Japanize

Japanize #1&2

Japanize 1&2: on the buses
Japanize #2 © Toko

Japanize #1&2
Toko

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toko

Er... Where to start? Not that this matters really, but while reading these 2 I did wonder if this really was drawn, & very crudely too I might add, by a Japanese woman with a poor grasp of English called Toko, or whether some bloke is having a wind-up with this. Either way this was fairly irritating partly for the above reasons & because it's hard to see a point to a lot of it.
However, both issues do have their moments, with issue 2 having a lot more (or maybe by this point I was adjusting myself to Toko's way of seeing things). There is Jesus stealing plane passenger's wine; thoughts about nightclub toilet seats; more troubles in a sex toys factory & a bit of bizarre self-mutilation. This maybe a title that improves & develops with more issues, until which time, purchase with caution.
And why on Earth do people feel the need to list names & addresses of their favourite (London situated) shops at the back of their comic?
Reuben Wilmott

Japanize Excuse

Japanize Excuse © Toko

Japanize is quite a strange mini-comic but this issue, subtitled "Excuse", is comparatively normal and intelligible. It is difficult to say what exactly the comic is but the closest description I can come up with is that it is the surrealist diary/biography of a Japanese emigre in London. That really doesn't describe the more tangential, strange and often violent sub-strips or the bizarre switchovers between real and fictional stories but it is close enough.

This issue is A7 sized and on each page is a single drawing explaining what the author hasbeen up to since the last issue. Except that some are obvious fictional or horrendously distorted visions of actual events. Or a least I hope they aren't all real! The nice trick with Japanize is that, as with all good surrealist art, is completely destroys the boundary between the fact and the fiction. As a result it is hard to see the comic as something other than a gag on the credulous and "Toko" the creation of some cruel art student. However after these many issues there is a growing reason to see as a small piece of strange excellence.

Artwise there is a combination of crude "lowfi" Western cartooning and Japanese motifs, icons and visual metaphors. In earlier issues the "culture clash" was rather extreme and disorientating but now it is far more settled and an assured Fusion style.

After a shaky and strange start I have to say that Japanize is now a mini-comic of particular distinction.

Robert Rees

Japanize
#1: 26 A5 pages (sigle sided, folded & stapled down one end to create spine).
#2: 24 A5 pages, colour stock cover. Ł1.50
Japanize Excuse: Awaiting details

Received at ZUM! HQ:
no info

£1.50 (+P+P?) each

c/o Tony Lee, 16 Gayhurst Rd, Hackney, London, E8 3EH.