Age Rating: 16+
Genre: Superhero
Price: $3.99
Okay, I’m cheating—technically, this is not manga: it is original to print in this US publication, written in English, in the western left-to-right format, and the author, Junko Mizuno, lives in San Francisco and, even when she was living and publishing in Japan, she’s never been even close to mainstream*. However, I’ve never been shy about my love of Junko Mizuno—she’s been one of my favorite manga-ka since I first saw the cover she did for her American debut in Pulp magazine about 10 years ago—so in one sense I’ll use any excuse I can to talk about her work.
But, Ms. Mizuno aside, there’s every reason to read her Spider-Man story as manga, especially because, published here, side by side next to stories by American artists and stripped of the most obvious, external aspects of the “manga” label, we can see how Ms. Mizuno’s take on this very American character is both the perfect example of her work encapsulated in these few pages, and is something that could only come from someone steeped in the same culture and sensibilities that create manga.
This is not the first time superheroes, or even Spider Man, has had the manga treatment. That lovely Chip Kidd reprint of the Batman manga which came out last year is fascinating, and demonstrates just how different two country’s takes on the same character can be. And if you want to see the Spider Man manga, hunt down any of the 30 or so issues Marvel released of the Ryoichi Ikegami Spider Man. In both instances, the work is darker, with the “slower pace” of manga (a common description which drives me crazy—how can anyone who has read any battle manga ever describe it as “slower paced”? I mean, yes, oh my God yes it takes forever and a day for a single battle to finish—whole teams worth of Justice Leaguers are born and die in the number of pages it takes for Goku and Vegeta to beat each other senseless—but slower paced? No). There’s even some of Ikegami’s signature mature elements (he brings the sexy, you see) in the Japanese Spider-Man which would never in a million years appear in a US Marvel comic.
Which brings me back to Junko Mizuno and her fantastic take on the character in the first issue of the awesome and surprising Strange Tales anthology. All of Mizuno’s favorite tropes are on display here: the grotesque as normal, cuteness cranked up so high it becomes creepy, strange foods, even the subversion of a traditional story. Her earlier works, particularly those published by Viz, are all about taking a familiar Western fairy tale and turning it upside down—for instance, changing Prince Charming and royalty into zombies and death in Cinderalla, her take on the Cinderella tale, or turning the witch in Hansel & Gretel into a food obsessed demon and Hansel & Gretel into manga superheroes of the first order. Even the format of these books—printed on pulpy, rough paper with flat colors—at once evokes and subverts what’s familiar about reading comics. So too here, in Strange Tales: Mizuno takes Peter Parker and Mary Jane out of the familiar environment and thrusts them into a strange, dreamlike environment—a town of bug people—who are both similar to Spider-man (they’re spider people) and different (the place is decidedly unheroic) in ways that accentuate the awkward nebbishness inherent in Peter Parker. This has the effect of making the whole thing at once alien and unfamiliar, yet compelling at the same time. The cute, sexy Mary Jane and the Hello Kitty-ized Spider Man are offset by the freakish world they suddenly inhabit. And when Peter/Spider-Man tries to fit in by pretending to have extra arms like everyone around him, he only becomes more disturbing and strange(r) to the bugtown residents.
Again, Mizuno’s strong design sense and evocative use of flat, old-school coloring dazzle and attract, while her deliberate pushing against reader’s sensibilities act against this, creating a fun, delicious tension in only a few pages. I’m so excited by her Spider-Man story here, because not only was it an awesome surprise to find her work alongside so many other great cartoonists, but (and here’s where manga-boosterism rears its ugly head and takes over) it’s my hope that folks who wouldn’t normally see Mizuno’s work will discover this fantastic manga-ka and seek out her other works. My suggestion? If you can find them, start with one of her earlier American twisted takes on fairy tales from Viz, then pick up her newest release, Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu, volume 1, out now from Last Gasp. That funky, bizarre pairing of words in the title? That’s Mizuno to a T. It’s about a creature so cute we don’t even know what it is (imagine if someone decided to make a Nick Jr. cartoon out of an anthropomorphic ovary formed from cotton candy, and you’re getting the idea), who just wants to find his mate. Or, just mate, as it were. Run now! Don't stop! Then get all her art books and high end toys, clothing line, stickers--Junko Mizuno to take over the world, y'all!
*Actually, the more Tezuka we have translated in English, the more I realize that, in many ways, Junko Mizuno is a manga classicist—she takes elements of Tezuka at his most populist, mixes them with stylings of horror icon Kazuo Umezu, and throws in sex for the win. Which is not to say that she’s not wholly original, I just hadn’t realized that this woman who’s work is so out-of-left field actually has a context.
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