Manga, you mutter to yourself. That's that terrible Chris Kattan character named after a fruit, right? No, I tell you with an admittedly condescending tone in my voice, that's Mango, the Kattan character that acts like a fruit (My apologies to all gay and lesbian readers who feel offended by this, and by “this” I mean any comparison to Chris Kattan.)

Manga is that ever growing section of your local bookstore's Graphic Novels department. Those little books that run about $9 and seem to be filled with endless school girls in sailor suits lusting after the blandest most androgynous men around. Manga is, in a nutshell, Japanese comic books and looking at some of this stuff you have to wonder what happened over there? There is some wild stuff happening in these books. I mean you have to read these right to left! What gives Japan?

But despite that most of it is really not my cup of tea, I've found two series that are just excellent, and there's a little something called OEL, original English Language manga, i.e. Comics produced in the manga style by western artists. I've got two good OEL recommendations two.

JAPANESE MANGA

DEATH NOTE
by
Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata

“The human whose name is written in this note shall die.”
Welcome to Death Note. Light Yagami has it all. He's a straight-A student, on the fast track to joining the Japanese police just like his father and has a strong moral sense of right and wrong. Enter Ryuk, a death god or Shingami. He's bored, so he drops a death note into the world. The death note can kill anyone whose name is written in the book. Light inherits the note and with Ryuk at his side decides to rid the world of crime by killing criminals. But murder is murder and soon Light is being worshiped as a god called Kira by the public. He's also being hunted by his own father as the world tries to solve the question of “Who is Kira?” The world turns to the one man who just might be able to figure it out, a super-reclusive genius, known only as L. The L vs Light arc takes up the first half of Death Note's story and once their battle is resolved things get really interesting.

Ohba and Obata craft a very chilling story that has become a legitimate pop culture phenomena. The manga and anime are worldwide successes and in Japan there have been three movies and video games. The beauty of the story is that it's very much a Sherlock Holmes tale set in modern day except it's being told from Moriarty's point of view. You'll slap yourself on the head as you get assaulted by plot twists you didn't see coming, and you watch L and Light squirm through each others traps. Obata's art is wondefully detailed and Ohba, a first time storyteller, crafts a masterful story based on one simple morality choice: What would you do if you had the power of god?

GENSHIKEN
by
Kio Shimoku

The first rule of nerd club is don't talk about nerd club...because nobody else will give a damn. The polar opposite of Death Note, a fantasy morality play, Genshiken is a humorous and fairly realistic look at a modern day college club. But this club is specifically for Otaku, which, as best I can translate, means: Fanboys. Love a cartoon show and want to discuss the differences between the show and the manga it was based on? Join Genshiken. Want to dress up like your favorite anime character and go parade in public? Join Genshiken. Want to produce a gay porn comic based in part on the wacky antics of your fellow club members? You guessed right, Join Genshiken!

We join the club with freshman Sasahara and Saki. Sasahara is a closet Otaku looking to geek out with fellow nerds, while Saki only joins to be with her boyfriend and seems to switch between hating the club and being its greatest protector. We follow them through four years of college, the older members graduate, newer members join, but in the end there's a nice sense of closure and a feeling that the Genshiken will still go on even if we're no longer there. Kio Shimoku's story is a funny tale of friendship and his art is nicely stylized, but realistic enough that you never doubt the cast is supposed to be real people, instead of the idealized representatives that make up the cast of American super hero comics.
 

OEL MANGA
GOLD DIGGER
by
Fred Perry

Going strong for over one hundred and fifty issues is Fred Perry's Gold Digger. Originally black and white, the comic switched over to color, and if you look at those early issues you can really see that Fred's art has come a long way. The book follows two sisters: Gina Diggers, the “Gold Digger” Super-genius archeologist/treasure hunter and her adopted sister, Brittany who just happens to be the last of the were-Cheetahs. The book also has a strong supporting cast like their third sister, Brianna, a clone combining traits of the two sisters, their parents Julia, an arms master from an alternate dimension where magic not science took hold, and Theo, one of the worlds greatest mages. There's also Brittany's alien prince husband Strype and their daughter Tiffany. Yes, the rest of the cast is just this strange but each character lends his or her own voice to the narrative and some of the strongest stories have come from when Perry ditches the Diggers family and follows the supporting players around for awhile.

Now for the last two years or so he's been telling this long drawn out story to reunite the two sisters, but as of issue #150, the book gets a soft reboot and I feel this is going to be the perfect jumping on point for readers, unlike Spider-Man: One More Day which was the perfect jumping off point for readers. Zing. Perry's strongest connection to manga is his use of the “furry” character, i.e. A human with animal features such as Brittany who is half cheetah or Strype whose race just happens to be furry with big ears. There's also a liberal use of mecha through out the run, so enjoy and don't be daunted by the long run of this book. Fred usually tells you anything you need to know along the way.

EMPOWERED
by
Adam Warren

Adam Warren is perhaps the father of OEL having started in the late 80's with his title DIRTY PAIR for Dark Horse. He then translated popular titles such as GEN 13 and TEEN TITANS into manga form before coming back with EMPOWERED. Empowered stars a superheroine of the same name who has to wear a skin tight body suit while fighting crime. The only problem is she's got major body issues and the suit hides nothing. The only other problem is that the suit's powers are directly affected by her confidence issues so whenever she's down she's more vulnerable. Still she sticks it out and suffers the scorn of her more powerful teammates backed up by her boyfriend a former super villain thug and best friend, a female ninja who once kidnapped her before becoming her drinking buddy. Oh, and threats and advice are spewed from a demon conqueror who now resides in an alien bondage belt that takes up space on Emp's coffee table.

Outside of the art style, and the occasional Japan references via the ninja, you won't find much in common with the traditional manga but the neat thing is Adam Warren's original pencils are transcribed into each book so you get a unique non-inked artwork experience. And despite the superhero themes of the title it's usually just a book about a group of friends trying to make good, be it in a relationship, job or just trying to cheer up your friend when she's down because a group of thugs made fun of the size of her butt.