Staff Picks (January): Captain Ken Volume 1 GN

All of this past year, Digital Manga has been quietly and expertly publishing some of the greatest works from the library of world renown manga artist, Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka famously delivered Astro Boy, Unico, Kimba the White Lion, Black Jack, and hundreds of other characters into the publishing world and ushered in the age of modern manga.  It is a pleasure and a supreme delight to be able to talk about the latest project in Digital Manga’s line of brilliant translations and presentations: Captain Ken. 

Captain Ken, an enigmatic champion of justice, rides to the rescue, but it will take more than one may to turn the tides of war. A two volume story, this gunslinging science fiction "western" set on the dusty red soil of Mars has all the earmarks of a lighthearted Tezuka fling. Adorable characters ride horses, wear flamboyant outfits, and guess at fairly transparent secret identities. Yet, as Tezuka has done countless times in his long career, he sets up these childlike characters to tell an intensely jarring narrative. Interracial clashes between Martians and humans, slavery, death camps, systematic genocide, and slaughter on all sides stand in stark contrast to the cutesy character design in this space-western. That very contrast highlights on a visceral level the terrible toll that colonization has taken on innocent lives. The parallels to specific dark times in human history are intentionally obvious. However, thanks to the heartfelt way that Tezuka approaches all his characters, the reader never feels lectured or disconnected from the ray guns and galloping low-gravity chases that drive the story.

Cute enough for older readers, yet shocking enough for kids, Tezuka knows what we want in an action comic and keeps us glued to the edge of our seats!

—Matt Demory

Publisher: Digital Manga Item Code: JAN151393 Release Date: 3/25/15 SRP: $13.95