OK, Regular readers of the Bat-Blog all know how totally excited I am about this new book by Chip Kidd titled BAT-MANGA! THE SECRET HISTORY OF BATMAN IN JAPAN. The basic premise of the book is that in Japan, during the 1966 Batman TV Show craze in the US, a weekly Japanese Manga magazine called SHONEN KING licensed the rights to do its own Batman and Robin stories. Both the artwork & stories were totally original. They were never collected in Japan, and never translated into English. Now, in this awesome new 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. The Batman Memorabilia from Japan in the 1960's will include a ton of Batmobile Tin Toys, Tin Toy Robots, Dolls, Vinyl Figures, etc...way too much to list here! OK, now, you're probably wondering, what are the 4 comic pages up above?? Well, Chip Kidd is a big fan of the Bat-Blog & was kind enough to send a few pages of his book to be featured here! I'm not sure if this is an EXCLUSIVE but it's still pretty cool to get an e-mail from such a well-respected Batman Collector & Author! Anyways, these pages represent a part of one of the stories in the book titled "The Man Who Quit Being Human". Now, if you click on the above graphics then they will enlarge to a readable size. Another thing to remember is that they are formatted for Japanese audiences & you will have to "read them backwards". Another way to explain it is you read them top to bottom & right to left ( not "left to right" like we Americans read ). I know it's kinda disorienting but once you get the hang of it you'll really enjoy reading this story...it's wonderful! I seriously love the old vintage-style artwork. Another neat thing they did with these stories is they photographed the actual Japanese magazines to get the artwork because all of the original art is incomplete or totally gone forever. Another thing they did was make the photos so extremely sharp & super-high resolution that it's like you are reading the original magazines & getting the same exact experience that Japanese kids enjoyed way back then. It's a very cool concept from a "graphic art" point of view. The book comes out October 28th, 2008 & I can't wait! I wanna thank Chip Kidd for sending these pages to share with my readers, that's awesome!!
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