Probably the most diverse line-up of nominees were in the
2008 Best New One-Shot Manga Poll. Everything from kid-friendly titles like
COWA! to the twenty-something emo drama of
Solanin and almost everything in between were included in the list of the 10 nominees. But in the end, the zombies prevailed over them all, as
Tokyo Zombie by Yusaku Hanakuma from
Last Gasp claimed the win in this category.
With its exuberantly raw gore and violence, Tokyo Zombie is a rare (well, at least in the U.S.) example of
heta-uma (bad but good)
manga -- a subset of avant-garde
manga that prizes unrestrained, sometimes shockingly vulgar stories and energetic, purposely rough-looking artwork.
Tokyo Zombie has all of that and more. It follows two working class stiffs who kill their annoying supervisor, bury his body in the local dump and unwittingly set off an invasion of the undead. It's got horror. It's got wrestling. It's got blood and guts by the bucketful. And did I mention that it's got zombies? Lots and lots of 'em!
Following behind
Tokyo Zombie's path of comics carnage is
Seduce Me After The Show by est em (
Deux Press /
Aurora Publishing), a collection of short stories about actors, dancers and musicians in love. Following behind in 3rd place is
Shirley, a collection of early short stories about English maids set in the Victorian era by Kaoru Mori (
CMX Manga). These three titles could not be more different! Nevertheless, each are worth a look, if you haven't already picked them up.
See the rest of the nominees and see how they placed at the
Best New One-Shot Manga poll page, and
view the full vote-count. Also, see the rest of the results in all of the
2008 Readers' Polls. Thanks for voting! Next up: the results of the Best Manga Magazine and Best Yaoi Manga / Shonen Ai Manga polls.
02-02-2009, 06:54 PM
2008 Best New One-Shot Manga Readers' Poll Winner: Tokyo Zombie
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