Toddle With Captain Ken

Six-weapons and place ships! Cowboys and aliens! Gunfights at
the OK Corral on Mars! It’s all occurring in Digital Manga’s release of Captain Ken, a
tremendously piquant Osamu Tezuka manga that mixes classic Western action
with classic pulp sci-fi. Captain Ken delivers a gratifying place chuckwagon elephantine
of the excellent of both worlds, because the mysterious Jap place-cowboy Ken’s mission
of mercy places him in the heart of Martian differ-wars, a genocidal
extermination set, and the political corruption of two planets.

The juxtaposition of Wild West and Outer Region wasn’t a contemporary
motif when Captain Ken first regarded in a December 1960 field of Shonen
Sunday. Years sooner than JFK invoked “New Frontier” imagery for his 1960 presidential
campaign, the theorem that place scurry would be our subsequent frontier become as soon as
commonplace. The coarse SF of the “golden age” become as soon as in most cases criticized as
merely retooled Westerns, with Martians replacing Indians, spaceships swapped
with horses or trains, and atom-weapons quite than six-shooters. The place-western
motif would headline Charlton’s abortive 1952 “Region Western Comics“,
that contains hero Spurs Jackson and his Region Vigilantes combating saucer-males,
Venusians, and, with no doubt, Hitler. Mixing place opera and horse opera can even indulge in
been venerable (cowboy) hat even in 1960, however with Captain Ken, the godlike skill of
grasp manga-ka Osamu Tezuka took these two clichés and spun them into
rock-solid manga entertainment for the rocket-ship rancher in us all.

It’s the Wild West Future! Mars has been colonized into a
simulacrum of the 19^th century Dilapidated West by Earth settlers who indulge in
virtually wiped out the native Martians. Destruction for the closing native Martians looms
as they score strength for a closing riot while the Earth authorities plans
their final solution. The Earthling lady Kenn Murakami arrives on Mars to are residing
with her cousin Mamoru at the Hoshino ranch in the Mars town of Hedes,
appropriate form because the closing Martian tribe, the Moro, birth their guerilla war. Battling
Moro braves in the heart of a sandstorm, Mamoru Hoshino meets the mysterious
Ken, a sharpshooting cowboy with an incredible robotic horse.  Is the demure Kenn the truth is cowboy Ken in
disguise? If not, why are their choices so identical?  The early share of the story is taken up with
this is-he-or-isn’t-he trade, sandwiched between sweeping Martian vistas,
robotic horse stampedes, craven mayors, and Martian-vogue shootouts. 

Captain Ken is smartly stocked with secret treasure hoards,
low-gravity Mars-orbit swordfighting, giant-wheeled Martian prairie schooners,
lonely hermits who are secret masters of “Martian-vogue gunfighting”, and the
horrible Napoleon, crime-lord of all Mars, whose real identity is however one more
switcheroo in the polymorphously perverse Tezuka parade of twin characters,
form-transferring Martian monsters, implied negative-species romances, and gender-bending
disguises that originate up a curiously super share of his physique of labor. Tezuka-imprint
social commentary is entrance and heart, spotlighting Manifest (Region) Destiny’s
have an effect on on indigenous peoples; whether or not Indians or Martians, the of us that were
there first frequently appear to select up the immediate stop of the stick. It’s no twist of destiny
that the closing final Martian tribe is the Moro, deliberately echoing the
Muslim Moro tribes of the Philippines, who fought both Spanish and American
troopers throughout the Philippines’ days as a colony of both worldwide locations (Japan has
its bear colonialist historical previous in that neighborhood, however such issues are at this
time previous the scope of Tezuka’s thesis or that of his editorial workers,
sorry).

Although not as worthwhile as his outdated Shonen Sunday
serial, the proto-furry Cool Battle allegory Zero Men, Captain Ken become as soon as in vogue
ample to garner a deluge of responses to a “Bet Captain Ken’s Precise Identity”
contest. Coincidentally, one of many 2 winners later went on to animate at
Tezuka’s Mushi Productions.  Captain Ken
would stay on the Tezuka midlist dude-ranch, being neither as iconic or as
merchandise-pleasant as Tezuka’s earlier Mighty Atom or Jungle Emperor, nor as
though-provoking or as experimental as his later works. Yet Captain Ken fully
nails that leisurely 50s-early 60s pulp science-fiction action/scurry vibe – the
form of story every mid-century low-stamp paperback veil, movie poster, or
lunchbox illustration promises us and yet by no formula delivers. Ken is a beautifully rendered
story of scurry, pleasure, and thriller, shot by contrivance of with thoughtful
science-fiction ideas and a time paradox inform that poses more questions
than it solutions.  It’s the form of
gratifying juvenile SF that is at possibility of be a crowning achievement for assorted creators,
yet for one as protean as Tezuka, it’s merely Tuesday.

There’s plenty to unpack in the 440 pages of Captain Ken’s
two volumes, however the story by no formula bogs down or will get sidetracked by information-dumps.
Even the third-act temporal displacement is delivered with finesse, a twist
that could perhaps echo identical hooks in later SF and itself become as soon as admittedly impressed by
Robert Heinlein’s 1959 story “All You Zombies” (Heinlein and Tezuka would meet in 1982 at Toddle Nagai’s wedding). The clarity of Tezuka’s pen work suits his
story; both the rugged Martian panorama and the cartoony characters that inhabit
it are confidently drawn, and high-tail by contrivance of the story with your total vitality
and movement Tezuka’s comics were notorious for.

Digital Manga has released Captain Ken in a graceful 2-volume
softcover place, crowdfunded by Kickstarter, as is the case with most of their
Tezuka releases. Searching on their donation stage, backers could perhaps receive
Captain Ken in print or digital or both, alongside with sweets love decals,
bandannas, messenger bags, and quite a bit of others. For folks that uncared for the campaign, the books are available by contrivance of more used systems, as smartly. Captain Ken delivers
two-gun place western action that suits neatly in your robotic horse saddlebags
and can also attract followers of anime, of manga, of science-fiction, of westerns,
of pop-culture mashups and scurry in authentic, briefly, somewhat powerful
all individuals. It is far also one of Osamu Tezuka’s minor works, however Captain Ken is
foremost manga entertainment.   

 

-Dave Merrill

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