First introduced to American manga readers last summer, Yoshinori Natsume makes his American comics debut this spring with Batman: Death Mask, a 4-issue miniseries published by DC Comics. Best known for the Viz manga series, Togari, the story of a young man given the chance to escape Hell by battling evil, Natsume is no stranger to a protagonist with a dark side. In Death Mask, Batman investigates his own past as the city of Gotham is terrorized by a serial killer who has ties to the martial arts training that turned millionaire Bruce Wayne into the Dark Knight. With the help of DC Comics, PWCW’s Kai-Ming Cha posed a few questions to Natsume about heros, superheros and the challenge and opportunity of taking on one of America’s most beloved and iconic characters in the history of comics. Translation was by Shel Drzka, who was also responsible for translating the Death Mask series.
PW Comics Week: How did this project develop? Is there something that drew you to the Batman character?
Yoshinori Natsume: While I was looking for a company to publish Togari in America, I met someone from DC Comics. After looking at my series, he asked me, “How would you like to try doing 'Batman'?” At first, I was at a loss for words when asked to participate in the ongoing saga of a legendary character. I was thinking, “Are you sure you’ve got the right guy?” But then I reflected that in Japan, I made my mark on a series about a dark hero with a tragic past, done in a very shadowy style. Anyway, as the days went by, the image I had of Batman grew bigger and bigger in my mind, until I felt like, “You know, I might actually be able to do this.”
PWCW: What was your previous exposure to Batman? Did you do any research for this project?
YN: My first experience was with the Tim Burton movies, but after that a friend of mine lent me [Frank Miller’s] The Dark Knight Returns and other Batman comics. For this project, I was given Jim Lee’s Batman: Hush and some other books. I’ll tell you, I was blown away by the art in today’s American comics. After that, I got to reading various titles that caught my attention. Incidentally, this is just a coincidence, but when I was a kid, a bat flew into my room one night. I caught it, set it free outside and let it slip my mind. 20 years later, before starting work on this, I suddenly remembered what happened that night.
PWCW: Is Batman the most popular American superhero in Japan?
YN: I couldn't say for sure whether Batman is Japan's favorite American superhero, but he is, without a doubt, the most famous one.
PWCW: As an outsider, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems as though Batman translates well to Japanese society.
YN: Well, I think it’s easier to identify with a hero who gets to where he is by effort rather than being born with superpowers. In Japan, more often than not, the pre-transformation protagonist is a weaker human being, but I think readers naturally want to get behind and cheer for that character as a representative of themselves or their peer group.
PWCW: What is the most exciting part of working on Batman?
YN: Discovering the influence of Japan on Batman. I came up with the story after thinking that Batman probably is who he is because he spent time training in Japan.
PWCW: Batman is one of America's most beloved superheros. Are you curious about the type of reception you will receive?
YN: I want to take what I learned with Batman and use it to create another series. Also, if readers learn of me through this story and then go on to read my other works, I’ll be thrilled.
PWCW: Plenty of Japanese comics have heroes. What differences have you observed between heroes in Japanese comics and superheroes in American comics?
YN: I think there’s a trend to give American heroes a dark past and a logical reason for becoming a superhero so that adults will read the comics. Many of Japan’s heroes are geared more towards children. They’re simpler and cool and don’t need to be taken seriously. But as in America, there are also heroes with a lot more depth to them. The difference may be in the systems. In the U.S., the same hero can be interpreted in various ways, according to the writer, whereas in Japan, an original hero will spring forth from the imagination of a single creator and its form will have a lot to do with that creator’s image of a “hero”.
PWCW: In drawing and scripting a Batman stories, did you approach it differently from your other projects?
YN: I always work in a serialized format, so the construction of the story sometimes changes as I go, through talking with my editor and getting readers’ responses. This time around, I had to construct the entire story in my head, which meant that later on I had to go back and rework parts that didn’t come across so well. This series is in black and white and I was allowed to do everything the Japanese way, so other than not getting the story published in an anthology magazine, there haven’t been any particular differences.
PWCW: Are there any other American superheros that you would like to create for?
YN: There are a lot, but more than work with pre-existing characters, I’d love to be able to create an original superhero that would “fly” in America!
