#IReadsYou Review: AKIRA VOLUME 1

AKIRA, VOL. 1

KODANSHA COMICS

MANGAKA: Katsuhiro Otomo

TRANSLATION & ADAPTATION: Yoko Umezawa; Linda M. York; Jo Duffy

LETTERS: David Shmit/Digibox, Editions Glenat, Digital Chameleon, Dark Horse Comics

EDITORS: Koichi Yuri (original); Naoto Yasunaga; Takeshi Katsurada

ISBN: 978-1-935-42900-5; paperback (October 13, 2009)

368pp, B&W with some color, $24.99 U.S., $29.99 CAN

Rating “OT Ages 16+”

First published in Japan in Young Magazine (December 1982 to June 1990), the manga Akira, created by Katsuhiro Otomo, is not unfamiliar to American audiences.  Many are probably familiar with the animated film adaptation of Akira, co-written and directed by Otomo.  After a short theatrical release beginning in 1988, the Akira anime has been available on VHS, DVD, and later Blu-ray.

Marvel Comics, under its Epic Comics imprint, first published the Akira manga in English as a 38-issue, full-color comic book series, and later reprinted those issues in 10 trade paperbacks and also in six hardback volumes.  Dark Horse Comics would later publish a new translation of Akira in six volumes (2000-2002), similar to the Japanese six-volume tankoubon (book collection of manga) series.

Kodansha Comics, the American subsidiary of Japanese publisher, Kodansha, the original Japanese publisher of Akira, is bringing the series back to North American readers.  Akira, Vol. 1 once again welcomes readers to Neo-Tokyo, the new city built upon the ashes of Tokyo, which was destroyed by the massive blast that would start World War III.

Akira Volume 1 opens 38 years after the blast (2030 A.D.).  The lives of two juvenile delinquents, friends Shotaro Kaneda and Tetsuo Shima, are about to change forever when paranormal abilities begin to awaken in Tetsuo following a motorcycle accident.  After a shadowy agency snatches Tetsuo, Kaneda is plunged into a shadowy world of terrorists and soldiers, and the young leader of a motorcycle gang is forced to go on the run from the law.  Kaneda meets a young terrorist resistance fighter named Kei, and he becomes the target of The Colonel, the head of a secret organization conducting research on psychic test subjects.  Kaneda’s fiercest battle may be his face off with Tetsuo and his monstrous new powers.

THE LOWDOWN:  Akira was not only one of the most important manga of the 1980s; it was also one of the most surprising comic books of that decade.  Although American readers had already been exposed to visionary science fiction comics in the form of Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg!, Akira was something so much larger, both in terms of the story and visuals.  Akira was a lengthy serial narrative, and the structure of the story line not only supported a large cast of characters and numerous sub-plots (which American Flagg! had), but also extended action sequences.

Katsuhiro Otomo was able to take battle, chase, and fight scenes and extend them over several pages and even shift the scenes in which they take place from one setting or environment to another.  For instance, there is a chase of Kaneda by The Colonel’s forces that begins on an above ground staging area and moves into a series of tunnels; then a cavernous area, before going back above ground.  This all takes place over nearly 30 pages.  Although manga is told through a series of connected static (or still) images, Akira’s decompressed, graphical storytelling mimics the sense of movement of film or animation.  Readers may also experience the heightened sense of emotions and excited feelings that film can evoke.

Akira’s art also suggests the intense emotions, sensations, and passions of the characters.  These can pass onto the reader, which makes reading Akira feel like a wild ride – the kind of ride advertisements for action movies promise audiences.  Welcome back, Akira.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of Akira and of great manga will want to find Kodansha's 2009-2011, six-volume paperback editions of Akira

A+

10 of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

AKIRA VOLUME 1 is currently available in a paperback edition and also can be preordered in a hardcover edition, which arrives August 2025, via Amazon.

The text is copyright © 2025 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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#IReadsYou Review: GOGO MONSTER

 

GOGO MONSTER
VIZ MEDIA

CARTOONIST: Taiyo Matsumoto
TRANSLATION: Camellia Nieh
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Annette Roman
LETTERS: Susan Daigle-Leach
ISBN: 978-1-4215-3448-0; paperback; Rated “T” for “Teen”
459pp, B&W, $27.99 US, $36.00 CAN

GoGo Monster is a Japanese seinen manga written and illustrated by Taiyo Matsumoto.  Japanese publisher, Shogakukan, published it in a single tankōbon (graphic novel) volume in October 2000.  VIZ Media published an English-language edition of GoGo Monster as a single-volume graphic novel under its VIZ Signature imprint in November 2009.

GoGo Monster, a thick manga graphic novel by Taiyo Matsumoto (Tekkonkinkreet), takes readers into the make-believe life of a third grader.  A mystery and sleight-of-hand fantasy, GoGo Monster asks what is real and what is childhood obsession?

Third grader Yuki Tachibana lives in two worlds. In one world, our world, Yuki is a loner ridiculed by his classmates and reprimanded by his teachers for telling stories of supernatural beings that only he can see.  In the other world, these supernatural beings vie for power with malevolent spirits that bring chaos into the school, the students’ lives, and even nature itself.

In Grade 3, Class 2, Yuki is a good student, but he is preoccupied with the struggle between his good supernatural friends and the bad ones who break windows and paint graffiti on the school walls.  Makoto Suzuki is the new kid sitting next to Yuki, and although the other students warn him against this, this boy becomes Yuki’s steady companion.  Yuki also finds sympathy in Ganz, the elderly caretaker of the school’s flower and vegetable gardens and also Sasaki a.k.a. IQ, a boy who wears a large box over his head.  Makoto isn’t sure if Yuki is making up his fantasy world or not, while Ganz and IQ are cagey about what they believe.  As he becomes more withdrawn, Yuki will have to depend on the friends that stick with him – whether he realizes it or not.

THE LOWDOWN:  The answer to whether Yuki Tachibana’s claims are true or not is obvious to most readers, but the validity of this child’s fantasies are not necessarily the heart of GoGo Monster’s narrative.  The genre to which Monster is closest is not fantasy, but rather the coming of age story.  In fact, Monster is a coming of age story presented in such a fashion that the reader must be a detective – searching for the truth by discovering Tachibana’s motivations and by dissecting what little of his past is presented to the reader.  The star of the story is Yuki Tachibana and he doesn’t disappoint.

Taiyo Matsumoto’s tale mixes environmental and green metaphors and symbols which gives the story’s themes of renewal and rebirth, not only for Yuki, but also for his classmates.  What Matsumoto does best, however, is engage the reader.  Matsumoto structures the story so that the reader is constantly trying to find the truth.  The execution of this comics or graphical storytelling is such that the reader is always looking for something – a strange looking creature or a subtle movement in the face of a staff member or student at the school – that will answer a question.

You will want answers, and you will be won over by this maddening complicated child, Yuki Tachibana.  He is our surrogate into this literary world.  GoGo Monster is a monster of a read, filled with a sense of wonder about the natural world, about the supernatural world, and also about living in the real world.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of the manga of Taiyo Matsumoto will want GoGo Monster.

A-
7.5 out of 10

Revised and Posted on Friday, September 18, 2020


The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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#IReadsYou Review: CAT BURGLAR BLACK - Original Graphic Novel

CAT BURGLAR BLACK

FIRST SECOND BOOKS

CARTOONIST: Richard Sala

ISBN: 978-1-59643-144-7; soft cover, 6 x 8 1/2

144pp, Color, $16.99 US, $21.99 CAN

Katherine Westree is an orphan.  First of all, she prefers to be called “K.”  K is also a reformed teen cat burglar – that is until she has to don the old-fashioned cat burglar black body suit in the new graphic novel, Cat Burglar Black, from cartoonist Richard Sala.

Her aunt, Vivian Westree-Hopkins, has apparently invited K to visit the boarding school, Bellsong Academy for Girls, where Vivian is dean.  When she arrives at Bellsong Academy, K discovers that the school has many mysteries of its own, not least among them is a hidden treasure left behind by its founder, an ancestor of K’s.  K finds Aunt Vivian gravely ill and bedridden, while an obnoxious and disingenuous headmistress, Mrs. Turtledove, seems to run the school, with the help of a trio of henchmen.

K is the only one who really has a hope of locating the founder’s lost treasure, or at least, Mrs. Turtledove believes so.  As she resumes her cat-burglaring, now accompanied by three fellow prisoners…err…school chums, K gets closer to discovering Bell Academy’s secrets, but only some of them.  More questions about her father, Philip Westree, arise, and that makes K wonder if she’ll ever have a normal life or if a normal life is really what she wants.

Richard Sala is known for his whimsical spin on gothic storytelling in such publications as his long-running comic book series, Evil Eye (Fantagraphics Books), and the macabre fairy tale, Delphine (Fantagraphics Books/Coconino Press).  With Cat Burglar Black, Sala again mixes whimsical and gothic, dressing them in shimmering watercolors, and Voilà!, teen readers have the first Sala book aimed directly at their age group.

Cat Burglar Black is a spooky carnival ride through a haunted house and an eerie landscape, with a spunky heroine in the lead car.  Part Huck Finn and part Nancy Drew, K Westree is a modern girl hero – she looks sweet, but she’s complicated.  Resourceful, smart, and independent, K is everything that only boy heroes are allowed to be; she can be her own rescuer.  Anyone familiar with Sala’s work will recognize Bellsong Academy as the customarily creepy Sala setting.  It comes with something hiding in the shadows or around the corner or in the wall, and the exclamation, Eek!, is this environment’s soundtrack.

There is, however, something more, here.  K. Westree is so fascinating because she doesn’t apologize for her past, and only has minor regrets for the things she’s had to do to survive.  There is an air of mystery about her.  Even if some of the mysteries at the heart of this story are solved, K remains a delightful enigma, not unraveled at story’s end.  Considering that American comic book creators are generally considered poor at creating great comics for teen readers, especially girls, it is good to see that Richard Sala has no problem creating an excellent graphic novel for girls… and for boys brave enough to follow Cat Burglar Black.

A

The text is copyright © 2009 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "STITCHES" is One of the Year's Best Graphic Novels

STITCHES: A MEMOIR
W.W. NORTON & COMPANY

AUTHOR: David Small
ISBN: 978-0-393-06857-3; hardcover (September 8, 2009)
333pp, B&W, $24.95 US

When a person recounts events of which he has an intimate knowledge through his own observation or writes of his own personal life and experiences, it is called a memoir.  Readers gravitate towards memoirs of people who are famous (or infamous) or people who have at least led interesting lives.

In STITCHES: A Memoir, a new graphic novel from children’s book author, David Small, the allure is in how the story is told.  It’s not that David isn’t famous; he’s won numerous awards for his children’s books, including the 2001 Caldecott Medal for his illustrations in So You Want to be President? (written by Judith St. George).  It’s not that he hasn’t led an interesting life; his family was apparently the anti-Cleavers ("Leave it to Beaver").  But do we really need another work of fiction or nonfiction that “shatters the myth of the nostalgic and tranquil 1950s” (as the press release for this book proclaims)?  We need and want it especially if it is told with great artistry, as Stitches is.

Small was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1945.  According to what Stitches recounts, David was born into a family where free expression was forbidden, and apparently also talking in general.  The Small house, however, was not one where silence ruled just because no spoke.  Other noises could be deafening and fearsome.

David’s mother, Elizabeth, slammed cupboard doors to express her anger, dissatisfaction, and fury.  David’s older brother, Ted, hid in his room and banged loudly on his drum kit to drown out his sorrow, according to David’s account.  David’s father, Edward, a radiologist, came home from work and retreated to the basement where he hit on a punching bag to blow off steam and frustration.

Without giving away too much of the story: David developed severe health problems that led to surgery and a need for stitches.  The stitches essentially act as a bridge between David’s childhood as a prisoner in the dysfunctional Small household and his emancipation out into the larger world to pursue his dreams of becoming an artist.  Thus, David’s story can be one of childhood survival or one of redemption.

Stitches as a memoir is two things.  First, it is a recollection of events by a person who has intimate knowledge of these events because he both observed and lived them.  Secondly, it is story about a family as told by a particular member (in this case, David).  However, the story is filtered through David’s own point of view and prejudices, as well as his own lack of knowledge about the other members of his family (such as David’s ignorance of his mother’s extremely poor health).  I don’t question the validity or truth of what Small presents in Stitches.  This is simply David’s view, which is important when one considers that Stitches’ success rests not on the particulars of the story, but on how it is told.  That Small depicts childhood in his own individual or even quirky voice is precisely why this memoir can be so engaging.  David is not only telling a familiar tale; he’s also telling it in a way that makes us look again at personal triumph over obstacles with new eyes.

With fluid, loose line work, Small draws a world in black and white and ink wash that is as real and as tangible as anything a photorealistic drawing style could depict, if not more so.  Even sequences that represent dreams and flights of fancy possess a sense of verisimilitude that transmits to the readers the implication that these fantasies actually happened.  No matter what Small shows, we can believe that this story comes from real human experience rather than being the contrivance of a fictional character.

Small has done something of utmost importance in selling a memoir to his readers.  He has depicted his experiences as unique through the distinctive manner in which he tells it.  With STITCHES: A Memoir, David Small, who is not a regular contributor to American comic books, has pushed the graphic novel forward, making us once again reconsider what we can do with the comics medium.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

My original comments on this graphic novel for this blog - circa 9/8/2009:

I finally posted my review of STITCHES: A Memoir by David Small. Small won the Caldecott Medal for So You Want to be President? Revised and Updated Edition. Small may not be known for his work in comic books, but this is a major graphic novel, and I wonder if I got that point across in my review.

As much as I liked Stitches: A Memoir, I thought that there should have been more about his life after he left his parents' house at the age of 16. But if I were to use John Updike's rules of book criticism, the first thing I would have to accept is that I must consider the author's intent, and this memoir is about Small's childhood, the most critical time in his life, in terms of his development both as a person and an artist. Also, the book has a killer ending, the kind that makes a great graphic novel great.

I think that I'm just feeling discombobulated because the past few days have been so busy with personal issues that I didn't get to start working on this late last week, as I'd planned. I started writing this review this morning. Ugh!

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