Magic Inkwell

Roughly 138 pages. Full color AND black &white interiors. Manga digest size (5″ x 7.5″). I’ll have ordering info within the next few weeks.

Let’s see how well this works…

I want to take a little time today to FINALLY talk about a manga that caught my fancy sometime last year. I’ve been planning to do this write up for a long time now, but have had a hard time actually sitting down and writing it out. Part of the problem is that I’ve been very busy lately and have had little time to sit down and actually collect my thoughts about how I feel about this particular manga series and synthesize that into a well thought out, succinct review. The other part of the problem is that it would be hard to really top what’s already been written about this series that is available online.

I’m speaking about Air Gear by mangaka Ito “Oh Great” Ogure. This series is currently being reprinted in the United States by Del Rey and is up to volume 14 as of October of this year. You can actually read the series for free online here, where it has been translated well beyond the Del Rey print run (how well, I’m not sure). I’ve been faithful enough to only read the copies I’ve bought in print but I’m so into the series that I’m going to be reading it online now. The series has inspired an anime series as well as a MUSICAL (!) and even featured an Obama shout out/parody during election time. The series is currently being serialized in Japan in Weekly Shonen Magazine.

A little background as way of disclaimer: I have never been a huge anime/manga fan, but I’ve flirted with the genre for years. I’m from the Robotech/Nausicaä generation of US kids exposed to manga/anime (born in the 70’s, grew up in the 80’s). Akira premiered here in the States when I was a freshman in college back in the early 90’s. Over the years I caught Ghost in the Shell, Ranma 1/2, the work of Miyazaki, and All Purpose Cultural Catgirl Nuku Nuku even! Read a few manga growing up as well… The Lone Wolf & Cub reprints, Mai the Psychic Girl, some Tezuka (though not much), Gunsmith Cats, and a lot of random stuff. I was also exposed to a lot of “japanimation” growing up as well (like Belle & Sebastien, The Little Prince, The Mysterious Cities of Gold) during the early days of cable and during frequent summer visits with family in Mexico.

interesting book from Digital Manga Press where I first discovered the work of Oh!Great

It wasn’t until the last year or so that I’ve completely immersed myself in Japanese comics and comics making techniques in earnest. Not only to gain an understanding of its cultural relevance but also to hopefully absorb some of their techniques and processes for producing comics to (hopefully) better inform my own process. I’ve especially become a huge fan of Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s work.

It was during my initial research into manga that I came across a book which featured three Japanese mangaka, one of whom was Oh!Great. I was immediately drawn to his work, his sense of design, his ability to create compelling sound effects that integrate well with the images (especially in the original Japanese language Air Gear pages, which border on graffitti) and his use of screentones. He was creating work that fell into the same manga mode/style we’ve seen over and over again through the years and yet he retains a personal signature style that is uniquely his own. You can look at an Oh!Great image and immediately recognize that it is his.

AIR GEAR’s story (from Wikipedia):
Itsuki “Ikki” Minami, is a student and a delinquent. Also known as the “Unbeatable Babyface”, Ikki is the leader of the youth gang by the name of “East Side Gunz”. Upon his return home, after being humiliated by a Storm Rider team called the Skull Saders, Ikki discovers a secret hidden from him by his benefactors, the Noyamano sisters. The sisters belong to a group of Storm Riders who go by the team name of Sleeping Forest. In the anime, learning the sisters’ secret angers him and he steals a pair of Air Trecks, abbreviated as “AT”. (In the manga, the sisters give a pair of ATs to him and invite him to skate with them.) Ikki eventually settles his grudge with the Skull Saders, but in the process he receives more than the simple satisfaction of revenge. Determined to experience the sensation of “flight” for as long as he can, Ikki is quickly engaged in the mysterious, irresistible world of Air Treks.

My own thoughts on the series:
My love of this series is a complete paradox. There is absolutely no reason in the world for me to like this series. It is boy’s manga written specifically for 16 year oldss. It’s full of potty humor, the over-sexualization of young girls, homophobic comedic situations and overweight characters being blatantly lambasted for being “pigs”. Some of the jokes/situations revolving around the female characters border on the misogynistic and at the very least are clearly infantile/immature. And yet… and yet…

The series contains many tropes that the narrative returns to again and again as Ikki becomes more and more competent with his Air Treks and goes up against harder and harder opponents. Oh!Great’s art work in this series is impeccable and a visual feast, with amazing double page spreads that leave you breathless in their complex panel arrangements.

What a pity: Horrible graphic design sense is what makes the Del Rey printed version of this page waaaay better than the OneManga fan scan/sub. And the design on the Del Rey actually leaves a LOT to be desired! Way to mess up great artwork!

I’m a big fan of the side characters in the series as well, most of whom are pretty well thought out and developed. The overall story of Air Gear is a bit hard to follow and seems to become more convoluted as the series progresses. There’s also a ton of Japanese pop culture references that may take some getting used to if you’re not familiar with them (like me). Also if you’re easily offended by juvenile humor, potty jokes, and nudity this might not be the series for you. It’s definitely shonen manga and I have to say it’s caught the fancy of the sixteen year old boy in me!

Far from perfect, and apparently losing favor with some of its fans in the last couple years due to the complete convolution of the story and the introduction of a million new characters, I find this series to be inspirational visually and conceptually. I admire what it aspires to be as a whole, even if the parts are sometimes less than whatever it is we demand of such entertainment. Oh!Great is one of my favorite artists of all time (no joke) for his stunning technical ability as a cartoonist and his hip graphic design sensibilities overall.

Is it a guilty pleasure that I should be ashamed of? Maybe. No more than any romance novel or a bit of trash TV. And really, isn’t that something we all sometimes crave?

I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures like I’d intended to and I didn’t really get any photos from the Boston end of the tour. Sorry. I also tapped out after Boston and didn’t make it to Providence, RI.

All in all it was a really fun little trip and it was nice to spend a couple days in New York City. Thanks to all my good friends in NYC for making this birthday weekend extra special. These pics don’t really do this trip justice but hopefully I’ll come visit again real soon and take some better snaps!

As I prepare for my imminent departure on the Funny Aminals/Dark Corners Book Tour tomorrow it struck me tonight that ten whole years have passed since I first started making real inroads into this crazy comics “industry”.

It was ten years ago that the first and only issue of Magic Inkwell Comic Strip Theatre was published in print and I was in the midst of my first experiments with online comics. Tonight at midnight I turn 37 and tomorrow I embark on a book tour to celebrate the release of two wonderful anthologies (one of which I had the honor of being a part of). I’ll be selling copies of the Magic Inkwell Reader, which collects the work I did when I was 26/27 years old (as well as copies of the Secrets & Lies Anthology which I edited and published a year and a half ago).

A lot can happen in ten years. To be honest, I feel like I’ve lived several lifetimes over the course of that time. I have nothing really profound to say about all this because I’m having a hard time putting into words what it is exactly that I’m feeling… it’s almost a mix of nostalgia, melancholy and bittersweet joy I suppose.

Ten years later I’m still working on comics and enjoying every minute of it, but my life has changed dramatically (and many times over) since then. All the hope and promise I felt at 27 has pretty much been fulfilled or is on the way to being fulfilled now that I’m 37, but maybe not exactly in the way I’d envisioned it back then. Even though there has been some disillusionment along the way, I don’t feel bitter, angry, disappointed or discouraged but rather stronger and better for it. I’m definitely not the same man I was at 27 that I am now at 37, but I wouldn’t necessarily say that I’d change anything or that I’d have it any other way.

I’m enjoying this time in my life very much and feel lucky to be able to celebrate my birthday by going on the road this weekend to sell my comics and promote my work along with some of my wonderful and talented friends. So enough of this sentimentality and here’s a rundown of my scheduled stops this weekend. Hopefully I’ll get to see some of you at one these events:

Friday, October 16th:
Desert Island
540 Metropolitan Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211
7-9PM

Saturday, October 17th:
Hub Comics
Union Square
19 Bow Street
Somerville, MA 02143
7-9pm

Sunday, October 18th (not sure if I’m going to make this one or not, but I’m planning on it):
Ada Books
717 Westminster Street
Providence RI, 02903
2-4pm

My internet access will be spotty at best over the next few days but I’ll be checking in as best I can. I’ll DEFINITELY be doing the whole twitter thing throughout the weekend and taking many photo evidences which I’ll upload when I get back so as to share all my adventures this weekend with all of you. Thanks so much for all the birthday well wishes I’ve already gotten and hopefully some of us will get to celebrate together tomorrow night and/or Friday night in NYC.

One thing I would like to do on Friday night (after the book signing and dinner) is maybe hit the Brooklyn Bowl and check out Eclectic Method’s regular Friday MIDNIGHT METHOD show. That would be rad.

Oh, and in case you feel like getting me a birthday present…