Devilman: The Classic Collection Vol. 1 by Go NagaiMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Fudo Akira was a sensitive boy, mocked by his classmates, until he merged with a devil. Until he became... Devilman!
Devilman: The Classic Collection Vol. 1 collects stories from Go Nagai's Devilman run in the 1970s in a sweet looking hardcover from Seven Seas Entertainment.
My dive into manga history continues with Devilman, tales of a teenage boy fused with a devil, battling demons that threaten mankind. It's a lot of fun. Akira has gory battles with all sorts of demons, some even in different points in earth's history.
I really like the character design on Devilman and the other demons. Go Nagai's art is ahead of the curve for the time period. The stories are a little simplistic at times but I wouldn't say the comics from the Big Two were much more complex in the early 1970s.
Nagai's art gives the carnage a little more impact when it happens. I showed my wife a child's severed head in a puddle of blood and said "It's drawn cutesy so it's okay, right?" Actually, one of the more interesting parts of my manga education is noticing the cultural differences. American comics from the 70s don't have people peeing themselves, breasts, naked hermaphroditic angels, tons of gore, or people using their eyebrows as weapons.
The Devilman character is like a hybrid of Hulk and Wolverine, a violent badass taking on other violent badasses. The mythology behind the demons and their role in human history was really interesting and I'll be interested to see how it pans out in volume two. The time travel stories seem to be from a different time period. I'm wondering if they were inserted in this volume according to where they fall in continuity. Again, I guess I'll find out in the next volume.
Devilman: The Classic Collection was an interesting dive into manga history. I'm on board for volume 2 when it drops. Four out of five stars.
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