Chip Kidd Talks Bat-Manga!

At Omnicomic there are times when we like to sauce things up a bit. Maybe throw some nutmeg in the waffles. Throw some caution to the wind. Even throw some manga into our Batman. The manga one is a little harder to pull off since we own neither the rights to Batman or the ability to actually draw manga, but Chip Kidd is talented on both fronts. And he's bringing his talents to the Museum of Cartoon and Comic Art.

Speaking Thursday, January 12, at the museum from 7-9, Kidd will reveal the Bat-mania phenomenon that swept Japan in 1966. A weekly Japanese manga anthology for boys, Shonen King, licensed the rights to commission its own Batman and Robin stories. A year later, the stories stopped.

They were never collected in Japan, and never translated into English until the debut of Chip Kidd's Bat-Manga! in 2008. Now for the first time ever in the US, original artwork and lavish cover art from the Batman-manga comics are on display at MoCCA, along with vintage era-specific memorabilia and toys.

Kidd will be on hand for the low, low price of $7 (or free for MoCCA Members). Full press release below.

Don't miss out on Chip Kidd Talking Bat-Manga!

Thursday January 12th, 7-9pm
Admission: $7/ FREE for MoCCA Members


Join us Thursday, January 12th, at the Museum of Comic & Cartoon Art - MoCCA - as Chip Kidd pulls back the curtain on Bat-Manga!, the 1966 Bat-mania phenomenon that first took Japan by storm. A weekly Japanese manga anthology for boys, Shonen King, licensed the rights to commission its own Batman and Robin stories. A year later, the stories stopped. They were never collected in Japan, and never translated into English until the debut of Chip Kidd's Bat-Manga! in 2008.

Now for the first time ever in the US, original artwork and lavish cover art from the Batman-manga comics are on display at MoCCA, along with vintage era-specific memorabilia and toys.

More than just a dazzling novelty, Bat-Manga! is an invaluable, long-lost chapter in the history of one of the most beloved and timeless figures in comics.

Chip Kidd is the four-time Eisner award-winning author and designer of Batman Collected, Batman Animated, Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schultz, and Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross. He is the author of The Cheese Monkeys and The Learners, from Simon & Schuster. From 2003 through 2007 he was the founding art director at Vertical Inc., the Japanese-American publisher, responsible for the design of Osama Tezuka's epic Buddha, among many other manga titles. He has also done extensive design work for authors Koji Suzuki and Haruki Murakami.