Bat-Manga by Chipp Kidd and Jiro Kuwata

Bat-Manga by Chipp Kidd and Jiro Kuwata

During the 1966 and 1967 first run of the television show Batman starring Adam West in Japan, it was decided that a comic based on batman would be produced in Japan. Jiro Kuwata wrote the manga during these two years.

This book is a unique story using a Japanese style manga to create stories on batman. Many of the stories are original with new characters like Doctor Faceless, Lord Death, and Go Go The Magician. The style and feel is slightly different than the original batman. I still like it very much.

There are a few original characters adapted from the western market, Clayface being the most prominent. I like that Clayface turns into a giant mantis in one scene. There is also a focus on the villains stealing art work. One of my favorite scenes is a fight at the Bat Monument which is batmans face on the side of a cliff. I did not know there was one before.

Batman has a few devices that we don't see in his western incarnation. He has tranquilizer shuriken which he throws at the villains. Also in some of the pictures of the advertising posters for the comics we see batman in bat scuba gear as well as Robin riding in the sidecar of a motorcycle with missiles attached to it which I found to be really neat.

The book has many full color photographs of original batman tin toys from Japan. They range from cap pistols, batarangs, bat flashlights, toy airplanes, to little batman robots. The colors are striking and the pictures are really interesting to look at.

This is a really interesting book. I found the drawing to be entertaining and lively. It switches between plain black and white, and a kind of brown, orange, and black earthtone background. It is worth reading. I read it this morning while I was sitting in Barnes and Noble. The book is a large coffee table book.

Morning Thoughts

Felix The Cat with Charlie Chaplin.

Morning Thoughts

Yesterday was a thoroughly unexceptional day. I read a bit of DC Showcase Presents Batman, Volume 1 on the train home. It was 500 pages long of different batman stories. These were the old fashioned stories, the ones that inspired the television show. You had many of the classic batman characters, the riddler, the joker, penguin, hypnotists, crooks, and thieves. The stories were not that extreme. They had this wonderful hokey, gosh wow quality which is missing from most of todays comics.

Also, the poetry program did not do too badly, we had people come in and out reading several poems. Most people did not stay. There were fourteen people who came in and out to read poems. One of the teenagers who hangs out in the library had a notebook full of stories and poems which were quite good.

I put the book, The Van Rijn method : the technic civilization saga by Poul Anderson. Poul Anderson is one of the classic science fiction writers. I am hoping this collection of short stories will be excellent.

I've spent some time suggesting some black history books. A lot of our patrons like non-traditional histories on Africa. They have an interest in authors like Cheikh Anta Diop and Ivan Van Sertima who are quite interesting. I also suggested some books on somewhat interesting subjects, the Maroons, slavery in the Caribbean, Darfur, the history of Ethiopia, Kush, Axum, and Niger, and other background subjects.

Superlibrarian The Display

I am putting together a lobby display for the library called "The Librarian As Superhero." It is a bunch of different pictures mainly. Giles from Buffy, The Librarian: Quest For The Spear, Batgirl, Rex Libris, Nancy Pearl and her action figure. I actually got two copies of the Super Librarian comic book from the New Jersey State Library Association, one in spanish and another in english. I think the display should be kind of interesting. They also sent me a bookmark.
The Super Librarian comic book is here:
http://web.mac.com/ndowd/iWeb/Super%20Librarian%20Free%20Comic%20Book%20Day/Welcome.html

Last night was rather interesting. I sat with a new part-time librarian at the reference desk for two hours, and did two tours of my sections, law, business, and the job information center. It was kind of different showing people around.

I've been reading Earth The Sequel on the subway this morning. It is about different companies that are developing renewable energy solutions to our current dilemma with oil and global warming. The book talks about quite a few breakthroughs which I had not heard about. It also talks about a company that I am invested in, Finavera. It also writes about Greenfuel Technologies, Verenium, and other new ventures. Two people were talking energy policy on the train in this morning. I was sitting next to them while I was reading my book as they bantered back and forth. It was kind of entertaining.

I've taken a few minutes to look at Batman, The Dailies, 1943-1946, Sterling Publishers, c2007. The syndicated strips are far more different than the comic books. The first part is that they are stories about crime. Batman gets captured, he gets beat up by thugs, he makes daring escapes. He uses his brain a lot. There are very few supervillains. Most of his opponents are pirates, gangsters, grifters, and assorted criminals. There is a brief appearance of the Joker who uses laughing gas, but that is about it. The dailies are in black and white. This is Batman as he first appeared without all the bells and whistles done as his creator intended. The cover is a bit misleading, there is no Catwoman, no Two Face in the black, and no Pengun in the black and white comic.





In Batman, The Sunday Classics, 1943-1946, Sterling Publishers, c2007, the Penguin, Joker and Two Face make brief appearances. I rather like the style it is done in. The drawings are a lot simpler than the modern comic books. They have a more cartoonish quality to them. There is the bat cave, but it is not as complicated. There is the bat car, the laboratory, and the bat plane. The utility belt of Batman and Robin don't have a million devices in them. They have a bat walkie talkies, matches, and simple things. Bob Kane is often the penciller. They have a set of brief one page biographies on the artists. The Sunday edition is in full color.

Thoughts for Today

We received a huge cart of advanced reading copies today in the basement sent to us by Baker & Taylor. I haven't really had a chance to look at them closely. I will get a chance to look closely at them later today.

I was reading through Kirkus Reviews, the May 1, 2008 issue. They have a book which I am looking forward to reading. Reinventing Knowledge: From Alexandria to the Internet by Ian F. McNeely and Lisa Wolverton. The review was quite interesting. The book is not out until August 1, 2008.

Two new books came in in the pile from Baker Taylor from Sterling Publishers, Batman The Dailies 1943-1946, a collection of the daily batman comic strip syndicated in the newspapers. The cover art for this book is by Dick Sprang. It is quite striking. In combination with this is Batman, The Sunday Classics, 1943-1946, a collection of the full color Sunday newspaper strips.

Both of these books are quite interesting to look at. They have a much more compact feeling than the comic books. The stories occur in short bursts. They have word bubbles in almost every panel. The feeling is more of a story than an action sequence. I rather like them. I will probably look at them more closely tomorrow.

Graphic Novels and Opera, Random Thoughts

Brunnhilde The Valkyrie by Arthur Rackham

There is a relation between comic books and opera. This is not discussed that much. I hear it in passing at many comic book shops. The superhero dresses in a cape and tights, so does the opera hero. Opera heros and villains are larger than life and exaggerated. Batman and Superman couldn't be more exaggerated in presentation. Batman's parents die after a night watching Faust. The opera is as full of dramatic flourishes as the comic book.

P. Craig Russell is the comic artist who is best known for translating operas into comic books. His best known translation is the Ring of the Nibelungen. It is very beautiful full color work. He has also translated Bluebeard, Salome, the Magic Flute, Parsifal, and many other operas into comic book form. The illustrations are very beautiful to look at. He has a series of books called the P. Craig Russell Library of Opera Adapatations which is a multivolume set.

Another recent graphic novel which draws heavily from the opera is V for Vendetta by Alan Moore. There are many parallels between this graphic novel and The Phantom of the Opera. The costume of the hero includes a Guy Fawkes mask, cape, and hat. The hero is also prone to dramatic presentation.

This is just a thought for the moment to discuss. I am trying to find academic references to these parallels but they are not there. It should be looked at more closely. Please comment on this.