Review by C.J. Bunce
Stevie Wayne playing tunes over the airwaves from the Spivey Point lighthouse via K.A.B. Radio 1340. Frank Bonanno grabbing his trombone with tied-on punching bag to play along with a single of “Sweet Georgia Brown” on his juke box as patrons eat pizza in his restaurant near the airport. Everyone has their own past with records and the colors, designs, and of course the pops and clicks of the music. The manga series that began for Westerners this summer in volume one of Record Journey (reviewed here) returns with eight new stories this month in Record Journey, Vol. 2, available now here at Amazon. Writer-artist, music history, and vintage architecture aficionado Ryoichiro Kezuka takes readers through the culture of records, music, rock, and bringing people together. In the first volume Kezuka showed he knows his subject, but it’s easy to see he’s done more research for this volume.
In an afterword Kezuka recounts the time period between Volume 1 and 2, and how the public has responded to his work. He has amassed a seemingly endless supply of stories he could add to future volumes.
That architecture interest shines through as he re-creates the setting of each story in a small rendering on the last page of each story. Who knew the look and design of record shops could tug at you as much as the music? Maybe you remember Music Den, The Record Shop, and Tower Records? Your local store? How about used record stores? That’s the kind of memories being tapped here.
One story finds the ultimate fan tracking down a unique record of an unpublished song, only for the musician that made the album fight him for it. Another follows a girl using radio to access banned records. One story returns to the pirate radio youth of the first volume.
A young Japanese woman and Hispanic man cut through cultures with their respective stringed instruments to become a musical act. Then there are two more lost record mysteries from the record store shopgirl of Volume 1, where she looks for a lost record shop and is off to appraise a collection.
Readers will discover a broken, possibly cursed record player at a restoration shop, and in another story two people are drawn closer after a devastating storm.
You’ll encounter records made with old Z-ray film, and brittle shellac records.
This is the second English edition of the series published by Titan Manga. It’s another fantastic translation courtesy of Jan Mitsuko Cash, whose familiarity with American culture shines through yet again.
Add Record Journey, Volume 2 now to your pull list at Elite Comics, your own comic shop, or order it here at Amazon for a blast from the past. It’s one of the year’s best series.
