Customer Reviews

Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan

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North American comic fans in the 1960's knew Batman. You could turn the TV on, and watch Adam West/Burt Ward battle crime on a daily basis. The Green Hornet entertained us for a couple of seasons too. Look at the newsstands, and we could find the comic books everywhere. Bob Kane was getting credited with artwork, but Neal Adams, Carmine Infantino, and Gil Kane were starting to change the caped crusader later in the decade.

Then there's the manga Batman I never knew existed. DC licensed Batman to Shonen King and artist Jiro Kuwata created a sensational manga treatment that is visually stunning. Not based on Bob Kane scripts, he changed elements to appeal to the Japanese audience that Shonen King had. The resulting stories are true to the nature of the strip, yet true to the manga culture that craved Batman.

Jiro brings us, courtesty of Chip Kidd, Geoff Spear, and Saul Ferris, Batman battling with Clayface, Lord Death, aliens, and Dr Denton. The art is reproduced from printed pages of the book, yet it does not detract, but adds the 40 plus year age to the stories that are still fresh. Reading them with an Adam West appearance, you can almost hear the omitted 'Holy Manga Villain Batman! It's....'!

I really like the added bonus of the Jiro interview, and photos of rare Japanese Batman collectibles. Great book for only $29.95, but spring for the signed hardcover.

Tim Lasiuta

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 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.

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.

Few things get comic book fans--not to mention hardcore Batman-lovers--more irate than the thought of the campy 1960s "Holy haberdashery!"-era Batman TV show. It took 20 years and the vision of director Tim Burton for the Batman mythos to live the campy TV show down. Surprisingly, it lived on in Japan even longer in the form of manga.

Perhaps it's the ability to look back on this time with nostalgia from the relative comfort of a time when a Batman movie is seriously discussed as an Oscar contender. Whatever it is, the massive volume Bat-Manga! is a delightful look back at a time long gone but whose presence is still felt, in comics and in the real world.

Bat-Manga! seems to be a labor of love for legendary graphic designer Chip Kidd. He's packed it full of content, given it an amazing cover, and kept it in the original, right-to-left manga format. All the material reprinted within was originally published in Japanese in a weekly anthology called Shonen King and has now been translated into English for the first time. Perhaps even more enticing are the numerous images of Batman-related toys and memorabilia from the '60s.

Considering that, these days, Batman seems to fight the Joker over and over again in his current comics, it's almost refreshingly original to see him and his boy wonder pal Robin fight robots and aliens and mad scientists. It's pure '60s zeitgeist all the way through, but it's also fun and adventurous in a way that a lot of comics have forgotten how to be.

Another favorite from this collection: The quotes, trivia, and tidbits that run along the margins of some of the pages. They helpfully explain such things as "Bruce's butler, Alfred: The one who knows Batman's true identity. He's behind the scenes but provides all kinds of assistance." Or random gems like this: "Fruit trivia: At the turn of the Meiji Era, all kinds of watermelons were brought in from America, and their prices dropped because they became so abundant."

Longtime comics fans will chuckle to see an old villain known in the States as the Weather Wizard remade in these pages as Go-Go the Magician. And silly comic-book staples like the Bat-copter make an appearance here as well. It's all in good fun.

Perhaps most impressive of all is the solid detail of the art, which is decidedly set in the '60s era but also mixes elements of the '40s and '50s in, while also using deep inks and shadings to create stark contrasts on each page. The traditional manga style of artwork that most Americans are familiar with doesn't come into play here either. Instead, these strips walk a fine line--they're certainly for kids, but they're not as corny as one might expect.

It turns out the lure of Batman isn't lost in translation. True fans of the hero should enjoy this opportunity to see the Dark Knight cast in a different light.

-- John Hogan

Few things get comic book fans --- not to mention hardcore Batman lovers --- more irate than the thought of the campy 1960s "Holy haberdashery!"-era "Batman" TV show. It took 20 years and the vision of director Tim Burton for the Batman mythos to live the campy TV show down. Surprisingly, it lived on in Japan even longer in the form of manga.

Perhaps it's the ability to look back on this time with nostalgia from the relative comfort of a time when a Batman movie is seriously discussed as an Oscar contender. Whatever it is, the massive volume BAT-MANGA! is a delightful look back at a time long gone but whose presence is still felt, in comics and in the real world. BAT-MANGA! seems to be a labor of love for legendary graphic designer Chip Kidd. He has packed it full of content, given it an amazing cover, and kept it in the original, right-to-left manga format. All the material reprinted within was originally published in Japanese in a weekly anthology called SHONEN KING and now has been translated into English for the first time. Perhaps even more enticing are the numerous images of Batman-related toys and memorabilia from the '60s.

Considering that, these days, Batman seems to fight the Joker over and over again in his current comics, it's almost refreshingly original to see him and his boy wonder pal Robin fight robots, aliens and mad scientists. It's pure '60s zeitgeist all the way through, but it's also fun and adventurous in a way that a lot of comics have forgotten how to be.

Another favorite from this collection: the quotes, trivia and tidbits that run along the margins of some of the pages. They helpfully explain such things as "Bruce's butler, Alfred: The one who knows Batman's true identity. He is behind the scenes but provides all kinds of assistance." Or random gems like this: "Fruit trivia: At the turn of the Meiji Era, all kinds of watermelons were brought in from America, and their prices dropped because they became so abundant."

Longtime comics fans will chuckle to see an old villain known in the States as the Weather Wizard remade in these pages as Go-Go the Magician. And silly comic book staples like the Bat-copter make an appearance here as well. It's all in good fun. Perhaps most impressive of all is the solid detail of the art, which is decidedly set in the '60s era but also mixes in elements of the '40s and '50s while also using deep inks and shadings to create stark contrasts on each page. The traditional manga style of artwork that most Americans are familiar with doesn't come into play here either. Instead, these strips walk a fine line --- they're certainly for kids, but they're not as corny as one might expect.

It turns out that the lure of Batman isn't lost in translation. True fans of the hero should enjoy this opportunity to see the Dark Knight cast in a different light.

--- Reviewed by John Hogan

wow, I thought I will never see this Batman manga again. This re-publication of the Japanese Batman manga is really a dream comes true. I can remember in my childhood days, this is a very popular manga, and re-reading this English copy brings back all the good memories. The manga artist Mr. Kuwata is famous for his sci-fi series: 8-man, Ultraseven, The Yellow Glove, Super-dog, etc., His clean-cut drawing style and great story-presentation skills capture generation of fans in Japan. We're all grateful to Mr. Kidd for bringing this project to live to the English speaking world. My only compliant is volume two is not out yet (there are missing episodes in volume one). If the book can be printed in the Japanese manga paper, that will be perfect.

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.

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!

This is great book. I was suprise by the size went it came in the mail. I recommend this to any batman or comic book fan. Jiro Kuwata did a great job writing and drawing this book. Some of the stories are complete. Other stories start in the middle or have know ending. I really enjoyed how the japanese saw batman and robin. The stories are really creative and fun to read for any ages. This also inspired writer Grant Morrison to make a batman of japan, in his Batman Inc book. This is a must by enjoyable manga with cool extras.

Batman has been a successful comic book character since his creation by Bob Kane in the late 1930's. However, his greatest popularity occurred at the time most hard fans were frustrated, when the campy series was playing on network television. That popularity spilled over into other countries and this book contains a series of cartoon adventures published in Japan in 1966 and 1967.
The artist was Jiro Kuwata and his style is distinctive. The appearance of Batman is almost identical to that of Kane's but Robin is much more boyish in appearance. There is no great depth to the stories; they are more superficial than appeared in the U. S. comics of the time. The dialog lacks imagination or cleverness, although this may be due to the translation from the Japanese.
This book gives Batman fans a unique look at the character through the eyes of a foreign artist, written for readers in another culture. If you have any curiosity in that area, then you will enjoy this book, despite the weaknesses in the presentation.