March 1990 Pt.5a Manga

HOROBI. Written and illustrated by Yoshihisa Tagami. published by Viz Comics with translation by Len Wein & Matthew Allen Thorn, in 8 and then next in 7 monthly issues, form March 1990 to June 1991 (Part One 1 – 8 March 1990 to October 1990 & Part Two 1- 7 December 1990 to June 1991) . Originally serialized in Shonen Captain and published by Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co. Ltd. From 1987 to 1990.

Somehow I'd missed this Manga comic-book back in the 90's, its unmistakeable art style on the covers are a dead give away, as Yoshihisa Tagami's illustrations to any fan of 'GREY' his apocalyptic science fiction that had already been translated!

[Note: I was able to pick up the first six issues from one of my old local comic-book shops last year, only a few months ago, - sadly it too has now closed down!]

This Horror comic-book form VIZ's Preminere Comics – 'For mature readers only' shows the skill of the writer\artist in switching genres, covering such topics as; Dreams, Reincarnation, E.S.P., and of course the ubiquitous Japanese 'secret organization'.

I found VIZ's Tag-lines on each front cover quite compelling; “Enter the nightmare world of...Horobi”, “Ancint evil walk the Earth once more....”, “The terror begins when you close your eyes...”, “The time to be frightened has long since passed. Now it's time to die...”, “If he sleeps, he'll dream... If he dreams, you'll die...”, “His dreams can kill you...”

A lot story takes place at the Yobuno Biological Institute where Professor Zen Amako and his lab assistant Shuichi are involved in doing genetic experiments on amphibians, the over worked Professor is having some horrifying nightmares featuring sexually grotesque Demons that may have a connection with the deaths some local inhabitants!

As the plot progresses the legends of a 700 year old travelling poet Monk “Idari” become interwoven, in an era of great unrest from about the year 1335 these troubled times have been referred to as “the age of Demons”.

[Note: That in issue 4 it has a quick run-down of the main charters,] 

[UPDATE: Collection of issues 1 to 15 now complete.]

HOROBI 

Parts ONE and  TWO, Issues 1 to 8, and then Issues 1 to 7.

Genealogy of Manga;

"HOROBI". Written and illustrated by Yoshihisa Tagami.

"GREY". Also Written and illustrated by Yoshihisa Tagami.

Manga-in-80s-pt-4 GREY. 

"FRONTIER LINE"  Also Written and illustrated by Yoshihisa Tagami.

March 1990 Pt.4 Newtype magazine.

Returning to the first example of a Japanese Anime Magazine from the 1990's at the price of 410 Yen its import at a cost of £7.99 then and at today's 2014 value (inflation) would be £15.38 is still costly, but the wealth of illustrations and full colour artwork and its diversity of information have stood the test of time..

'Newtype' - the moving pictures magazine'. Published monthly by Kadokawa Shoten. Consisting of 180 pages (including front & back covers), #3 March 1990.

Front cover.

Contents Page (just look at the variety of subjects). 

'Patlabor' had 3 articles featured in this month's Newtype magazine.

'Record of Lodoss war' was featured over 8 pages under the title of 'The Age of Legend'.

The ever popular 'City Hunter'

The Five Star Stories' – one of my all time favourite comic-books, still not read a translation to this day!!

The Five Star Stories', what a style!

The name of this escapes me....

From the comdey 'Ranma 1/2'

'Watashi No Ashinaga Ojisan'  (My Daddy Long Legs).

CAROL

Video releases of the time!

THE OFFICIAL ART of' 'The Hakken-Den'

THE OFFICIAL ART of' 'The Hakken-Den'

THE OFFICIAL ART of' 'The Hakken-Den'

THE OFFICIAL ART of' 'The Hakken-Den' 

Yotoden (Manga).

Yotoden (Manga).

Marionette Generation (Manga).

Marionette Generation (Manga).

 That's some from Newtype March 1990.

March 1990 Pt.3 Animage magazine.

This is the third example of a Japanese Anime magazine that I will use as an introduction to show you the contents and style through a set of photos of this Japanese Anime Magazine “Animage”.

Animage Published monthly by Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd. Consisting of 212 pages (including the front & back covers). #3 March 1990 ( Volume 141).

 Front cover Noa Izumi from Patlalor.

Animage was First Published in July 1978

 Back cover (Future Boy Conan)

[Note: Animage stood out on the shelf next to the other Anime magazines as it had a hard flat spine.]

Contence Page.

 

The contents of this magazine, has not been translate by me. All I really could glean was from the few English words and the recognizable animation stills, and illustrations, and to quote a good friend of mine “We all just looked at the pictures but blimey; What pictures!! “

[Note: Little did I know at the time, that 'Animage' ran the infrequent serialization of the comic-book 'Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind' Written and illustrated by Hayao Miyazaki, one of my all time favourites!]

 ?

Devil man

Moomins

City Hunter

Bits of Artwork...

SD Patlabor!

 

Those Lovely Angels....

Well what do we have hear?!

[Note: Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd being one of the biggest entertainment publishers of their time and that they were Studio Ghibli parent company you do see Manga and novellas printed in Animage also produced as animation.]

Animage serialized the novella “I Can Hear the Sea” by Saeko Himuro as an insert (in a paper size not unlike A5). Most of us Westerners that were Anime & Manga fans did not read Japanese, so we missed out on the details of stories.

March 1990 Pt.2 Animedia Magazine

The Second example I will use to briefly show you the contents and style in this short pictorial introduction of the Japanese Anime Magazine “Animedia”.

Animedia - First Published in July 1981 by Gakken Co., Ltd. Consisting of 138 pages (including the front & back covers), #3 March 1990 (No 105).

 Front cover Noa Izumi from Patlalor.

Not being able myself to translate the Japanese details of the contents of this magazine, what you get is solely from the few English words and the recognizable animation stills, and illustrations\artwork, and that just suited me just fine back in the 1990's. This was my monthly news on Anime.On the whole it does look like Animedia focuses on TV shows.

Gdleen OVA  (Back cover advert).

[Note: After calculating from from Issue number 1 (July 1981) and back from Issue number 200 (Feb 1998) I found that March 1990 is issue number 105.]

 Types of pages.

More style and colour.

Like all Anime magazines of this time the paper size and type varied in quality and size, with glossy full colour, matt full colour, Black and white print, and sepia colour print on white background to Black on a greyish blue background.

 Different colour printing.

 Oh!  Look OVAs.

You could always find the obligatory Anime poster, Animedia's take on this freebie is not a single-sided movie size poster but two 1\4 sized posters, one 1\2 poster, and one full sized poster when fully unfolded.

Some of the main featured articles on TV shows ; Patlabor: The TV Series, Nadia:The Secret of Blue Water, and Dragon Ball Z. 

Well I did say it was a short pictorial introduction.