Full-Frontal Anthropomorphic Device

"I am not a glutton, I am an explorer of food."

--Erma Bombeck

Drawing on the past of Osamu Tezuka

18 JUNE 2016       JAPAN TIMES       ROLAND KELTS

TOKYO, JAPAN (Japan Times) -- In 1977, American author and translator Frederik L. Schodt and three friends formed a manga-translation group in Tokyo, with the then-quixotic dream of introducing Japanese comics to a global readership. Schodt had arrived in Japan in 1965, courtesy of a father in the United States Foreign Service. He returned in 1970 to attend university after a short stint in the U.S. At the time, manga were everywhere in Japan, he says, and a lot more fun to read than textbooks.

Schodt became addicted to the gag-and-parody series published in boys’ magazines. But one day a friend loaned him a copy of Osamu Tezuka’s epic 12-volume “Phoenix” — and he was stunned. “It made me realize that the work of Japanese manga artists was sometimes approaching the best in literature and film,” he says. 

So he and his translation team went straight to Tezuka Productions to get permission for their debut project. To their surprise, the artist, already a celebrity in Japan, known as “the god of manga” for hit titles such as “Astro Boy” and “Black Jack,” greeted them personally and said yes. 

The five volumes the group translated by 1978 — without the aid of computers or photocopiers — found no American publisher and gathered dust in Tezuka’s Takadanobaba offices for nearly a quarter century until Viz Media began releasing them in 2002. 

But Schodt’s relationship with Tezuka continued to evolve. He began serving as the artist’s interpreter during trips outside of Japan, while also translating his work and introducing it to new readers. In 1983, Tezuka wrote the introduction to Schodt’s seminal book, “Manga! Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics.” 

Now you can find Schodt’s illustrated likeness standing beside Tezuka’s in a panel from “The Osamu Tezuka Story: A Life in Manga and Anime,” a 900-plus page graphic biography that will be published in English for the first time next month. 

After appearing in serial form in Asahi Graph, the original Japanese paperback edition of the biography was published in 1992 as “Osamu Tezuka Monogatari,” three years after Tezuka’s death at the age of 60. It was illustrated and authored by Tezuka’s assistant, Toshio Ban, who quotes liberally from Tezuka’s own art and prose, including his autobiography, “Boku wa Mangaka” (“I am a Manga Artist”). The format of the English translation is based on the large-sized paperback of the Japanese original. The translation itself is, of course, by Schodt. 

“It is amazing to me that I’m still doing stuff related to (Tezuka),” admits Schodt, who says their 12-year relationship was life-changing. “I’ve felt indebted to him in some ways. I felt he should be better known, and for me personally, this is a way of paying respect to him.” 

Readers may recognize Ban’s name from the 2012 manga essay, “I am a Digital Cat,” a collaboration with Tokyo-based British novelist and nonfiction author, Peter Tasker, depicting a dystopian future Japan ruled by robotic cats. 

Tasker was already familiar with Ban’s Tezuka resume, and describes the illustrator’s humor combined with a kind of ominousness as “absolutely perfect” for their collaboration. An admirer of Schodt’s books, he says, “I am a huge fan of Tezuka, especially the darker works. You see good people sometimes doing very bad things, and bad people sometimes doing good things. As Schodt has made clear, it’s a tremendously flexible medium capable of dealing with the highest and lowest of themes.” 

Advance copies of the English version of Tezuka’s biography, published by Stone Bridge Press, contain only excerpted segments, but it’s clear that Ban is skilled at mimicking his master, evoking his circular designs and shifting, cinematic perspectives. 

The story is linear, a chronological narrative of the experiences that shaped Tezuka. A grade school teacher encourages him to keep drawing at an early age. As he struggles to balance art with his medical studies (his father was a doctor), his mother advises him to “choose the path you love.” And as Japan recovers from the war, Tezuka goes to the movies, vowing as a young man to attend the cinema 365 days a year. Read More

Colorado woman pries open mountain lion's jaws to rescue son

18 JUNE 2016       ASSOCIATED PRESS       STEVEN K PAULSON

DENVER, COLORADO (AP) -- Summoned by the sound of screams, a Colorado woman raced to her front yard to find a terrifying sight: A mountain lion was hunched over her 5-year-old son, biting him.

The woman charged the animal, yanked away one of its paws and discovered her son's whole head was in its mouth. She didn't back down. 

"She was able to pry the cat's jaws open," Pitkin County Sheriff's Deputy Michael Buglione said. "She's a hero." 

The boy suffered deep cuts to his head, face and neck and was flown to a Denver hospital. The mother, who also had scratches and bites, is credited with saving his life. 

The ordeal started Friday evening when the 5-year-old and his older brother were playing outside their home near the resort town of Aspen, Buglione said. 

When the woman ran outside, she found the mountain lion crouched over her younger son, who was struggling to get free. 

"The boy was completely under the cat," Buglione told The Aspen Times. 

The mother grabbed the lion's mouth and pried it open, freeing the boy. She then scooped him up and ran away, the deputy said. 

The boy's father had just returned from a run when the attack occurred. He jumped in the car with his wife and son and called 911 as they sped to the Aspen hospital. 

From there, the child was flown to Children's Hospital in Denver in fair condition. On Saturday, a hospital spokeswoman told the Times she was not authorized to release any details on his condition. 

The mother suffered bite marks on her hand and scratches on her leg, authorities said. She was treated and released. 

The family members' names were not released. 

The mountain lion was estimated to be about 2 years old and was not fully grown. 

"It wasn't a big cat," Buglione said. "Had it been a 110-pound lion - which I've seen around here - this would have been a much different story." Read More

The color of ire

17 JUNE 2016       AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE       ROBERT ATANASOVSKI

SKOPJE, MACEDONIA (AFP) -- It’s been some two months since the color protests started here. They began by demonstrations downtown, with protesters whistling and chanting anti-government slogans. At some point, the protesters started to throw eggs and paint-filled balloons at government buildings. And that’s how our “Colorful Revolution” was born.

In the beginning, the protesters’ aim was less than ideal and the paint they threw regularly ended up on my clothes and photo equipment. I washed both about a dozen times before giving up. If you want to get a good photo, you have to be ready for anything. Including resembling a moving modern art painting. I have many such wearable works of art now.

The demonstrators launch their attacks on public buildings with several weapons -- balloons, waterguns and slingshots being the most popular. Their favorite targets are monuments that have been erected during the 10-year rule of prime minister Nikola Gruevski, who stepped down in January to make way for controversial elections, and whose costly neo-classical makeover of the city has not been appreciated by all. The Victory Arch and the statue of Alexander the Great have taken the brunt of the ire. 

The seeds of the protests were sown in February last year, when an opposition leader began releasing recordings that appeared to reveal high-level corruption and official wiretapping of thousands of Macedonians, including politicians, journalists and businesspeople. 

Government denials sparked mass protests on both sides and the EU stepped in to broker a deal. Then President Gjorge Ivanov poured fuel on the fire in April, when he issued a mass pardon to those implicated in the wiretapping scandal, including his ally, the long-serving premier Gruevski. That sparked more protests that eventually transformed into the “Colourful Revolution,” with the demonstrators demanding that Ivanov step down and repeal the pardon. 

The protesters have been mostly peaceful. They gather in late afternoons, at a place announced in a Facebook post, which also lists the target for the day. At dusk, they return home. 

 

With time, their aim has become quite good. Every paint balloon or slingshot projectile that reaches its target sets off an ecstatic burst of applause and cheers. Sometimes covering the demonstrations I get the feeling that I’ve stepped into an Angry Birds video game. 

A group that has baptised itself “the commandos” has become specialized in striking with water guns filled with paint, with which they have targeted all sorts of walls of the capital. 

There is also a group that blocks Skopje’s main thoroughfares for a half hour midday, creating monstrous traffic jams. 

But there are no demonstrations during the weekend. Everybody takes a rest. 

The protests have failed to dent the support of the ruling party, which according to surveys still enjoys 30 percent support among the population, compared with 11 percent for the main opposition party. 

And many of the people who support the protesters in principle, many elderly among them, don’t approve of their methods of defacing the capital. 

After two months, the protests seem to be at a standstill. They never attract more than a few thousand people and some believe that the start of the school and university vacation season, at the end of June, could see the end of our color revolt. Read More