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AUTHOR-Chip Kidd
FORMAT-Trade Paperback
FIRST TIME READING-No
COST-$15
I discovered manga with Eclipse comics Mai the psychic girl series.Since then I have read a few manga series.Mostly Battle Angel Alita,Akira and Ranma 1/2. So when I first heard that a book reprinting some 60s era Batman manga stories I was pretty excited.
Seems the Batman explosion into mainstream pop culture after the Adam West tv show started wasn't just a North American thing. Over in Japan once the series started airing the Japanese went Bat-nutz.Not only did they have a weekly manga series,but there was so many great toys made.
So enough history ,how is the book? Chip Kidd talks about how hard it was for him to find copies of the Batman manga stuff. So we only get two complete story lines in this trade. There is IIRC 6 story lines reprinted in here. Of course it reads back to front and right to left like all manga should. Before re-reading this I hadn't read any manga in a decent amount of time. But after a few pages I was use to reading it "backwards"To fill in the dead space on pages Kidd has so many great pictures of all the Batman toys that came out in Japan in the 60s. Most of which are made of metal. Which is nice to see,by this time in the states the switch over to plastic was already happening.
So how is the Batman manga stuff? Now you gotta remember the source material they used wasn't in the best shape. So there is some flaws in stuff. The artwork is good. It is fairly simple,But still looks good. The stories are as good as the stuff DC was putting out at the same time. With it being a weekly publication of course every 6 pages or so there is a cliffhanger. But that to me just makes it feel more like the Adam West TV show.
Overall this is a good book. My only complaint is the binding. I get the feeling that after heavy reading it might come loose. There is a hardcover version,which I am sure has better binding. But it is also $40.
Bat-Manga! by Chip Kidd gets a 4.85 outta 5.
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