XPost: rec.arts.anime.misc   
   From: bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com   
      
        Batman: The Jiro Kuwata BATMANGA volume 1   
      
        Long time Batman aficionados like myself might enjoy a look at this   
   book.  It is certainly a lot cheaper than the gigantic volume I saw a   
   few years ago but had no chance to really look at.   
        Jiro Kuwata has an illustrious history with this sort of hero.   
        Batman and Robin are working from the Wayne Manor Batcave but   
   no sign of Alfred Pennyworth.  Except for the absence of Alfred it   
   is a very similar series to the stuff I read in the 1940s and early 1950s.   
         Weird but powerful villains, an Inspector Gordon for the   
   vigilante-police   
   interface, no mention of the Joker, Two Face or the Penguin, and the   
   Bat-mobile looks like a conventional 1960s land cruiser but reportedly   
   has a nuclear power plant.   
        Black and white illustrations which look better to Kazumasa Hirai, a SF   
   novelist who helped Kuwata create 8 Man.   
        No female villains for the specious reason that it was for young   
     Japanese males.   
      
        Now I found this at the SFPL Main and where at the same time I   
   got the graphic novel versions of Batman and Robin where Batman is   
   still Bruce Wayne and Robin is his son, Damian Wayne. Batman is yet   
   to be murdered by  villain and replaced by Richard Grayson at this point.   
        If you have the money and are interested in Kuwata's work spend   
   about $15 bucks for the Batmanga but if you want more dynamic   
   work in color as Bats has been traditionally be prepared to spring   
   for about $38 USD before taxes for the paperback versions of   
   the graphic novels;  $50 +taxes for the hardcover versions.   
        Best is to go to the public library and get them all unless   
   you can afford them and have a home to keep them in.   
      
        bliss   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)