Comic...strip. book. thing. Oh, you know what i mean.

So some weeks ago i was hanging out in my local comic shop, intent on choosing which new Alan Moore release would've come home with me (the choice was between The Many Worlds of Tesla Strong and The Birth Caul. I don't remember which one i chose, probably just some old x-men comics), when my Comic Book Pusher pulled out an old-looking box and announced to his trusty clientelle: "Hey, wanna see the first ever manga published in Italy?" Of course, everybody did.
Horrored and surprised faces were what resulted of the discovery that the first ever manga published in Italy was... Barbapapa.



I took this personally. Very personally.
I immediately tried to confute the theses presented to me: "Hey! wasn't Barbapapa french, or belgian, or something like that?" After all, I should know, for I owned the booklets back when i was a tiny tot in Glasgow.
"Well," he answered, "they were only published by those countries. They were actually ghost-written and ghost-drawn by unnamed japanese workers. Which makes them the first manga to reach Italy. 1976, to be precise."

"You mean... they're like Nike footballs?"
"Yes. Just like Nike footballs. Third world workmanship." [i know, Japan is no third world country, but i was too shocked in that moment to point that out. It was probably just comic-book-selling-person poetic justice]
And then he added something ominous.
"They were done in Japan by the same people who did the Barbapapa cartoon. And who also did that Vicky The Viking cartoon."

Blam.

Two of my most beloved childhood experiences destroyed in five minutes.

Er...i guess this whole post just goes to show how much of a nerd i actually am.

Actually, i'll use it to tie in to a topic i pulled out some time ago. But later.

First, i have to point out some internet wierdness. After all, that's what i'm here for, isn't it? Isn't it?

Action figures! Action figures! Holy Sigmund Freud!

It's Superman Meets The Quik Bunny!

One of the best pixel comics *ever*.
(and from that site, enjoy this party! coolest thing on the net in the last five minutes!)