The latest edition to the Digital first line-up is BATMAN: THE JIRO KUWATA BATMANGA. Originally released in Japan from April 1966 to May 1967 during the “Bat-crave” that swept the world. This marks the first time that Jiro Kuwata’s Batmanga collection is translated and unabridged, and available for purchase as a complete collection outside of Japan. The chapters in this series will vary in length from 15-32 pages, each selling for 99 cents. In order to remain true to the original work as possible, pages will be presented in the traditional Japanese right to left reading order.
Jiro Kuwata was quoted in Memories of Batman as saying “Batman in one series that holds a lot of memories for me,” and “My hope is that with this, even more people will read the Batman of my memories.”
BATMAN: THE JIRO KUWATA BATMANGA will be released on a weekly basis starting Saturday, July 5 via the DC Comics App, Readdcentertainment.com, ComiXology, Google Play, Kindle Store, Nook Store and iBooks. Later this year, the entire series (Over 1000 pages) will printed and released in three paperback editions, look for it sometime in Oct/Nov 2014. Find a comic shop here: http://www.comicshoplocator.com/
The first chapter released, “Lord Death Man” is Jiro Kuwata’s most famous story arc, and chronicles Batman and Robin’s first battle against Lord Death Man.
Lord Death Man is based on the Death Man character that first appeared in Batman #180. The Death Man was created by Robert Kanigher and Sheldon Moldoff.
In Batman Inc. it was explained that Death Man traveled to Japan as Lord Death Man and planned to kill all the Japanese heroes and take the country for his own. One of his earliest victims The hero known as Mr. Unknown was murderd using acid. When Mr. Unknowns body double Jiro Osamu ( a nod to Jiro Kumata and Osamu Tezuka “The Japanese Walt Disney”) discovers the crime and narrowly escapes Lord Death Man’s henchmen. Lord Death Man captures Jiro’s girlfriend, Jiro rescues her but not before shooting Lord Death Man multiple times, causing Lord Death Man to plummet three stories seemingly to his death. Lord Death Man moved quickly to his next target Aquazon of the Super Young Team, but is eventually defeated by Batman, Catwoman and Jiro (now dressed as Mr. Unknown.) Knowing Lord Death Man can’t die, Batman gives him a fate “worse than death” and launches Lord Death Man into deep space.
Source: DC Comics Website
