With more people reading manga and Webtoons (aka vertical scroll comics) than ever before, Beat’s Bizarre Adventure gives three writers an opportunity each week to recommend some of their favorite books and series from Japan, Korea and elsewhere. This week we have talking birds, space samurai, and, of course, suffering.
False Knees
Writer/Artist: Joshua Barkman/False Knees
Platform: WEBTOON, GoComics, Official Site
Boy, do I love birds! But what would you expect from someone whose username is literally Adorabirb? My pick this week is False Knees, a comedy webcomic by False Knees/Joshua Barkman about our beloved avian neighbors.
Each episode is rather short, ranging from four-panel strips to five or six panels on average depending on the story or joke False Knees wishes to tell. These strips feature house sparrows, common crows, puffins, loons, cardinals, you name it. All are beautifully illustrated with detail and care, while leaving just enough room for body language to convey more emotion than is physically possible for birds. Sometimes just a head tilt paired with a loud silence is enough to convey their thoughts at a particular moment.
The birds are illustrated in inks and colored with watercolor to look like their real life counterparts. Since it’s a comic, though, a lot can be brought out from each bird. False Knees is a masterclass in how much blocking, dialogue, and body language in comic art can t convey to the reader.
The art is paired with witty dialogue that shows how much False Knees understands each bird. There is so much personality in the writing that when a crow says something, you’ll say, “that is just what a crow would say.” It’s also short and to the point, which makes it a rarity on platforms like WEBTOON where 50+ panel episodes are common. By comparison False Knees is an easy to digest, witty and colorful comic about my favorite species of critters on this planet.
So if you love birds like me, or just want to read something short and silly with amazing art, give False Knees a try. It gets the Adorabirb certified BIRB TOMATO STAMP of approval! — Justin Guerrero
Samurai 7
Writer/Artist: Mizutaka Suhou
Based on the Original Story by: Akira Kurosawa
Translation: Yoko Kubo
Lettering: North Market Street Graphics
Publisher: Del Rey
Seven Samurai is one of those quintessential films that has inspired so much art and so many people. It isn’t just an important samurai movie but also one of director Akira Kurosawa‘s best known. Back in the early 00s there was a push to re-imagine the film in a futuristic setting with cyberpunk/steampunk elements. In 2004, Sammy Studios released the PS2 game Seven Samurai 20XX featuring character designs by Moebius. That same year, animation studio GONZO released anime and manga versions of Samurai 7 with their own distinct takes on the source material.
Although the anime and manga both follow the same core story (a peasant village recruits seven samurai to help save their village from bandits) they differ in their approach to the characters. The young samurai Katsushiro for example functions as an audience surrogate in both, but has a very different personality depending on the medium.
The Samurai 7 manga series is short at just two volumes. That said, since the chapters are so long, the pacing doesn’t feel rushed. While some characters are overshadowed thanks to the large cast, nearly everyone is given a moment to shine. If you know the story of the film you won’t be surprised by the outcome here. But the events of the manga are different enough to catch anime-only viewers off guard.
I really do dig the Samurai 7 manga. The characters capture the appeal of the mythical samurai with a heart of gold archetype. While I wish the series was longer so that they could be more fleshed out, the reader is at least given enough to understand where the samurai and even villager characters are coming from. The bad guys are one note, but that’s to be expected and doesn’t take away from the fun or the pathos. — Derrick Crow
Bokurano: Ours
Writer/Artist: Mohiro Kitoh
Translation: Camillia Nieh
Design: Courtney Utt
Editing: Eric Searleman
Publisher: VIZ
The anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion built on pioneering works like Mobile Suit Gundam and Space Runaway Ideon to bring greater psychological depth to the giant robot genre. Mohiro Kitoh‘s manga series Bokurano: Ours, though, might top even Evangelion in terms of bleakness. It follows the familiar premise of a group of teens asked to save the Earth from massive aliens with the help of a giant robot. Yet there’s a horrifying catch: the robot is powered by the life force of its teenage pilots. Once the battle ends, the pilot dies immediately.
Kitoh has the rare talent of being able to depict both interior and exterior battles in his manga. The design of Zearth, the massive robot the kids pilot, casts a huge black shadow against Kitoh’s white and screentoned backgrounds. Its unusual design, tiny limbs supporting a wide body with barely human features, only makes the proceedings stranger and more ominous. Alien opponents take on bizarre shapes such as a cylinder that looks like it’s made out of razor blades and a soccer ball with too many eyes. Every fight shatters cities and traumatizes Kitoh’s child pilots even further. Kitoh captures their sense of resignation beautifully through their expressions as they weigh what to do with the time they have left.
Mecha anime often depict child soldiers piloting enormous machines as wish fulfillment. What kid doesn’t love using their toys to fight imaginary enemies? Kitoh though invests this fantasy with dark consequences. He never sugarcoats the sacrifice these kids make or their lost potential. Each battle shifts perspectives to a new pilot so that we might see their lives and who their death will impact. Whether they win or lose against the invaders, there will be a cost. Every battle is a Pyrrhic victory at best, making Bokurano: Ours a uniquely bleak entry in this malleable genre. — D. Morris
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