The Road To Mundo Fine: Zombies vs. Robots
by Carol Borden

The
road to the end of the world is shorter than we think. Just when
we've adjusted our rear and sideview mirrors and selected a
soundtrack, the end stands before us, eyes shining in our halogen,
ready to total our engine block. The only question now is: zombies
or robots?
Am
I just picking my zombie fatigue like a scab or are zombies really
that inevitable? I guess it's true—zombies shamble forth
innumerably from all media so that even if I do hole up with canned
goods and an ax handle, I can't stick my fingers in my ears and
pretend it's not happening. This time it's my own fault. I read that
Last Gasp was publishing Yusaku Hanakuma's 1999 Tokyo
Zombie, translated by Ryan Sands
and lettered/re-touched by Evan Hayden. I was curious after seeing
the screen version starring Takashi Miike regulars Tadanobu Asano and
Sho Aikawa as Hanakuma's iconic characters Fujio/Afro and Mitsuo/Hage
or “Baldy.”
The
manga's simpler, more gag-oriented and maybe crazier than the
movie--with pig surfing and a little dog instead of the movie's
monosyllabic (“Baka!”) love interest. In both versions, Black
Fuji, a mountain of trash high above Tokyo, is zombie ground zero.
Driven from their jiu-jitsu dojo warehouse, Fujio and Mitsuo escape in a truck.
They plan a road trip to Russia to continue Fujio's mixed martial arts
training, but never make it past Tokyo. Tokyo becomes a walled
dystopia powered by slaves while the rich are entertained by pro
wrestling style zombie fights.
Hanakuma's
art is unusual for a manga. Writing about Golgo 13, Joe
McCulloch asks “What do we know about manga?” and answers
himself:
[T]here’s
a lot of big eyes. There’s a lot of closed stories with a definite
beginning and ending. There’s the unmistakable mark of a single
vision, at least writing-wise.... There’s batches of digest
collections. For the popular ones there’s often some anime tie-in,
or maybe several. There might be cute toys and plush merchandise.
There’s characters and arcs and real changes.
While this is Hanakuma's longest work, there's a movie tie-in, some
merchandise
and real changes. Tokyo Zombie
also bears the unmistakable mark of a singular vision. Being manga,
Hanakuma's
style has a name, heta uma
or “bad, but good.” His style's simple, kind of cramped and
almost Outsider
manga (without really being outside). Hanakuma draws as if he were
making up the story as he goes. It reminds me of how I drew stories
as a kid, illustrating my most awesome thoughts—only much better.
Jeffrey Brown's Transformers homage/parody, The Incredible Change-bots
(Top Shelf, 2007), has a similar feel to Tokyo Zombie. Brown
is famous for his black
and white autobiographical relationship comics but his simple,
almost vulnerable lines remind me of Hanakuma's lines. Change-bots
manages to capture the joy of coloring while still presenting the
1980s merchandizing-driven Transformers cartoon's
naïve partisan destructiveness and making as many social and
political points as you care to notice. The Change-bots' beloved
planet Electronocybercircuitron is devastated by civil war between
the Awesomebots and the Fantasticons after the Fantasticons rig an
election. They come to earth, but they turf everything, because, as
the
trailer proclaims, “They brought their war with them!” But
who cares when their lasers go, “BDEW!” and “RAZOW!”
(Hanakuma and Brown both probably made sound effects while drawing).
After flirting with zombies and Amazons, Ashley Wood has settled on robots for now. In his World War Robot: Illustrated History Number One (IDW Publishing, 2008)
humans drive rebels to Mars, then invade. Martian colonists invade
earth in turn. Lurking in his moonbase, scientist Rothchild sells
robots to both sides. Everything ends with a bang and a clank.
T.P. Louise (Popbot) provides some text but the book is mostly Wood's big Expressionist paintings of robot and human soldiers, all very WWII—or pre-Gulf War—in their gear. Every page is as gorgeous as the covers of his zombies vs. robots books. Wood's like Roy Lichtenstein in reverse. Where Lichtenstein brought comics
to fine art, Wood's bringing Expressionist painting to comics.
He's also bringing the fine art collectible toy, too, since most of
Wood's WWR is action
figures. World War Robot
reminds me of the days when Masters of the Universe started the toys
before shows format, but in a painterly way with fine art robots.
InTokyo Zombie, Yusaku Hanakuma writes,
“I made sure to give the fans what they wanted.... I crammed in
zombies, trucks, pro wrestling, martial arts, factories, Mt. Fuji,
pigs, intense battles, wealthy people, slaves, porno, gym teachers, a
little dog, Calpis, tonkatsu, a prince, a professor, and so on, to
try and create a comic that was a sort of fin de siecle celebration
of manliness” (157).
Jeffrey Brown and Ashley Wood are doing the same. And if zombies and robots
are on the road to mundo fine instead of global economic collapse or nuclear proliferation, we
might as well hit the accelerator on our way to the fin de siecle celebration
for seinen
of all ages and sexes.
~~~
Carol Borden owes film maker Coleman Francis for his song, "Night Train to Mundo Fine." She figures she'll hear John Carradine singing it at the end of the road.
Tags: adaptation , art , Ashley Wood , cars , dystopia , end times , Expressionism , giant robots , Japan , Jeffrey Brown , jiu-jitsu , manga , martial arts , military , MMA , movies , Outsider Art , parody , road trips , robots , Roy Lichtenstein , satire , science fiction , Sho Aikawa , sound effects , space , sports , T.P. Louise , Tadanobu Asano , Takashi Miike , the moon , Tokyo , toys , Transformers , war , wrestling , Yusaku Hanakuma , zombie fatigue , zombies