The Ghost in the Shell: Global Neural Network

by Max Gladstone, Alex de Campi, Brenden Fletcher

This historic collaboration with legendary creator Shirow Masamune based on the classic manga features four all-new stories in a beautiful full-color 160-page hardcover, by some of the world's most innovative comics writers and artists, plus a cover by the acclaimed Dustin Nguyen (Descender) and pinup illustration by Becky Cloonan.

A covert mission in Shanghai reunites Kusanagi with a wartime rival amid shifting loyalties. The infiltration of an anti-cyberization cult calls for Section 9's most "human" members to do things the old-fashioned way. A deep dive into the mind of a criminal forces Kusanagi to question the nature of imagination - and her own identity. The stories in Global Neural Network bring a 21st-century perspective to its questions of human identity and the border between mind and machine that made The Ghost in the Shell one of the most revered manga of all time, and unleash top Western comics artists on eye-popping action scenes starring Kusanagi, Batou, Togusa, Aramaki, and all the members of Section 9!

Original stories by:
* Alex de Campi (Twisted Romance) & Giannis Milonogiannis (Prophet)
* Brenden Fletcher (Gotham Academy, Motor Crush) & LRNZ (Golem)
* Max Gladstone (the Craft Sequence) & David López (All-New Wolverine)
* Genevieve Valentine (Mechanique, Icon), & Brent Schoovoner (The Astonishing Ant-Man)

Genres: Comics, Manga, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

160 pages, Hardcover

First published September 18, 2018

About the author

Max Gladstone is the author of the Craft Sequence: THREE PARTS DEAD, TWO SERPENTS RISE, FULL FATHOM FIVE, and most recently, LAST FIRST SNOW. He's been twice nominated for the John W Campbell Best New Writer award, and nominated for the XYZZY and Lambda Awards.

Max has taught in southern Anhui, wrecked a bicycle in Angkor Wat, and been thrown from a horse in Mongolia. Max graduated from Yale University, where he studied Chinese.

Reviews

[Alejandro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ghost in the Shell for free!


This is a single comic book issue given in the Free Comic Book Day event of 2018, featuring a exclusive premiere of a complete, all-new short story of “Ghost in the Shell”..


Creative Team:

Writer: Max Gladstone

Illustrator: David López

Colors: Nayoung Kim


AUTOMATIC BEHAVIOR

This is a great preview of the upcoming Hardcover Anthology of Ghost in the Shell expected to be published in September 2018, because if the rest of stories are the same as great as this one,...

...oooooh! You’re for a show alright!

Major Motoko Kusanagi and Section Chief Daisuke Aramaki, traveled to Shanghai, China, for an undercover mission, pretending to be diplomatic representatives of Japan, in the signing of a trade agreement, to investigate a possible rogue involvement of some Chinese officials in the attack to a mining operation in Africa.

The analysis of the attack indicates the use of combat tactics of an American Special Ops Team, that it shouldn’t exist anymore.

During the opening party for the Trade Summit, Aramaki is kidnapped by rogue mechas, and Major is alone in a foreign country, without weapons or personnel back-up, for not saying that she isn’t sanctioned for any of both nations, Japan and China, to intervene in the Aramaki’s rescue…

…yes, as if that could stop Major.

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lodevole l'iniziativa di realizzare un volume tributo a Ghost in the shell da parte di diversi autori ed artisti di fumetti occidentali, purtroppo a mio parere il risultato finale non è del tutto soddisfacente.

Iniziamo dicendo che mi sono piaciute parecchio le prime due storie, anche se i disegni della prima non mi hanno decisamente fatto impazzire.



Il terzo racconto invece, anche se notevole, per quanto mi riguarda non ha praticamente nulla a che vedere con il manga/anime a cui doveva in teoria ispirarsi.



La quarta storia non mi é dispiaciuta affatto, ma chi ha letto il manga originale o visto gli anime sa molto bene che l'ICE del Maggiore non è tanto facile da hackerare.



☆☆☆/☆☆☆ 1/2 stiracchiate.

[Lashaan Balasingam · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can find my review on my blog by clicking here.

They sometimes say that one of the sincerest form of flattery out there is imitation. The mere fact that there are people out there who take the time to recreate something that they acknowledge as significant tells us a lot about the importance of that very creation. What exactly is done with the creation afterward is another story in itself, but if we were to look at the effort put into the creation, we can at least conclude that there’s something valuable in the source material.

Shirow Masamune, creator of the classic cyberpunk manga The Ghost in the Shell, is the perfect example of someone who initially created this series in hopes that it would inspire others to build upon the foundation he set and expand his universe into something much bigger than he had ever conceived it to ever become. In his manga series, most of his stories were set apart from one another and rarely ever had any flow to them. His goal was to simply spark ideas in readers and writers alike so that they would propel this franchise towards something new and special. Dipped in a police procedural mold set in a futuristic universe, it’s safe to say that there’s a lot of potential to this franchise.

In this special collaboration between Shirow Masamune and Kodansha Comics, several renowned writers and artists were given the opportunity to create a stand-alone short graphic story based on The Ghost in the Shell franchise. Collecting all four stories, The Ghost in the Shell: Global Neural Network is a sci-fi comic book anthology, read from left to right—unlike the traditional manga—with full-colour artwork exploring the very ideas that made the franchise so fascinating to so many fans.

In “Automatic Behavior”, Max Gladstone and David López tell us a story starring Motoko Kusanagi on a covert mission in Shanghai where she is brought to work alongside a wartime rival in hopes of finding and bringing back a kidnapped friend. While the artwork reminds you of good ol’ cartoons, it remained a very loyal 21st-century perspective of The Ghost in the Shell. Beloved characters are present, although Major doesn’t exactly look like her classic self, and ideas of what it is to be a cyborg within this world are quickly explored in a typical spy infiltration story.

In “Redbloods”, Alex de Campi and Giannis Milonogiannis put Togusa and Saito on the front lines as they infiltrate a bio-supremacist gang, while Motoko Kusanagi dives into the mind of a young girl looking for answers to her identity/her ghost. The artwork here is amazing and is the most loyal to the original designs by Shirow Masamune. Juggling a balance between a manga and a comic book, the designs and colours help immensely in drawing the reader into the world and the complex cybernetic mission Section 9 is on.

In “After the Ball is Over” by Genevieve Valentine and Brent Schoonover, new characters are given the spotlight and are on the run as a reflection on the world in which they now live in veils the story. From the repercussions of cybernetic enhancements to the privatization of resources like water, the world in which the story is set is depressing and almost desolate. The artwork reminds me of Mitch Gerads’s work in The Sheriff of Babylon and is definitely my favourite of the anthology.

In “Star Gardens”, Brenden Fletcher and LRNZ gives us a story featuring Major Kusanagi and a trap in which she fell for during one of her investigations as she attempted to infiltrate the mind of a young girl to get closer to a cyber-criminal that has been difficult to capture. Questions on the concepts of memory and identity are thoroughly explored as Motoko Kusanagi is left lingering in the remnants of her imagination unable to escape the grasp of her adversary. While thoroughly fascinating ideas are explored here, the artwork was a lot harder to appreciate, although original to some extent.

The Ghost in the Shell: Global Neural Network turns out to be an intriguing collection of stories showing us a westernized look at the Ghost in the Shell franchise. With various writers and artists with different styles and ideas, this anthology served as an entertaining visit of a beloved cyberpunk world that can only ever be associated to Masamune Shirow.

[Serdar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've long felt Masamune Shirow's The Ghost In The Shell was one of those things that fared best when someone other than Shirow worked on it. When Mamoru Oshii adapted it into an animated film, or when Kenji Kamiyama translated it into an animated TV series (in my opinion, the fullest flowering of the franchise thus far), or when any number of other folks came along and did their thing with it, we saw all the more completely what Shirow seemed to only be able to hint at. The Ghost In The Shell: Global Neural Network brings a novel form of collaboration to the table: it employs four teams of artists and writers from outside Japan to present their own original stories in the Shell-verse. Some of them stick closer to Shirow's original flavor; some are more explicitly in the mold of the way others recast Shirow's work; and some depart entirely from expectations, with mixed if also fascinating results.

Full review here: https://www.ganriki.org/article/ghost...

[Eressea · Rating 4 out of 5]

這本在書櫃裡吃灰兩年餘
看完新版TV動畫Arise之後新出的
令人失望的日本官方同人漫畫後
想起之前在噗浪上看別人介紹的洋同人
洋同人有沒有比較厲害呢
確實是有的，但科幻的英文似懂非懂的
不曉得有沒有正確解讀?

第一篇好多軍用縮寫術語，有點難懂
不過大概猜得到意思。
劇情不賴，世界局勢的發展
戰後ptsd的特種部隊老兵很有士郎風味
劇情則像是被押井守嚴肅化的士郎哽。
老兵活在過去的虛擬現實中
似乎埋了一點神山TV版的哽，分鏡卻沒照抄。
有抓到原著的精神
除了白靈臉素子之外，讚

第二篇就用了不少前作的名場面
真的很愛方盒子義體哽耶
這一篇有神山版的風味
而搞笑橋段的畫風幾乎就是同樣橋段的士郎正宗了
只是用太多西班牙文了好多地方難懂....
幫派份子把靈魂灌進蘿莉正太淘汰的義體中
再灌虛擬記憶到電子腦中
送給膝下無子的大人物做養子
時間到了幫派份子靈魂啟動
蘿莉正太改為幫派做事？
但靈魂與虛擬記憶彼此衝突阿
劇情似乎有點老套？
這篇的素子做了像是巴特才會做的溫馨心軟舉動XD

第三篇看了兩遍還是覺得沒有很懂
完全沒有任何九課人物登場
用的是攻殼架空世界中的美利堅帝國裡發生的事
大概是最具原創性的一篇？
一直到最後才揭露是美帝想要賣水給全世界
但苦旱已三年那來的水?
原來美帝想要賣從美利堅合眾國和美蘇聯合國搶來的水
一直沒出現的"her"掌握了陰謀卻被殺了
中間夾雜了純有機人和義體人
虛擬和真實的記憶
是有西部風味的cyberpunk

第四篇
某大亨把一堆腦藏在游泳池裡
要這些腦為他賣命寫小說畫名畫設計建築
但搞了半天或許竊盜創意
都是這些泡在水裡的腦製造出來的虛假記憶
可是確實又泡了一堆腦在水裡
看來看去到底誰虛誰實搞不清了
層層疊疊的記憶有點今敏的感覺
不過不如說是今敏有攻殼的感覺?
這一篇致敬最多名分鏡
但賦予全新的意義
不會讓人覺得"又來了"
小字背景設定講解則又是士郎的標誌性風格了

整體來說
這四篇故事都有抓到cyberpunk的精髓
作者們把士郎押井神山看熟的同時
也富有自己的新意
比起自Arise以降只會抄分鏡
卻一點也不cyberpunk的日本官方同人
高明不知凡幾啊
惜哉英文太爛
怎麼看都覺得沒有完全看懂QQ

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

In which the world of GitS is explored in four solid short stories by contemporary authors and artists. It's nice to see a couple of familiar names!

"Automatic Behavior" (Max Gladstone) is a tidy story of espionage, live bait and betrayal, using the pepsis wasp as clever metaphor. Art style is quite a departure from the classic manga, but matches stylistically with the Far Eastern setting.

"Redbloods" (Alex de Campi) is a return to the original manga, both in style and script, complete with the original series' farcical mini-cartoons. This story features the usual suspects going up against a gang of body resellers, but spotlights Section 9 everyman Togusa, and features a swampy detour to a lawless parish in Louisiana, in the American Empire!

"After the Ball Is Over" (Genevieve Valentine) occurs in the desiccated lands of the formerly American southeast, now governed by the fascist American Empire. This is a gritty glimpse of a dystopian cyberpunk society outside of Section 9's purview. Valentine pens a fragmented story of fragmented lives: second-hand implants, second-hand memories, hopeless causes and escape.

"Star Gardens" (Brenden Fletcher) Major Kusanagi goes several levels deep to bust an idea thief who has imprisoned the ghost of a Creative and profits off his thoughts. This one's the "ghostiest" of the four stories.

In sum, an enjoyable return to one of my favorite cyberpunk settings.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are the stories that I want to read in this universe. They were great. Taratula hawk wasps, cuckoo birds, unhackable people and Personal Value Index [PVI] synergies.

[Zare · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this collection very much. It captures the atmosphere of the original GitS (manga and anime) while presenting original stories set in the GitS universe.

Every story has its own visual signature and I truly enjoyed it. In terms of narrative all stories are high quality.

To be clear I enjoyed everything that came out related to GitS (yes that includes live action movie too, movie which I find to be criticized heavily by people just because it did not match their own view of existentialist-angst-sf which GiTS for me never was; GitS is standard man-machine-story very much in line with Asimov's works [which is never dark but optimistic one] but lot of people associated their own issues with it) and this collection is truly worthy addition to the series.

Reader will catch glimpse of Major's life before Section 9, how low did mighty fall (the Empire stories) and how intellectual property theft can easily be organized if one is in full control of the creative mind.

And there is very good story about an organic (lets call it like that since protagonist is not augmented at all) trying to help her friend while aware that story wont have the happy end. Story is also good from perspective how people are forced to butcher themselves in order to survive the merciless world around them. It is not story about keeping one soul but story about fighting pressure from society to embed oneself with technology in order to live in the first place (under-skin chips for "ease of" whatever - where does this trend stop and why does everyone need to comply?).

Recommended to SF and especially GitS fans.

[Matt Ely · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of Western writers and artists offering their own interpretations of one of the definitive franchises in Japanese sci-fi, it is perhaps most interesting when viewed less as chapters in the GitS universe, but rather as an examination of Western imaginations about the Japanese product. I imagine it was not accidental that the first three chapters all dealt with how America and Americans fit in to the world of Section 9, with the third going so far as to write out the Major and co altogether. The last chapter then reassesses the Major as a cultural icon, whether she can be seen as a singular character or a collection of personages that are, to some degree, in conflict. This might be a particularly Western concern with understanding non-linear storytelling, one that, while respected, must be addressed directly instead of simply allowed to stand and interpreted on its own.

I think the book, as a whole, merits revisiting. The third chapter did not grab me, as it was perhaps more interested in worldbuilding for elements that have no real role in the franchise (i.e. the post-war division of America) and did not connect it to section 9. But if you're comfortable skimming one chapter, the rest is more than worth checking out, particularly for Western fans of the franchise.

[Tigertemprr · Rating 3 out of 5]

**Ghost in the Shell: Global Neural Network | 70%** | #1-4, sci-fi, crime, cyberpunk | 4-story anthology written/drawn by different creators, set in the GitS universe with a mix of old/new characters/locations. Explores western settings. Meeting old war buddies, kidnapping, black market cybernetic enhancements, forgotten soldiers, 2 ghosts in one shell, rich buying ownership of art, murder, heists, infiltration, hacking. Loved this as a brief dive back into a favorite IP, but the wide variety/range in quality for both writing and art made it feel like an average book overall. Cool meta page where Major is having a psychological/cyber breakdown, she can’t sort out her identity, and the art conveys that by showing all of her incarnations across multiple mediums. It was fun for a short while, but I probably won’t remember much about it. Glad it was made and in my collection, though. I always want more GitS, anyway I can get it.

[Tiasany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the stories are good (there are 4 in total), and the art is either beautiful or simply serves its function, depending on the story.

Overall not a bad collection, but it doesn't really bring anything fresh or groundbreaking to the Ghost in the Shell universe.

[DeadTrees · Rating 2 out of 5]

Content
-------
Recently I have been working on the manga section of my library, and Ghost in the Shell is my favorite cyberpunk universe so it was time to sort out which books I have on my shelf. I did not have a copy of this title and opted for the PX edition.

Most of the stories are decent enough. Some of the themes and ideas I could get into. One of the stories was trying to get philosophical - and was potentially interesting - but I kept getting distracted by the poor writing. (To clarify, one of the stories was particularly poorly written. The rest did not stick out so much.)

An important point to cover when discussing Ghost in the Shell content is to establish which universe you're talking about. The manga, films, and televisions series have significant differences in their depiction of the characters, geopolitical landscapes, and to a lesser degree, technologies.

So which one does this book fit in? If you read the marketing copywrite, it suggests it's the original universe as depicted by Masamune Shirow. I have read the original manga, though not recently, and felt that really only 2 of the 5 stories "felt" like they were in that universe. And to the book's credit, a third story was a 4th wall cheeky nod to the existence of the multiverse.

Art-wise, I didn't much care for this book. 3 out of 5 of the stories I distinctly disliked the art. However, I'd say the greater problem is jamming 5 artists together in a tiny book like this. I felt that right as I was about to get used to any given rendition of a character, the story was over and it was time to adjust to a new one.

tl;dr - "This book is okay I guess."

Book Quality
----------
2/5
Overall: Subpar hardcover for the price.
Cover: (Note that I have the PX edition which has an alternate cover to the primary SKU). The cover is very high quality with matte elements layered on top of a gloss print cover.
Paper: Unfortunately they used the cheapest, thinnest paper that would feasibly take full-page color prints.

Who should pick this up?
- Ghost in the Shell collectors
- Cyberpunk authors and game masters (but they should opt for the more reasonably priced standard SKU)

[Adam Duclos · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a bit disappointed in this book... I didn't realize at first it wasn't by Masamune Shirow.

The first story was good, with Matoko on top of her game. The art was a bit off, but not by far.

The second story was okay, with Togusa and Saito traipsing through the bayou in the American Empire. However, it started to get weird here, with talk about random robots having ghosts.

The third story was not good: It was nonsensical and had little to no relation to Ghost in the Shell beyond people having cyberware. This was where I checked the authors. It was also in the remains of the USA, but didn't match up with the second story. It was also the longest story.

The fourth story had promise, with talk about mental states and so on, but misrepresented the Major as being easily hacked, and with a very odd relationship to bodies that she inhabits that doesn't match up with the manga, the TV shows, or any of the movies.


On the other hand, the stories were fun to read, the art was okay, and since they're all mostly set outside of Japan, they don't mess with any major story lines. Plus, the TV show that I like so much was written by someone other than Masamune Shirow. I'll give it a third star.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really cool little collection of graphic short stories set in the world of Ghost in the Shell. My favourite story doesn't include any of the main characters, but gives a glimpse into the state of the world in this reality.

Overall, the art is good, though with each story illustrated by a different artist, the results do vary, particularly in how the main characters are drawn; sometimes in line with the versions we know, and sometimes not.

[FrontalNerdaty · Rating 2 out of 5]

The world of Ghost in the Shell is a rich and unique world, explored here by a Western set of teams to mixed results. Splitting this tome in to 4 stories is an interesting approach but as with many anthologies some is good and some is not.
The stories featuring the Major pack the most punch and are the more engaging tales and the stories focusing on the world, whilst interesting lack the same appeal.

[Xan Rooyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with any anthology collection, there will be some stories that I enjoyed more than others. I read this for the story by Alex de Campi but I think I actually enjoyed the one by Genevieve Valentine even more.

There are a variety of narrative and art styles on display here, but all four stories were enjoyable in their own way and explored different facets of the Ghost in the Shell universe, some more quietly and introspectively than others.

[Evelyn Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good stuff. Nice to see the GitS universe from a more Western perspective. The stories were nice. The art wasn't always my favorite but it did the trick. Except on the 4th story, I loved the art on that one. Also, I liked that it had some world building and showed the American Empire. Good to see the world outside of high-tech Japan. A quick read, and well worth it.

[Raymond St. Paul · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointed

Disappointed in this purchase I was expecting more got less even the separate stories were lame. The art got worse too. My advice avoid this comic version I should have listened to the bad reviews an not wasted the money on this comic!

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting concept, but not a fan of this story.

[Tiamat_the_red · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories are interesting but I still have trouble reading comics. I just don't have the skill set to get as much out of them as I do from prose.

[Jihan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The storyline is very awesome. But, unfortunately the book cover is not polite

[Alex Fyffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Samuel Goldberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first story is bleh but the other three could be entire movies on their own.

[Markus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Automatic Behavior ☆ ☆ ☆
Redbloods ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
After The Ball Is Over ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Star Gardens ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

[Jasmin Đenčić · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last story of the 4 is what is gonna make me get the physical edition of this manga. And read that story again:)

[Kest Schwartzman · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not a bad comic, but I do not understand why it exists. It this the comic book reworking of a movie which is based on a comicbook?