Thursday, August 21, 2008

+8B

Playing Jump Ultimate Stars has of course made me curious to see what some of these comics are all about. I've read some of the translated stuff in the American mag, but that was years ago and it still doesn't seem to have covered everything.

Now, I generally don't care much about Japanese comics. I'm sure there's great stuff out there, but I just haven't found it. Most of the ones you get bombarded with, namely because of showings of the animation adaptations, are comics for adolescent boys (that still seem to find fans that are technically adults, but I digress). Not to say they are terrible as boy's comics; they serve their purpose well enough, and I can't expect that crowd to instantly go for the same surrealist masterpieces I do. Even so, technically 2000 AD was also an adolescent boy's comic, and the stuff it had just seem to be more interesting. But that's being unfair, too. I mean, it's not Shonen Jump's fault it didn't have Alan Moore and Grant Morrison and fucking Judge Dredd.

So, during my searches for information on the series in the game I didn't know much about, I didn't find anything that equals, say, Nemesis the Warlock, but they are bit more interesting (or fun) than I would have thought. The two main ones were Majin Tantei Nogami Neuro and Pyu to Fuku! Jaguar.

Neuro is about a demon that literally eats mysteries, which by itself is a pretty cool concept. He has gotten his fill in Hell, so he decides to go to Earth and look for more mysteries to chow down on. He ends up manipulating a teenage girl into becoming a detective and finding mysteries for him. It sort of reminds me of the idea of someone going out and causing the crimes he then solves (which, as it turns out, was basically the idea for a British comic called The Bogie Man, created by some 2000 AD alumni, and also having the idea that the main characters thinks he is some sort of composite of every character every played by Humphrey Bogart). I probably wouldn't read it if I saw it in a bookstore, because the whole anime thing, but I like the foundation.

Jaguar is a comedy, about a man named Jaguar, who plays the recorder (AKA the worst instrument to ever exist). However, he is so good with the recorder, he can make it sound like any instrument he wants. As it turns out, he was part of a experiment to create a band so good that it will bring about world peace. By itself the concept is strange, but I connected to it in a way because I, like most gradeschoolers, have experienced playing the recorder and hearing recorder music, which thankfully will never pop up again as long as you exist. It's a connection thing, I guess. I find recorder humor amusing, because I was there once.

Those are the only two standouts I can think of right now. There was that one where aliens took over edo-period Japan and wacky stuff happens. And there's Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, which I have read a tiny bit, is utter nonsense, but I find absolutely hilarious. But the point I've established is the Jump line up contains some comics whose concept amuse me, and it's not all super powered freaks throwing lasers at each other. But that's the majority of it. Damn Akira Toriyama.

Speaking of comics, I may order some Godland trades and the big Scud: The Disposable Assassin collection. I have good things about both, and I'm looking for a new fix that isn't reading the second volume of Transmetropolitan, which I bought months ago and should read and then move onto the rest of them.

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2 Comments:

At 3:13 p.m., Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dammit, Matt, buy more comics so I can read them. More Transmetro!

The second volume is good, by the way.

 
At 2:38 p.m., Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bobobo is indeed hilarious.

 

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