitely seems like it. My buddy Kit is editing 20th Century Boys... I should ask him when they think the whole series (and epilogue, etc) will be completed in English.

@JE: Nice reading, dude. Hope you had a fun weekend on the couch!

@tomorrowboy2.5: Dang, sounds nifty. Definitely let me know if you have a gallery or flickr set of scans you want to share, I'll be happy to post :)

bittermelon said...

oh man, it made you cry? i remember when we were working with viz for tezuka and saw / heard about pluto, including the draft / proof / manuscript. it seemed amazing. glad to hear it is.

Ryan S said...

@bittermelon: Not FULL ON tears, but yeah, it totally made me a bit verklempt and quivering lip for a moment there... in two separate occasions. Alice read it too, we're both insanely and utterly hooked.

As a side note, I went back and read the ORIGINAL story that Pluto is Rosentcrantz and Guildenstern are Dead-ing (which was published in Astro Boy Vol 3, by Dark Horse)... It was quite illuminating. For instance, the Mont Blanc details (one of the main robots in Pluto Vol 1) appears in Tezuka's tale for about 6 panels. We should all talk more about Pluto once more people have read it. There is MUCH to be discussed.

Ryan!

jimpac said...

That sort of gushing praise has made me want to drop everything and go get myself a copy! Think I'll have to take a wander into town this weekend and hope the local comic spot has got what I need. I saw a copy of 20th Century Boys last weekend so here's hoping I won't be out of luck!

Ryan S said...

I am really into both books, and at very least, they were great first volumes. Jog (whose opinion I value) has said he really enjoyed 20CB but not so much Pluto. I haven't read the entire series to date, but I had a different (and more positive) experience with Pluto #1