Manga Monday: A Celebration of CLAMP

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Manga Monday: A Celebration of CLAMP

04/16/2018 12:14pm

Manga Month continues as Dark Horse Comics Proofreader, Jemiah, looks back on manga supergroup CLAMP!

I’ve been a fan of manga and anime since the very first moment I saw them, in early childhood, in the form of Speed Racer, Sanrio’s Little Twin Stars and Hello Kitty, and the magnificent Hayao Miyazaki film Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. When I got older, finally able to broaden my access to this incredible creative world, I found that not just the visual appearance of manga and anime was different from Western comics and animation, but their modes of storytelling were different, too—more complex, combining an acknowledgment of loss, melancholy, and grief as well as a firm and unwavering sense of optimism and hope even in the face of darkness. Robotech! Voltron! Akira! I was so hooked, and hooked for good (well, thus far, anyway—it’s been less than forty years, so I am exaggerating for effect).

However, I hadn’t encountered manga supergroup CLAMP before I started at Dark Horse Comics. I didn’t really know all that much about manga at all, except knowing what I like. And right away I could tell that I really liked CLAMP and every project of theirs I’ve seen. Something about the combination of their intricate, sharp-edged, curvaceous, graceful artwork and character design with a firm commitment to all things cute and goofy to balance out storylines that sometimes veer towards the nightmarish, dark, and troubling draws me in as a reader, and lingers on my mind long after I’ve turned the final page. And all of their projects contain these intriguing aspects, from the young-reader magical girl masterpiece Cardcaptor Sakura, to far-future cyberpunk emotional dystopia Clover and Chobits, the realm of ancient gods in RG Veda, and the startling magical realism of the interlinked Tokyo Babylon, Legal Drug, Drug & Drop, and xxx-Holic. That latter series, involving a sexy wish-granting witch and her devoted, if generally annoyed and furious shop assistant, proudly wears its Art Nouveau influences on its fringed sleeves, evoking one of my favorite artists Aubrey Beardsley in its “Orientalist” design aesthetic, as if reclaiming Beardsley’s own naïve interest in the art of Japan and showing that they can do it one step better. Remix the remix!

Also, that lattermost series xxx-Holic is not one that has been published by Dark Horse Manga, a fact which I found frustrating. It’s easy for me to get my CLAMP fix as an employee of the company, but when it’s not a property we’ve managed to acquire for our own purposes, the effort necessary to read this material grieves me. (Hey, gimme a break—I’m very lazy and very busy all at the same time.) In my ideal world, Dark Horse Manga would publish every CLAMP work for the English-speaking audience, as, in my opinion, Dark Horse presents the most beautiful and elegant design and packaging to be found almost anywhere in the comics world, as well as, naturally, for my own ease of access. Sadly, I don’t exist in a reality where wishes are granted just by walking into a drugstore, or by the study and use of the cards and jewels of a sorcerer. Fortunately for me, though, the works of CLAMP allow me to visit those other worlds, spend time there, meet their residents, and share their joys and sorrows. I know that Dark Horse will continue to pursue the projects of CLAMP for our publication, and perhaps, one day, when the stars align, we will have captured them all.

—Jemiah, Proofreader

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Manga Monday: A Celebration of CLAMP

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