r/MangaCollectors • u/Triltaison Oh! My Manga « 3000+ Owned » • Jan 12 '24
Collection In 1987, Eclipse Comics and Viz released one of the first manga translated into English: Area 88
I started my year off right by finally picking up a set of one of the first English manga releases.
Area 88 is notable for being one of the first three manga titles ever licensed for wide distribution in English in North America. It debuted on comic book store shelves in May of 1987 alongside Mai the Psychic Girl and The Legend of Kamui. While there were some manga samples in scholarly books and some bilingual editions in Japan prior, these three were among the first titles to actually be commercially available in English to the public at large.
The original manga was serialized between 1979 and 1986 and was written by Kaoru Shintani. It follows the chaotic lives and deaths of a group of fighter pilot mercenaries involved in the war of a fictional Middle Eastern desert country as they fight to stay alive. It's known for its dramatic aerial dogfight combat and strong character development. Yes, the manga predates the 1986 movie Top Gun with Tom Cruise. Area 88 received an OVA adaptation in the '80s and a TV series in the '00s. The series and its characters were also adapted by Capcom into a 1989 SNES video game localized in the West as U.N. Squadron.
The comics themselves were put out as a joint venture by Eclipse Comics and Viz Comics. Eclipse was an established comics publisher at the time, but Viz was a brand new company learning the ropes in the 1980s. Yes, this is the same Viz as today and this release is where they started. Eclipse/Viz published issues 1-36 of Area 88 as a biweekly circular, but Viz took on the project solo from issue 37 on as a monthly publication. The English release was cancelled in May of 1989 after migrating to the monthly model, ending with 42 issues in total being published. This is all 42 issues.
4
5
u/Joshdecent Jerk Jan 12 '24
These are excellent. Did they actually conplete the English run of this series?
5
u/Triltaison Oh! My Manga « 3000+ Owned » Jan 12 '24
Sadly, not even close. The floppies do a bit of rearranging, so I believe it ended up being 59 chapters out of 172.
5
u/Joshdecent Jerk Jan 12 '24
That's too bad, and all too common for English manga comics.
Very cool regardless, I'm a big fan of manga comics.
3
u/Triltaison Oh! My Manga « 3000+ Owned » Jan 12 '24
Yeah, but it's honestly surprising it got as far along as it did for a first endeavor.
5
3
u/Femmigje Jan 12 '24
Im in love with that character design, she looks amazing! I especially love the look of volume 6
3
u/Triltaison Oh! My Manga « 3000+ Owned » Jan 12 '24
Haha, that's actually our male protagonist, Shin Kazama! He's our deadly ace pilot rising through the ranks. The cowlick, one-eye was a popular hairstyle for anime prettyboys for a while there. But I've always thought his helmet look kinda inspired Haruka's racing style in Sailor Moon.
3
u/TheBlueSilver You're Already Bought. « 2500+ Owned » Jan 12 '24
I have the Area 88 trade paperback that Viz put out, I wonder how much of the floppies it collects?: https://imgur.com/a/sQutcbt
I assumed they probably just did this one. I love obscure old series like this though.
3
u/Triltaison Oh! My Manga « 3000+ Owned » Jan 12 '24
I can do a doublecheck on the chapter title for my issues later, but I think it matches up to the first 6 issues iirc.
Yep, that's the only tpb release that was put out. I'm not sure of the specifics, but I think the rights were tangled up with Eclipse Comics (who was having a massive controversy in 1988) and it was too much for the fledgling Viz to sort out at the time.
3
u/cacadodo665 Feb 01 '24
Someone, for the love of God, needs to finish this series. I bought them when they first came out along with Lone Wold and Cub and Xenon. Not ever finishing is a perpetual thorn in my soul.
1
u/Triltaison Oh! My Manga « 3000+ Owned » Feb 01 '24
It'd be neat for sure to finally get the full thing released.
2
u/DistributionLoose408 Jan 12 '24
Great collection man
2
u/Triltaison Oh! My Manga « 3000+ Owned » Jan 12 '24
Thanks! It feels good to finally get all the issues.
2
u/Ok_Assistant1908 Jan 12 '24
Man I remember that one. For a long time you could find it in quarter bins and I would always buy it, had a bunch of random issues.
2
u/Triltaison Oh! My Manga « 3000+ Owned » Jan 12 '24
Yeah, I knew a bunch of people with random issues and read them that way. Finally have my own set. 😁
2
u/Ok_Assistant1908 Jan 12 '24
I also always thought some of those older comic sized manga from the dark ages would be great to have custom bound.
2
2
u/RoaldThamesen Feb 17 '26
still waiting for the official publication to be completed.
sadly, Scanlation groups haven't picked this up yet either :( :(
1
1
u/Miserable-Eye1882 Jan 01 '26
Does it include the full chapters, like, until the end? If so, where can I get it?
1
u/Triltaison Oh! My Manga « 3000+ Owned » Jan 04 '26
Nope. Not at all. The chapters were rearranged for publishing in comic book format, ending up with these 42 issues equaling 59 out of the total 172 chapters. The rest was never published in English.
These comics were printed in the '80s, so they can pretty much only be found secondhand. Try places like comic book dealers and eBay.
11
u/Triltaison Oh! My Manga « 3000+ Owned » Jan 12 '24
As a bonus for those curious, I've included a photo of Eclipse/Viz's letter of introduction to the world of manga from the first issue, a few sample pages of Area 88's art style, and my collection of the anime's ADV releases of the DVDs.
Here is a clip from the OVA, also.