Around the turn of the century, there was a sudden boom in English translated manga. Fuelled partially by the popularity of various dubbed anime series that were being shown on TV in the UK and US, and partially by a company called Tokyopop pumping out tons and tons of low-priced volumes of series in every genre, it was a time that saw translated manga go from being a niche part of the English comics to the biggest part of it by a long way. Alongside the cheap volumes, there was also a mini-boom of Japan-style manga anthology magazines.
It's a shame that there aren't any of these magazines left today, because they were a really nice format, and each magazine had its own identity formed from the kinds of series they'd print, along with the general aesthetic and house style. My favourites were Pulp, which printed a lot of gritty and slightly artsy comics aimed at adults, and Raijin Comics, which stuck most closely to the visual style of Japanese magazines, and had a strange mix of series from well-known creators and stuff by people who'd never been printed in English before. But today, I'm going to talk about a short-lived magazine that I only discovered a few years ago, and seemed to last only a year or two circa 1999-2000: Chibi-Pop Manga.
As far as I can tell, this magazine was published by an American comic shop owner, and he took on a business model that I've actually wondered about many times: licensing works from up-and-coming, lesser-known creators, and translating it as cheaply as possible. The most amazing bit of cost-cutting is the way in which one of the series is printed: four shrunken manga pages on each magazine page, fitting a fifteen-page story into five! As well as the manga, the issue I have (vol. 2 #3) also has an error-laden article on the 1999 Amusement Machine Show in Tokyo, and a few pages of cosplay photos, presumably from the same event. Unfortunately, the cosplay photos are printed in black and white and the contrast is terrible, so you can barely see anything in them.
So, you're probably wondering by now what series were printed in here, right? Here's the list:
The Twilight Files (Fujiwara & Atsu) - A Twilight Zone-esque weird tales anthology type series, hosted by a nameless person who's been interergrated into an information-gathering computer who tells us in this chapter, two stories of scientists experimenting on humans to try and cheat death.
Nagi: Coastguard 2 (Denjiro) - Appears to be a post-apocalyptic action series? There's a girl with metal manipulation powers fighting a giant robot in a ruined city, at least. There's only a few pages of this, and i'd like to see more.
Artifacts Breaker (Ataru Cagiva) - A shonen action series about marital artists with unique special powers, which I think are the result of human experimentation? Like Nagi, the small taste I have here makes me curious to read more.
Fubuki The Female Ninja (Tsugumi) - A very nineties action comedy about a ninja going to a modern day high school.
Adventures of Tokyo Kid (Tetsu Suzuki) - I have no idea what this is about. Most of the chapter is taken up by a young man and a young woman speaking in his apartment, where he reveals himself to be an inventor.
Trout Burger (Syuntaro Masuki) - This is the series printed in the weird shrunken format, and it's a silly comedy where a fast food restaurant employee foils a pair of bank robbers using a can of disgusting vegetable juice and a giant anti-tank cannon.
I admire the amateur enthusiast charm that Chibi-Pop Manga exudes, both in the production of the magazine itself, and in the series printed within, and as mentioned, I am genuinely curious about several of them, and I'd like to see more. Unfortunately, I can find almost no information on the series or the creators. Ataru Cagiva is an exception, and seems to have done a few manga adaptations of videogame RPGs. Tsugumi is the other exception, their full name being Nishino Tsugumi, and their most notable work being a single volume story called Hanamaru Angels, which I think was self-published, and even more interestingly, was a bilingual release! I actually managed to track a copy of Hanamaru Angels down, so I'll review it here at some point in the future.
So yeah, that's Chibi-Pop Manga: a clear labour of love for all concerned that unfortunately seems to have been totally forgotten. I enjoyed it, though, and if anyone can offer more information on any of the series listed in this post, please contact me! Also, I apologise for the phone photos, but my ancient scanner has no drivers for Windows 10. Forced Absolecence!
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