{"id":30423,"date":"2024-08-27T09:55:06","date_gmt":"2024-08-27T09:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=30423"},"modified":"2024-08-27T09:55:06","modified_gmt":"2024-08-27T09:55:06","slug":"speed-racer-classics-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/08\/27\/speed-racer-classics-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Speed Racer Classics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Tatsuo Yoshida<\/strong>, translated by Nat Gertler<\/strong> (Now Comics)
\nISBN: 0-70989-331-34 (TPB)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

During the 1960s when Japanese anime was first starting to appear in the West, one of the most surprising small screen hits in America was a classy little cartoon series entitled Speed Racer<\/strong>. It first aired on Japan\u2019s Fuji Television from April 1967 to March 1968;\u00a0 52 high velocity episodes that steered into US homes mere months after. Back then nobody knew the show was based on and adapted from a wonderful action\/science fiction\/sports comic strip created in 1966 by manga pioneer Tatsuo Yoshida for Shueisha\u2019s Shōnen Book<\/em><\/strong> periodical.<\/p>\n

The comic series was itself a recycled version of Yoshida\u2019s earlier racing hit Pilot Ace<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The original title Mach GoGoGo<\/em><\/strong> was a torturously multi-layered pun, playing on the fact that boy-racer Gō Mifune<\/em> – more correctly Mifune Gō – drove the supercar \u201cMach 5\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo\u201d is the Japanese word for five and a suffix applied to ship names whilst the phrase Gogogo is the usual graphic sound effect for \u201crumble\u201d. All in all, the title means \u201cMach-go, Gō Mifune, Go!\u201d which was adapted for US screens as and its assumed simpleton viewers Go, Speed Racer, Go!<\/strong>, initially running from 1967 and for decades in syndicated reruns…<\/p>\n

In 1985 Chicago-based Now Comics took advantage of the explosion in comics creativity to release a bevy of full-colour licensed titles based on popular nostalgic icons such as Astro Boy<\/strong>, Green Hornet<\/strong>, Fright Night<\/strong> and the TV cartoon version of Ghostbusters<\/strong>, but started the ball rolling with new adventures of Speed Racer<\/strong>. Gosh, I wonder who owns the rights to all those great comics and if we\u2019ll ever see them revived in modern collections?<\/p>\n

The series was a palpable hit and in 1990 the company released this stunning selection of Yoshida\u2019s original stories in a smart monochrome edition graced with a glorious wraparound cover by Mitch O\u2019Connell. It was probably one of the first manga books ever seen in US comic stores. Although the art was reformatted for standard comic book pages the stories are relatively untouched with the large cast (family, girlfriend, pet monkey and all) called by their American TV nomenclature\/identities, but if you need to know the original Japanese designations and have the puns, in-jokes and references explained, there are many Speed Racer websites to consult and there have been many more translated collections in familiar tankōbon style editions…<\/p>\n

Pops Racer<\/em> is an independent entrepreneur and car-building genius estranged from his eldest son Rex<\/em>, a professional sports-car driver. Second son Speed<\/em> also has a driving ambition to be a pro driver (we can do puns too, just so\u2019s you know) and the episodes here follow the family concern in its rise to success, peppered with high drama, political intrigue, criminal overtones and high octane excitement (whoops!: there I go again)…<\/p>\n

The action begins with \u2018The Return of the Malanga\u2019<\/em> as – whilst competing in the incredible Mach 5 – Speed recognises an equally unique vehicle believed long destroyed when running this same gruelling road-race. The plucky lad becomes hopelessly embroiled in a sinister plot of remote-controlled murder and vengeance after learning that the driver of the resurrected supercar crashed and died under mysterious circumstances years ago. Now, the survivors of that tragic incident are perishing in a series of fantastic \u201caccidents\u201d; are these events the vengeance of a restless spirit or is an even more sinister force at work?<\/p>\n

In \u2018Deadly Desert Race\u2019<\/em> the Mach 5 is competing in a trans-Saharan rally when Speed is drawn into a personal driving duel with spoiled Arab prince Kimbe of Wilm<\/em>. When a bomb goes off, second son Racer is accused of attempting to assassinate his rival and must clear his name and catch the real killer by traversing the greatest natural hazard on the planet whilst navigating through an ongoing civil war: a spectacular competition climaxing in a blistering military engagement…<\/p>\n

After qualifying for the prestigious Eastern Alps Competition, our youthful road ace meets enigmatic Racer X<\/em>: a masked driver with countless victories, a shady past and a hidden connection to the Racer clan before \u2018This is the Racer\u2019s Soul!\u2019<\/em> reveals the true story of Pops\u2019 conflict with Rex Racer when criminal elements threaten to destroy everything the inventor stands for.<\/p>\n

After the riveting race action and blockbusting outcome, this volume concludes with a compelling mystery yarn as – in \u2018The Secret of the Classic Car\u2019<\/em> – Speed foils the theft of a vintage vehicle by organised crime before being sucked into a nefarious scheme to obtain at any cost a lost secret of automotive manufacture hidden by Henry Ford. When the ruthless thugs kidnap Speed, Pops catapults into action just as the gang turns on itself with the saga culminating in a devastating and insanely destructive duel between rival super-vehicles…<\/p>\n

These are delightfully magical episodes of grand, old-fashioned adventure, realised by a master craftsman, well worthy of any action fan\u2019s eager attention, so even if this particular volume is hard to find, other editions and successive collections from WildStorm, DC and Digital Manga Publishing are still readily available.<\/p>\n

Go, Fan-boy reader! Go! Go! Go!…
\nSpeed Racer \u2122 & \u00a9 1988 Colour Systems Technology. All rights reserved. Original manga \u00a9 Tatsuo Yoshida, reprinted by permission of Books Nippan, Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tatsuo Yoshida, translated by Nat Gertler (Now Comics) ISBN: 0-70989-331-34 (TPB) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. During the 1960s when Japanese anime was first starting to appear in the West, one of the most surprising small screen hits in America was a classy little cartoon series entitled Speed Racer. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Speed Racer Classics”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[80,191,75,125,25,225,127,210,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adaptations","category-adventure","category-crime-comics","category-humour","category-japanese-comics","category-mystery","category-nostalgia","category-sport","category-war-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7UH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30423"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30431,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30423\/revisions\/30431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}