Billy Bat 1

Billy Bat #1

by Naoki Urasawa, Takashi Nagasaki, Yvonne Gerstheimer (Translator)

USA, 1949... Kevin Yamagata, Amerikaner japanischer Herkunft, ist Schöpfer des Comic-Bestsellers »Billy Bat«. Hauptcharakter ist eine Fledermaus - der Comic ein Stil-Mix aus klassischen Disney- und Superheldencomics. Plötzlich erfährt Kevin, dass es die Fledermaus-Figur in Japan schon lange geben soll. Hat er »Billy Bat« gar nicht selbst erfunden? Kevin entscheidet sich, nach Japan zu reisen, um mehr darüber herauszufinden und sich beim Schöpfer der Figur für den "Ideenklau" zu entschuldigen. Kaum dort eingetroffen, gerät er in den Strudel dramatischer Ereignisse, die sein Leben auf den Kopf stellen werden...

Genres: Manga, Comics, Mystery, Seinen, Graphic Novels, Japan, Fiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published June 23, 2009

About the author

Urasawa Naoki (浦沢直樹) is a Japanese mangaka. He is perhaps best known for Monster (which drew praise from Junot Díaz, the 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner) and 20th Century Boys.

Urasawa's work often concentrates on intricate plotting, interweaving narratives, a deep focus on character development and psychological complexity. Urasawa has won the Shogakukan Manga Award, the Japan Media Arts Festival excellence award, the Kodansha Manga Award and the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. In 2008 Urasawa accepted a guest teaching post at Nagoya Zokei University.

Series list (not including short stories collections):
- Pineapple ARMY (パイナップルARMY) 1985-1988, written by Kazuya Kudo;
- YAWARA! 1986-1993;
- Master Keaton (MASTERキートン) 1988-1994, written by Hokusei Katsushika;
- Happy! 1993-1999
- MONSTER 1994-2001
- 20th Century Boys (20世紀少年) 1999-2006
- 21st Century Boys (21世紀少年) 2007
- PLUTO 2003-2009, based on Tezuka Osamu's Tetsuwan Atom
- BILLY BAT 2008-2016
- Master Keaton Remaster (MASTERキートン Reマスター) 2012-2014
- Mujirushi (夢印-MUJIRUSHI-) 2017-2018, collaboration with Musée du Louvre
- Asadora! (連続漫画小説 あさドラ!) 2018-ongoing

Reviews

[Nicolo · Rating 5 out of 5]

At long last, the Naoki Urasawa work that the author considered challenging and hesitated to release it for an English-speaking audience, is now being published by Abrams. And in a nice package, too. I expect the entire 2o-volume series to be released in the same manner.

Billy Bat starts with a Japanese cartoonist and his character creation, an anthropomorphic bat. When the cartoonist realized that he may have accidently copied a character from a Japanese mangaka, he returns to Japan to seek permission for its use, only to stumble and spiral into a conspiracy that spans the length the human history and mysterious cabal out to influence the entire world.

Massive secret conspiracies and mysteries are in the Naoki Urasawa wheelhouse, and Billy Bat could be even greater in scope and more ambitious that his previous more acclaimed works, diving into metafiction with the cartoon character Billy Bat interacting within the reality of its cartoonist creator.

I can only speculate why Urasawa was initially hesitant in releasing this work in English. Perhaps the similarity of Billy Bat and Mickey Mouse? Though with a bat detective character, I would be more wary with Warner Bros./DC Comics rather than Disney corp. Perhaps it was the author touching on race relations in a post-war United States and fearing it would touch a nerve? Or maybe featuring a nameless messiah who is definitely Jesus? Nevertheless, the author appeared satisfied enough with his French editions that he okayed another Hachette imprint handle the English editions. What's important is that his English-speaking fans can finally access official editions of another acclaimed Urasawa mystery-thriller manga.

Abrams ComicArts put out a nice package. It is easily one of the best-looking English editions of a manga, including a jacket and the colored pages. Well worth the premium price when compared with a regular Viz manga release.

[Jokoloyo · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I didn't expect when started reading this series, there is secret history theme of various historical events around the world. To enjoy reading this manga maybe requires some all-round historical knowledge.

For the setting, I see this manga as further exploration than mangaka's previous works. His previous major hit, Naoki Urasawa's Monster, Volume 1: Herr Dr. Tenma the main theme of this series is also psychological thriller. Then in later works, PLUTO: Naoki Urasawa x Ozamu Tezuka, Band 001 and 20th Century Boys, Band 1, the author had explored fantasy setting. In this series, the mangaka presented new limits in setting than his previous works. Billy Bat story has far more ambitious non-linear timeline than 20th Century Boys. In Billy Bat I found secret-history theme in various historical events.

More Reviews to come.

[P.E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ricochets in the River

Last Sunday, my friends Kévin and Aurore paid me a visit. We spent the whole afternoon looking for special, limited edition rubber stamps hidden in the vicinity of Grand-Lieu Lake, each bearing the likeness of a local species: swamp fern, a horseshoe bat, a spoonbill, a tree frog. The heat was scalding, and we had to make a few pauses along the way. Still, we were determined to find the four of them, and I am truly happy we eventually did. These limited-edition stamps are made by a local, who found inspiration during a trip he made in Japan, a country renowned for its thousands and thousands of fabled eki stamps (among others :)).

Four spoof paintings were also displayed, one near each site, offering zany collages of paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, Joseph Crawhall, Franz Hals... combined with modern appliances and amusing descriptions all of them filled with ingenious stories, blending biography and fantasy. The author of these fanciful stories added as a moral of sorts: « Attention. Être sérieux n'implique pas de tout prendre au sérieux et ne pas se prendre au sérieux n'exclut pas le sérieux du propos ».

At the end of the day, I was left with fond memories, beautiful sceneries still lingering in my mind... and a full collection of Naoki Urasawa's Billy Bat, from the multimedia center where Kévin works, removed and destined to be stripped and recycled!

Back in May, as we were walking the streets of Ōsaka together, stumbling on the Time Capsules near Ōsaka castle buried in 1970 during the previous World Exposition, and marvelling at the Shin Sekai district, a place you would imagine straight out from postwar Japan, my friends recommended that I read 20th Century Boys by the same Naoki Urasawa which they told me is a striking embodiment of this 70's era.

Here I am, reading a surprising gem of a manga by Naoki Urasawa, about a mangaka called Kevin, witnessing shady events occurring in US-occupied, reconstruction-era Japan, as a fictional illustrated bat from his latest comic series gains sentience and agency, further blurring the lines between fiction and the world that is supposed to exist out of its boundaries.

[Bookishrealm · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was weird af BUT intriguing. I definitely will continue reading the series.

[Stay · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The bat tattooed on another mans body… is evil."

Silly

[Rahul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Start to another masterpiece by Naoki Urasawa.

[leah-rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars | EXCEEDED MY EXPECTATIONS!!! and tickled many of my fancies!! like old american gangsters/mobs, the 1950’s red scare/mcarthyism, personified animals, book within a book. and the artstyle was fcking amazing!!

this feels like a classic similar to roger rabbit with the use of real humans mixed with 2d drawings. the ending was unexpectedly beautiful :,) !! omg I long to read the rest of this series <33 I don’t understand how this isn’t more popular 💔


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the random ass neil armstrong cameo at the end made me giggle, it was so wacky like why is my ohioan pookie here?? love this damn manga, defo recommend


thank you to netgalley and abramscomics for this english translated arc in exchange for an honest review

[Aminah Hussain · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is so cool but confusing right now

[Duc Hoang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cây bút làm nên những bộ manga thriller tuyệt vời nhất - Monster, 20th Century Boys, Pluto..., đã trở lại. Nếu ở 20th Century Boys là những bí mật, tuyến truyện đan xen chồng chéo, thế lực và âm mưu toàn cầu vẫn nằm trong giới hạn của thế giới hiện thực (tối tăm, ám muội) thì ở đây, ông đã đi xa hơn và mang huyễn tưởng vào câu chuyện của mình, bằng một con dơi - Billy Bat, nhân vật xuyên suốt lịch sử loài người như nó tự giới thiệu. Những sự kiện lịch sự qua khung tranh Billy Bat được kể lại hoàn toàn khác lạ, theo kiểu conspiracy như truyện của Dan Brown. Chất psychotic của Monster được ông cấy ghép vào Billy Bat, tế nhị và nghệ thuật, thành cái mà con người sáng tạo nào cũng từng tìm kiếm và một lần nếm thử - cảm hứng - rốt cuộc cảm hứng đến từ chính trong con người hay từ một thế lực siêu hình nào khác (mà ở đây là Billy Bat)? Vẫn là những mặt tối trong mỗi con người và cuộc chiến đấu của họ chống lại những mặt tối được phơi bày trên tranh giấy, Urasawa đã đẩy nhân vật của mình đi xa hơn trong cuộc chiến đấu đó so với lần ông từng làm với Dr. Tenma trong Monster và Kenji trong 20th C. Boys - với quyền năng tối thượng của một người kể truyện, liệu bạn có thay đổi câu chuyện và thay đổi như thế nào vì điều tốt đẹp hơn?

Nếu đọc Urasawa đủ lâu, bạn sẽ thấy ông luôn tin tưởng vào con người, đặc biệt là những người nhìn qua thì yếu đuối, nhưng khi đối diện với thế lực hắc ám thì mạnh mẽ không ngờ. Ông luôn tin vào khả năng của con người, đặc biệt là con người sáng tạo, ông tin vào sức mạnh thay đổi thế giới của nghệ thuật và nghệ sỹ. Đó là điều khiến bạn luôn quay trở lại với những tác phẩm của ông, khi mà sự bất ngờ, li kì, hồi hộp đã giảm đi phần nào.

Nếu bạn đã từng ám ảnh với Monster, hay hồi hộp, phấn khích với cuộc phiêu lưu của 20th C. Boys, tôi chắc chắn bạn sẽ không thất vọng với Billy Bat đâu, nếu có thì là do chờ đợi thôi vì series này vẫn chưa kết thúc (tôi biết, tôi đang rất nóng lòng được đọc tiếp đây).

[Tobias · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even if you do not consider yourself someone to get into comics, let alone japanese manga, I urge you to still give this a go. You would be missing out on a strange and enticingly poetic journey that leaves you as a different person.

Billy Bat is an exciting thriller that is absorbing and not bound by extensive prior knowledge of any given culture (which is what might have turned you away from manga before), it taps into the supernatural and fantastical in a very slight, feasible and fun way while staying rooted in reality, and hits all the right beats effortlessly. It is a good read all the way through.

The cast of characters is broad, but each one is relatable and allows the reader to leap into the variety of different settings and moments in the story. As I am writing this, I am itching to tell you about all these stories and arcs that are based on actual real life events (which the author treats with due ethical respect but successfully pushes them to the limit to create these unique tellings in Billy Bat), but any word written would be a word too much - I do no want to spoil anything for you.

In that regard, I almost want to say that it is unfortunate how the first volume is mostly based in Japan as the historical key elements that the story references are lost on western audiences. Please, do not let that keep you from getting into Billy Bat - if anything, take this as an opportunity to learn about recent historical events in Japan, and a gateway into a much, much bigger story. A story that starts to feel like it might as well be real, the longer it goes back and forth in your head.

Give Billy Bat a go. You will not be sorry!

[Antonio Heras · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me ha gustado mucho. Muy original, dibujo excelente, trama interesante, metalenguaje,... Estoy dentro.

Quiero ir a por los siguientes tomos :D

[Kim Lockhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good set-up for the series. I'm definitely going to like it. Reading the second time through can really help connect the reader with the artwork, and not just the story.

[Maxime Place · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nan mais Urasawa le jour où il arrête d'écrire des bangers, j'arrête les mangas.

[charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

long time coming

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dopo aver letto Monster, attendevo di leggere una nuova storia di Urasawa, qui accompagnato da Tagashi Nagasaki, e non sono stata minimamente delusa: la qualità dei disegni e la capacità di scrivere una storia inusuale sono le caratteristiche maggiori che ho ritrovato e che ho già iniziato ad amare dal primo volume. Sono curiosa di sapere come proseguirà e dove ha intenzione di portarci Urasawa, ma sono certa che sarà un viaggio incredibile.

[Gabriel Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lord of the Rings if the ring was a freaky bat and also was present at the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ

[⏾ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hope it keeps me hooked, so far I am looking forward to reading the next volumes

[TV’s Kevin Lanigan]

Completely wild. Reading this for an upcoming Hogz 2 Slop episode. Do tune in for some urban myth weirdness.

[Blaine Riesberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let's see if this story will have a more satisfying ending than the one where the lady is seeing a muted horn everywhere.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS

[Arkasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the 3rd manga series by Urasawa-sensei that I’ve started. Billy Bat presented a very intriguing mystery (or many mysteries) from the get go, and I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. It was quite fast-paced, and introduced the reader to A LOT of elements in a quick succession. I sometimes get confused with the progression of things but overall I’m still very invested!

eARC courtesy of NetGalley and Kana Manga.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Billy Bat is definitely one of the more unusual manga I’ve ever read, but unusual in a good way. I liked how the lines between the Billy Bat comic and Kevin’s life blur. There is an interesting conspiracy going on that left me with many questions. The first volume does a wonderful job building up suspense.

The art was not the typical style that I like, but I did really appreciate the mixing between the real world and the classic cartoon style during all the comic panels. The Billy Bat comic reminds me of the old Mickey Mouse and Popeye cartoons from my childhood. Billy Bat is overall a really cool crime thriller that’s sure to please comic book fans that aren’t really into cutesy anime. The first volume starts the series off strong and I look forward to reading more.

[নাজমুল হাসান · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another masterfully drawn thriller from Naoki Urasawa sensei. It's just the beginning, but already there are lots of unanswered question. The protagonist was setup by the secret organization or did he actually commit the crime? What is the motive behind all the incidents occurring around Kevin Yamagata? What is the cult mystery behind the symbol of Billy Bat? And there is a duality of Black and White Bat. The story telling of the manga can be confusing at times, but that's the true beauty of it.

[Rikito · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before I started reading this manga, I’ve heard that the protagonist will be changed in the middle of the story. I’ve never known the author who changed a protagonist. I’m really surprised at it. Also this is the story based on the real history, it’s fictional though. I’m into it now because there’s lots of betrayals and conspiracies happening which makes me excited. One more thing, I was reading “Pluto” from Naoki Urasawa, and it’s the story of “Atom Tetsuwan” which is the old Japanese animation. I really recommend you to read both, Billy Bat and Pluto!!

[Camilo Guerra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kevin crea un comic famoso con un personaje llamado Billy Bat, pero...¿la idea es suya?, ¿la robo?, esa duda lo lleva hasta Japón, en donde se encontrara con el Japón post-guerra, se encontrara con el mismo, con verdades sobre el arte, momentos de la vida real, situaciones del comic ,del arte...todo con una conspiración muy rara detrás de todo. El arte de Naoki Urasawa mas alla del detalle fotográfico, es hermoso, detallado, animado y muy dinámico.

[Leandro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Manga que consiste en 20 libros.
Para no arruinar mi conteo en goodreads solo subiré el tomo 1 de las colecciones de manga en lugar de subir toda la serie.
Mi querido Naoki nuevamente me mantuvo al filo!
Sus historias siguen siendo enredadas y complejas.
El arte como siempre fue de lo mejor, muy estilizado. Las partes de comic tuvieron un arte "oldie" pero muy agradable.
El final esta dos dos.

[DeathReye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and Kana Manga for allowing me to read an advanced copy.

Urasawa's work is always such a pleasure to read, there is always so many threads being created that are confusing at first, but you're later rewarded with monumentous plot twists.

I'm so excited and surprised that Billy Bat is getting an English translation. It's so cleanly done, and the story grabbed me immediately.

Something to note: Urasawa's writing is very of it's time so there is a bit of racism and sexism.

[Kuroja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intrigantissimo primo volume.
Urasawa Naoki crea anche in quest’opera il suo solito e ottimo mix di misteri: un protagonista che si ritrova invischiato in faccende più grandi di lui, società segrete, un pizzico di paranormale con uno sfondo storico.
Il volume si divora in poco tempo poiché le regole tengono incollati dall’inizio alla fine.
Bianco o nero? Si vedrà.

[Sana Souratha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really captivating. It goes to show, typical action is not needed to create a good manga.

I love all the conspiracies and references that are all connected; everything from disney, to time travel, and the cold war are all connected.

[Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Naoki Urasawa es un genio y este primer volumen no es la excepción. Me encantó la historia y espero continuar con la serie.