#but I haven't been able to find comics online in english so :<

[bibiana112]

Just booted up the tv and it was the creator of Monica's Gang crying from what I'm assuming was an anecdote on what inspired one of the new disabled characters and I feel pain everyday at the fact I can't show any of those comics to my gringo friends fr I love these so much one good childhood thing

[ecogirl2759]

~~~NEW UPDATE~~~

(I'M A DUMBASS WHO DOESN'T KNOW HOW TUMBLR WORKS SO IF YOU SAW THIS ALREADY NO YOU DIDN'T)

I'm glad people liked my 4コマ KINGS post so much lol. I love spreading the word about obscure lore :)

Under the cut I've responded to some of my favorite tags, given a little more backstory into the source of these pictures, as well as posted a few new ones :D

There's also a question at the very bottom that I'd love to hear opinions on, but no pressure if y'all don't feel comfortable answering ^w^

You're welcome >:D

Same, bro. I was basically thinking that the entire time I was reading these books lol

I feel like I should give a little context to these comics and where they come from lol. I wasn't very clear about the backstory in my original post. I do agree, when I found these, I thought they were super important, too, particularly because I don't think a lot of the fandom knows about these books lol.

The Danganronpa 4コマ KINGS anthology series was published in the early 2010's featuring a bunch of different artists. The series is 4 volumes long and published by Spike Chunsoft, meaning, while these aren't necessarily canon, they ARE official :)

There is another series of anthologies in relation to both the first and second games, but I don't have those.

The first two volumes of this series is relatively well documented. There are sites where English translations have already been added to all of the comics in them (I'm pretty sure), as well as some screenshots popping up on places like Pinterest.

The third and fourth installments, however, are really poorly archived. The third has some content from it floating around, but it's hard to come by. The fourth had almost no information on it no matter where I searched.

I say this because a while ago I found the ONLY pictures of the Mastermind!Taka comic on this really old Tumblr blog from 2014 and REALLY wanted to figure out what it was about. (Didn't help that I couldn't read some of the bubbles in those photos.) First I searched for an English translation (there wasn't (so I'm working on one hehe)), then I tried to find which book it was even from, and NOTHING!

These books, since they were in circulation around 2014-ish, have stopped being printed, so copies of them are very hard to come by. Luckily, I was able to get my copies from a kind stranger on Ebay :)

-NOW-

Here are a few more pictures that I thought were funny/interesting that I couldn't add in my first post because of the picture limit lol.

Sorry for the really long post, I just thought it'd be interesting to share :)

Here's the page of artists that contributed to this anthology! Please go check them out (or see if they have any socials since it's been so long). Some credits change per volume, hence how many photos there are. (And sorry for my hand, it's hard to hold these open lol.)

You've probably all seen the covers, but have you seen what's behind the covers? (Also including the opening illustrations. These have probably been posted online already as well, but they're worth including imo.) (Again, please excuse the fingers, I'm trying my best ;-;)

^ Sayaka came with a smudge :( she still pretty tho

So, uh, remember when I said Hifumi made ship fodder? ......Here it is. Eat your heart out lol

Also remember when I said that Mondo's hair was fluffy and bouncy? Here's the proof:

Sakura has been de-buff-ified twice LMAO

ALSO remember when I said Syo was a fan of BL? ...... :)

ALSO remember when I said Kyoko was kinda socially awkward?

(Context: Kyoko sees Kiyotaka and Mondo calling each other bro and, thinking it'll strengthen their bond as well, calls Makoto "Makoto-oniichan," or "big brother Makoto" lol. Also, second picture says "I have come to save you, Makoto")

Chihiro Shinji chair meme

I'm at my picture cap, but there's a lot I haven't brought up lol

-SO-

For a different thread, would people like me to find pictures of certain characters? (i.e. just photos of the characters looking cool/hot/stupid without a lot of the text.) Because I am totally willing to do that :)

I've already got a lot on Byakuya, Sakura, Aoi and Mondo for all you simps out there, and it's not hard to find even more lol.

So lmk :D

[chibivesicle]

Gokinjo Monogatari got an English release. I am just - feeling like I got my wish from 1998.

That's right, I'm alive but not very active on the meta for the time being. 2023 sped up for the second half; work got crazy busy for Q4. I worked up to Dec 18th through several weekends so yeah, needed some recharge time.

I don't know how I missed this, but thanks to watching Coleen's Manga Recs, I discovered that the one shoujo manga title that I had been wanting an English release for has finally arrived. Gokinjo Monogatari by Ai Yazawa!

I discovered Gokinjo Monogatari in '98. One of the local comic stores had the first three tankobons and I bought them based on the cover artwork alone.

It wasn't until undergrad I was able to meet a few more people and figure out more than just the name and artist. I tried to find the translation of the manga online, but was unsuccessful. I have to remind people that before scanlations, you had to buy a tankobon and hope you found the text based translation which would have the text according to page number and what panel location. I read a fair bit of Kenshin that way, but sadly, this series was not that popular with readers in the States. I've been moving my entire adult life hauling my three precious volumes of the manga hoping that someday I would first, collect volume 4-7 to complete the picture and that I'd have my matching English version. Granted, I haven't done a good job of looking for volumes 4-7 when I've been in Japan . . . or using the internet either.

As if to spite me, the follow up manga, Paradise Kiss, did get a translation in 2002 from Tokyo Pop which exists in the same universe as Gokinjo Monogatari. Note that a previous manga's characters show up at the Flea Market in Monogatari as well and Yazawa likes to keep a lot of her series tied together. Eventually, the scanlation of the series appeared and I read it around 2011. I'd only found an episode or two of the anime during the golden age of file sharing, but didn't follow through on it. I wanted to read the manga before watching the anime. In 2017, I visited the Manga Museum in Kyoto, got to see a cool display about Ribon magazine and of course they had Gokinjo Monogatari merch! I bought the file folder set and stickers! I bought the Gokinjo Monogatari UT shirt from Uniqlo featuring Ribon series. Yet each time I found more stuff, the universe got the last laugh. Japan released the collectors set with four volumes, there was a French translation, German etc and never one for English. So, you have to realize how I absolutely lost my mind when the thing I'd figured would never happen, happened! Not only was it a thing, I'd even missed the December 2023 release date -at least I didn't have to wait for a pre-order to get volume 1.

I'm happy to see that this version included some of the original color pages!

It has a few more at the end with a photo wall of Mikako's outfits. Everything about the style of this manga, I absolutely love. The fashion goes so hard even now. I get nostalgic with all of the mid-90s Japanese street fashion which has a mix of 60s mod and 70s flare. I think the series also does a good job of capturing that awkward time in your teenage life when you are trying to figure out how to act with people you are interested in. But failing to sort things out. Unlike a lot of other high school manga series, this one stands out with the much more "normal" appearance of the students. I remember picking it up and thinking that the characters looked like they could be my peers; though there is no way Mikako's outfits would pass my high school's own liberal dress code where dyed hair and piercings were permitted. Her bare midriff would get her in trouble . . . Funny how now when I look at it, this is a very unusual high school set up for a Japanese reader likely coming from a more regimented school environment with a uniform and strict dress code. I never thought about it at the time. More that I was plotting my own hair dying plans for when I moved out of the house for undergrad just like the characters had - while still in high school. I did read Parakiss back when it came out from 2002-2005; however, it never really resonated with me the same way a series that I couldn't even find a decent translation for. I started to watch Nana but couldn't get into it at all. Maybe it was my mindset or the fact that I wasn't the mood for young twenty-somethings figuring their shit out.

Yet, here I am in the winter of 2024, and I have volume 1 of the collectors edition format of Gokinjo Monogatari and I'm still loving every little bit of the story as I read it. Perhaps, Parakiss and Nana were more edgier/grittier than something like this which is why they never quite clicked with me. I wanted my fashionable shoujo drama but not over the top. I'm not sure what I'll write about it. It isn't a well known series both due to the fact it is from the 90s and that it is shoujo but perhaps I can reflect on what I was drawn to it all those years ago and what I think about it now.

[anzstrek]

bruhh why is it so hard to find files of spirou's comics online?????? I haven't been able to find proper ones from the first comics or even the ones from the 60s-70s, does anyone have an archive/drive/document with all comics? (either with spanish or english translation) thx very much in advance

[mxcottonsocks]

hi are you aware of the fact that there's a lady audley's secret musical??? I'm desperate to know more about it but I can't even find a single recording of anything from it lol

Hello! Sorry for taking so long to respond to your ask, I had never heard of there being a musical so I got very excited, went on an internet hunt and ended up getting distracted by a radio play adaptation.

Unfortunately there really doesn't seem to be much online about the musical, does there? I'll post links under a cut to what I did manage to find, just on the off-chance you haven't seen any of it, but alas, I couldn't find any recordings of performances or lyrics to the songs or anything.

A synopsis, story summary, song list and character list on The Guide To Musical Theatre website.

A summary on the Music Theatre International Europe website. The 'full synopsis' button brings up a detailed synopsis, which differs slightly from the one on the previous website, and crucially includes the titles of the songs where they appear within the performance. Clicking 'full cast info' brings up a character breakdown with more info on the characters, including age range and required vocal range. It does look like it's possible to request 'Perusal copies' which presumably gives access to the script, lyrics and piano sheet music, but a) I'm not intending to put on a production, b) I think you have to pay, though presumably not much, and c) I'm not musical enough that I would be able to make much sense of it, unfortunately... [Just as an aside, the character info for Robert says, "Capt. Robert Audley [...] a valiant man of honor. An archetypal "hero" [...]". I cannot get over it...]

Some info on the Ovrtur website which doesn't give much additional info except mention of an additional song ("I Wait for Him", presumably a song by Alicia about Robert?) which was cut prior to opening, and details about the October 1972 New York run, including which performer played which character.

There are some photos of the 1972 run in the New York Public Library Digital Collections... unfortunately I can't figure out a way to link directly to the 'Lady Audley's Secret [1972]' sub-collection without it also showing other photos from the wider collection, so here's a link to one of the photos (I would guess it's from the "The English Country Life" song near the beginning) and if you scroll down and click on 'Lady Audley's Secret [1972]' under where it says 'sub-collection' it should take you to gallery view of the photos.

A review of the October 1972 performance in the New York Times. This gives some interesting context to the type of adaptation it was... "[the director] never quite makes his mind up as to whether he is trying to create a pastiche or a satire", "a gallantly solitary tinkling piano [...] mockery of Victorian ballads and more sprightly music hall songs", "comic atmosphere of purple passion and violent sin", "campy put‐downs and even campier put‐ons".

On the Musical Notes Revisited webpage, there's another synopsis and a very short review. If you follow this link and then click on 'Musicals' then 'Lady Audley's Secret' it should jump you to the right bit of the right page. Some comments from the review: "The musical is delightful and funny", "Excellent for schools", "Highly Stylized".

It also looks like there may have been a review of a production in Walla Walla, Washington in 1983... I think there's a review on page 2 of the April 10 1983 issues of the Walla Wall Union Bulletin, but unfortunately I can't find a way to view the page...

So yes, unfortunately no recordings of performances or even written lyrics. 😞 Since it's still possible to purchase a licence to perform it and only requires 7 main performers and a piano, I think it's possible that there may be future productions and something may come up in future... but I also noted that the licence information says people who put on the performance need to add a disclaimer that there should be no video recordings or something (I saw this on the MTI website somewhere, but can't find it now), so I think we'd better not get our hopes up for a recording...

As far as I can tell from the various synopses, the musical seems to be less an adaptation of the book and more of earlier stage versions... it seems to be me to be very similar to the 1863 script by Colin Hazlewood, so for completeness's sake, here's what I could find on that...

An overview of the 1863 Hazlewood play on the Oxford Reference website.

A copy of the script and so on, published in America in 1889, on archive.org. [Also: another version of the same on google books.]

A plainer-text version of the script on the Gaslight Lit website.

An audio recording that appears to be heavily based on the 1863 play (though recorded later... 1932-37 sometime, I think: the Regal Zonophone record label appears to have been formed in 1932, and one of the actors, Ion Swinley, died in 1937), but compressed to fit into less then twenty minutes. If you're going to listen to this, fasten your seatbelt, because the rapid pace of the plot, the melodrama of the script and the 1930 acting style combine to create quite the experience... from the EMGColonel channel on Youtube: Part One and Part Two.

The reason I think the musical appears to be based on the 1862 play is because of the similar structure and events, and also the fact that some of the songs (notably "Dead Men Tell No Tales" and "An Old Maid") seem to essentially be 'hung off' lines of dialogue in the 1862 script, rather than anything in the book. However, there do appear to be some differences: in the musical, Sir Michael appears to die on-stage, whereas in the play it is reported by Alicia, and a few other changes like that. Also, Robert Audley doesn't appear to have been made into an army captain in the play as he is in the musical... I assume that choice for the musical was made because there was a very specific type of masculinity in the 1970s which book-Robert is the pretty much the absolute opposite of lol.

I have to say I'm both very excited to hear about the musical version and would really like to see it if possible, and also... a bit disappointed? Both the reviews seem to imply they took a comic approach to adapting the story for a musical... which I suppose is fair enough. From what I understand, Lady Audley's Secret and some of its adapted-sensation-novel contemporaries such as East Lynne were incredibly popular on the stage for a few decades, and had a wide-spread influence on theatre in general, so I can see how that might become a huge joke to people steeped in the theatre in the 110 years between 1862 and 1972.

But also I sort of feel like it's a bit of a missed opportunity - a musical adaptation of the story has so much potential to bring out not just the conflict between characters (which seems to have been done well: I'm sure the 'The Audley Family Honour' song between Robert and Lady Audley is great, and also 'How? What? Why?' between those two and also Phoebe) but also within characters, to show the complexity of their internal worlds, and I unfortunately can't see much evidence that that opportunity was taken; if anything, the characters seem to have been flattened down.

If we're lucky, perhaps someone else will choose to adapt it into a musical in future... I heard recently that another of my favourite 1860s books, Our Mutual Friend, is being made into a 'play with songs' called 'London Tide'... so there may be some hope!

[fictional-worlds-are-exquisite]

Lindsey I have work tomorrow and I also have book club but I haven't finished (or started) reading a book for it. Also I need to bring a snack. Help

read a picture book and find an Interesting Angle or Invoke Nostalgia claims. if you’re religious then boy oh boy do I have a book for you (I don’t actually but generally there is one involved that you may know). do what my friend did in high school and make up a book entirely and claim you found it in your great aunt’s attic and think it may have been self published so they’ll never be able to prove its existence (it worked. they got top marks on the English essay it was needed for). play an audiobook overnight while you sleep as an ‘experiment’ to see if any of it sticks and report your findings. read a famous poem online and say you wanted to branch out into other text forms besides novels and these are your thoughts. ask your coworker to tell you a story and report back to the group about what their dog did last night (or whatever it may be). get a concussion and say you forgot what you read sorry (I did this in uni but it was actually the truth and it wasn’t on purpose). lie and say you’re sick and skip work. lie and say you’re sick and skip book club. read a meme comic. exaggerate what you read. extremely.

alternatively you could like tell the truth I guess idk some people are into that and I GUESS people are nearly always understanding when you say you got too busy and really there’s no consequence at all but idk I lie too much for that I think

anyway for the snack I’m thinking an entire roast chicken from the supermarket or some maccas or supermarket cake or a tin of baked beans (maybe two if it is a large group) or rocks. like actual rocks. if you don’t like them. I don’t know why you wouldn’t but all options are being laid on the table here

anyway I’m sure it’ll all go fine, don’t stress it, it happens, you got this xx