An Ardor for Ballistics

It has already begun: the new Viz Media version of the Golgo 13 manga is on it’s feet as you hit the street. Vol. 1, Supergun, features cameos from such luminaries as Saddam Hussein, Bill Clinton, and Madeline Albright…but its Golgo, sporting a Dirty Sanchez, who gets the girl in the end (see above).

Comment-King Carl Gustav Horn is behind the editorial trigger on the project, and he’s supplied helpful bonus back page materials, including “Golgo 13: Physical Observations” in which the exact nature of the Supergun is finally revealed: “Lures all the women in the world to the ‘height of ecstasy’; at any rate, an amazing penis.”

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As some of you nerds might know, Golgo 13 comes from the pen of Takao Saito, who also did a nifty James Bond manga before cashing in with his own man of action.

All the international mucking about and popping people reminded me that I saw the movie Munich yesterday. Some fine cloak and dagger and sweaty palm paranoia in there between all the speech making and Hollywood bullshit…Basically, a murder contest in the Geto Boys tradition with lots of exploding objects and point blank ventilations from “Kill ‘em all Spielberg.”

But the best thing about the movie is Michael Lonsdale as “Papa” who previously played baddie Drax in Moonraker (a great performance in a rumpy 007). His character in Munich is a mix of the godfather, the devil, a TV gourmet chef, and Drax fallen to earth after Our Man’s orbital hit. If only there had been a scene where he sent a Kato-like assasin to kill Eric Bana...

And so, I can dream about it: a Papa manga-only prequel from honorable Carl-sama and Saito Pro...

Comments

[Joseph Luster]

That single panel speaks volumes of what's missing in today's "funny books".

This release is one of the grand reasons I think they built a liquor store right next door to the local comic shop last year.

[Daryl Surat]

Years ago I managed to pick up four "English language" releases of Golgo 13 that Saito Productions released themselves. Rather than being a killjoy, the silly translation accentuated the action, whether the D to the G was murdering the entire staff of a hotel or giving some lass the ol' George Zimmer, founder and CEO of The Men's Wearhouse. Maintaining the same facial expression while engaged in either, of course.

Having never actually been able to find a copy of "The Impossible Hit" or the monthly issues Viz released in the days of antiquity, the idea has crossed my mind that the inevitably superlative localization effort of this new release might somehow diminish the power and resonance of Golgotha Teen. I've practically come to expect goofy translations as synonymous with the property, what with the NES games and the Streamline Pictures dub of the movie that pulled our triggers lovingly and softly.

So it is that I, too, can now state that this release of Golgo 13 will be my first time...with an Asian. And for once I won't have to go through daughter-rape barter channels to get it, either.

[Steve Harrison]

So then...open question to Carl:

Is this the fruit that grew from your party at ACen a couple years back, as we all sat sipping cocktails while slides of G13 slid across the wall in liquid light? As you smiled and said things of secret projects you couldn't...nay DAREN'T discuss...

Or to Quote Duke Togo:

"........."

Banzai for finally having it happen!

[Carl Horn]

The project was basically drawn up in 2001 as a comic book series (covers to be drawn by Tim Bradstreet) but has found its incarnation in the new era of shojo graphic novels.