Monday, November 07, 2005

Cackling Kitaro of the Graveyard

Definately one of the all-time greatest 'monster' comics series is Shigeru Mizuki's macabre Ge Ge Ge No Kitaro. My DRAWN! post serves as a decent enough introduction to the great Manga-Ka who reintroduced the ancient Yokai into Japanese Pop culture. Up until now, the only English translations available have been three volumes from the 1996 Kodansha 'Bilingual Comics' imprint which contained a mere 13 tales... GHOST TRAIN, THE LEVIATHANG, THE H2OGRE, GOBLIN CASTLE, NIGHT GAME WITH MONSTERS, THE BEACH WITCH, CATCHICK AND RATMAN, THE YASHA, BROTHER LOOKUP, LI'L DISKHEAD, THE GOBLIN AT THE PASS, THE GOD OF DROUGHT, and STRAW HATS FOR JIZO. (Here's a peek at a bit of the BEACH WITCH... remember to read left to right) Kitaro grew into a big hit in Japan, and it's a cryin' shame that there aren't more english dubs available of the anime or manga. Drunken Tengu is doing his best to change that over at the Mizuki community boards, where you can now download the likes of THE GREAT GOBLIN TRAIL, THE DEMON BELIAL, and THE GOBLIN OF OBEBE SWAMP for free! Dig in, you ghouls.

update 11/11/05

Hiro wrote in a great (Japanese) link to some stills of the live action Kitaro show... super-campy stuff, and definately worth a peek!