GELATIN 2010 Winter ふゆ

Reading Time: 6 minutes

The most recent issue of the quarterly magazine GELATIN was just recently released on Christmas Eve of last year. The cover art is newly drawn by Kishida Mel, and inside is a folded poster of that cover art. One of the best things about this full-color comic collection is that each issue welcomes new artists into the fold, keeping the content fresh and relevant to the digital and doujinshi art scene.

Some of the highlights of this issue for me are Fuyuno Haruaki, VOFAN, mebae, and H2SO4. But as you can see from the photo of the contents above, there’s a lot more in there than that.

Was pleasantly surprised to see Fuyuno Haruaki taking on the tried and true theme of school girls with guns for his comic. It never gets old 😀 The comic is 16 pages, and full color. The next one is half the length, and by Keiji Yamamoto titled “Megakoron” with an invading super girl taking on a planet of giant robots.

H2SO4 has an 8-page color comic called “London Brief” in this issue, featuring two detectives, one cat-girl and one dog-girl on the search for one-bunny girl. It would have worked fine without all the extra ears and tails, but I’m sure that’s what makes it cute ;D Shin Hashimoto has a 6-page color comic following H2SO4’s but I’m not too keen on the art style.

The next three comics are by Tsukune Taira, Yomogi Kashiwamochi and Haru Wamusato respectively. Tsukune Taira’s art style really appeals to me in the 8-page comic presented, and there’s a gorgeous gallery on the artist’s site. But at this point, most of the published work is hentai. Yomogi Kashiwamochi’s 5-page entry is titled “Jamming Sister” and isn’t a continuation from the last issue. Haru Wamusato is new to GELATIN with a 15-page comic in black and white (with a color title page) called “Invaders from Oneesan.”

The Houden Eizou comic “STRAW” continues in the winter issue with another 8-pages. It’s the only comic from Range Murata’s ROBOT that is still going.

Mebae appears in this issue again with a 12-page color comic, though the stories he’s doing for GELATIN are one-shots. And in this humorous one, our leading lady just can’t seem to cool down 😀

VOFAN takes visual story telling to the extreme, and has completely eliminated words from his 6-page work of art. I think the most visually engaging aspect of his art work is the way the light always plays on the characters and the scenery. I would love to see a picture book from this artist…

Above are Nikuball, Takamichi and toi8. Nikuball’s comic “Lily Ghost” is 12-pages long, and in full color. Though I hadn’t thought much of Nikuball before, after being exposed to more of his work both here and in 絵師100人 100 Masters of Bishojo Painting recently, I’m taking more of an interest when I see his name. Takamichi’s 16-page comic is continued from previous issues, and toi8, though he has appeared before in GELATIN has a 15-page comic unrelated to the earlier ones.

BUNBUN is back in this issue, with a 12-page color comic that’s unrelated to the last one. Yuriko Asami has a 16-page black and white comic with a color title page called “Hakobune Seventeen.” And Miggy appears again in this issue with the rather signature style of water-color over pencil lines, with a 4-page color short story.

And that’s really it for the comics in this issue, a lot of good artists were featured though. For the “Creator Maniax” section at the back, the featured artist is Shin Hashimoto, who had a comic earlier in the issue. There’s also a “making of” section for one of his illustrations.

Mota, the character designer for the GELATIN mascot has a couple of pages of free art at the back of the book, just like in the last volume.

Kishida Mel is the subject of this issue’s “History of the Man” feature, with an interview and art work displayed over 6-pages. You can even see photos of his work-station at the back end of the interview.

And we all continue to get teased about Range Murata’s art collection that was slated to come out last spring. Now, nearly a year later it’s still being advertised in GELATIN, though at least the information is being updated. It’s now listed at 344-pages, with 88 in color and 256 pages in monochrome, all for the bargain price of ￥4,000, which still feels a bit steep due to the large amount of monochrome pages.

GELATIN retails for ￥1,500 but it only comes out 4 times a year, making it a pretty good purchase considering all the top name artists that tend to be featured in it. And considering the brevity and visual nature of most of the comics, it would be a fun way to start learning to read Japanese ^^ The spring 2010 issue will feature a cover by Redjuice along with comics by VOFAN, Matsuryu, Nanakusa and more, so keep an eye out!