Tears of the dragonball🇺🇸
I never read DragonBall. I think I never read any of Akira Toriyama’s mangas (or watched the animes), but since the news of his passing last week, I’ve watched other people talk about his work, showing some of it, reviewing issues or collections, and I can see how influential his work was on many other works I did read and artists I did know. I see it in Becky Cloonan, or in James Harren, or Bastien Vivés (specially in his Last Man series). The mix of humor and action in his stories puts Toriyama right up there with Hayao Miyazaki’s best works. Incredibly creative and highly accessible (DragonBall is one of the most successful manga and anime series of all time), his is one of the works responsible for the explosion of popularity of the medium in Japan and across the World. Entire generations read comics because of Manga, and many read Manga because of his stories.
The Kayfabes reviewed the first chapter of DragonBall, Akira Toriyama’s most known and celebrated Manga. They also reposted a video they recorded and posted back in 2022 covering Manga Theater, a big collection of Toriyama’s work outside his bigger series DragonBall and Dr. Slump.
One of the characteristics of stories is that you can always discover them after they’re done. Maybe I’ll finally chase down the first volumes of DragonBall or Dr. Slump and see where they lead me.
(of course, when I drew Goku, I forgot the tail)
more Japanese influence
Word Balloon brings back Matt Fraction to discuss Monarch season 1, the tv series he co-created and co-showrunned. Besides talking about the events in the series, Matt talks a little about the Japanese productions, both old and new, visiting (and shooting in) Japan and seeing the original Godzilla suits at Toho studios. When asked by one of the viewers of the podcast about Casanova, Matt says what we always say: we have three new issues drawn, one day we’ll be back. (He talks a little about my trip to Bloomington/Normal in Illinois last year, a town he lived in his childhood where the first comic book store he went to, Dreamth, was just across the street from the movie theater I gave my talk).
I’m almost done with another Japanese story, the one in the Nintendo Switch game Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and I can’t help but think Link’s quest of chasing and finding the tears of the dragons, which will unlock memories of one of the mysteries of the game, is similar to Goku and Bulma looking for the dragon balls. ZTOTK is a great game, and the format of the main character unlocking pieces of a story for it to move forward, making the player an active part of the storytelling process, builds a connection similar to that of the comic book reader being the bridge between each panel in his or her mind, and being also an active part of the flow and rhythm of the reading experience.
The only two Mangas that really grabbed me when I was growing up an aspiring comics creator were Akira and Lone Wolf and Cub, so whenever the Mangasplaining podcast crew reviews another volume of any of those, I check it out (and sometimes revisit the comics). They just reviewed volume 5 of Akira, and I recommend it. They write down notes and leave useful links from each episode on their newsletter.
More work in the near future
The rest of the month of March looks filled with work. Hopefully, April and May will be just as busy, which will mean the story is moving forward and a time when I actually have stuff to share with you is getting closer and closer (but still far away).
Be safe. Be kind. Be curious.
Pa-ZOW!
Fábio Moon
Moon Base, São Paulo
March 11th, 2024