Okay, for the longest time I've been claiming Blister in Nihonbashi was the only place to get American comics in Tokyo. By comics I mean the newest monthly issues, not the trades; tons of those can be had at Tower Records (Shibuya) and Kinokuniya (various, but Shinjuku is probably the one you want). I'm happy to say I was (more than likely) wrong about that. I have to go to Tokyo for some official business this weekend and since Blister is closed the days I'll be there, I started doing some Internet searches for other possible sources for four-color amusements of the super-caped-heroic kind. Or possibly the Hellboy-ish.
To get to the point, I found a nice blog by someone named Filipo who apparently lives in Japan and collects comics. Filipo missed a chance at Blister (the dreaded orange wall of closure gives me the willies), but found a place called Monster, located in Ebisu. Monster is mostly a toy shop but they have a small selection of American comics. Actually, from Filipo's description, Monster seems pretty much like Blister. Maybe not as ambitious as the original Blister, which was freakin' geek paradise and a must-stop for those tripping through Japan with comic book print running in their veins instead of blood. But still Blister-esque as far as the current incarnation of Blister goes.
I'd been planning to keep things simple-- I would have been satisfied with finding Manga no Mori in Ikebukuro-- because this is really a business trip, but now I'm going to have to stop at Ebisu and find Monster just to see if it's worth making it a regular destination.
Showing posts with label Blister. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blister. Show all posts
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Desperate for American comics, I plunge into the digital world and read "Batgirl" on my iPhone!
Yep. It was bound to happen once I located my credit card. Making trips to Tokyo to visit Blister is fun but way too expensive. What's a comic book junkie to do to get his or her fix here in Japan, if said comic book fan loves not only manga but things like Walking Dead, Nexus, Batgirl and Love and Rockets? That's where digital comics come in handy. Very handy.
One of the fun aspects of going digital with Comixology (and possibly Dark Horse as well, although I have yet to experiment) is having the ability to download your comics to your iPhone and read them through Comixology's app. Yes, this traditionalist finds reading comics on an iPhone fun. I downloaded all my Cass Cain Batgirl issues to my phone (plus my Nexus, New Mutants and old school Valiant titles) over the weekend and they really came in handy yesterday as I ran errands and spent a lot of down time just waiting for others to handle their end of my very important business.
My initial objection to doing this involved not being able to scan the entire page.
I believe page layout to be a dying art in this age of "widescreen" storytelling, where artists generally just stack a lot of horizontal panels on top of each other, then break it up with a vertical close-up inset shot of someone screaming. There aren't that many Will Eisners or Bernie Krigsteins or even Jim Sterankos walking around anymore. It's gotten to where I prefer someone just doing the ancient "three tier" format because you don't have to figure out panel order and sometimes the panels come closer to that pleasant "golden ratio" centuries of Western art has taught us to recognize and love. For example, Jamie Hernandez with his beautiful drawings and simple, clean, fun page layouts.
Page layout is just as important as the panel-to-panel stuff in leading your eyes around and through the action. A good storyteller remembers all that plane of action stuff and where the characters are relative to each other within each panel, but also helps the reader understand what's happening by doing the visual equivalent of expert tour guiding. Plus all those tricks Will Eisner talks about in his books, varying panel sizes and shapes to create the illusion of time passing at various speeds. It all goes back to layout. As a reader, you approach the page as a whole, then delve into the little squares and rectangles within which your favorite characters strut their stuff. I didn't want to lose that.
Anyway, to my surprise, I discovered Damion Scott's Batgirl actually reads better on the iPhone, which takes you through with the rest of the page cropped out, than it does when you have the actual comic in front of you. While he's an excellent action-based storyteller in panel-to-panel terms, sometimes his pages are a bit busy. On the iPhone, some of Scott's panel-to-panel transitions almost animate themselves as you click through. It's a neat effect.
Some of the other books I looked at didn't fare as well. Panels had to be awkwardly snipped to fit on the screen and then "slide" so you could get the entire scene. Sometimes it would give a nice cinematic pan instead, which was often a revelation. Usually, though, this would have a "pan-and-scan" effect like watching a movie cropped to fit one of those TVs like the ones I grew up with, the heavy, wood-framed beauties that were as much furniture as they were entertainment centers. It creates reading pauses that run counter to the artists' intentions.
The small size of the iPhone reduces the figures, which simplifies them slightly so you're losing a bit of the rendering the artists worked so hard on. That's a bit of a disappointment. Again, it serves Scott well because he specializes in broad acting, big, bold expressions and stylized faces that show up quite clearly on the iPhone screen. Some of the artists who use a lot of subtle, fine-lined work tend to soften. I wouldn't suggest any artist change his or her drawing style to fit this medium, but I think artists with simpler looks with fewer lines and lots of black spotting like Mike Mignola and Bruce Timm won't lose a whole lot on iPhone.
On the other hand, the text remains surprisingly clear and readable. So there are trade-offs to the convenience of being able to carry with you at all times as many comics as your iPhone's storage capacity allows. I see it this device more as an adjunct to your reading experience than a replacement for larger formats. It's a matter of convenience reading.
Now my main qualm about Comixology and Dark Horse digital comics is you're paying the same amount as you would for the print issue, but you don't actually own the comic itself, just a license to read it on your computer or phone. At home, I can't download the comics I've paid for and read them offline. I have to visit the websites. I can understand this from a standpoint of preventing piracy, but to be frank, that Black Pearl has already sailed. For now, this kind of like buying comics but keeping them at your friend's house and reading them through a window while she holds them up and turns the pages when you ask.
Even so, here in Japan where American funny books are difficult to come by, digital comics are your best bet for immediate gratification. Walking Dead has been making me kind of sick lately, but at the same time, I can't look away. When #107 comes out, I'm going to be there on the first day rather than having to wait for a collected edition or make a trip to Tokyo in hopes it hasn't sold out at Blister. And it's nice to know I have access to every issue of the Cass Cain Batgirl no matter where I am or what time it is.
One of the fun aspects of going digital with Comixology (and possibly Dark Horse as well, although I have yet to experiment) is having the ability to download your comics to your iPhone and read them through Comixology's app. Yes, this traditionalist finds reading comics on an iPhone fun. I downloaded all my Cass Cain Batgirl issues to my phone (plus my Nexus, New Mutants and old school Valiant titles) over the weekend and they really came in handy yesterday as I ran errands and spent a lot of down time just waiting for others to handle their end of my very important business.
My initial objection to doing this involved not being able to scan the entire page.
I believe page layout to be a dying art in this age of "widescreen" storytelling, where artists generally just stack a lot of horizontal panels on top of each other, then break it up with a vertical close-up inset shot of someone screaming. There aren't that many Will Eisners or Bernie Krigsteins or even Jim Sterankos walking around anymore. It's gotten to where I prefer someone just doing the ancient "three tier" format because you don't have to figure out panel order and sometimes the panels come closer to that pleasant "golden ratio" centuries of Western art has taught us to recognize and love. For example, Jamie Hernandez with his beautiful drawings and simple, clean, fun page layouts.
Page layout is just as important as the panel-to-panel stuff in leading your eyes around and through the action. A good storyteller remembers all that plane of action stuff and where the characters are relative to each other within each panel, but also helps the reader understand what's happening by doing the visual equivalent of expert tour guiding. Plus all those tricks Will Eisner talks about in his books, varying panel sizes and shapes to create the illusion of time passing at various speeds. It all goes back to layout. As a reader, you approach the page as a whole, then delve into the little squares and rectangles within which your favorite characters strut their stuff. I didn't want to lose that.
Anyway, to my surprise, I discovered Damion Scott's Batgirl actually reads better on the iPhone, which takes you through with the rest of the page cropped out, than it does when you have the actual comic in front of you. While he's an excellent action-based storyteller in panel-to-panel terms, sometimes his pages are a bit busy. On the iPhone, some of Scott's panel-to-panel transitions almost animate themselves as you click through. It's a neat effect.
Some of the other books I looked at didn't fare as well. Panels had to be awkwardly snipped to fit on the screen and then "slide" so you could get the entire scene. Sometimes it would give a nice cinematic pan instead, which was often a revelation. Usually, though, this would have a "pan-and-scan" effect like watching a movie cropped to fit one of those TVs like the ones I grew up with, the heavy, wood-framed beauties that were as much furniture as they were entertainment centers. It creates reading pauses that run counter to the artists' intentions.
The small size of the iPhone reduces the figures, which simplifies them slightly so you're losing a bit of the rendering the artists worked so hard on. That's a bit of a disappointment. Again, it serves Scott well because he specializes in broad acting, big, bold expressions and stylized faces that show up quite clearly on the iPhone screen. Some of the artists who use a lot of subtle, fine-lined work tend to soften. I wouldn't suggest any artist change his or her drawing style to fit this medium, but I think artists with simpler looks with fewer lines and lots of black spotting like Mike Mignola and Bruce Timm won't lose a whole lot on iPhone.
On the other hand, the text remains surprisingly clear and readable. So there are trade-offs to the convenience of being able to carry with you at all times as many comics as your iPhone's storage capacity allows. I see it this device more as an adjunct to your reading experience than a replacement for larger formats. It's a matter of convenience reading.
Now my main qualm about Comixology and Dark Horse digital comics is you're paying the same amount as you would for the print issue, but you don't actually own the comic itself, just a license to read it on your computer or phone. At home, I can't download the comics I've paid for and read them offline. I have to visit the websites. I can understand this from a standpoint of preventing piracy, but to be frank, that Black Pearl has already sailed. For now, this kind of like buying comics but keeping them at your friend's house and reading them through a window while she holds them up and turns the pages when you ask.
Even so, here in Japan where American funny books are difficult to come by, digital comics are your best bet for immediate gratification. Walking Dead has been making me kind of sick lately, but at the same time, I can't look away. When #107 comes out, I'm going to be there on the first day rather than having to wait for a collected edition or make a trip to Tokyo in hopes it hasn't sold out at Blister. And it's nice to know I have access to every issue of the Cass Cain Batgirl no matter where I am or what time it is.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Blister is where I buy my monthly comics in Japan...
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| Majority of patrons that Saturday were women. |
Blister is a very American-style shop and once you're inside it's easy to imagine you're back in the States. Their stock is heavy on the mainstream-- mostly DC and Marvel, with some Image and Dark Horse. This is the popular stuff and it no doubt sells the best here in this tiny outpost of Western sequentialism. Blister has some bargain boxes where you can find back issues for about 100 yen or so, an incredible bargain when a new issue will set you back anywhere from 560 yen to 790 yen or so. Those figures are also inexact; I'm posting this from work and I can't do the research I'd like. Sorry!
They sell a lot of toys, too. If a comic book-related movie is coming out, you can bet Blister has the toy lines. Their store hours are limited (as far as I can tell from their all-Japanese language website) and most of their sales seem to be online. I believe you can set up a pull-list here, or order from the Diamond catalog, but these are things I haven't done because I live approximately 200 miles to the west of Blister. And even when I'm in Tokyo I'm usually in Shibuya or Harajuku rather than Hamacho.
They do Free Comic Book Day, though. I just missed 2012's, but I attended one a few years ago when Blister had their slightly larger, hipper store in Harajuku, in a small alley just behind where the Gap used to be, across from Laforet. The store was packed that day.
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| The Avengers were hanging out in Shibuya. |
Besides the Cass book, I also bought Astonishing X-Men #52 (because of its neat Xi'an Coy Manh cover), Conan #32 (a random choice because it was 100 yen and I still enjoy Kurt Busiek's run on that title), Conan the Barbarian #2 and 3 (more Dark Horse, love Becky Cloonan's art), Minutemen #1 and 2 (the pull of Darwyn Cooke proved too strong to resist), New Mutants #46 (more Xi'an, but this time with Dani Moonstar, also irresistable) and Walking Dead #100 (Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard-- this is the second time you've scarred me with a single horrific image! I nearly barfed!). No Dark Horse Presents, so no new Nexus.
Last summer, Blister was stocked deep with Before Watchmen titles. I only wanted a sample, so I didn't catalog everything they had, but I think I could have bought the entire run up to current if I'd been so inclined. Good runs of the New 52, if you're into that. Heavy on the Marvel mutant stuff. They also had a lot of trades and collections, plus just about every Avengers movie action figure you could want, along with The Dark Knight Rises merchandise. The guy working the cash register was friendly enough, but we didn't chat due to the language barrier. I think he recognized me from my last visit there, way back in 2010. Now that I know an easier way to get there I could see myself patronizing Blister a bit more if I lived in Tokyo. Maybe they could order more Fantagraphics and Dark Horse books for me, too.
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| Probably jet-lag, but Hulk really wanted to punch Thor. |
At Tower Records, I bought Lone Wolf and Cub volumes 4 (783 yen, marked down from 1565, or 9.93/19.85 USD), 19, 20, 22, 23, 25 and 26 (290 yen each, 3.68 USD). I was tempted to go back and clean them out entirely. I also found and bought a shelf-worn copy of Showcase Presents Batman and the Outsiders 1 (2573/32.64). Now Japan is out of them, possibly forever. See what I mean about "snap it up?"
I plan to visit Blister again over the Christmas holidays if they're open while we're in Tokyo.
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