Comics / Manga

TOKYOPOP'S NEW TALENTS' NEW BOOKS

By Leroy Douresseaux
June 12, 2005 - 17:50

Welcome to Mr. Charlie Opens the Door #52:

Not only is the Los Angeles-based publisher TOKYOPOP reprinting English language versions of some of the hottest and best manga from the big publishing houses in Japan, it’s also scouring the U.S. looking for new manga-ka (ka = artist) in America. To date, the company’s most successful method of finding new manga-creating talent is through its (now) twice-yearly “The Rising Stars of Manga” contest, which is currently in its fifth go-round. Several of the previous contest winners have earned book contracts with the company. This installment of Mr. Charlie looks at two books from new manga talent:

VAN VON HUNTER is a new series from Pseudome Studio, the winners of the first RSoM, and Van Von Hunter is based upon the winning contest entry of the same name. Created by Ron Kaulfersch & Mike Schwark, VVH follows the (mis)adventures of renowned hunter of evil things, Van Von Hunter, and his amnesiac sidekick (a young blonde-haired beauty who actually doesn’t fit any of the big-breasted blonde comic book/manga caricatures) as they attempt to save the “twice-peaceful” land of Dikay.

The book is a comedy, but it would be unfair to label it simply a parody – the kind of humor to which most humor comics skew. VVH is a cross between a parody of the kind of high fantasy found in role-playing games, video games, manga, and Tolkien-inspired fantasy; however the concept also seems like a bit of a farce in the guise of heroic adventure, and the concept definitely succeeds in being funny. It starts off slow, and it took me a bit to catch on to the rhythm, flavor, and attitude. Once I did, I found myself chuckling several times during the first volume. There are an awful lot of characters to follow, so much so that you’d need a scorecard, but none of them come across as redundant.

The art is a cross between anime and a “cartoony” version of the kind of comic book fantasy art familiar to readers of the various comics incarnations of Conan and Red Sonja, with some chibi (or super-deformed) thrown in. It is good storytelling and the character faces are quite expressive and is what sells this comic’s half-serious/half-comedy attitude.


One of my favorite recent discoveries is SOKORA REFUGEES, a new series from writer Segamu and artist Melissa DeJesus. The title is described in the TOKYOPOP press release as a fanservice title. “Fanservice” is a term used by manga fans to describe manga featuring T&A (breasts and buttocks) and sexual innuendo. It’s a rather lite version of fanservice, as the publisher lists Sokora Refugees with an “age rating” of “Teen (13+).”

The series focuses on Kana, a boarding school (in pop culture, the place where more hanky-panky than book-learning occurs) student, who is cursed with a flat chest. Her troubles really start when a weird-looking new student named Tien Shimiza arrives. It turns out that Tien is a refugee from the elfin homeworld, Sokora, which has been overrun by demonic forces. Strangely enough, Tien arrived in our world via a portal in a shower stall in the girls’ locker room.

Kana accidentally falls through the portal and finds herself in Sokora where she encounters a mortally wounded sorceress named Veila. Veila manages to merge her body with Kana’s, so when Kana returns to earth, she discovers that her body is prone to uncontrollable spurts in which she displays some of Veila’s physical characteristics, the most prominent being big breasts and long, elfin ears. Kana likes it at first, but in one of this manga’s funniest notions, the sexy new physique turns out to be a big pain in Kana’s sexy new butt. All her clothes are designed for her original tomboyish figure, so she constantly struggling to hide her figure from leering teenage horn dogs.

A lot of the book is about misunderstandings and miscommunication. The TOKYOPOP press release says that this title will appeal to fans of the American Piefilm franchise and Lord of the Rings. It’s actually a mixture of slapstick comedy and the type of humor found in Mel Brooks films. Brooks’ film, Blazing Saddles, works as a comedy about westerns because it looks like a western. Sokora Refugees is a comedy set in the milieu of high fantasy, but it isn’t a parody of fantasy films or comics. It actually looks like a high fantasy video game. It just finds fun in the genre and exploits it while simultaneously mining humor from that teen movie genre, the high school sex comedy, although this is more about sexy girls than sex.

The story and art merge into a very funny comic. Although the writer and artist are two separate individual creators, their work has a definite unity. They’re on the same page, so to speak, and that makes it more likely that the concept will work as that sequential illustrated narrative we call comics. I look forward to reading the entire three-volume series.

Interested readers may visit Pseudome Studio’s website at www.vanvonhunter.com. Visit tokyopop.com for more information on these two new books and more about the company. You can find TOKYOPOP’s books at Books-a-Million and Barnes & Nobles, and at your local comic shop or at online bookstores.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12