New issue of Action, Yes! is up. Johannes has good reasons to be excited. I'm supposed to write something on comics for the following issue. So that you don't feel completely lost, the comics I will cite as examples will be:
-Left Bank Gang, by Jason
-Hebi no Hana, by Rami Efal (it's a webcomic and it's free)
-Demo, by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan
-probably an old school Euro-comic (Spirou, Tintin or something along those lines, depending on what I can find on my library)
Nothing Japanese (yet) as I haven't found anything interesting (published in the American market). There are a lot of interesting things, I'm sure, but it's not going to do any good if you have to pay 45 dollars for a comic you can't read (although, if you want to give it a shot, try kinokuniya. They have a store in Japantown, on Geary if you live in San Francisco).
-Left Bank Gang, by Jason
-Hebi no Hana, by Rami Efal (it's a webcomic and it's free)
-Demo, by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan
-probably an old school Euro-comic (Spirou, Tintin or something along those lines, depending on what I can find on my library)
Nothing Japanese (yet) as I haven't found anything interesting (published in the American market). There are a lot of interesting things, I'm sure, but it's not going to do any good if you have to pay 45 dollars for a comic you can't read (although, if you want to give it a shot, try kinokuniya. They have a store in Japantown, on Geary if you live in San Francisco).
Comments
I should probably be delivering this in my geekiest Geek Voice, so …
[geek voice] Dude, I can’t believe you haven’t found even one interesting Japanese comic in English-language translation. Okay. Okay. Okay, hold on. [Takes a huge hit from his albuterol inhaler]
So where was I? Oh, right. Here’s a few names and titles from my own comics shelf—do you already know this stuff? If not, OMOM (“Oh Man Oh Man”):
Junji Ito. Great horror comics artist. His best work is the Uzumaki series (which is published in three separate volumes). OuBaPo comics artist Matt Madden turned me on to this, I’m guessing because it entails an interesting constraint: every death has to be associated with spirals. So it’s kind of the equivalent of an OuLiPoan horror comic, except much more visceral and terrifying than that sounds. Uzumaki was made into a film, which is nowhere near as freaky as the comic, but which is pretty great fun nonetheless.
Yoshihiro Tatsumi, The Push Man and Other Stories and Abandon the Old in Tokyo, from 1969 and 1970 respectively, and just out in English from Drawn & Quarterly. Great post-war gritty realism.
Kazuichi Hanawa’s Doing Time. Autobiographical comic detailing the three years he spent in prison. I love this book. See: http://shaenon.livejournal.com/38670.html
Junko Mizuno. Everything translated into English by her is great: Hansel & Gretel, Cinderalla, Princess Mermaid, and Pure Trance. Don’t be fooled by the titles.
Kazuo Umezu. This guy has become enormously popular in the US in the last couple of years, and there are a LOT of recently translated comics from him. The Drifting Classroom is a classic, and my personal favorite of his work. Also great are the Scary Book series and Orochi Blood. See: http://umezz.com/en/index.htm
Suihiro Maruo. One of the sickest artists on the planet, and one of my personal favorites. (I picked up about 25 of his books while in Tokyo a couple years ago.) Two English translations, both out of print, but easy to find on eBay or Abebooks.com: Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show and Ultra-Gash Inferno. See: http://www.woodenmen.org/maruo
Usamaru Furuya’s Short Cuts 1 and 2. Great & inventive satirical comics.
Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama’s The Four Immigrants Manga. Historically important as most likely the first published comic distributed in the United States. Originally in Japanese and English and published in Japan in 1931, then brought back to the States, where it was originally drawn. it was rediscovered a couple of years ago and translated into English. A must-have. See: http://www.jai2.com/HK.htm
[/geek voice]
also Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa about pre and post-atomic Hiroshima. it's like 13,000 pgs long, but like most manga there's few actual words so you can read it in an afternoon.
As for Junji Ito, I only saw the movie adaptation to Uzumaki, wasn't too impressed by it and decided to pass on the comic. But I'm going to give it a try since you endorse it.
As for the other names, I am not familiar with them.
I was also thinking about Tanaka Masashi's Gon, but as I understand it, it's out of print, but either Dark Horse or DC Comics might re-release it.
Oh, Mochizuki Minetaro's Dragon Head also grabbed my attention when it was serialized ten years ago in France. I think it's also available in the US.
And then there's also Vertical Books' manga offering. I'm thinking about Ode to Kirihito by Tezuka, mostly.
Johnny: Barefoot Gen? As in Hadashi no Gen, the story about a Hiroshima survivor? Yeah, I remember seeing that one also ten years ago when the CEJA (Centre d'Etudes Japonaises d'Alsace) played the movie in Strasbourg. I didn't know it was available in American translation.
I've seen some copies of GON here and there, btw ... which I've been meaning to read, myself ...
And, yes, I saw the film version of Uzumaki first, and was not impressed at the time. But, I still got the comics b/c of Matt's recommendations. They were so great I think they changed my perception of the film, which I see now as kind of intentionally campy and fun, rather than a failed horror flick ...