Anybody have the Bat-Manga book?

[benday-dot]

I was browsing in the bookstore yesterday and Chip Kidd's book Bat-Manga: The Secret History of the Batman Craze in Japan caught my eye.

It's available in hard and soft cover versions.

Flipping through the volume I was pretty entranced by the gorgeous pop-art look to this material. Having never heard of this stuff before, I had assumed at first that it was simply American comic book stories repackaged for a Japanese audience. But these Batman stories are actually all hidden home-grown Japanese Batman treasures.

It's definitely pre-Adams and pre-Dark Knight, and it's more of the Adam West camp-era caped crusader in evidence here. But that's fine by me. The book looks like it has a real 60's groove and authentic pop-art vibe to it.

The reproduction looks stunning. And the photos of 60's Bat toys are a real blast. I'm actually not a huge Batman fan, but I think I'm going to have to get this book.

Anybody else have this book on their radar?

[dan bailey]

I certainly do, especially now that I've discovered that the SF Book Club (which I joined a few months ago simply so I could snatch up a few comics-related works -- most notably Mark Evanier's Kirby bio -- for cheap via the introductory deal) is carrying it.

[JKCarrier]

I've been a good boy this year, so I'm hoping Santa will leave a copy under the tree. :biggrin:

It's funny -- a while back, someone on another forum posted some scans from Jiro Kuwata's "8 Man" manga. At the time, I commented that the style reminded me of 1950s-era Batman... imagine my surprise when I found out he'd actually drawn some Batman comics!

[benday-dot]

Very insightful JK.

BTW, apparently there is a bit of a flap over the omission of Kuwata's name from the cover credits.

http://myriadissues.blogspot.com/2008/11/jiro-kuwata-secret-author-of-bat-manga.html

Pantheon really did a nice job at putting this book together though, if I can competently judge from my 15 minutes or so of browsing and being a rather blown away by it all at the bookstore.

Here's hoping it lands under both our trees at Christmas.

PS... It is a book, in true manga style, that needs to be read from right to left, back to front. That will take a little for me get used to.

[Leocomix]

http://comics212.net/2008/11/07/chip-kidd-responds-to-cover-credit-controversy/

[Samurai]

I don't have the Bat-manga book, but I do have the Japanese versions of the all-new, original Japanese Spider-man mangas by Ikegami Ryoichi...

[Indigo Al]

Does Batman wear a short skirt and have super wide eyes in this collection?