Comics Alternative

On this month's manga episode, Shea and Derek discuss two distinctly different titles. They begin with Batman: The Jiro Kuwata Batmanga (DC Comics). The second in this planned three-volume series, collecting all of Kuwata's Batman work, just came out last month, and the Two Guys look at both volumes one and two. These Batmanga stories were originally serialized in Japan between 1966 and 1967, at the height of the Adam West Batman craze, and both Derek and Shea comment on how much Kuwata's stories were informed by that TV series, as well as by the "New Look" of earlier in the decade. At the same time, this manga never comes across as intentionally campy or self-conscious of itself as a pop-cultural product. In fact, one of the guys' first topics of conversation is how much Kuwata's Batman takes from its American version and how much is unique and original to the manga. Surprisingly, there are relatively few American imports into the Batmanga stories -- Jim Gordon is prominent throughout, and both Alfred Pennyw