How's it goin', everybody?
Sebastian here, bringing you another book unboxing. Really gotta come up with a better title
for these book reviews. Now, what we have here today is Ryan Humphrey's Bartkira.
"What is Bartkira?" you may be asking, because you've probably got a vague idea what that sounds like.
And you're absolutely right; it is a mashup of the amazing Akira manga with the Simpsons universe
titled Bartkira. "Where did Bartkira begin? What is Bartkira?" you may be asking.
Well, in 2015, a video hit the internet purporting to be a secret trailer from the end of the
"Do the Bartman" VHS tape from the 1990s. That trailer was for THIS epic saga in adapting Akira
using Simpsons characters. I got this for 20 dollars at my local comic shop and I'm a guy
who loves his art books and this showcase of all the amazing work being done is well worth it
and definitely a great addition for my collection. So, if you're a Simpsons fan or an Akira fan and want to
see something new and very, very cool, join me as we take a look at what's inside of Bartkira, the Nuclear Edition.
[Kaneda's Theme from Akira plays in the background]
Alrighty, guys. Here we have the gorgeous front cover of Bartkira, the Nuclear Edition. We have Bart's
infamous silhouette in the mushroom cloud that is destroying Neo-Springfield and we have little
Blinky, the three-eyed fish, there fleeing from the destruction, or blown from the destruction.
The book is edited by James Harvey and Alex Jaffe, Bartkira created by Ryan Humphrey.
Now, I wanna talk a little bit about what this book is and what this book isn't.
The book costs 20 dollars, that is an incredibly fair price for the book's size and the content held within,
because what this ISN'T is a full version of Akira as told through the lens of the Simpsons universe,
making it Bartkira. What this book IS, though, is a gorgeous showcase of art that is the translation,
or at least a sampling of the translations, being done from the original Akira manga work into the Bartkira
story, and that's what this book is. Now, if you're looking to read the WHOLE story, you can go to bartkira.com
and volumes 1 through 4 have been completed with volumes 5 and 6, as at least of this recording,
coming soon. So you can read the first four volumes of Akira as told through the lens of the Simpsons
in the Bartkira universe. And it is entirely free and there is a LOT of beautiful artwork done; over a thousand
artists contributed to put Bartkira together, to literally redraw the original volumes of the manga Akira
into Bartkira and it is absolutely beautiful. If you've never read Akira, please read Akira.
And if this is the way you're going to be reading Akira, I don't think you'll be disappointed
and hopefully that'll move you into reading Akira as it was originally presented.
If you're a fan of Akira and manga and wanna see it through the new eyes of the Simpsons version,
please pick this up. Get a taste of what's in this book and then go check out one of the greatest mangas
ever written retold as Bartkira. Now, let's move on to what's inside here.
The front page offers a brief description of the Akira universe, or at least it's a bit of a prologue about
what is going on in the Akira world. And down at the bottom it describes Ryan Humphrey's effort to translate
Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira into Bartkira. And when he says the completed work of Akira, he does quite mean it,
he is looking to translate all 2,146 pages of Akira into the Bartkira styling with over 1,000 artists helping to
complete the job. That is quite a labor of love for this work, not only for Akira, but for the Simpsons,
and I am looking forward to reading every single volume. And, fingers crossed, they will put out volumes
of Bartkira. Hopefully, me purchasing this book moves that a little bit closer.
Now, let's take a look at some of the few selections that I've made here.
Alright, the first page I did want to show off to you guys is by Robert Losiv Veles and I absolutely love this
very, very surreal art style. Here, you've got Kang and Kodos, you've got Bart and Laura.
But then, the very next page that I did want to show you moves on and becomes a little bit more hyper-realistic
with Milhouse and Ralph here. Very, very beautiful work, I love the panel styles--you've got Lisa here--
this is a gorgeous, gorgeous book, like I've said before. So, the selections I've made are to show off the varying
art styles, and of course, some of the more iconic scenes--
you've got Milhouse with his arm blown off, there. Very, very beautiful work. And then, the style shifts again,
very classic manga style. Here we've got the Mayor and Lisa as one of the old sages. Very beautiful work.
More art style shifts, you've got like a watercolor or a colored pencil here. And then, again, another
variation on the hyper-realistic style of art. Jumping forward, we've got--we've got Ralph here,
getting ready to explode. Another iconic scene from Akira. Got Bart and Laura up top and they
are the main focal points, but at least the story contained within the Nuclear Edition.
Then this really great double-page spread that, while very simple, has the comedic value of seeing
Ralph Wiggum's head being the explosion in the middle of Neo-Tokyo, or Neo-Springfield.
Alrighty. Next up, another double-page spread of destruction that then continues several pages in.
Very, very cool stuff. And again, the varying art styles is what makes this book so spectacular.
James Harvey double-page spread, another very surreal art style. We've got Milhouse here with very, very tiny text
for the descriptor of what's going on in the scene. And it's little details like that that I absolutely love.
I actually want this as a wallpaper for my computer. Then, gonna jump forward to the destruction,
the tidal wave of destruction through Neo-Springfield. And then the aftermath, as it were.
And, again, in another completely different art style here. And I love the El Barto, very nice Easter egg that's
always on the side of the Kwik-E-Mart. You've got Rod, you've got Martin over there.
Principal Skinner overlooking the town from the top of the school. Beautiful, beautiful work.
And the crater of the finale. Now, I'm gonna take time to go to the front of the book to give you a clear idea
about how many artists are contained within here. This page contains the artists that--whose work has been
used within this book, and it varies. Like I said, the book will continue through volume 6 digitally on bartkira.com.
But just take a look at all these artists and I wanna leave this page here so you can look all of these guys up
because the work is absolutely gorgeous. We've got James Harvey there, Stephanie Herrera,
Amanda Konishi, Tom Neely. Great, great artists. Indy artists doing amazing work to put this book together.
Very, very cool and I do love the picture of Bart in the wasteland from the opening
introduction of the book.
This book, as I said before, is epic. I love to collect art books and rarely do I ever get a mashup that
is as cool and as sophisticated and as frankly gorgeous as Barkira is, and for 20 dollars, you cannot go wrong.
If you can find a copy of this, I do recommend at least going to check it out. If you know sombody who
loves the Simpsons, if you love the Simpsons, if you're a fan of manga, or the anime Akira, then I'd definitely
give this a try because it is, quite literally, an adaptation of Akira using Simpsons characters in the roles
of all the Akira characters. And, on bartkira.com, they've got volumes 1 through 4 completed with
volumes 5 and 6 coming soon, so there is an epic being done using Bartkira.
Thank you very much for checking this out, guys. If you do decide to go look for one of these,
I hope you do enjoy it. This is, frankly, a pretty awesome book and I am super happy to have this in my collection
and, hopefully, you will, too.
So, once again, thank you very much for watching, and I'll catch you guys next time.