The Eastern Edge

Yet again Life is making Blogging sit in the waiting room while other not necessarily interesting, but definitely priority, things take up most of the available time.
I'm still working on part 4 of my Urasawa interview translation, but there isn't much time for anything else.

However, before I put things on hold, I’m going to post what I have on the Hayao Miyazaki comic currently running in Model Graphix magazine here in Japan.

Anyone who has seen more than one Miyazaki movie has probably guessed that he absolutely loves flying machines. In fact, Miyazaki had been releasing aviation related notes and illustrations in Model Graphix for a long time before this comic, which is an extension of the notes.
This comic is about Dr. Jiro Horikoshi, the designer is the legendary Mitsubishi "Rei shiki Kanjo sentoki" – better known as the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, the best carrier-based fighter in the world when it was introduced in 1940.

When this series is finished it's run I will translate some parts with a little commentary, along with some proper hi-res pics to replace and add to these ones, which don’t do this stunning comic justice.
(Sorry, these really are the best I could manage with the iPhone’s shitty camera)

If anyone else out there has ever been struck by Ghibli's use of colour in it's animated films, and if you've never seen a Miyazaki comic before, you now know where it comes from. This comic really shows of Miyazaki’s brilliant sense of colour.
More than just the colours, though, this work's charm is in the fact that it is completely done by hand. No digital colouring, no photoshop or illustrator touch-ups, no screentones, not even typed text.
Everything, including the colouring and lettering, is hand-done. That's not something you see very often anymore!
It's absolutely beautiful work and I don't want to do it the disservice of letting it sit in my draft folder any longer.

So until part three (it had been reported that this was a two part comic, but it turns out that it's going to be longer.), and until I replace these with some proper pics, here are some shots of parts one and two of Hayao Miyazaki's "Kaze Tachinu".

Enjoy!