Hey, everyone. “Moriarty” here.
It’s totally worth the three exclamation points in the headline. I’m in love with this thing. So in love that I’m going to hurry so I can go finish reading it. Seriously! Read faster!
I found it today by chance while I was browsing a bookstore. I was picking up more of those Doc Savage reprints I started collecting last year. “Kenneth Robeson” is such a Pulp God, a machine-gun of a writer, and reading his collected works, still just a fraction of the 180-something Savage novels he personally wrote, I am exhausted by the amount of invention. He’s creating the reality of Doc and his friends wholesale, page after page after page of it on deadline. Stud. Total f’ing stud.
So that’s why I was in the store. Hunting down more of those. And in addition, I found something else that I took with me to my next appointment, where I had a chance to open it and look at it and decide, oh, hell, YES, I am in love with this thing today...
Innocuous enough at first glance. Big white box with a very... very... VERY... distinctive M on the cover. And you realize the white box has some subtle curves, that it’s not a cover, but a hood... to the Mach 5...
On the spine, it’s the immediately recognizable SPEED RACER logo, with MACH GoGoGo underneath. THE COMPLETE ORIGINAL MANGA. TATSUO YOSHIDA. And BMP PLATINUM at the bottom.
And as you turn it over, examine the top, the sides, the bottom, the back... it’s lovely. It’s a collector’s cover, something you display. I cop to falling for the cover itself. I judged the book by it. Totally. I’m not a huge manga fan. I enjoy some of it. I am amazed by some of it. I think some of it is crap. It’s a lot like any other storytelling format... great artists use it to publish great art.
I don’t really think MACH GoGoGo is great art. But it’s white-hot pop art, and the first thing I’ve noticed is how much more I respect the Wachowskis right now. The physics in this manga are exactly the sort of physics on display in those trailers so far. There’s a shot of Matthew Fox punching a guy in the face while his car is upside down above Racer X... that’s so crazy I can’t believe someone filmed it... but I love that they filmed it. It feels like they really love the world of these books and the show that they inspired. It’s an arbitrary world of crazy exaggeration and hyper-action, where even when the characters are standing still, they appear to be doing it very, very fast.
I love these books. I know they were published only to tie in to the release of the film. If you want to read an authoritative review of the books by someone who really knows the historical relevance of them, check out our own Scott Green’s review. Good stuff.
It’s two volumes, about 650 pages total. Hardcover. Printed in traditional manga order, everything right to left. I read that format so infrequently that it took me a few pages to get used to it. But when you see how the art is laid out for the racing, it’s obvious which way your eye’s supposed to go. The manga’s at its best when the characters are driving, which is as it should be. The way preposterous speed is portrayed is exuberant, and it’s just plain fun to read.
I’m seeing the Wachowski Bros film tomorrow, and I’m taking Toshi with me. He’s nuts for the old show. He’s nuts for the trailer. And tonight, before bed, we read the manga, and he was narrating it for me. This particular deluxe edition may just be a piece of the hype for the film, but it’s beautifully produced, and as a pop culture artifact, it’s a bargain if you can find it for $30 or less shopping online. Well worth that if you’ve got any fondness at all for the original.
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
