From: kuo@sumax.seattleu.edu (Chih-Ping Kuo)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.manga
Subject: Re: Sun Comics and Blue Sky Blue "Nestrobber"
Date: 11 Nov 92 19:21:01 GMT
Article-I.D.: sumax.5711
Organization: sumax city 0092

In article <BxK7Fp.K38@wang.com> rmc@wang.com (R Mark Chilenskas) writes:
>The new Sun Comics and Blue Sky Blue's "Nestrobber" showed up at
>Million Year Picnic this weekend.

I was just about to post my impression on Sun Comics, might as well
tag behind this one.

>Raika, by Fujiwara Kamui, story by Terashima Yu, continues to be a good read.
>Issues 9-12 contain a long (more than one issue) fight scene, 
>at night, in caves, and indoors, so these are very dark issues ink-wise.  
>With the lower quality paper, i worry that it will smudge some in a year or

consider the way Sun does business, their individual issue is probably
not mean for repeated reading in a year or two :)

>I doubt that this story will make it on to anyone's
>list of favorites.

not mine, it can't make up its mind on which way it wants to be, a 3x3? 
a Madara? a Kujaku-O? a Mermaid's Forest?  

>I think i now have a better handle on Ragnarok Guy by Okazaki Tsuguo.
>Issues 3 and 4 are now out, and its going to be a Western.  Gun
>slinger goes to town, rids it of worse bad guys, decides to move on so
>he will not endanger his new friends in town.  

It is a direct copy of Vampire Hunter D, which is a direct copy of the
great western Shane, which is being copy be endless different titles
all over the world.

>Okazaki-san is allergic to rectangular panels, which is fine by me.

it depends, I personaly think Yamashita Ikuto's Dark Whisper goes way
overboard in avoiding box panel and in effect make his story confusing to
the point of unreadable, it goes both way, 

>High School Agent 1 and 2 was also available.  I leafed through 1 at the
>store but didn't buy it.  Somehow, there just wasn't anything to grab my
>attention, so i passed it by.  I can't remember the last time this 
>happened with a Japanes translation.

ummm, hehe, it happen to me many, many times :)  there is the good and
the bad in manga just like in comic. the way Sun Comics does business
I doubt they will go after big/famous title that will cost a bundle in
securing the right for it.
 
My own impressions of Sun is not on the three manga titles they carry 
(I think rather poorly about those 3 titles) but on how Sun is doing
business.  coming out in WEEKLY format and try to reduce price by 
printing them in Mexico is a rather smart way of doing business, of course,
I don't think too much of the ads in the middle of a story (kind of like
watching TV commericals, instead the usual place at the end of a book)
and Sun is apparently not able to maintain the weekly shipment, as issues
tend to come in 2-4 issues at once every 2-5 weeks.  The quality in general
is not as good as Dark Horse and Viz, but consider the format and pricing
I think it is passable.  

I wonder when will the comic house realize that they need a different
format in distributing manga.  I think the best way is direct graphic
novel release, even Viz admit that their GN do very well compare to the
same individual issues.  The Taiwan and Hong Kong main whai house is able
to maintain cheap price and prompt release (withing a week of the Japanese
magazine, and since the Japanese hold back the compilation issue usually by
three months to a year, the Chinese compilation even come out BEFORE the
Japanese release!) by totally ignore touch up (only doing the translation
in the bubble). Antarctic's Star Trekker is a good example. but of course
there is a limit to the decrease of quality one can accept. The Ranma 
Dojinshi from Antarctic is a rip-off at $2.95 and a disgrace at earning
money in the name of Ranma.  

oops, fighting words for Ben Dunn, don't you agree? :)

-- 
*********************************************************************
Ping Kuo			"There is not enough darkness in all    
kuo@sumax.seattleu.edu		 the world to put out the light of  
standard disclaimer applied   	 one small candle."