Ask John: Was the Akira Manga in Color?

Question:
I have found a version of Akira manga in color! Issue 10 only though. I have not found more since. I like to know a bit more on the reason for this. If it’s to make it more attractive to America or something? It says in the copyright section it’s a collaboration between Epic Comics and Kodansha from 1993. Does that mean that it was published in Japan in color too then? And also do you know of any other series done like this?

Answer:
Epic Comics was a subsidiary of Marvel Comics during the 1980s and early 90s. When Viz first brought translated manga to America in the form of Xenon, Mai the Psychic Girl and Dagger of Kamui, Epic and First Comics quickly jumped on the bandwagon. First Comics began a successful translation of the Lone Wolf and Cub manga, and Epic Comics licensed the translation rights to Akira. Because manga was still such a mysterious import, and at that time black & white comics were limited to independent and “underground” comics only, Marvel Comics, under the supervision of Katsuhiro Otomo himself, digitally colored the original black & white manga and began to release it in monthly squarebound issues beginning in September 1988. Throughout decreasing sales and delayed production schedules, Marvel eventually released 38 colored English translated issues, which roughly coincided with the story from the motion picture. The coloring job was done quite well, and looked very natural, but at the time there were complaints from die-hard import manga fans that the Akira manga was never intended to be published in color, and that the coloring obscured or eliminated some of the fine detail visible in the original monochrome version. Apparently Dark Horse Comics agreed with these complaints, as they are now reprinting the manga in its original black & white format. The colored Epic Comics issues shouldn’t be difficult or expensive to find through any comic book store that carries a large selection of back issues and collectable comics.

I want to say that there was at least one other manga series that was briefly colored in America, but my memory is dim on the subject. Masaomi Kanzaki’s 3 volume black & white Street Fighter II: Ryu manga series was published in color and distributed in America by Viz comics, but this colored version was overseen, at least in part, by the original Japanese publisher Tokuma Shoten Intermedia.