Fantagraphics Books has announced the upcoming English-language publication of two manga first serialized by Mangasplaining Extra (MSX) in August 2023 through their newsletter hosted on Substack.  MSX is the publishing offshoot of the Mangasplaining podcast (see “Mangasplaining Podcast Launches Manga Licensing Program”).

The three volumes of Search and Destroy by Atsushi Kaneko are a contemporary reworking of the best-selling Dororoby Osamu Tezuka.  Vertical previously publishedDororoin English, in an edition that won the 2009 Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Japan (see “2009 Eisner Award Winners”).

Dororo is about a demon-killing ronin accompanied by an orphan thief. In Kaneko’s punk sci-fi take, set in a dystopian future, the demons become robots.  Creator Atsushi Kaneko is known in English-language manga for Bambi and Her Pink Gun.  The aritist’s influences include David Lynch, Daniel Clowes, and Charles Burns.

Search and Destroyis translated by Ben Applegate.  The three softcover volumes will be published by Fantagraphics beginning in January 2024 at 224 pages for $14.99.

The second manga, Wandering Cat's Cage by Akane Torikai, will be released by Fantagraphics as a single-volume hardcover, although originally published in two volumes in Japan.  It consists of a set of interconnected stories set in a post-apocalyptic culture run by women, where a male prostitute and a runaway find out how men have nearly stopped being born.

Manga-ka Akane Torikai also created Sensei’s Pious Lie, published in English by Kodansha. Wandering Cat's Cage is translated by Jocelyne Allen.  The print graphic novel will appear in Fall 2024.