At a time when manga in English was hot and new, Epic Comics’ release of AKIRA pulled out all the stops and added unparalleled color. If you’re looking to read it today, well… too bad.

At a time when manga in English was hot and new, Epic Comics’ release of AKIRA pulled out all the stops and added unparalleled color. If you’re looking to read it today, well… too bad.
Parallel to the development of giant robot anime in the 1970s, Studio Nue’s revolutionary renderings of Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers powered suit changed the game, and in turn lead to smaller, more “realistic” powered suits appearing in the pages of manga weeklies and hobby magazines.
At a glance it may seem like the intermingling of Japanese and American horror movie motifs with manga-literate millennial artists is a relatively new phenomenon. And yet, as is often the case, this is not the first time these flavors have mingled.
As an up-and-coming young animator, Hideaki Anno worked on big animated films like Nausicaä and Macross: Do You Remember Love? For a brief time in 1984, he had a short comic feature that ran in Comic Box Jr. detailing his production experiences.
Originally published nearly three decades ago in the manual of a PC-98 strategy game, this interview with Kazuhisa Kondo sheds light on his unique approach to portraying mobile suits in his comics.
While a majority of American comic book creators through the 1990s were content with stacking tubes to create weapons and conjure vehicles with childlike reality, mangaka such as Shirow Masamune, sought out minutia in reference and found authenticity via inspiration in the most random of places.
Musical in-jokes and allusions run deep in the works of mecha maestro Mamoru Nagano.
Remembering when British comics collided with Japanese manga to promote an American film starring Sylvester Stallone.
Yet another feature on proverbial Zimmerit favorite Kazuhisa Kondo. Translations and art from the introduction of his manga “prequel” to Char’s Counterattack, The Revival of Zeon.
Known best for creating Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump, Toriyama is also a fantastic mechanical designer.