Reading Room RADIO BOY Part 1

Here's a never-reprinted 1987 manga/anime spoof...

...in, of course, glorious black and white!

To be concluded and finished...tomorrow!

Loosely-based on Osamo Tesuka's Astro Boy, which had achieved success as a translated anime in the early 1960s and opened the door for a flood of Japanese cartoons on American TV that continues to this day.

Note: Though Astro Boy is best-known in the US as a tv cartoon series, it began as a wildly-successful manga in 1954.

The premise of Radio Boy is that the creator himself did the translations for this edition, resulting in a mish-mash of syntax and tenses as well as some literal translations of Japanese phrases.

As a collector of foreign videos (including Japanese and Chinese DVDs), I can attest that the English subtitles on them often do read like the captions and copy in this spoof.

I suspect writers Chuck Dixon (yes, that Chuck Dixon) and Jim Engel had also seen some mis-translated films/videos, and wanted to re-create the experience on the printed page.

RADIO BOY by Chuck Dixon & Jim Engel

In the 1980s, manga finally gained a foothold in the US...

...and American creators began doing their own manga-style material.

Some, like this never-reprinted one-shot title from Eclipse Comics (the first major American company to publish translated manga), were parodies.

This particular spoof was loosely-based on Osamo Tesuka's Astro Boy, which had achieved success in as a translated anime in the early 1960s and opened the door for a flood of Japanese cartoons on American TV that continues to this day.

Note: Though Astro Boy is best-known in the US as a tv cartoon series, it began as a wildly-successful manga in 1954.

The premise of Radio Boy is that the creator himself did the translations for this edition, resulting in a mish-mash of syntax and tenses as well as some literal translations of Japanese phrases.

As a collector of foreign videos (including Japanese and Chinese DVDs), I can attest that the English subtitles on them often do read like the captions and copy in this spoof.

BTW, if you don't have a multi-region DVD player, get one.

Much of the Asian material released by Dimension (especially their Jackie Chan catalog), Buena Vista, and other mass-market companies is butchered beyond belief, and seeing the originals (even with bad sub-titling) is eye-opening!

I suspect writers Chuck Dixon (yes, that Chuck Dixon) and Jim Engel had also seen some mis-translated films/videos, and wanted to re-create the experience on the printed page.

You'll have the chance to judge for yourself...tomorrow.

Reading Room "The World You WILL Live In!" Part 3

Let's continue with this fascinating feature from 1950 which predicted the 21st Century...

In 2014, we do have laser scalpels (in limited use, mostly for eye surgery) and lasers are used to remove tattoos.

The mobile telephone one can be interpreted as cell phones, but radiophones in cars were a popular item among the rich (and spies/superheroes) in the '60s to early '80s.

(Batman, James Bond, Honey West, Matt Helm, The Avengers [Steed and Peel, not the superheroes] and The Green Hornet all had them!)

Extensive mining of minerals from the ocean floor has yet to occur, and the sun's going nova billions of years from now has been predicted since the 1800s.

So, 4 out or 5 for this never-reprinted feature from Harvey's Flash Gordon #3 (1950) is pretty good, eh?
Both the artist and writer are unknown.

This was one of three different new one-page features that appeared in all four issues of the series which reprinted the classic Flash Gordon Sunday newspaper strip by Alex Raymond, reformatted for the comic book page, and with new covers (not by Alex Raymond).
The others were "Stories Behind the Stars" (about the myths behind constellation names) and "Know Your Planets" (about the other worlds in the solar system).

Give Someone a Batman Christmas!

Want to give your Batman-obsessed loved one a "Batty" Christmas?

Combine the new blu ray (or dvd) set...

...with a not-available-in-stores digitally-restored reproduction of a 1966 Carmine Infantino/Murphy Anderson promo piece...

...created in 1966 to hype the then-new tv show!

Ironically, the visual looks more like a huge flat-screen tv than the small cathode-ray tv tubes of the 1960s!

Available in a variety of formats to fit both decor and budget!

Reading Room SILVER STARR "Operation Space Disc" Conclusion

When Last We Left Flash...

...er...Silver...the blond, square-jawed space hero's beautful girlfriend and stalwart bearded scientist ally had fallen captive to a sneering planetary dictator who lusted for the girlfriend (not the scientist)...

You'll be able to follow the Australian comic strip hero's never-reprinted in America adventures by writer Frank Ashley and illustrator Stanley Pitt if you bookmark this blog!