Deprecated: Methods with the same name as their class will not be constructors in a future version of PHP; CBlacklist has a deprecated constructor in /home/geneyang/www/www/blog/scripts/sb_blacklist.php on line 6

Deprecated: Methods with the same name as their class will not be constructors in a future version of PHP; CBannedWords has a deprecated constructor in /home/geneyang/www/www/blog/scripts/sb_blacklist.php on line 34

Warning: ini_set(): Headers already sent. You cannot change the session module's ini settings at this time in /home/geneyang/www/www/blog/scripts/sb_login.php on line 15

Warning: session_set_cookie_params(): Cannot change session cookie parameters when headers already sent in /home/geneyang/www/www/blog/scripts/sb_login.php on line 18

Warning: session_start(): Cannot start session when headers already sent in /home/geneyang/www/www/blog/scripts/sb_login.php on line 26

Warning: session_start(): Cannot start session when headers already sent in /home/geneyang/www/www/blog/index.php on line 13

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /home/geneyang/www/www/blog/scripts/sb_forms.php on line 19

Warning: strpos(): needle is not a string or an integer in /home/geneyang/www/www/blog/index.php on line 61

Warning: count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable in /home/geneyang/www/www/blog/scripts/sb_display.php on line 718
The Blog of Gene Luen Yang - Astroboy Volume 3
Astroboy Volume 3 
I love love LOVE Japan's God of Manga Osamu Tezuka. I started reading his stuff as an adult and credit him for helping me get past my teenage anti-manga bias. (A friend and I used to argue American comics vs. Japanese comics, with me defending the good ol' U.S. of A.) His series Adolf is probably my all-time favorite, and Phoenix is a work of genius.

But, I must admit, some of his comics leave me cold. And that's to be expected, given that he is probably the most prolific cartoonist to ever cartoon on planet Earth. With literally hundreds of thousands of Tezuka pages in existence, SOMETHING'S bound to not work for any given reader.

Astroboy, arguably his most famous creation, happens to be one of those Tezuka comics that I can't get into. I think Astroboy's design is really cool (how can anyone not love a robot with machine guns that come out of his butt) and I tried so hard to like his comics... but I couldn't.

Except for Volume 3 of the Dark Horse Astroboy reprints, which I read last week!!! Mostly because it's three shades of awesome.

Volume 3 reprints the story "Greatest Robot On Earth" and it's as fun as comics get. Pluto, a giant robot with demon-like horns, tries to become the greatest robot on Earth by destroying the other top seven robots, one of whom is our hero Astroboy. What follows is sort of a robotic MMA tournament, with a discussion about the purpose of AI woven in for good measure. Supposedly, every kid in Japan knows this story. Manga master Naoki Urasawa has even retold it in his series Pluto.

If you're looking for a way to get into kid's manga, this might be your best bet.



[ view entry ] ( 7256 views )   |  [ 0 trackbacks ]   |  permalink

<<First <Back | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | Next> Last>>