Manga: Reviews of Red Red Rock and The Osamu Tezuka Story - a podcast by Stergios Botzakis & Derek Royal

On the July manga episode, Shea and Derek discuss two recent publications that highlight, in different ways, the history of the Japanese medium. They begin with Seiichi Hayashi's Red Red Rock and Other Stories 1967-1970 (Breakdown Press). All but two stories that compose this collection were originally published in Garo, examples of the avant-garde coming from that publication in its heyday. Although not nearly as abstract and non-linear, Hayashi's manga reminds the guys of Sasaki Maki’s Ding Dong Circus, which they discussed in December's manga episode (and also a Breakdown Press publication). As both Derek and Shea point out, the stories collected in Red Red Rock represent some of the earliest of Hayashi's efforts, and they're noticeably more experimental, or at least less linear, than his other work available in English, such as Red Colored Elegy and the stories in Gold Pollen and Other Stories. Adding to this collection is an astute contextualizing essay by Ryan Holmberg, also the book's translator.

After their trip down Garo-inspired memory lane, the Two Guys turn to a work that delineates a much earlier chapter in manga history. The Osamu Tezuka Story: A Life in Manga and Anime is a graphic biography of a man often called "the god of manga" and published by Stone Bridge Press. Created by Toshio Ban (who served as Tezuka's "sub-chief" assistant) and Tezuka Productions, and translated by Frederik L. Schodt, the book appears to be a collaborative, or even corporate, effort to tease out the dynamism and the many facets of its subject's life. In fact, both Shea and Derek feel that there are too many details embedded in the narrative and that the book's 869 pages of story (not counting the substantive Appendixes) could have been paired down significantly. What's more, the tone of the the biography is blatantly reverential and becomes almost too much at times. Readers are presented with example after example of the seemingly superhuman nature of Tezuka, and with little insight into the contradictions and complications that would define any artist's life. Still, The Osamu Tezuka Story is a recommended read and a useful, albeit lengthy, introduction to this manga legend.

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