Manga Mondays: The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Vol. 6

I can honestly recommend Dark Horse's THE KUROSAGI CORPSE DELIVERY SERVICE to any mainstream comic book reader who knows nothing about manga. It's paced like a TV show (think "Psych" or "Pushing Daisies"), has separate "episodes" that have a beginning, middle, and end, and contain elements of comedy, mystery, and horror that have a universal appeal. And for $10.95 you get the equivalent of about 5 comic books with consistent art. Not bad.

Add to this Dark Horse's unique packaging design and 17 pages of notes illuminating the reader on aspects of Japanese culture and manga conventions contained in the material. These are handsome volumes that really stand out on the comic rack or manga shelf.

The plot of KUROSAGI revolves around a team of ne'er do wells with various skills (embalming, mediumship, puppetry) who make a living retrieving bodies in various states of decomposition and delivering them. In volume 6, the team faces off against the post office (who, falling on hard times, have also taken to corpse delivery) and gets another body psychoanalyzed. The last arc, taking place in the late 1800s/early 1900s, is a change of pace and concerns Jack the Ripper.

It is that final story in KUROSAGI, "The Kunio Matsuoka Demon Hunting Side Story," that was of particular interest to me, as I had just read it after Marvel's THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST: ORSON RANDALL AND THE GREEN MIST OF DEATH. The tone and narrative technique of both stories were quite similar...which made me think:

Oh, so there might be a touch of manga influence in some of the most popular Western mainstream comics today -- one not even about the art style, but about the storytelling itself! I'm sure it is old news to those reading who are familiar with both genres -- but as you know, I am only a beginner.

Manga Mondays: Goofyfoot Gurl and Christian Manga

"I write clean but not stupid"
-- Goofyfoot Gurl's Allison Barrows

I thought for this installment of Manga Mondays I'd put the spotlight on one of the more unique forms of manga that is out there: Christian Manga

GOOFYFOOT GURL
Vols 1-4
Realbuzz Studios/Thomas Nelson

Realbuzz Studios calls itself "The World's Premier Inspirational Manga" publisher, and their manga is distributed by Thomas Nelson, one of the biggest names in Christian books. Despite its connection with Nelson, Realbuzz's GOOFYFOOT GURL is pretty light in preaching, choosing to focus more on relationships. And just so it's really clear right off the bat that GOOFYFOOT GURL is not exclusively for Christian audiences, it is established at the beginning of the first volume that the Gidget-like main character, Suki, speaks Yiddish.


That said, GOOFYFOOT is a surfing soap-opera like The OC but with a 7th Heaven vibe. There's no sex, but a bunch of surprisingly nuanced and mature relationship issues and generalized teen angst. The storylines interconnect really well and the diverse cast of characters, as written by Allison Barrows (famous for her PreTeena comic strip), act believably. As Barrows commented regarding GOOFYFOOT GURL on a cartoonists' forum, "I write clean but not stupid."

The true showstopper of the book, however, is the stunning art by Tony Weinstock. Weinstock totally nails the manga "feel" while at the same time giving it an unique, painterly quality. Think manga rendered in pastels. And I guess my fear is that readers, put off by their preconceptions of what Christian manga might be, won't give this book a chance and see what tremendously beautiful and innovative work Weinstock has done here.

GOOFYFOOT GURL is a great read for a teenage girl, with all the appropriate elements of fun and melodrama. For both young and older readers, however, I think the luminescent art is a feast for the eyes and expands the boundaries of what manga can do.