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For readers who also get our email newsletter, many of you might already know about our newly introduced used book section. We are now purchasing used books and manga on Thursdays and Sundays, and we’ve already gotten in quite a few choice comics. The first graphic novel I purchased from our used section was a copy of Tokyo Days, Bangkok Nights. I’d been eyeing the book for a while, but for half of the cover price it was too good of a deal to pass up. What’s great is it didn’t disappoint.

Tokyo Days, Bangkok Nights, published by the short-lived Vertigo Pop! Imprint, collects two stories by writer Jonathan Vankin, which only vaguely tie together with a theme of foreigners in an unfamiliar city. The first story, Tokyo Days, is what caught my attention because of the hyper colorful art by the late Seth Fisher. The boisterous story takes place in the Harijuku and Akihabara districts of Japan, and finds an American Gaijin (basically meaning foreign devil) getting swept up with an outrageous cosplaying girl named Maki. As the wacky chase story develops, a Japans pop star gets kidnapped, a group of Yakuza gangsters fumble an important assassination, and a fair number high-fashion Japanese girls get naked, leaving the reader in a whirlwind heat and gasping for breath. I hope if I ever go to Japan the experience is exactly like this book, full of non-stop Japanese gadgets, Cosplayers and reverence for the legendary Cheap Trick performance at Budokan.

The exuberance of the story is largely captured in the mind-blowing art provided by Seth Fisher. Also known as the artist on Batman – Snow and Fantastic Four/Iron Man – Big in Japan, Fisher had a unique manga influenced style he mastered in his adopted Japanese home. With my newfound appreciation for Fisher’s kinetic style, it is profoundly sad to learn the artist passed away in 2006 from a tragic fall from a seventh story Osaka nightclub.

Bangkok Nights takes a decidedly darker approach in exploring the seedy streets of the leading sex trade city in Thailand. Illustrated by penciller Giuseppe Camuncoli and inker Shawn Martinbrough, Bangkok Nights has more of a Vertigo in-house style and story. The protagonist of less likeable, the city is significantly more dangerous and the overall stakes are higher, when a teenage prostitute gets involved with a struggling western couple. Yet, Bangkok is perhaps presented in a more realistic light than its day-dreamy Tokyo counterpart, and readers get a dynamic two-for-one book showcasing Vankin’s diverse writing styles.

We don’t have anymore used copy of Tokyo Days, Bangkok Nights, but a new copy is still worth the price. If you come in to check it out, make sure to browse our used section for some more hidden treasures.

-Jon

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