Chip Kidd at Cartoon Art Museum

As many of you know (or as many of you would know if I had a large following), I am a volunteer at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. Last night, we were fortunate enough to host a presentation by Chip Kidd, author of Mythology: the DC Comics Art of Alex Ross, Batman Collected, and most importantly, Bat-Manga: the Secret History of Batman.

As someone who considers myself fairly knowledgeable about the Caped Crusaider--i.e. not, "he's cool cuz he's dark and doesn't have powers," and Robin-bashers--this was an eye-opener.

In 1966, as the Batman TV series with Adam West hit around the world, the comic book material was very much in-demand. In every other country, this meant repackaging original American DC Comics material. In Japan, however, Manga was already on its way to being considered a "true art form," and a Batman manga was produced in Japan by artist Jiro Kuwata, best known for a series called 8th Man (of whom Robocop is something of a ripoff, according to Kidd).

The series, according to Kidd, didn't seem to take place in either Japan or America, but some amalgam thereof (at-least when it came to the tropes). Batman and Robin were depicted as using guns, at-least in promotional material, and no origin was ever given; and while his designs for Batman and Robin stayed faithful, the villains they battled were largely original. They arguably bear more of a resemblance to villains who might be introduced today. One such villain was Lord Death Man, whose power was to die and resurrect himself at will.

The series died in about a year, and was largely forgotten. So obscure was it that while it was licensed by National Periodical Publications--which is now DC Comics--Kidd's discovery of the Manga was news to Paul Levitz--President of DC Comics as of 2002 and superhero enthusiast--who authorized the book chronicling the Bat-Manga, but wouldn't lend any company assistance with the research.

Kidd's book is available in stores (he did a signing after his speech) and while not complete, should give readers a sense of what the series was like.

Kidd topped his speech off with an announcement that should be of interest to fans of the Bat-Manga. Buuut, I think I'll keep my mouth shut.

Manga Final

Page 2 removed because I felt part of it, while small enough to be ignored, was--so-to-speak--on the wrong blog.

Here's the first page to my Children's Book Illustration final. I really enjoyed that class, and my heart has been warmed to the wonderful world of... gad, can I get any cornier?

Here are some pencil samples I did recently. They're from Brian Michael Bendis' script for House of M #2, which can be found at http://www.comicbookscriptarchive.com/archive/?page_id=3

All characters TM & © Marvel

Ashella

Here's my Comics 2 final in all its B-minus glory!!! I totally went overboard with the inking and I've changed my heroine's look slightly since I did this. It's essentially a "pilot" for something I plan to do later.
























Ashella © Frank Addiego III

Edit: Originally I had a bunch of stuff about Linkara looking for an artist for his comic, but apparently he found someone. Also, I wasn't crazy about the sketch of one of his characters I'd put here, so that's it.

More from the preparation on my Children's Book Illustration final.

More from the preparation on my Children's Book Illustration final. Also, a comic book page I did for the class.