David at Love Manga brings us the latest news flash: Seven Seas will be bringing out a Speed Racer comic. It’s going to be a comic book (32 pages, printed in color), not a manga, which is sort of an interesting departure for them. Maybe when they publish a few issues they’ll collect them into a tankoubon, thus completing the cycle.
David doesn’t remember the cartoon, but I do—as I write this, the theme song is blaring in my head, and I have a sudden craving for chocolate milk and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Just as well I don’t have them, as I would have snorted the milk out of my nostrils when I got to this part of the press release, uttered by Seven Seas president Jason DeAngelis with an apparently straight face:
“There are lots more stories left to tell in the Speed Racer mythos; stories that today’s readers will find both fresh and exciting while staying true to the classic series that has kept fans spellbound since the very first day the Mach 5 roared onto their TV screens.”
The Speed Racer mythos? I didn’t realize endless car chases added up to a mythos. As for “fresh and exciting,” they could have run the same episode every day and nobody would have noticed. Admittedly, I never made a study of the Speed Racer oeuvre, but all I remember is roaring engines and puffs of smoke.
I’m mocking the show, though, not Seven Seas. Everything I’ve seen of theirs, I’ve liked. If anyone can make Speed Racer readable, it’s them.
