March 1990 Pt.5b Manga

What's Michael?. Written and illustrated by Makoto Kobayashi. published by Eclipse Books (Eclipse International) with translation by Dana Lewis & Toren Smith of Studio Proteus, Sold as a single issue Graphic Album (about 110 pages), March 1990 . Originally serialized in Comic Morning Magazine and published by Kodansha Ltd. From 1985 to 1990 (Nine Volumes were published over this time.

“ The cat comic that exploded onto the bestseller lists in Japan is now available in America”

AWHAT'S MICHAEL? Is a collection short stories set in a multiverse about Michael the cat, and his interactions with food providers\owners as well as in an anthropomorphic Cat Vs Dogs world.

Toren Smith of Studio Proteus, said “it's a very funny comic.”

“WHAT'S MICHAEL? Explores the foilbies and follies of cat-fanciers, and cats, from every walk of life.!”

Toren Smith was asked by Eclipse International to try and get the rights WHAT'S MICHAEL? From Kodansha Ltd. he very sceptical as they where a huge company and that they already had a relationship with a major American Comic-book publisher, Marvel. But they turned out to be very approachable and professional. 

 

[Note: on the inside page of the Album there is printed “Special thanks to Kodansha liaison Yuda Ando.”]

At the time it was a big gamble for Eclipse and Studio Proteus to sell though a chain of book stores in the USA a funny comic-book about a cat, when one of those book store chains only bought 50 copies initially, then only a few months later ordered 500! So volume was also in the running, and all before these cute cats on the internet too!

[Note: The above information about Studio Proteus involvement was gleaned from an Interview published in Issue 22 of 'The Rose' July 1990, Anime Hasshin's club-zine – Lorraine Savage interviewed Toren Smith.]

[Note: it took some considerable time to pinpoint the month of this album's printing.]

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.

March 1990 Pt.1 Anime Hasshin.

A bit of self-indulgent trumpet blowing as we arrive at Blog post number 50!

Now the anticipation and excitement of 'EastCon 90' in April next month is so much nearer, and the conception of UK's Anime and Manga Fans looking forward with that determination and boundless enthusiasm that will become a Fandom.

What arrived by post was “The Rose” the Newsletter of Anime Hasshin number 20, and what follows is a brief overview to help you get in to the mindset of the Fans and the US\Canadian Fandom.

Front cover: “Appleseed” Fan-Art by Matt Collins.

'Editorial' Lorraine Savage reports on Kevin O'Connell's American manga poll (April 1990), with 97 responses coming from 75% of Anime Hasshin members, the results for the Top 4 favourite translated manga are :-

Appleseed,

Nausicaa,

Lum,

Outlanders. 

The Top 6 manga that fans requested to be translated are :-

Ranma ½,

City Hunter,

Saint Seiya,

Cats Eye,

Lupin,

Five Star Stories.

Lorraine Savage also reports the membership of Anime Hasshin has swelled considerably, with so many people joining after seeing the club's details in print in fanzines\magazines “Protocluture Addicts”, the CBG (Comics Buyer's Guide), and in the translated manga “Appleseed”.

Lorraine was wanted to meet a lot of members in the up-coming Science Fiction Convention “InConJunction X” (10^th. Aniveristy of the Con) running on the 29^th. Of June to 8^1st. of July (1990), and to have an official appearance of the club at the Con.

Anime reviews in the issue: Locke (the Super man) - :Lord Leon, Venus Wars, Megazone 23 – part 3, and Gunbuster. Manga reviews: Mugen-Shinishi (by Yosuke Takahashi)

One notable feature was “Is there a Laser in your future?” by Stephen McCloy. The positive outlook of the developing format of the Laser Disk in the US and in Japan, and the boon to our hobby of Anime, with its better picture quality and a longer life than VHS tape.

[Note: Anime Laser Disks are very collectable now (2014) for there quality of image, and cover artwork that has yet to make it to DVD or Blue-ray.]

“Fans can make a difference” 

Susan Triger writes to encourage fans to write to their local independent American TV stations to air the third series of “Starblazers”, and Rob Hull urges fans to write before May 1^st. 1990 to him so he can bulk send to Harmony Gold, to spur them to continue with the Television series of Robotech II: The Sentinels.

[Note: this is an old-fashioned Letter writing campaign, much like the modern Facebook and twitter campaigns of today, a grass roots approach that can gain momentum and influence companies.]

A look back at the première on the 4^th. Of February of the Fan parody “Viva La Dirty Pair” by Pine-salad Productions, the last parody was “A Fist Full of Pasta” came out a year before.

One nice touch is the inclusion of a list of “Birthdays” (March & April for this issue) on the back page.

Information on other Clubs, Fanzines, Computer Bulletin Boards, APAs (Amateur Press Association) , Classifieds Adds, Conventions, Businesses, mini synopses, Japanese vocabulary lessons. and a Members list. With plenty of Fan Artwork that were all done in a strong Black ink

[Note: on page 18 (the back page) under Clubs was the details of “Summer Side” (contact - Alec Orrock). A good fellow, and an Anime Pen-pal of mine.]

[Note: as part of the NEWS section I supplied the Addresses of two Anime Studios – Bandai and Tatsunoko Production Co. (always nice to see you name in print)]

[Note: A synopsisis a brief summary or a condensed statement of the major points of a subject (be it Anime or Manga in our case) giving a general overall view, without opinion or review.]

About this Blog.

This is the penultimate post before number 50, having started in June of 2013 (wish me luck with more of this endeavour)!

Much of my free time is spent taking photos to record what is left of my collection of mainly 80's and 90's Anime and manga memorabilia, and cataloguing them. So far I have spent many hours photographing and cropping, and dating, and for me, and I hope you the reader I find Chronology is very important, given that these memoirs I am blogging about are 24 to 27 years ago making a factual calendar of events, publications, and Fandom life!

That is one of the many reasons for the haphazard posting each month (I am working behind the scenes.) of a minimum of four post per month, add to this the “Gallery Page” & “Collections Page” & “Video Room” uploads, and it would seem to me like having a part-time job right after I finish my full-time work!

[Note: Using the simple tool of the Date\ calendar on my computer, has been a great help when it has looked like a year either side, but matching the day and its date, and the year confirm the time stamp precisely.]

April\May 2014 I was looking back at February and March in the most part. Cross referencing adverts for comic-books from Magazines, comic-books, and Fanzines has taken its time, and a little bit distracting as well. Looking in to “Animag” the US (anime & manga) magazine for its publication date, as well as the America Anime & Manga Club “Summer Side” newsletter.

My hope in retrospect though this online diary of yesteryear is that you are able to get a good idea of what it was like or at least an overview of what influenced the UK Anime & Manga Fandom that formed in 1990.