Toren Smith

One-man anime scene Toren Smith has passed away. Mr Smith and his publishing company Studio Proteus, in conjunction with various other comic companies, are completely responsible for shaping mine, and many of my generation's, Japanese media tastes.

Studio Proteus was dedicated to a boutique style approach to manga translation. Pages were photographed from original elements and translated sound effects were designed by award winning comics letterers and manga artists. Studio Proteus was also committed to treating artists and manga professionals ethically. Page rates were high, royalties were paid, and original artwork often commissioned.

Thank you Mr Smith for helping to bring us Akira, Appleseed, Lone Wolf and Cub, Ghost in the Shell, Gunsmith Cats, Intron Depot, Domu, Dominion, The Dirty Pair, Metropolis, The Legend of Kamui, and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

Alexandre Aja's COBRA

News to me! Remake vandal Alexandre Aja is bringing Buichi Terasawa's cigar smoking space-cad Space Adventure Cobra to the big screen. Only another two years to wait! I should make some time and cue up Piranha 3D for homework; Aja's The Hills Have Eyes remake pushed all the right nasty buttons. Image courtesy of Premiere.Fr

Holy Bat-Culture!

Out at the end of October is this bizarro cultural artifact: Bat-Manga! The Secret History of Batman in Japan. Unfortunately it's not a tell-all pulp sleazer chronicling Bruce Wayne's hopped up days gun running with yakuza in Nagasaki (curses!), instead we get oodles of long-thought-lost Shonen King Dark Knight manga.

Printed from 1966 to 67, and principally drawn by jailbird 8-Man (Japan's first cyborg hero!) co-creator Jiro Kuwata, Shonen King's Batman ran in tandem with the hugely popular Adam West biffer show. Why all new stories? Apparently the licence to reprint US Batman material had been granted elsewhere. Plus! Typical DC world greatest detective tales do not fit your young-teen Shonen aspirational remit. Action clone or bust! Read much more here - an interview with book compilers Chip Kidd and Saul Ferris.

Bat-Manga! The Secret History of Batman in Japan is out October 28th. Expect all-new peculiar villains.