VariousAX Volume 1: A Collection of Alternative Manga

This meaty collection from Top Shelf contains works from previous favorites in the catalog of D&Q, Last Gasp, and others in the names of Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Takashi Nemoto, Imiri Sakabashira, as well as previously undiscovered artists from the AX bi-monthly collection in Japan, itself a piece of the small underbelly of Japan's comix market, which is pretty excellently laid out in the books English introduction by Paul Gravett. Over thirty stories and just as many authors make up this collection of perverse, taboo and sometimes thoughtful comics from those who choose to focus more on narrative and characterization rather than the common panel story-telling of your everyday shonen manga.As with any compilation, it's hit or miss. There are many great stories here, so I'll detail just a few to pique your interest. Gekiga godfather Tatsumi's piece is "Love's Bride", a simple and expected (but not bad) story about a loser trying to woo a girl through a less than human ritual. Sakabashira's piece ("Conch in the Sky") is a psychedelic mess of tatamis, trains and squid tentacles. One of the better early pieces, and may be even better than his "Box Man" work. "Rooftop Elegy" is a page burner involving mental illness and death, and to say anymore would have its gimmick ruined. Okada's "Me" is a cross between Nemoto's profane (and often confusing) storytelling and Tatsumi's sympathetic framing of a human soul. Akiyama's "Inside the Gourd" is an atmospheric and metaphysical swirling and, along with "Mushroom Garden", is one of the more serene and calming "this world(s) will be OK" pieces, which frankly don't show up enough in this collection for me.Fukumitsu's "The Song of Mr. H" is sort of a Ebisu/R. Crumb version of "Rocky" with less dumb dialogue and more feel-good spirit. The way he "animates" the fights is wonderful. Getting motion "right" is hard to do. Something that would've undoubtedly been messed up had this been reversed for left-to-right reading. "Kosuke Okada and His 50 Sons" is another bitter sweet family story a la "Push Man", only less depressing.Great art is found here, too. Kiriyama's "A Well Dressed Corpse" is the most blatant Suehiro Maruo love/rip I've ever seen. A good addition, but leaves us hanging. (Too soon to ask Top Shelf for Vol 2?) "Les Raskolnikov" is another high-art gem with abstract everything--story, art and paneling is all hard to follow at first, but you'll hardly care. It looks beautiful. Miyanishi draws humans better than most any mangaka.A few of the stories flop. Both "300 Years" and "A Broken Soul" leave so much up to interpretation it's hard to even grasp. Hanakuma's "Puppy Love" is a snore, much as I love Afro and Hage. "Tokyo Zombie" this is not; it's more going for the heart-strings when it should really be biting at genitals. Nemoto's "Black Sushi Party Piece" is, of course, the most vile thing in this compilation. Some find it hard to read just because of the content, but I think there's more humor (and satire) than most people see. Even among some of the weirder pieces here, this is the obvious freak-you-out winner. You know that if you know HIM, though."Alraune Fatale" and "Six Paths of Wealth" are both more traditional ero-guro pieces involving objectification of women and BDSM themes. The latter ends the book and is one of the best stories here. Top Shelf has done a great job getting this out there, and despite the long wait and publisher problems, was worth the wait. More quantity seems to bring less quality but they're going for a wide range of feelings, styles, and gimmicks and most come out making you want more (sadly, one or two end with a "To be continued..."), a minor fault. Pick this up if you love any of the above artists. A top pick for 2010.

Not for the faint of heart. You probably will be offended by at least some of this material. It challenges the reader immensely... however if you are up for the challenge there are a few rewards to be had. Some of the stories are extremely explicit (sexually graphic), and some are violent. All are... unusual.Now I know with everything I stated above you are wondering, "why did they give it a four star review?"... I'll tell you why. It gets four stars because it is like nothing I have ever encountered, and it left me thinking about it long after I was through reading. I will revisit certain stories time and again, either to try to better understand the art, or to try to make some sort of sense out of the chaos, or on the occasion where a story truly landed and resonated to appreciate it for what it is.To try to frame it against some more popular manga in the english reading world, if you enjoy both Inio Asano's work and Junji Ito's work, you may consider giving this a shot (I'm not guaranteeing it will be for you, but there's a chance... it will be more graphic then works from either of those artists at times). If you are out there for Dragonball Z/Naruto/One PIece and the other Shonen works, probably give this one a hard pass.

This is a great collection of short stories. Some are hard hitting, some are funny and some suck. A shame this series didn’t continue. Nice to see a broader spectrum of artists work in Japan. In America we are really forced to only see a limited number of working artists and writers because not much is published here. Especially older manga. There are some great stories and artists who haven’t gone international and this helped us peak into who we are missing out on.

i love to explore manga, so this anthology is convenient. but it wasnt really worth the price in my opinion. maybe it would be more impactful to younger audiences

I personally did not like the style of these artists but this is still a good collection. I did give up after the fourth or fifth story

I really enjoyed this book. There are some interesting stories in here, including a story by an artist I recently found & had no idea he created manga. One particular story was a bit disturbing to me, but one way to view it is simply as the creator's form of expression. It is a nice addition to my collection of manga, & I plan to buy any additional volumes.

Manga artists seem to have a deep understanding of the "structure" of dreams, the incomprehensible scene changes, the kaleidoscopic emotions, the strange sense of loss. This is a collection of thirty-three dreams. Some I loved, some I hated, but nearly all of them assaulted my perception of what comics can be. For that, I am grateful to the people who put this together--you deserve five stars!--and I hope to see more work from some of the artists here.

Excellent. Genuinely absurd, shocking, funny, and sad. The art styles are varied and the stories are well curated. The book itself is beautifully designed. Highly recommended for all fans of comics or good stories. This will give you something truly different.

This is a brilliant read. One after another, already half way through and cant wait for volume II! My only criticism is that they seem to have translated too much, like japanese shop signs dont have Japanese writing and some of the stories are too much aimed at a western audience. That said I would definitely recommend

Unfortunately I expected more than I received. Multiple short stories and some slightly controversial topics - overall I regret buying this. Most of the stories weren't worth reading and I doubt I'll pick up the book again.

With only one or two exceptions this is just self indulgence on the part of the creators with the bulk of it being of no interest whatsoever. There's a line between obscure-because-odd and obscure-because-rubbish and this is on the wrong side of it.

When is volume 2 coming out? Been waiting since 2011!

Very pleased. Excellent service from Amazon.ca