I hope that Volume 1 in the title means there are going to be more of these as this is very very good. There's some really great stories in this anthology. 'Love's Bride' by Yoshihiro Tatsumi cracks me up, it's very funny and dark and was my favourite. I also really liked Katsuo Kawai and Kazuichi Hanawa. It's great to finally read full stories in English of all these manga artists I have only ever read about before. I had never heard of Toranusuke Shimada before but I really enjoyed his 'Enrique Kobayashi's Eldorado' about the strange history of a rare motorbike. Some of the other stories didn't do much for me, but they all have interesting and very varied art at least so there is always something to look at. It made me want to go and draw after I'd finished reading it so that's cool.Highly recommended to everyone.
Hi Rob,
ReplyDeleteThis is the editor of the Ax book here. By coincidence i was reading your 'Train to shangai' today here in Japan. Then searched your name to see if you are still doing comics, and saw that you like manga and made this glowing note about our Ax collection. Glad to see that you liked it - buy a copy, other folk please!
The next one coming out in this style from us (at Top Shelf Publications) will be Masahiko Matsumoto's 'Cigarette Girl'. Tatsumi's 50's early manga colleague, this book was originally published in 1974, and its his first out in english. It will be a big extension to the gekiga style books out in English. Probably summer 2013 for it.
Cheers!
Sean
Thanks Sean, I'll look out for that. Cheers
ReplyDeleterob