Sunday Comics Debt: Japan's Junglest Day

One thing that the current Covid-19 panic has done, other than giving me more free time than I ever needed or wanted, is that being devoid of my usual routine of going to the library has forced me to seek out avenues of escape by delving into my old stack of books that I'd been keeping for a rainy day. It also made me seriously use digital e-books after great reluctance in doing so.

I still vastly prefer using the dead tree form, since I can only use my tablet under very specific conditions. Due to its reflective nature, there's only two spots I can feel comfortable, and I'd much rather be doing other things during that time. I can't take the tablet in the bathroom, because its protective casing causes too much discomforting sensations, distracting me from reading the text.

It also made me register using the online internet library database, which is far more applicable to me, since I can access the material onscreen on a PC monitor more to my liking. Not everything is available, but the stuff I was able to find was of palpable relief. Though for comic material, there was some stuff not seen elsewhere. Do you know that despite the vast amount of DragonBall scanlations available, there's no records of the interior cover art to be found?

We have a generally perceived perception of how Japanese comics are nowadays, despite the constant proclamations that "All Manga looks the same", a laughable prospect considering how similar most American entertainment is. But for someone reading Monkey Brain Sushi (1991), anyone who hadn't read Frederick Schodt's Manga! Manga! or subscribed to Nintendo Power, this would've been their first introduction to literary Japanese comics. And Michio Hisauchi from Garo magazine is as far removed from mainstream as possible. It's artstyle and storytelling is closer to underground comics than anything else.

For the longest time, I wanted to scan these pages, but was worried about damaging my copy by cracking the spine open too widely. But thanks to the online library, after a little borrowing and saving, I was able to make these images without having to use my book.

I hope you like the word 'Misery', because you're going to be hearing a lot more of it, to the point of feeling like Paul Sheldon in front of Annie Wilkes.

Pay no attention to that anthropomorphic medkit with realistic finely-dressed feet. Nothing to see here.

In any other publication, inserting a charity-collecting space alien in a post-war metaphor would be a sign of livening things up. No such luck here.

And now, we start into the realm of expositional infodumping, which while talking a lot, doesn't really explain anything.

I've read this several times, and I thought I must've been missing some philosophical underpining that escaped my notice. Surely it'd make sense when I was older. For a brief moment, I was sure that I understood it's deep philosophical message. Now, rereading this again, I realize that I still don't get it.