Forum - View topicJason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - A Quick and Dirty History of Manga in the US
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Chrno2
 Posts: 6171 Location: USA |
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Wow, so many memories. I remember quite a bit of it. I remember when DH put together Studio Proteus to release manga titles. I still have quite a bit of all the Shirow titles they've released. From Appleseed to Dominion Tank Police. I remember when Marvel did the colorization of Akira. You have to admit it was their hot property at the time. I also remember during my HS days how many boys were enamored by Frank Miller's work. That was a turning point. Surely anyone his Ronin series or his 4-pt Wolverine that predates that. Never knew that manga or Japan's influence some how inspired the creation of Daredevil. and later the Elektra series. But then again look at all the stories surrounding the Wolverine mythos. Yeah, all throughout my HS years you'd hear about ninja this and ninja that. Once TMNT hit then it was whatever they could come up with to keep readers interested.
I didn't know the Shogun Warriors came out in the 80's. I thought they popped up in the late 70's. I sort of remember them during that time but don't recall them having CM time in the 80's. I remember when Mai the Psychic Girl was printed in regular comic format. There is the reprinted collective copy released later. It still in circulation but it's an old print copy. I'm actually surprised. That was early Ikegami stuff. I had never had the chance of reading it myself but knew a friend that pretty much did. Plus she liked Ikegami's work mainly because I guess his style resonated with her's as future animator. I had the chance to browse through it quickly and I guess, I can conclude they never finished publishing the rest of the series. Before this release I often wondered if the book was published fully in comic form. I remember Super Manga blast. It's funny how that one came and went. It had Shadow Star Narutaru aka Narutaru in it and while they finished it there DH didn't care enough to finish publishing it, not to mention they edited it (based on fans reactions). The problem I guess that it didn't do well enough in sales. But hell, if that was the case then what was the point of publishing up to vol. 7 when they could have killed it earlier? Now folks are stuck with an unfinished product. Now when folks talk about what was going on in Mixxzine's magazine were they referring to those immature topics. Oh the one about 'Flat Asian Booty'. Anyone that has read Mixxzine more than likely would know about the topic they did in that mag. And just like that, the magazine was dead after a few more releases. You could probably count it on one hand. But at least they did get some cool stuff out like Sailor Moon. Unless that was under TP. Boy do I remember the rage over the translations. It's interesting to go back and look at these things. I do remember US Renditions vaguely. They released quite a bit of obscure mecha shows. I remember going to Mitsuwa, (formerly Yaohan Plaza) which is located in Edgewater, NJ. The local Kinnokuniya (which has been closed down years now, I haven't been back there in a good long while as it was the reason to go over there) that graced that area; next door was a novelty shop that shared part of the space. You could go into their store and then walk through to Kinnokuniya without ever going outside. They sold a few anime VHS tapes. I happen to notice that they had a copy of Orguss. I was baffled because Orguss was a pretty old and obscure show that I had only seen screened at the CFO New York chapter during my HS days. For me this was like a license under the radar, but to others not so much as they knew more about the distribution of companies than I did. But by this time US Renditions was already close to dying if not dead already. Let's not forget CPM publishing comics based on obscure or popular adult titles like La Blue Girl under their Bear Bear Press label. Or they tried doing an Iczer-1 comic that never happened. The person who they had working on that book and the person they had working on La Blue Girl were both personal friends of mine that I knew since HS and still have ties with. I also had another personal friend that did illustrations for their title 'Demon Beast Invasion'. Their days with CPM wasn't always so bright. There was all kinds of nonsense, when dealing with their comic department. But this was probably a another division as opposed to the one in charge of publishing actually manga by the actual creators vs the comic book line. As we know they did publish Toshio Maeda's books both La Blue Girl and Urotsukidoji. I remember when Pioneer tried their hand at card games. The people on that pretty much dropped the ball. And friends that I knew who worked on the cards had to deal with issues of getting paid by a person who took off. There's always something crazy going on when get to witness how stuff goes down. Finally, Ninja HS. I always thought that was borrowing things from Urusei Yatsura. That's what someone who was a fan of that series told me based on his analysis. "It's Lum!", he'd say. I remember when that title graced the shelves alongside titles like the Fat Ninja at the nearby Forbidden Planet, that used to be located on 59 St, bet. 2nd & 3rd Avenue. It's long gone. It was pretty large, but in time it died long after I had graduated. The only one left is located near Union Sq. They had large store but they cut back on space. Having two floors. Now they're almost a closet of a store. I was kind of surprised to see how long that series lasted. Again the same friend that worked on La Blue Girl, worked on that series as well. Antarctic Press would go on to publish Ben Dunn's Mighty Tiny. Which has heavy influences of Miyazaki in it. I had also started seeing some of his movies from trades, so I could see it. I sort of recall speaking to him on that note. He was really pleased with the work, but you never saw anymore from that story. Antartic Press also published furry comics as well. One of which dealt with various social, LBGTQ issues. I discovered Fred Perry, who's worked I loved as well as everyone else. I throughly enjoyed Gold Digger. Still have my original comic issues. He would throw in everything anime/manga related while having his own personal touch. He definitely knew how to tell a story. But you have to admit his cast was huge. I'm actually impressed that he was able to keep the series running for so long. Most people do a series and then due to some problems quit. His IS the longest running series. Hell, the last issue I read of Gold Digger; Brittany got married and Brianna went to Jade to resolve the matter with Gabriel. I had lost track years later. I know that his books have been published in manga format and in onibus format. I would love to just have or own those books so I could start over and pick up where I left off. Hell, I'm surprised I remember what happened when the series first happened. That's what happens when you love a good series. More manga/anime influences, Madueira's Battle Chasers, he definitely believes in ripping off whatever is good. Adam Warren does the Teen Titans and Gen 13 as well as other books sporting his style. The Courageous Princess by Rod Espinosa. It seemed that there was a trend of the influence long before manga/anime started becoming popular. But in away it did help push things making things accessible. And yeah, now it's becoming a thing you find almost everywhere, and some wish it wasn't so anymore. But it's still happening despite us hitting a wall. Who knows where it's going to go now. It almost seems like things are almost back to normal because vintage stuff is getting printed. But who knows how long that's going to last. |
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