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.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.