Japanese Batman by Jiro Kuwata Republished

"Bat-Manga" is out and for Batman purists it is like discovering the holy grail. Jiro Kuwata created a Japanese take on Batman and Robin when he licensed the characters when the television series was at its height in the U.S. "Bat-Manga!" is not the weighty, thinky "Secret History of Batman in Japan" that its subtitle suggests. Instead, it's an exhilarating pop-cultural artifact: This here is an alternate Batman, as interpreted in the '60s through an Asian filter. Kidd & Co. — photographer Geoff Spear, co-researcher Saul Ferris and translator Anne Ishii — have essentially renovated illustrator Jiro Kuwata's short-lived, long-forgotten Japanese take on the title, which hit the East in the wake of the campy TV series' international popularity.

David Gibbons On The Watchmen Film

Dave Gibbons, the artist of the graphic novel Watchmen, did not think his work would be translated to the screen while he was drawing the book alongside writer Alan Moore.

Gibbons said he would have been "quite happy for Watchmen just to be a graphic novel" as it was "the way it was conceived".

And he appreciates that the big screen adaptation is being handled by fans of the story.

"Now that it's being made into a movie, I'm really glad that the people who are doing it really get it and are putting the same passion into it that [Alan and I] put into the comic," he told New York magazine.

Gibbons, who has been working with director Zack Snyder on the film, revealed that he is pleased to have been approached for his input.

"Considering that Alan and I sold all our rights to DC way back when we first did the book, and the fact that the movie people really have no obligation to consult me at all, I'm delighted that they have done so," he said.

Via: Digital Spy