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Bat-Manga! (Limited Hardcover Edition): The Secret History of Batman in Japan | 
| Author: Chip Kidd
Publisher: Pantheon
Category: Book
List Price: $60.00
Buy New: $37.80
You Save: $22.20 (37%)
Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 15934
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4.1
Dimensions (in): 11 x 8.8 x 1.3
ISBN: 0375425454
Dewey Decimal Number: 741
EAN: 9780375425455
ASIN: 0375425454
Publication Date: October 28, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The two hottest genres in comics gleefully collide head-on, as the most beloved American superhero gets the coolest Japanese manga makeover ever.
In 1966, during the height of the first Batman craze, a weekly Japanese manga anthology for boys, Shonen King, licensed the rights to commission its own Batman and Robin stories. A year later, the stories stopped. They were never collected in Japan, and never translated into English. Now, in this gorgeously produced book, hundreds of pages of Batman-manga comics more than four decades old are translated for the first time, appearing alongside stunning photographs of the world’s most comprehensive collection of vintage Japanese Batman toys.
This is The Dynamic Duo as you’ve never seen them: with a distinctly Japanese, atomic-age twist as they battle aliens, mutated dinosaurs, and villains who won’t stay dead. And as a bonus: Jiro Kuwata, the manga master who originally wrote and drew this material, has given an exclusive interview for our book.
The deluxe, expanded, and limited hardcover edition has a distinctly different cover, full-color printed endpapers, and an amazing extra adventure written by Jiro Kuwata (not included in the paperback), about a band of rogue alien robot art thieves at large in Gotham City. Guess who gets called in to save the day....
More than just a dazzling novelty, Bat-Manga! is an invaluable, long-lost chapter in the history of one of the most beloved and timeless figures in comics.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
A great new perspective on Batman December 17, 2008
J. Thomason (Rexburg, ID USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm a big fan of the original Bob Kane/Bill Finger run on Batman, as well as Manga from the 60s. This book has the feel of both. It's a collection of several issues of the Batman Manga from the 60s. The stories take some of the classic villians (like Clayface) and reimagine him. The stories aren't complex, but they are a lot of fun. My only complaint is how incomplete they are. You get part one of a story, but it's missing part two. I'm sure it's just a matter of time until the whole run will be collected.
An Unearthed Treasure December 15, 2008
E. David Swan (South Euclid, Ohio USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a truly unexpected find. In the introduction Chip Kidd describes how shocked he was to discover that there had been Batman comics produced in Japan back in 1966 describing this find as a `new Holy Bat-Grail'. He presented the information to Paul Levits, the President of DC Comics, saying it was like presenting the skull of John the Baptist to the Pope. Right from the start it's obvious that Chip Kidd is more than a guy putting out some Batman material, he's a major Batman fan producing a book for fans.
I have enjoyed DC Comics for as long as I can remember but oddly enough Batman has never been one of my big favorites. In the last few years, however, I've learned to appreciate the Dark Knight particularly since of all the DC characters he tends to have the highest quality comics and movies. Jiro Kuwata's Batman has more in common with the U.S. comic from the 1940's rather than one from the Mid 1960's but they are easily distinguishable from American Batman comics regardless of the era. The stories are extremely shallow and the artwork is drawn in a very cartoony Japanese style reminiscent of the era. This is not a complaint but readers should be prepared. No one is going to mistake these books for Batman Year One or Frank Miller's Dark Knight in terms of story depth. Imagine it more as if Batman was living in the world of Speed Racer.
Chip Kidd states right up front that these stories are incomplete. The story with `Go Go the Magician' ends with Batman trapped behind a wall of ice suffocating. Still `Go Go' fares better than Dr. Faceless who gets neither a beginning nor an ending. What kind of irks me about this is that Mr. Kidd collected an equal amount of additional material to what's presented after he began preparing this collection for publishing. According to Mr. Kidd this additional material will be published if Bat-Manga sells well enough. But this sounds like a real problem because in order to complete the stories the next book would need to have the beginning of the Dr. Faceless story and the conclusion and the reader would have to go back to this book for the middle portion. Yikes.
So let me get down to brass tacks and tell you exactly what's in this book. There are five stories spanning multiple issues. The first one features Clayface (the only actual Batman villain to put in an appearance. This story is missing its ending. Next up is Lord Death Man, a character with no apparent counterpart in DC Comics. This story is complete. Following Lord Death Man is `Go Go the Magician', a near clone of the Weather Wizard including WW's "weather wand", physical appearance and origin. As mentioned earlier Go Go is absent an ending. Dr. Faceless is vaguely similar to Two-Face if both sides of Harvey Dent's face had been destroyed. Poor Faceless gets neither a beginning nor an ending. Perhaps as a homage to Gorilla Grodd, Karmak is an ape who temporarily gets the intelligence of a brilliant scientist. This one is missing its beginning but it's pretty easy to get the gist of what's going on. The final story, about a politician who transforms into a hyper powerful mutant, is entirely complete. So 40% of the stories are complete and one story has enough that most readers won't miss the beginning. Not so bad. Also, there are no breaks in the stories so except for beginnings and endings so the continuity is complete.
I suspect the reason the publishers pushed this collection to market before collecting all the material is because they were so anxious for people to see it. This is one of those products that feels like a labor of love more than an opportunity to turn a quick dollar. It's nicely sized for the material with all sorts of images of quirky Japanese toys and art of Batman spread throughout the book. They even produced the book in its original Japanese right to left layout. It's a really neat book that someone could stick on their coffee table without feeling silly. I just wish they could have waited to collect more material.
A glorious collection December 3, 2008
Ryan Bonneville (Arlington, VA)
I wouldn't say these stories are any good - they really aren't - but they are rambunctious and joyous and campy in all the ways you want Batman manga from the 60s and 70s to be. Some props are certainly to be given to Mr. Jiro Kuwata, who took a distinctly American icon and recast him as a Japanese superhero. Not always successfully, mind you, but with creativity and aplomb that any creator would love to have. If Tezuka was the Japanese version of Jack Kirby, then maybe Kuwata was Chris Claremont or David Byrne.
The real story, of course, isn't the manga itself, but rather the work Chip Kidd put into this. His collection of material was clearly painstaking; this is comics research at its finest, and it's clearly the proverbial "labor of love". The result is a marginally complete (some chapters are missing, leaving gaps in the story or, in one very notable case, leaving it completely unclear how Batman escapes death by asphyxiation in a giant block of ice) tour of some really strange stuff. And the giant oversized hardcover format certainly makes this a candidate for the single-most attractive book published this year in any genre. Any fan of Batman, manga, or the history of pop culture would be extremely well-served by this book.
 "Ka-Pow" Japanese style December 2, 2008
armchairinterviews.com (Minnesota)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In 1966, Shonen King and Shonen Gaho were two weekly comic anthologies that wanted to capitalize on the new U.S. Batman TV shows that were being broadcast in Japan. They commissioned manga master, Juro Kuwata to write and illustrate Batman stories for the Japanese public. Forty years later, Chip Kidd and Anne Ishi have translated these forgotten stories.
Tales include:
The Terrible Clayface Encounter
Lord Death Man
Go-Go the Magician
While I enjoyed all stories, my personal favorite was Professor Gorilla because of its neat storyline and the moral at the end.
Interspersed are photos of Batman collectibles such as: a tin Batmobile, posters, mask and figurines. There's also an interview with Juro Kuawta. Some interesting trivia from that interview: his scheduling didn't allow him time to work on Superman so he was thrilled to be able to do work on Batman, his goal was to write stories that were realistic and would appeal to readers of all ages, and his home address was printed in some of the margins of the comics!
These stories were a lot of fun to read. Since these tales are originally produced in Japanese, the book reads from right to left. The panels are numbered so you can keep track of the storyline. Some of the graphics "bleed" because the panels were photographed from the original books. This look adds a neat dimension; I agree with Chip Kidd that the effect is reminiscent of wood-block painting. The characters look Japanese and the villains are cunning and ruthless. Never fear because Batman and Robin are just a phone call away!
With the holiday season quickly approaching, I think Bat-Manga! would be a great gift for Batman and/or anime fans. The plot keeps moving and even reluctant readers will enjoy the text and graphics. An added perk is that as I was reading this book, I had the old Batman theme song and sound effects, "Ka-POW!" as background music.
Armchair Interviews says, Bat-Manga! is a must have for collectors.
Fun, visually stunning, but feels a little choppy December 1, 2008
Jeffrey M. Stein
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
The good: the manga is drawn top notch, the translation seems solid, and the visuals really hit it out of the park. The choice to go with minimal restoration of the original pages grew on me quite a bit after some initial disappointment with the idea. It turns out that it gives it a very museum-quality feel. The Japanese toys and other memorabilia here and there were also a nice touch.
The bad: I was a little disappointed that the book only contains a portion of all the original 1966/1967 Shonen King manga. This interrupts the flow of the stories, which are often missing introductory chapters or conclusions. Also, for many of the stories, the binding of the source material causes the part of the pages originally near the center of the book to become very obscured. These two complaints together make me wish the publication of this book was delayed a little until better and more sources were found. (The Shonen King books containing Batman chapters only go for about $100 ~ $200 in Japan, after all...)
That said, I'm still very satisfied with this book. Despite the flaws, it's fun to read, and I'd definitely recommend it. I only wish I knew about the hardcover before purchasing the paperback. D'oh!
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