Obscure Adventures in Geek and Nerd Culture

The Tsukioka Lineage  Tsukioka School  Sadao Tsukioka  Norio Matsumoto  The Katsumata Lineage  Tomonaga School Kazuhide Tomonaga  Ryo-Timo  *Kazuhide Tomonaga is perhaps one of the stylised realists who’ve impacted on almost the whole Tsukioka lineage. Though his early style was indeed slightly influenced by 3 men; Miyazaki, Dezaki and Kanada, it slowly grew out to went on a webbing heavy rampage more akin to Ryo-Timo’s own WebGen style, at least from the mid 1990s onwards, which is partly due to the Batman TAS intro’s relevance.  Katsumata School Tomoharu Katsumata Ryoma Ebata  The Nakajima Lineage  Wakabayashi School Atsushi Wakabayashi  Shota Goshozono  *Do note that Atsushi Wakabayashi has a spiritual successor in Shota Goshozono, who still goes for a speedier direction more akin to that of Atsuko Ishida’s style instead. Tellingly, while adding in a mild renovation of the Kanada Perspective thanks to Akiyuki Shinbo’s help, ...

In order for comic artists and illustrators to blend with each other regardless of gender, we can finally see the stylistic evolution of various Tarzan designs in comics, animation and artworks from the 1960s onward.  J. Allen St. John + Violet Oakley = Jack Kirby  Marvel figurehead Jack Kirby seldom drew Tarzan, although his art style’s more akin to those of both Oakley and St John’s art than to those of most other Marvel artists who later joined the Marsh/Buscema squish movement.  P.J. Monahan + Marion Senones = Burne Hogarth  Although Burne Hogarth’s art style was largely self taught, he did have major indirect influences in both P.J. Monahan and the French globetrotter Marion Senones, which resulted in his classical yet very dynamic art style having a strong French influence even into the 1970s.  Neysa McMein + Alex Blum = Roy Krenkel Roy Krenkel’s art is derived from both the realistic bodies of Neysa McMein and the blustering inks of Alex Blum. Ethel Hays ...

Apart from Rubi, which spawned its own bigger franchise, there is no Mexican adult comic as captivating as Rarotonga, even though it’s rather stereotypical by both Mexican and most developed countries’ standards. Otherwise, keep in mind that despite its inherent objectification and misogyny (racism is also pretty bad in the comic, albeit not as obvious as the moderately toned down sexism), it remains the better written (1970s onward) and more captivating reboot of a 1950s Mexican adult comic named Taboo, which itself couldn’t hold up much in as early as the sixties, rather tellingly due to being more blatantly flagrant in terms of sexism than even the original Astro Boy manga created in 1952.  As suggested by looking at her somewhat ambiguous features in such a comic (itself somewhat fair for its day), Rarotonga surely is one of Mexican comics’ first mixed race baddies to gain consistent international popularity (at least in much of Latin America). Although she’s confusingly called...

The Showa Children’s History series is an underrated look at the Showa period as it was known to people of many generations. 6 of the books are now in my collection. My first one is about jungle heroes and their ilk, as well as their impact on many cultures around the world.  Much of the book is dedicated to Yoshimasa Ikeda’s character Baalumba (Barumba), a book character who’s a snowman like Giant raised by wild jungle animals. He also spawned his own, somehow better known spinoff counterparts, Burūba (aka Zamba) and his own fan-made son Shōnen Burūba.  Since Kyuuta Ishikawa was a big mighty fan, he created Shōnen Burūba (1960-61) - the sequel of Kunio Watanabe’s manga tie in to the movie - and (childhood to adolescence-focused) Zamba (1962-64) - the manga set between the wild man’s adoption by beasts and his first full fling with romance. As a result, thanks to his unpredictable writing and mildly uncanny valley artwork for both semi-official tie ins to the Burūba movie, the...