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Free Manga
In an earlier entry, I mentioned that the streets of Akihabara is paved with gold, if you know where to find them. Coming next month, there’s another gem for the picking.
COMIC AKIBANA
Digima (株式会社 デジマ), the publisher of the freely distributed weekly comic magazine “Comic Gumbo” 「コミック・ガンボ「GUMBO」」 is starting another free comic magazine – “Comic Akibana” 『COMIC アキバナ』, a magazine targeted at Otakus. This magazine would be exclusively distributed in Akihabara only.
The past week, Comic Akiba’s chirashi (チラシ) or flyers were distributed in Akihabara.
COMIC AKIBANA chirashi
(Picture taken from AKIBAOS: アキバ発フリーコミック COMICアキバナ！0号がアキバ限定無料配布)
The content sample is not available yet, but the publisher had gotten Yoshizaki Mine (吉崎観音) to design the magazine’s mascot character.
COMIC AKIBANA mascot designed by Yoshizaki Mine
From the preliminary look, COMIC AKIBANA is probably targeted at the moé-kei otakus.
Comic Akibana is probably the second free comic magazine to make its debut in Tokyo. This magazine’s sister title, Comic Gumbo コミック・ガンボ「GUMBO」 was first of its kind. The magazine was first given out like a “free paper” (フリーペーパー) in Jan 2007. Since then, this magazine is given out freely every Tuesday.
COMIC GUMBO
The initial target readership are guys in their 20s to 40s, but the editorial direction has expanded the content to include female readers. Unlike other free paper, it’s surprisingly light on advertisements. There’s regular weekly comic stories, as well as those that are serialised bi-weekly and monthly.
COMIC GUMBO Distibutor
This summer, I happened to get a copy of this magazine outside the Nakano train station. You can spot the staff distributing the magazines by their yellow vests outside train stations.
There’s a variety of genres in this manga anthology – but don’t expect any of those crazy high adrenaline shonen stuff. You can check out the list of serialised comics here.
通販の鬼・やすだ
For the issue that I picked up (dated 31 July), there’s a parody of Billy Blanks in the series “Yasuda, the Mail Order Devil” 「通販の鬼・やすだ」. Billy Blank’s “Boot Camp” fitness class is the prevailing health fad in Japan.
If you are a registered user on the Gumbo website, you can also read the web-version of the content. The current comic series are usually free-to-view, but you’ll have to become a premium member to read the back issues (or back number (バックナンバー), as they call them in Japanese).
「喪男の哲学史」 as viewed on the web
One of the more interesting serials is the manga adaptation of otaku ideologue Tohru Honda’s (本田透) book 「喪男の哲学史」 (Modan no Tetsugakushi – “The Philosophical History of Unpopular Guys”. “喪男” read as “Modan” or “Motoko” is a 2ch term that refers to unpopular guys/social rejects – those who can’t find a relationship with someone from the opposite gender.
For the modan readers, there’s also a gravure idol section in the magazine.
Gravure Idols
Something for you to fap to.
FREE MANGA IN SINGAPORE?
Will there be a chance for a free manga/comic magazine in Singapore?
The free-paper scene is alive and well in Singapore – especially for the fashion and club lifestyle magazines such as I-S and Juice magazine. These magazines had survived the worst periods during Singapore’s economic downturn. Hardware Zone’s Game Axis also had an off-line magazine, Game Axis Unwired that was once freely distributed.
I suppose advertisement fees serve as the main source of revenue model for these free magazines. As for the Games Axis, there are definitely more available sponsors/advertisers from the industry. Hopefully, the local manga/anime/figure otaku scene will soon have enough big players to support a freely distributed comic magazine.
