Barbara [2012] (Random Comics Theatre)

Random Comics Theatre

Barbara [2012]

This is an English translation of Osamu Tezuka's ばるぼら, originally serialized in Japanese from 1973 to 1974. At fifteen chapters and just over 400 pages it's one of Tezuka's shorter works.

It's the story of a writer, Yosuke Mikura, who comes across a strange woman named Barbara at a Tokyo subway station. When he takes her home it starts off a bizarre series of events, as she acts as both a muse and a distraction, sometimes saving him from his own foibles and sometimes leading him on odd journeys.

This is one of those books that I've had for a few years, started a few times, but never got more than a few chapters in before it would go back on the shelf. You have to be in the right headspace for some of Tezuka's more experimental comics, and I guess I never was.

Managed to finish it this time, and I will say, it never goes where you'd expect it to go. It has a lot of interesting twists, and can be quite funny at times, but always a bit strange. I usually attribute a lot of that feeling to my own cultural ignorance. And not just Tezuka's Japanese culture, as the back cover mentions the influence of a French opera, Tales of Hoffman. and I'm too lazy to even read the wikipedia summary of that. But in this case, as in a lot of Tezuka's single volume adult works, I think he's just some kind of weirdo.  But a talented one.

In addition to the comic, this has an introduction by Frederik L. Schodt, which I'll probably read someday when I decide to re-read the book.