After re-watching the Akira movie recently, I decided it was about time I revisit the original manga, which I don’t think I’ve re-read in a couple of decades – and that would have been the version that was published by Epic, colorized. I’m reading the B&W version this time, and I just blasted through the first volume in one sitting. I’m so happy that this is still such a fantastic read, and that it still feels like such a vital piece of comic art. It’s still astounding to me that something this massive and this good could get published in the first place. Of course, it makes you think about what Otomo could have maybe done if he continued creating comics (after Akira, he only wrote The Legend of Mother Sarah), but then again, you can’t blame the guy for not really wanting to go through the creation process of creating another magnum opus like Akira.