Recently, Ryan announced on Same Hat! Same Hat! the forthcoming translation of AX magazine content, AX(Vol 1): A Collection of Alternative Manga, edited by Sean Michael Wilson (author, manga creator) and Mitsuhiro Asakawa (journalist, Japanese editor of Ax). For those unfamiliar with AX magazine, it is a rich souce of Japanese alternative manga which has provided it's readers with surreal and off-beat comics for around a decade and it's publisher, Seirinkogeisha, might be considered the Fantagraphics or Drawn and Quarterly of Japan. I've "read" AX for many years even though I don't know Japanese. Never the less, I dutifully studied each issue I came across and found the experience rewarding. So I crapped my pants when the rumors of a mass of translations (400 pages) were verified by photographic evidence. But what really caught my eye was the following list of confirmed mangaka:
UPDATE: COMPLETE LIST OF MANGAKA (from Sean!)
Osamu Kanno: 菅野修「眺める男」(44)12P
Yoshihiro Tatsumi: 辰巳ヨシヒロ「愛の花嫁」(31)22P
Imiri Sakabashira: 逆柱いみり「空の巻き貝」(44)16P
Takao Kawasaki: 川崎タカオ「屋上哀歌」(47)10P
Ayuko Akiyama: 秋山亜由子「瓢箪の中」(31)8P
Shigehiro Okada: オカダシゲヒロ「俺」(45)16P
Katsuo Kawai: 河井克夫「画鋲女」(18)8P
Nishioka Kyodai: 西岡兄妹「心が壊れた」(22)8P
Takato Yamamoto: 山本タカト「闇の方へ」(30)8P
Toranosuke Shimada: 島田虎之介「エンリケ小林のエルドラド」(14)20P
Yuka Goto: 後藤友香「隣人」(22)13P
Mimiyo Tomozawa: 友沢ミミヨ「300ねん」(2)10P
Takashi Nemoto: 根本敬「黒寿司十八番」(1)12P
Yusaku Hanakuma: 花くまゆうさく「息子はイヌ」(12)10P
Namie Fujieda: 藤枝奈己絵「輝く人。」(37)10P
Mitsuhiko Yoshida: 吉田光彦「兎と亀」(40)20P
Kotobuki Shiriagari: しりあがり寿「双子のオヤジ 存在」(2)6P/「神様」(17)6P
Shinbo Minami: 南伸坊「ロボとピュー太」(56)4P/(58)4P
Shinya Komatsu: コマツシンヤ「Mushroom Garden」(52)12P
Einosuke: 英之助「菅原家」(33)6P
Yuichi Kiriyama: 桐山裕市「屍錦」(42)7P
Yunosuke Saito: 齋藤裕之介「アリゾナ」(49)10P
Akino Kondo: こんどうあきの「雨の白シャツ」(40)8P
Tomohiro Koizumi: 古泉智浩「わいわいパーティ3」(56)8P
Shin'ichi Abe: 安部慎一「私」(36)4P/「父」(38)4P
Seiko Erisawa: 衿沢世衣子「さかあがり」(47)4P
Shigeyuki Fukumitsu: 福満しげゆき「おじさんのうた」(20)18P
Kataoka Toyo: 東陽片岡「哀愁劇場」(48)4P/(51)4P
Hideyasu Moto: 本秀康「岡田幸介と50人の息子たち」(2)13P
Keizo Miyanishi: 宮西計三「Les ラスコーリニコフs」(2)10P
Hiroji Tani: 谷弘兒「妖花アルラウネ」(22)10P
Otoya Mitsuhashi: 三橋乙揶「灯明」(9)10P
Kazuichi Hanawa: 花輪和一「六富道」(59)26P
Even though I've been deeply influenced artistically by the artists in AX magazine, I only know the names of a hand full of artists, many by their art but not their names. What good is a list of names when there's no art or info to go along with the names. So I'm hoping the fine readers and contributors of this blog can take a moment to google a name on this list and post the most interesting and elucidating results they come across. I certainly plan on doing so, but there's no reason we can't all partake in the fun!
UPDATE 2: Courtesy of the great and knowledgable Ed Chavez at MangaCast, here are covers and details for artists featured in the AX Anthology!
From left:
"Akino Kondo: Itsumo no Hanashi, HakoNiwa Mushi; Minami Shinbo: Nonki Zuga;Shinichi Abe: Boku ha SaraKin no Hoshi desu!, (second row) Hakushin no Haru wo Motomete!; Namie Fujieda: Kawatteru kara Komatteru, Dream Color Brother;Mitsuhiko Yoshida Baku Kue; (third row) Osamu Kanno: Pink no Atama, Shoufu;Kazuichi Hanawa: Doing Time; Yoshihiro Tatsumi: Drifting Life 1 and 2 (#2 on 4th row), DaiHakkutsu, DaiHakken
Couldn’t find any art from Yuichi Kiriyama, Shigehiro Okada, Yunosuke Saito, YeongMin Choi."
