Bat-Manga!
Over at BoingBoing Cory Doctorow is taking a look at a new book about Bat-Manga - the explosion of Batman comic books created for the Japanese market during the 1960s, when the classic Adam West TV series was being marketed there.
The best part of the story? Apparently the Japanese man tasked with selling Batman to his countrymen thought the stories weren't strange and outlandish enough to go over there and made Batman even weirder -- adding robots, dinosaurs and villains that rise from the dead.
My thing is...the American Batman was never weirder than he was in the 1960s. He was already traveling in time, going to different worlds, fighting aliens and magical villains, disguising himself as other super-heroes and...you know, regularly battling one of the weirdest rouges galleries of villains in comic book history with some of the most outlandish gadgetry imaginable. And the Japanese thought that wasn't enough? You'd have to seriously look at their manga and anime to truly wrap your head around that one.
The book, Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan, is available now.
Check out more photos from the book (including weird Japanese Batman toys) here.
Comments (2)
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nokiawad9981
Posted on March 4, 2009 12:00 AM
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Great!Unusual interpretation of the problem, I like this approach.
ksoleifdjj388
Posted on March 5, 2009 3:10 PM