Me and My Manga
I love manga. All sorts of manga. Japanese, Chinese, Korean...you name it, I love it. Unfortunately, those affordable copies on sale in Malaysia are in Chinese. And that’s the menyampah part; I can’t read Chinese. I know now got England version, but back in the 80’s where got Kinokuniya wan? If got also very mahal lah. My precious Blade of The Immortal set already jacked up to RM800+ from book 1 - 15, and the story belum tamat yet wey.
Back in the 80’s, all comics were scripted in Chinese so I rugi-ed a lot. I always thought that if I stared real hard at the Chinese characters, somehow by sheer willpower, the alien characters will translate themselves into meaningful sentences. So much for faith la. All I managed to do was get myself cock-eyed. sigh
BUT.
Welcome to the 21st century where the number of ‘banana people’ increased. Happy days are here again! Now we have locally translated affordable mangas in English and mostly, BM. Now that’s what I call technology, people! And by affordable I mean below RM10 senaskah. I lurve those published by Gempak Starz sebab ade kualiti kontrol sikit, bang. I must admit that there are those so badly translated it is incoherent and some frames are missing. Cam sial. Anything for a quick buck.
My personal foreign copyright favourite cartoonists includes Kubonouchi Eisaku, Shimaki Ako, Kazui Kazum, Hinako Ashihara, Keiko Honda. For local it would be Zint who published several graphic novels of his own.
Once in awhile I cheat and buy from other publishers only stumble upon ‘hentai’ materials. Heh.
Gempak Starz, translate cepat sikit...I dah habeh baca semua lah...
=P
Banana people: The banana metaphor refers to us English-speaking Chinks who are Chinese illiterate; yellow skin on the outside but white on the inside.
Hentai: Japanese porn.
