Comic Pants Podcast #22
This just in! Nick Budd is not in this podcast, as he was savagely beaten by a roving group of Girls Gone Wild. Instead, it’s up to Randy Lander, D3 (Dave Martindale), Dan Grendell, Dave Farabee, and special guest Paul Benjamin (author of manga Pantheon High and upcoming series Marvel Adventures: Hulk, former editor of Humanoids, and sexy supermodel) to tackle the thorny topic of manga. They open with the topics on everyone’s mind- panty shots and boy love- and move on to discuss anything and everything, from how manga and western comics differ to ways to introduce superhero readers to manga and vice versa. Recommendations abound in this twenty-second installment of the Comic Pants Podcast!
Here are some of the manga we talk about:
If you would like to know more about Paul Benjamin, including how to get in touch with him, visit his website.
As always, commentary is welcomed and encouraged. Let us know what you thought of the podcast, and if you have suggestions for future podcast topics, leave us a comment or write in to the show! Listeners who write in could win cool comics with each broadcast! Please drop us a line at comicpantsfeedback@gmail.com to give us some questions or comments for the next show.
Use the podcast feed buttons on the sidebar to subscribe, listen via the flash player below, or directly download the MP3 here:
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Lily’s nickname in school was “Astro Boy,” since they thought her legs looked like his. Every year in San Diego, I get her a new Astro Boy action figure.
15 Apr 2007 at 5:27 pm
Quotethank you. i have been begging for you guys to do one of these on manga. i am sure it had nothing to do with my requests, but let me pretend. seriously though, thanks for giving me some insight into a topic i have always wanted to explore, but felt lost in trying to do so.
15 Apr 2007 at 7:09 pm
QuoteManga? ::stop::
No, just kidding. My personal manga experience doesn’t go much beyond Dragon Ball and Inu-Yasha, but I’ve read so much about it I don’t really feel like a stranger to the topic. I’ve even been to an anime/manga convention here in Chicago. I’m afraid, though, it’s destined to be one of those things I’ll always be more interested in enjoying than actually enjoying, if that makes sense.
15 Apr 2007 at 10:47 pm
Quotei was a “only mainstream comics” type of guy untill i read Akira (the 6-volume edition) and Lone Wolf and Cub. Since then i have read these and was not let down by any of them:
Executioner Samurai
Lady Snowblood
Old Boy
Monster
Golgo 13
Museum of Terror
Path of the Assassin
Blade of the Immortal
Satsuma Gishiden
Shaman Warrior (that’s Korean, not Japanese)
i would recommend any of these ….. anytime.
For the “virgin” reader, Monster, Akira or Old Boy would be superd choices.
I am planning on getting MPD Psycho and Ode to Kirihito.
16 Apr 2007 at 10:02 am
QuoteI have vol 2 of Lone Wolf and Cub next to my bed. It’s my go to book if I got nothing to read at night. But I’m going through it really slowly.
I think I’ve stated before, that have Monster and Uzumaki at the top of my reading pile.
sigh. My reading pile is growing cause of Guitar Hero 360. But that’s my challenge.
Also, thanks for the podcast. The biggest itimidation factor for me and manga is 20 volume series on them shelves at the shop. Yikes.
16 Apr 2007 at 11:04 am
QuoteIs battle royale good for the rest of the vols or did you just read the first ones? more than 12 vol stories terrify me lol
16 Apr 2007 at 1:57 pm
QuoteI’ve read it all, several times. It’s good to the last drop.
16 Apr 2007 at 2:40 pm
QuoteDan, Nick, Dave and I have read all the way through Battle Royale, and it is very highly recommended by all of us. Don’t fear that it drops off, it only gets better and better until the end.
16 Apr 2007 at 4:10 pm
QuoteIn my case, it was the PS/2, but otherwise, I feel your pain.
Heard about Rock Band? New videogame that comes with four peripherals (a mike, a guitar, a bass and drums) and tons of music? By the guys who did Guitar Hero? The week that releases, Comic Pants may have technical difficulties. 
I totally get that. Planetes, a manga several of us have read but I don’t know if we mentioned during the podcast, is only 5 (maybe 6) volumes and a good cure for the “there are how many?” syndrome. Or get onboard a manga while it’s still running (like Monster) and then it doesn’t feel much different than picking up the latest volume of Y or Fables, etc.
But yeah, those 10+ volume commitments can look pretty daunting.
16 Apr 2007 at 4:12 pm
QuoteHow is the Oldboy manga? I quite enjoyed the movie.
16 Apr 2007 at 7:41 pm
QuoteYou guys just got me really, really excited about Kindaichi case files. Nothing I like better than a fair mystery that ends in a parlor scene. Just ordered the first three volumes. Thanks!
17 Apr 2007 at 5:46 am
QuoteThe only manga I have read are Uzumaki and DeathNote, this podcast gave me lots of ideas about how to expand my reading horizon especially for global manga, which I don’t know hardly anything about. Thanks and keep up the excellent work!!
17 Apr 2007 at 9:30 am
QuoteIt’s good, though it drags a bit. I stopped reading it after the fourth volume when I realized it still wouldn’t be done by volume 7. That was just too long for me in that story’s case. If you liked the movie, check out the other two movies in that director’s so-called ‘Vengeance Trilogy’, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Lady Vengeance. Excellent films.
17 Apr 2007 at 3:11 pm
QuoteHmm, I think I’ll skip the manga. And yeah, I’ve seen Sympathy (which blew me away, really), but haven’t gotten around to Lady Vengeance.
17 Apr 2007 at 5:41 pm
QuoteHi guys, another great podcast and I liked that you mentioned some “classic” manga that people should read, as well as talking about some new stuff, that I’ll definitely have to check out myself.
I’m currently living in Japan right now, I teach English in Fukushima Prefecture, so I wanted to say that pretty much everything you said about manga’s influence and widespread appeal in Japanese society is spot-on. As D3 said, you can’t ride a train in Japan without seeing at least half the people, maybe even more, reading a big weekly digest.
Not only that, but there really isn’t a collector’s mentality when it comes to manga. Every Tuesday and Friday, when they collect the “burnable” trash, I always see huge stacks of the weeklies being thrown out. There are tons of places where you can buy used comics in Japan. And I’m not talking about comic book shops either.
Actually, in my almost 3 years in Japan, I’ve never seen what we in the US would call a comic book store. They don’t have them. You buy your manga at the grocery store, or in a regular book store, or even at the newspaper stands as you’re waiting to catch a train. The idea of putting a manga in a plastic bag with a cardboard back, and storing it in a long box, and charging more for it would be completely ridiculous to Japanese people.
Manga is literally everywhere here. Waiting in a barbershop to get your haircut, there’s a couple volumes for customers to read. Eating ramen by yourself in a restaurant? Why not borrow a complimentary volume from the shelf at the front of the store. I only wish my reading skills were better so I could take advantage of all the manga around me.
One final comment: you touched on the fact that being creator owned gives manga writers the freedom to write about any topic, which is why there are so many different kinds of manga out there. But what’s hard to grasp, especially coming from the US, is that ALMOST 100% OF MANGA IS CREATOR OWNED!
Yes, it may be published in Shonen Jump or other such magazines, but the idea of a Marvel or a DC, where writers are working on a company’s property, as oppossed to their own creations, is completely absent here. Just think about that for a second… Even the hugely popular manga is all creator owned. Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, One Piece, Nausicaa, and yes, even Battle Royale, all those books are creator owned.
I can’t even imagine what US comics would be like today if Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Bob Kane and Bill Finger, among others, still controlled the characters they created. It’s completely different over here for manga writers and artists.
Sorry to write such a long comment. Keep up the great work!
18 Apr 2007 at 4:34 am
Quote18 Apr 2007 at 11:01 am
QuoteQuestion about Battle Royale - are all 15 volumes based on the story of Shuya, or do the later volumes go into a new Battle? I saw the movie, and I was wondering if it incorporated all the volumes, or only a certain storyline in them. Very well done movie, by the way - if you like the manga, check it out.
18 Apr 2007 at 11:37 am
QuoteAll of the volumes are Shuya’s story, encompassing just that one Battle Royale. By the way, the story diverges pretty heavily from the movie in the manga, as they are both based on but not identical to the original book. I actually thought the movie was just okay.
18 Apr 2007 at 2:10 pm
QuoteNearly off topic.. but any of you seen the Battle Royale 2 movie? A friend and I watched it (after watching and admiring the first) and just kinda laffed at it. The number of protracted death scenes is hilarious. Not the violence that brings them to their death.. but their final words, final moments with a friend.. each one was over done and they just kept happening! Funny.
I remember reading that flick was made by the son of the director of the first? I dunno.. ANYway.. I don’t know why I never thought about reading the BR manga. I got enough on my plate right now, but I have added it to my list.
18 Apr 2007 at 2:30 pm
Quotesince i have zero self control, today at the shop I picked up Kindaichi Case Files: Opera House Murders, The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service 1 and Battle Royale 1. I like the size of the books.. good size for bedtime reading. I imagine my dreams will also benefit.
18 Apr 2007 at 8:40 pm
QuoteThe first manga I remember trying was a Dark Horse book called Outlanders. I only stayed with it a short while and I can’t really remember why I didn’t stick with it.
The book that actually got me to buy a manga title on a regular basis was the Dark Horse reprints of Lone Wolf and Cub. Buying it on a monthly basis tended to offset the “There’s how many volumes?!” syndrome.
One problem I have with trying new manga titles is that I find it hard to gauge whether I might enjoy a manga book just by looking at. Most of the titles I’ve read have either been recommended by a review website or are so iconic that every comic fan knows about them. With “American” comics, it’s much easier for me to look at a title and quickly put it in a mental category where I can decide if I’ll probably like it or not. Not to mention that trying a manga book usually requires a bigger cash gamble than a monthly comic.
I have to say that the irregular size of manga books is somewhat irksome to me. I have enough other stuff vying for space in my house and on my bookshelves. When it comes to comics, long boxes are my preferred storage method. I know some people love putting their TPBs on bookshelves, but I’d rather save what shelf space I have for novels. If all manga books were the same size as a paperback novel, I might not mind as much, but there seems to be half a dozen standard sizes ranging from “bigger than a standard comic” to “smaller than a paperback novel.”
20 Apr 2007 at 3:20 pm
Quotei’m shocked ‘panties’ and ‘gayness’ were the first two things you thought of with manga. the first two things i think of are ‘big eyes’ and ‘black and white’.
i’m ridiculously mainstream, planetary, global frequency and fathom are the first of the few almost-indie comics i’ve read that spring to mind…i gotta admit the format you praise so much is pretty much what turns me off (pacing, structure etc.), that and the out-of-nowhere adult content. if i want craziness i got grant morrison. black and white? sin city. regular books? bendis. i just don’t see what manga has to offer that i can’t find elsewhere, and i really don’t wanna flip thru ten pages for a dunk.
even the cartoons…dragonball z and naruto? gimme thundercats and transformers anytime. that said i like some anime influenced stuff like avatar and joe mad.
i won’t be checking out battle royale because ‘it’s incredibly violent’ doesn’t sell a book to me at all. i may check out scott pilgrim because that sounds amazing, maybe i’ll even try pantheon high.
22 Apr 2007 at 12:21 pm
Quote