Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan
Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan
I love this book. I mean I loved this book from the first minute I saw in the shop. Now that I have read it I am crazy for it, so I hope you do not mind this fully biased review.
As a fan of the mid-Sixties pop art phenomenon, the Batman TV series, I was hooked immediately by the graphics in the book. As the TV show launched in America gained worldwide popularity, the Japanese comic business wanted to capitalize on the success by releasing specifically Japanese versions of the hero. So in 1966, they gained a license to produce a Japanese language version of the caped crusader from Detective Comics.
Bat-Manga! collects those long lost stories created by Japanese Manga artist Jiro Kuwata. The artwork is like a time capsule of groovy sixties bat imagery combined with subtle Manga styling. Intermixed with the stories are wonderfully campy photographs of Japanese Batman toys and magazine pictures from the era. Editors Chip Kidd, Saul Ferris and Geoff Spear have outdone themselves with this ranging collection of Bat memorabilia that wonderfully marries one of the most popular comic characters of all time, with uber cool Manga. Read an interview with the authors here.
