I recently bought the first volume of AX Manga after looking at the work of Takato Yamamoto. Newly published in English, AX is an anthology that showcases alternative Japanese comics. I was wondering how the art style of Yamamoto and Vania Zouravliov could form to the graphic novel format, especially since manga is an industry of mass produced gradient tones I could not help but think what counts as too detailed for mass production let alone function? What is the challenge to make manga in this way and how do we make it easier for ourselves? First step to finding out these questions had to be me to pick up this book that defies manga convention and see how Yamamoto turned to making the only Manga he has ever made (at the time of this post), it may be just a simple matter of playing spot-the-difference between his art or it may be a matter for me to have to emulate the man’s work and find out for myself.
The black and white panels here are from Into darkness by Takato Yamamoto, a one-off comic from the AX anthology that reminds me very much of an Oscar Wilde quote:
“Yes, death. Death must be so beautiful, to lie in the soft brown earth with the grasses waving above one's head and listen to silence, to have no yesterday and no to-morrow; To forget time, to forget life, to be at peace. You can help me. You can open for me the portals of death's house, for love is always with you, and love is stronger than death is.” Having quoted that it’s understandable that Yamamoto has a strong influence from Aubrey Beardsley and Edgar Allan Poe. Yamamoto has an interview with Yoji Shinkawa that can be found in “The Art of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty”, I’ll certainly be giving that a read since my brother and best friend are Metal Gear fans. For now here's some more of Yamamoto's work other than his Manga.
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