The word manga in Japanese simply means comic . However, it is customary to use this term for titles created in the Land of the Rising Sun. The pictorial stories from Japan have developed their own subspecies / themes. Thus, josei is aimed at adult women, shōjo at girls, and the target group of shonen are boys. Sometimes Western authors follow one of these directions. Lastman is the best example of this.
Lastman is the best example of this. It is a purely French comic: made in France by the French. Yet its content is a love letter to the shonen story . The first two volumes already contained many elements typical of manga for boys: a child’s hero, ubiquitous martial arts in which full of secret and amazing blows, and finally an indispensable trail – a tournament ( Dragon Ball, Naruto and My Hero Academia. The heroes’ academy bow down). The third volume showed that the creators not only copy proven solutions, but also add a lot from themselves. The locations typical of fantasy have been transformed into post-apocalyptic environments.
Wrestlemania
The fourth volume brings another volte. This time, the heroes, boxer Richard Aldana and Adrian Velba following his footsteps, together with their mother Marianne, find their way to the metropolis of Paxtown, which has its atmosphere reminiscent of American cities from the 1980s. Giving up on fantastic realities doesn’t make boredom appear. And all this thanks to another arena of martial arts – this time wrestlers / MMA. Aldana, despite earlier compromise, is forced to return to the ring. Meanwhile, Adrian and Marianne also join the competition, thanks to their elemental control skills, they are able to defeat even professional warriors.
Kogel could
Amazing what a job Bastien Vives, Yves Bigerela and Michaël Sanlaville did. The entire story is written into twelve volumes, and the first four have already proved to be very diverse. I have no idea if the rest will be equally surprising and will lead the reader into even weirder regions, although I am quietly counting on it. The radical change of reality from fantasy to post-apo to variation on our reality could be tiring and inconsistent. And yet this twisted world works, and I hope the developers haven’t said the last word yet.
The heroes are also the strength of the comic. Adrian, despite being a little boy, is written so efficiently that it does not irritate. Which is an extremely rare phenomenon, as children’s characters tend to be uninteresting. His naivety in perceiving the world is very good when confronted with how corrupt, full of robbery and bad the places he goes are. Marianne, on the other hand, is far from a typical “lady in trouble”, as she takes the initiative herself. And finally Richard Aldana – square-jawed, straight out of a French sensational from the seventies, a muscle and a brutal, but with a good heart. The fourth volume finally sheds light on the hero’s past, although many elements remain a mystery.
French porn cartoons
Another manga element is the almost complete absence of colors (except for the first pages). Therefore, the comic has quite austere means of expression: black and white complemented by densely shades of gray. All this is bathed in a line that is sparing in detail. And yet it is drawn so well that I fell in love with the style immediately. Michaël Sanlaville can reproduce expressive faces or dynamic battle scenes in a few simple movements. There is a certain nonchalance in all of this that perfectly complements the spirit of the story.
I don’t even mind fanservice (another nod to Japan?): Virtually all of the women on the sites are young and statuesque. The busts of the protagonists are sometimes even enormous, as in the case of Tom Katana (although here the authors based this character on Hitomi a porn actress). You can see that the sexualization of the protagonists is a purely aesthetic decision, but it could have been worse. Luckily, there aren’t any gags to do with it or panties shots here. The format is unusual for a Francophone comic, because it is smaller. Just like man… Okay, you know what’s going on.
Lastparagraph
Lastman as a kind of European manga is a work steeped in the spirit of Japanese classics, which the authors have spiced up with a lot of their own ideas. Reaching for the first volume (how inconspicuous from the current perspective), I had no idea where this story will turn. It is by far the top of the currently published entertainment comics.
