One part manga and one part elaborate color art book, the Robot anthology series offers a glimpse into the incredible range of storytelling and artistic styles featured in contemporary Japanese comics art. Spearheaded and edited by The Last Exile concept artist Range Murata, this is the fourth volume of the anthology and includes work from Yoshitoshi ABe, who created the character designs for Serial Experiments Lain, and Kouji Ogata, manga-ka of Boogiepop Phantom.
Described by Publishers Weekly as “stunning, dark, exhilarating and disturbing," the Robot anthology has been published by Digital Manga Publishing since 2005. Subtitled a "Super Color Comic,” the series mixes the kind of elegant high-end artwork seen in European graphic albums with the cultural zeitgeist of Japanese manga. Now Udon Entertainment, the Canadian-based multifaceted producer of comics, videos, games and much else, has assumed publication of the series beginning with the recently released fourth volume. Robot, volume 5, will be released in March.
"Pretty much everyone at Udon was already a huge fan of Robot," said Udon project manager Matt Moylan. “When the English editions suddenly stopped being released, many of us continued going after the Japanese volumes since we love the artwork so much.” With the first three volumes still currently in print, Udon has instead focused on releasing new volumes.
The book features richly produced, full-color artwork. Traditionally Japanese manga is published in black and white, with each volume featuring only a short introductory section offered in color. But in Robot, Murata and the other artists involved are given unheard of latitude for Japanese cartoonists, or manga-ka. The creators are given carte blanche to create new stories, no matter how exotic or experimental.
Although Digital Manga Publishing relinquished the rights to publish English language volumes after the first three, Udon has taken the license with a renewed vigor that shows a personal appreciation of the series that goes beyond just the business of publishing. “We definitely plan to continue releasing future volumes of Robot,” said Moylan. “In the past, there has been a wait of anywhere from six to 12 months between volumes, but we're going to step that up and switch the series to a quarterly release schedule,” he added. “There are already nine volumes of Robot released in Japan, so we’ve got plenty of catching up to do.”
The publishing of Range Murata's Robot series is a big undertaking for Ontario-based Udon Entertainment. Best known in comic circles as a studio that does work for other publishers, Udon has ramped up its original titles with a series of comics adaptations of videogames such as Street Fighter and Darkstalkers.
“Udon has diversified a lot as a publisher in the past year,” Moylan explained. With its expansion to in-house titles and translating Japanese manga and art books, it's definitely on the rise. “Although Robot does not fit perfectly into any of these categories, it has elements of each,” said Moylan. The series has been successfully exported to China, Italy, France, Spain and now America. Moylan said Udon is confident the series has more audiences to tap and a long life ahead of it: “It features some of manga and anime's most talented artists creating stories in full color, producing superior work that is on par with any high-end art book.”
