TWO THINGS! 1) DUDES & 2) SWORDS

Kate Beaton is a rising star of webcomics, and creator of some of the funniest comic strips of the last year. Her latest comics have been a mix of historical biographies, daily life strips about her family, and retardo parodies of other comics.

The pacing and line work of her shit is phenomenally right on, and my recent favorites involve Nikola Tesla, Garfield, and the sacking of the Lindisfarne Monastery in 793 AD, for starters.

This week she's ventured into Japanese historicity for the first time. Enjoy this AMAZING retelling of the infamous(?) Miyamoto Musashi vs.Sasaki Kojiro duel!



Background information provided by Wikipedia:
"In April 13, 1612, Musashi had his most famous duel with Sasaki Kojirō who wielded a nodachi. Musashi came late and unkempt to the appointed place — the remote island of Funajima, north of Kokura. The duel was short and Musashi killed his opponent with a bokken that he had carved from an oar while traveling to the island.

Musashi's late arrival is controversial. Sasaki's outraged supporters thought it was dishonorable and disrespectful while many others thought it was a fair way to unnerve his opponent.

UMEZU PHOTO GALLERY UPDATES!

In the past few months, UMEZZ.com has updated Kazuo Umezu's Picasa Photo Album with three new galleries of awesomeness. Have I mentioned that I love this man?

The galleries each span a recent appearance/event in Tokyo:
1) UMEZU SUPER FESTIVAL 46
2) OME☆KOBOSHI 4
3) 17TH ANNUAL TOKYO SPORTS FILM AWARDS
(Tokyo Sports is a famous daily newspaper)


Please keep in mind, you are looking at a 71 year old dude. Amazing.


From the Super Carnival, tables of Makoto-chan goods.


The entire Umezu crew gets in on the fan dance. (That's webmaster/mangaka Demerin in the pink suit + silver boots)


Umezz signing autograph boards for fans. I missed this event by only a month.. DAMN!


A photo you didn't expect, right? Kazuo Umezu shootin' the shit onstage with Beat Takeshi, at the Tokyo Sports Film Awards.


Umezu looking dapper at the post-ceremony press conference.


Our patron saint hamming it up with his award and GWASHI hand in effect.

---

MORE FROM NEW GALLERY 1: スーパーフェスティバル46


MORE FROM NEW GALLERY 2: オメ☆コボシ4


MORE FROM NEW GALLERY 3: 第17回東京スポーツ映画大賞

THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION OF A JAPANESE MANGA!

I wanted to re-post this, as I've since done more research on it and I think my update may have been buried in an after-birthday post. It turns out that one of the incredibly generous gifts I received is quite a piece of manga history.

From my buddy Ryan G, I received a first printing of the original English language edition of Barefoot Gen, Volume 1.


It was published in April 1978 by a group of Japanese and Americans called Project Gen. The book was adapted into English and published as a labor of love by anti-nuclear activists with an eye on promoting international disarmament and peace.

So.... It turns out that this was the first manga ever published in English!

From Fred Patten's Watching Anime, Reading Manga (Page 25),
"MAY 1978: The English translation of the first volume of Keiji Nakazawa's Barefoot Gen, a semi-autobiographical manga novel of a child's personal experience of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, is published in Tokyo by Project Gen for distribution in the United States by the New York City-based War Resisters League. This is the first American edition of a translated Japanese manga."


Here is the copyright page from the book.


All of the lettering is uneven and was done by hand. In an interview for the zine, I asked Fred Schodt about the earliest manga he had worked on, and he mentioned that he and Jared Cook had worked with Project Gen on Volume 2 of Barefoot Gen, and that he believed Barefoot Gen to be the first manga translated into English.

I don't know where Ryan G. managed to track this down, but it's an exceptionally awesome find (in good condition too!) and I totally treasure it as a piece of publishing history. As most of us who've read Barefoot Gen more recently are aware, Last Gasp is the current publisher for this intense and significant series, and recently published the sixth volume, Writing The Truth.

PS: If you can think of other contenders (floppies, promotional materials, etc) that would challenge this book's status as FIRST ENGLISH MANGA, I would love to hear about it. Leave thoughts and leads in the comments!

WOULD YOU LIKE A MAKOTO-CHAN TOY WITH YOUR COFFEE?

Looks like in addition to the Uniqlo madness, Georgia Coffee is now getting in on the Shonen Sunday Magazine's 50th anniversary action.

As noted on Umezz.com, a Makoto-chan figure will be among the toys packaged with cans of Georgia Emerald Mountain Blend starting this week.





Other plastic figurines (representing the same titles as the Uniqlo shirts, generally speaking) include: Lum, Conan and Ashita no Joe:


They are pretty dorky and cheap, but oddly cute toys for folks into capsule culture--my favorite detail from the Georgia Coffee site is about where you can track down a can:

"am/pm、サークルK、サンクス、スリーエフ、デイリーヤマザキ／ヤマザキデイリーストア、ファミリーマート、ポプラ、ミニストップ、その他一部コンビニエンスストア"

Can be purchased at am/pm, Circle K, Three-F, Daily Yamazaki/Yamazaki Daily Store, Family Mart, Poplar, Ministop and other participating convenience stores.

It's a veritable who's who of KONBINI royalty, haha.

DANCE! KREMLIN PALACE! by SHINTARO KAGO (CHAPTER 4)

Wanted: Cheap Manga has just posted the latest chapter of Shintaro Kago's academic tome on the history of the Soviet Union(?)-- Dance! Kremlin Palace!



Cyborg warriors from every era of post-WWII Soviet rule battle for supremacy is this ridiculous chapter. Chapter 4 also includes what may be the first depiction of Boris Yeltsin in a manga, along with Khrushchev getting butt-fucked by Castro. As Rizzah describes this chapter,

Gorbachev is the main character, lovingly referred to as Gorbie. This chapter is about the concept of Glasnost, which if anyone else went through the American school system, you’re probably as ignorant as I am. Check out this Wikipedia article to get some background (not that it really matters. Kago makes Glasnost a super power).

Click to download Chapter 4 from Wanted: Cheap Manga!


ENJOY!

UNIQLO UT STORE DISPLAYS (EPILEPTICS BEWARE)

Snatched from an amazing collection of LED signage at Japanese design site PingMag, here are some pics and videos from the Harajuku UT Store.



Uniqlo's hip boutique UT STORE in Harajuku features only limited-run t-shirts in capsules, with most (all?) priced at 1500 Yen. The store was designed by Kawashi Sato, and is quite a mesmerizing site to behold. With the ongoing Shonen Sunday Magazine's 50th anniversary celebration at all Uniqlo shops (including the New York store), they've created a stylish front display using insane LED overload.

Sunday Magazine 50th Anniversary LED crawl footage:


More footage from inside the store:


New limited edition Shonen Sunday shirts are getting adding every week, and the latest feature Pro Golfer Saru and Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo. Click the link above to check them out.

AFTER THE PARTY IS THE AFTER-PARTY [UPDATED]

[WARNING: SELF-ABSORBED POST FOLLOWS!]

I'm working on a few new posts (including an exciting one about some upcoming Same Hat community features). But these will have to wait a day or two as I get caught up after an unproductive and radical birthday weekend :)

In addition to seeing a whole slew of friends, I was lucky enough to receive a number of really unexpected and thoughtful presents on Saturday. Here are some pics of the manga-related gifts:



Volumes 1 & 2 of Umezu's Cat Eyed Boy!


I have some heavy yokai horror reading to do this week. (Thanks Kit!)


A hilarious book of 2-page gag many by Wada Radio! (Thanks Robert!)


A first printing of the English language edition of Barefoot Gen. Holy frijoles!
[[UPDATE: I've done some research and all signs point to THIS being the first ever manga published in English! WHOA!. From Fred Patten's Watching Anime, Reading Manga (Page 25),
"MAY 1978: The English translation of the first volume of Keiji Nakazawa's Barefoot Gen, a semi-autobiographical manga novel of a child's personal experience of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, is published in Tokyo by Project Gen for distribution in the United States by the New York City-based War Resisters League. This is the first American edition of a translated Japanese manga."]]


Check out that pedigree, from the copyright page!


First published in 1978, all the lettering is uneven and done by hand :) (Thanks a million, Ryan!)

Time to get cracking on reading these books! Regular posting resumes tonight.

SHAUN TAN ILLUSTRATES KELLY LINK'S NEW BOOK

Not manga-related, but I wanted to share some news that I haven't seen on other comics blogs yet. Kelly Link, one of my absolute favorite contemporary authors, has a new collection of short stories coming out this fall called Pretty Monsters. Along with a rad cover, it turns out that her book will be illustrated by Shaun Tan, author of the wordless graphic novel The Arrival!


Nifty cover design for the new book, Pretty Monsters: Stories

Kelly Link writes exciting and strange stories that chop up stupid genre demarcations (Young Adult, Horror, Slipstream) and smoosh them into a refreshing balm of awesomeness. While her writing is slightly outside of what I usually post about on Same Hat, I can't recommend it highly enough-- I think some of you guys would really, really dig it (if you aren't already fan). She makes a lot of her work available online via Creative Commons, and I strongly recommend starting out with either he new story The Wrong Grave [excerpt] or Monster [audio]. More free stories (text and audio) can be found on LCRW, home of Small Beer Press, the press run by Kelly and her partner, editor/writer Gavin Grant.


Interior illustration by Shaun Tan for Kelly's Link's story "The Constable of Abal"

I was already psyched to read this book, but now that I hear we get the added bonus of super-draftsman Shaun Tan's illustrations, I wanna stare at it too. Check this out in bookstores in October.

DISNEYLAND AUTOGRAPH BOOK (MoCCA)

For this trip, I started what will hopefully be a new tradition-- getting folks to sign my "Official" Disneyland Autograph Book. I've still never been to Disneyland, but this thing acquired from a friend is the perfect size for getting signatures and sketches... it even has a little loop to hold your pen!



IN THE AUTOGRAPH BOOK (to date):


Jessica Abel, new mom and author of La Perdida


Tom Neely, self-publishing wizard cartoonist behind The Blot


Gary Panter, king of American outsider art, painter and head set designer for Pee Wee’s Playhouse


Michel Gondry, Mr. Whimsicle & director-turned-cartoonist


Kazimir Strzepek, master cartoonist and author of The Mourning Star, is upset about the marker bleed


Lynda Barry, My absolute hero and the nicest lady ever


Michael Kupperman, the funniest cartoonist working today

HOT ASS SWELTERING MoCCA RECAP

I've just gotten back from MoCCA and thermometer-busting heat out in New York. My main agenda was to hang out with friends and meet cartoonists, pick up tons of new comics, and show off Tokyo Zombie to anyone who'd take a look. On all three accounts it was a rousing success.

Major thanks to my buddy Anne for putting me up in Brooklyn. I'm sorry I sweated on you guys' hideaway bed. And three cheers for internet friendships finally coming to real life fruition, as I finally got to hang out IRL with David (of SEIBEI) and Helene (of TOASTY) for comics, beer and karaoke fun.


Without further ado, a(nother) visual recap of MoCCA!

DAY ONE
I arrived at JFK on the swank Virgin America (thank you, purple overhead lights and live streaming Daily Show) in the afternoon, and went straight to Brooklyn. After dinner, ice cream and coffee, Anne and I checked out an in-store signing appearance by Jason at her local shop, the famous Rocketship.


Poster of Jason show in the window of Rocketship


Starting to get steamy already: the crowd in the store


One of my absolute favorite cartoonists, Jason looks somewhat like one of his tall, humane cat characters.


Making faces through the spinner rack, featuring his new collection of early comics Pocket Full of Rain.


Jason's original comic pages (in French) on the wall


Jason's everycat man drawing on the butcher paper wall


Jason singing Anne's book (with a gold paint marker, no less)

DAY TWO
We spent all day Saturday walking the floors of the con. It got to the upper-90s outside, and the fans and AC in the Puck Building struggled to keep it cool. On the 7th floor (home of small artists and unfortunate folks) there was no AC and it started to smell like beef jerky. The main floor spanned 3 large rooms and was well represented by all of Same Hat's favorite publishers.

We met up with David and Helene, saw friends like Julia (of FART PARTY) and got sweaty over a veritable cornucopia of genius cartoonists and exciting authors. (Let's see how many times I can mention the heat and sweat... can you tell I'm a wimpy Northern California whiner?)


Sweat town, USA.


Learned from Terry at NBM that a new volume of Dungeon: Monstres is in the works for later this summer. YES!


Adrian Tomine looks mildy heat-stroked (pic stolen from anne)


Part of the wide swatch of goodies at the PictureBox booth. I met the publisher Dan Nadel, who mentioned they have plans for a number of upcoming manga releases for the rest of 2008 and 2009. One of the mangaka on their list: Yoshikazu Ebisu!


Filmmaker Michel Gondry and his son Paul (in the back in the punk Gaultier outfit) are cartoonists. Both were signing their new books, released by PictureBox.


Gondry and cartoonist CF signing for fans. I think most folks may have not realized that Gondry was there, as his line was somewhat short every time we walked by the booth... Weird.


Gary Panter looks cranky but he was insanely nice and willing to chat with a dumb fan like me. I can't wait to save up and get the magnum opus retrospective on him that was just released.


Kaz is working on Mourning Star Volume 2 (YES!) and is a very nice dude. (again, pic stolen from anne)

Later we went to many many bars trying to fight off heatstroke with beer (hint: it doesn't work that well), sang karaoke and then had ice cream in Chinatown.


Evidence of intoxication: David rocking his own designs and breaking it down Scatman-style during Spin Doctor's Two Princes

DAY THREE
No respite from the heat on Sunday, we decided to hit MoCCA for a quick final bit of shopping, and also went to our one and only panel: Chip Kidd discussing the upcoming Bat-Manga! book from Pantheon he edited (and for which Anne translated these old comics). Back at the con after the talk, the basement of the Puck Building caught on fire and all of indie comic nerdom was forced out on the street by the NYFD. That was when we took off for a WBNA game at Madison Square Garden (you think I jest, but I am telling the truth).


Jason Shiga couldn't get a booth in time, so he set up a stand outside on the street (in the 97 degree heat). When the building was evacuated, guess who got a bunch of sales at his booth? THE FIRE = ACCIDENT? or ARSON?


Full house over at the MoCCA gallery where Chip Kidd's Bat-Manga! talk was held. He went over the history of Jiro Kuwata's Batman manga from the late '60s and showed off a number of pages. This is gonna be a radical book.


Chip Kidd (rocking some here unseen plaid bermuda shorts) signing the Bat-Manga sampler after his talk.


An image from Chip's blog with details on the book.


I got to meet Michael Kupperman! Since my GF introduced me to his stuff a few years ago, I've stalked down his comics religiously. He was nice enough to take the time to sign my autograph book. He also mentioned that Tales Designed to Thrizzle #4 is coming out in August and that he'd worked on a TV pilot based on Snack & Bacon for Adult Swim. YES, YES, and YES!


Aforementioned fire meant it was time to go. Luckily a meteor did not fall to the Manhattan sidewalk and wipe out the entire indie comics industry.

Next up is SF Zinefest and then the big show-- San Diego Comic-Con! Hope to see a ton of you guys there!

OBLIGATORY MoCCA 2008 COMICS HAUL PHOTOS

The Mourning Star temporary tattoos
Gekiga sampler (Red-Colored Elegy, Good-Bye)
National Waste Postal Cards by Leif Goldberg
The Mourning Star, Side Story #3 by Kazimir Strzepek
Slime Freak #7 by Carlos Gonzalez
Hey, 4-Eyes! zine edited by Robyn Chapman
Crickets #1 and #2 by Sammy Harkham
Too Cool To Be Forgotten candy cigarettes
Pocket Full of Rain by Jason
The Archer by Nate Doyle
Nerd Burglar (Sampler from Tugboat Press, Dinosaur Teenage, Sparkplug Books)
Micro-Comics from Paul Curtis


We Lost The War But Not The Battle; a revengeful story by Michel Gondry
The Goddess of War by Lauren R. Weinstein
Red-Colored Elegy by Seiichi Hayashi (Anne & I got the last two copies of their advanced previews of this amazing book. I'll post a preview later this week!)
The Crystal Depletion (and How We Tried to Stop It) by Caitlin Williams, Eric Womack, and Sarah Milinski
Folk Wars by Erin Womack
The Princes of Time by Jon Vermilyea
SNOOPee by Ken Kagami

not pictured:
Too Cool To Be Forgotten by Alex Robinson (signed for my GF)
Janes in Love by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg
Super Spy by Matt Kindt (signed for my GF)
Bat-Manga preview by Chip Kidd

PS: They had fucking DOOM on the Virgin in-flight entertainment console. WTF? I played for like 2 straight hours.

MADE IT TO NYC

Just a 30 second post to say I'm now in New York for MoCCA tomorrow. Right now, it's time to eat and then try to get Jason to sign his newest book, at this event tonight:


Let the awesome begin.

LOOKING BACK ON THE HORROR

Some of you have probably seen this already, but our friend and manga editor superstar Jason Thompson posted his thoughts on the process of adapting and editing manga. These are titles from his time working at Viz on early manga titles, and now as a freelance editor.

In addition to his OG editing cred, Jason is the author of the definitive and Eisner-award winning encyclopedia, Manga: The Complete Guide. In this column, Jason gives thought on editing not just SH favorites like Uzumaki, Jojo, and Drifting Classroom, but also YU-GI-OH! and Dragonball Z.



It's a great read, so check it out over at Comixology.

DANCE! KREMLIN PALACE! by SHINTARO KAGO (CHAPTER 3)

Wanted: Cheap Manga has just posted the latest chapter of Shintaro Kago's Russian bonanza, Dance! Kremlin Palace!



Featuring assassination plots and de-limbed, nude Russian girls as proletariat farming devices, this one was not quite my favorite, but still definitely worth checking out! As Rizzah describes this chapter,

Stalin is the hero in our newest installment. Not yet endowed with supernatural purging powers, Stalin shows off his bad-ass martial arts skills in protecting the values of communist farming! Totally NSFW, and maybe the most extreme chapter yet.

Click to download Chapter 3 from Wanted: Cheap Manga!


ENJOY!

ACTUAL COVER FOR NEW YOKOYAMA MANGA

Whoops, looks like I previously had it slightly off. From Amazon, here is the actual cover to PictureBox's upcoming release of Travel by Yuichi Yokoyama.



It's quite different from the Japanese release, but I think it's pretty great. Scheduled for release in November 2008, more details on their site.

CLIP FROM FIRST 20th CENTURY BOYS FILM

As some of you probably know, the manga 20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa (Monster, Pluto) is getting the film treatment too. Three films, in fact. The first of a movie trilogy adapting Urasawa's epic story (including the final chapter of the story, released as 21st Century Boys) will be coming out in Japan on August 30.



As Viz folks have hinted at on a few occasions, the plan is to release 20th Century Boy in English after the release of Monster has concluded. Urasawa specifically requested that they wait to serialize any new titles (including Pluto, the "Watchmen of manga" according to Carl Horn) until the current series is completed. By my count, that could theoretically mean us getting the series by mid-2009? Maybe?

I've only read the first volume (in Japanese) so far, but it's utterly fascinating, dense and exciting. I can't really do it justice, but it's a mix of SF, political thriller, coming of age story and post-apocalyptic futurism. Terrorist sects, weird interweaving plots and childhood memories, a giant robot and deadly viruses. A dude on some message board called the later sections of the series, "Pop culture reimagined as a totalitarian nightmare."

More production and cast details can be found on the 20th Century Boys official site. Enjoy this 4-minute clip, via our good friends at Twitch (the best film blog on the entire internet):

2 NEW UMEZU SHIRTS FROM UNIQLO

Great news to start the day! I read on Umezz's site that two new Makoto-chan shirts are being released by Uniqlo today, as part of their unending manga t-shirt deluge. Like the first Kazuo Umezu shirt, these are part of Uniqlo's Shonen Sunday Magazine's 50th anniversary celebration. You can see all the shirts to date here.

I wonder how soon they'll make it to the Uniqlo in New York? That would be tight to get a SABARA SKATE shirt this weekend when I'm in town for MoCCA!


A more interesting Gwashi! shirt, with the purple hand on yellow.


WHOA! A totally radical skater shirt, with Boku-chan on a board. Insane. I WANT.

TEZUKA'S MW BEING MADE INTO A MOVIE?

Hot on the heels of the successful Dororo adaptation and its already planned sequel, a film adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's dark opus of murder, priest sex and domestic terrorism has begun filming.



According to the Japanese film site, Cinema Today, the film will star Hiroshi Tamaki as the dark protagonist Yuuki, the sociopathic son of privelege who seduces everyone and schemes on taking revenge on the Japanese-US military industrial complex. Takayuki Yamada stars a Yutaro Garai, the conflicted priest who also survived the MW chemical leak as a child and alternatingly bangs and tries to murder Yuuki. Sounds awesome, although isn't Takayuki Yamada a little femme for the priest's role? I remember him with shorter hair and buffer...


(Why haven't you read this yet? Don't give me that it's an 800 page hardcover that costs 25 bucks nonsense! What kind of manga nerd are you?)

Filming of scenes in Thailand started on April 20 (probably the early MW gas leak scenes in an unspecified South Asian island), and MW is scheduled for release in Japanese theaters in 2009.

[Thanks to Nate for the tip!]

SAME HAT 2008 CON/EXPO/THINGY SCHEDULE

This coming Friday, I'll be busting out East in style (Virgin America in-flight chat room and DirectTV, here I come!) to attend MoCCA for the first time! It's a crazy short trip (Friday to Monday) but the first real big event for me of the 2008 Con/Expo/Nerdfest circuit. I thought I'd make a quick list of all the coming events and where we'll be...



Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival 2008 (MoCCA)
When & Where: June 7-8, New York
Going as: fanboy extraordinaire. I'm planning to hang out with friends Anne, David, & Helene and meet Lynda Barry, Jason, PictureBox's Dan Nadel and other people cooler than I deserve to talk to...
GOAL: Buy tons of zines, get publishers to let slip their underground manga plans and show off the dummy copy and proofs of Tokyo Zombie!

SF Zinefest
When & Where: July 19-20, San Francisco
Going as: skeptical but spendaholic purveyor of the finest local zines and minis.
GOAL: I'm actually gonna be in the Midwest for a family wedding, but Evan will probably maybe attend and snatch up some new comics, talk up Electric Ant and whatnot.



Comic-Con (SDCC)
When & Where: July 24-27, San Diego
Going as: Pseudo-exhibitors with Last Gasp (We'll be there for the debut of Tokyo Zombie by Yusaku Hanakuma, and to show off advance copies of Electric Ant #1 on the side)
GOAL: Get as many people as possible interested in the manga and debut preview copies of the complete, final product. High-five Johnny Ryan and other big time cartoonists. Also, try to find a hotel room and not have to sleep on the floor in nowheresville, CA.



Small Press Expo (SPX)
When & Where: October 3-4, Maryland
Going as: I have no idea. I hear that tables sold out a few weeks ago (already?). Also, gas prices and flight by then might be totally off the charts. But I hear it's actually pretty fun-- Any truth to that rumor?
GOAL: Hang out on the East Coast with the cool kids, and start a whisper campaign about our next secret project.



Alternative Press Expo (APE)
When & Where: San Francisco
Going as: Exhibitors with the Bang Gang for the third year in a row. This year's crew includes: Me & Evan, Hellen Jo, Derek Yu, Anthony Wu and Calvin Wong.
GOAL: Have the nerdiest weekend of the year hanging out for 48 hours straight with our favorite people. Selling copies of Electric Ant and checking out what our favorite cartoonists and zinesters have whipped up for this year's APE (Hellen, I'm looking at you!).

Are any of you going to any of these? If so, let me know in the comments!