randomguy
09-21-2004, 11:14 PM
Boy, this came out of nowhere. I don't believe I ever saw any kind of announcement about it.
I was waltzing through my local B & N and was rather surprised to find the first volume of Katsuhiro Otomo's seminal Akira manga in a brand-spanking-new hardcover edition. Here's a picture of the cover, for the curious among you:
http://a1204.g.akamai.net/7/1204/1401/04051309011/images.barnesandnoble.com/images/7710000/7719895.jpg
It's an excellent release, containing the entire first volume of the manga, with an embossed dust jacket, and improved paper quality in comparision to the existing Dark Horse release.
I'm a hardcover man, and I'm of the opinion that there are certain comics which should always be available in hardcover, because of their impact and significance. Although most worthy American comics are available in HC, there are few manga that get the treatment, even though many deserve it (Lone Wolf and Cub, I'm looking at you). I'm also of the opinion that Akira very much warrants such a hardcover release, so I'm overjoyed to see this new edition. Barnes and Noble's website refers to it as volume one, so hopefully they plan on releasing the other five. Even if they don't, this is still worth a pickup, because having such a large chunk of a classic manga in such a nice format rules.
Best of all, it's only $14.95. For over three hundred pages of manga! That's a better price than the crappily-bound Dark Horse paperback. For those of you that have yet to try out this series, you definitely need to check this out. It's one of the finest works of sci-fi ever published, and it's damn good comics. Snap it up.
I was waltzing through my local B & N and was rather surprised to find the first volume of Katsuhiro Otomo's seminal Akira manga in a brand-spanking-new hardcover edition. Here's a picture of the cover, for the curious among you:
http://a1204.g.akamai.net/7/1204/1401/04051309011/images.barnesandnoble.com/images/7710000/7719895.jpg
It's an excellent release, containing the entire first volume of the manga, with an embossed dust jacket, and improved paper quality in comparision to the existing Dark Horse release.
I'm a hardcover man, and I'm of the opinion that there are certain comics which should always be available in hardcover, because of their impact and significance. Although most worthy American comics are available in HC, there are few manga that get the treatment, even though many deserve it (Lone Wolf and Cub, I'm looking at you). I'm also of the opinion that Akira very much warrants such a hardcover release, so I'm overjoyed to see this new edition. Barnes and Noble's website refers to it as volume one, so hopefully they plan on releasing the other five. Even if they don't, this is still worth a pickup, because having such a large chunk of a classic manga in such a nice format rules.
Best of all, it's only $14.95. For over three hundred pages of manga! That's a better price than the crappily-bound Dark Horse paperback. For those of you that have yet to try out this series, you definitely need to check this out. It's one of the finest works of sci-fi ever published, and it's damn good comics. Snap it up.