‘Superhero’ Artbook by Gainax and Friends

Here is an artbook I bought a while back drawn by various artists related to Gainax and their friends. Though writing this now, some have left Gainax, I wonder if using Gainax in the title is still applicable. Note this is not actually released by Gainax in any official capacity, I just used the name because several of the people on it have worked at Gainax in the past.

Supergirl on the cover by Shigeto Koyama

These guys are not shy of their love for western comics and have visited the San Diego Comic Con on numerous occasions and have even established friends with the people at Pixar.

Left to right: Yoh Yoshinari, Hiroyuki Imaishi, Shigeto Koyama(back), ???, Bobby Rubio(Pixar) and Hiromi Wakabayashi.

This doujin artbook was released at Japan’s 77th Comiket festival which was from the Winter of 2009. It was released under the circle/group name BOKUSATSU LEAGUE OF AMERICA(website here) and most of the artists used some kind of alias. Some of their aliases I could work out just by reading them, for some you just had to look at their artstyle and know who it was, though one or two still perplexed me. I’ve attempted to decipher them in the next paragraph. Those with better Japanese reading skills than me, feel free to point out any mistakes.

‘SGT’ is simple enough as the alias for Shigeto Koyama. ‘超人体系’ which reads as Choujin Taikei/The Super Human System is the name Yoh Yoshinari decided on, I had no clue who this was until it was pointed out to me. ‘2019 NEO-TOKYO’ was the name chosen by Sushio, and someone again had to point it out and told me Sushio is a huge Akira fan, which now makes sense. ‘志宇舞’ is Hiroyuki Imaishi’s alias and my best guess it’s some kind of play on his name written using different kanji, though it was easy to tell which were Imaishi’s drawings. 西村キヌ which is simply Nishimura Kinu’s name, she goes by that alias in all her works. ロミ夫(Romifu) is Hiromi Wakabayashi’s alias written using letters ‘romi’ from his name. ‘ゴリ☆PON先生’ (Gori*PON Sensei) is Atsushi Nishigori’s alias, ‘gori’ is taken from his name, though I don’t know where PON Sensei bit is from.

The cover of the artbook was posted above, which is a great Supergirl drawing by Shigeto Koyama. Next up is the contents page drawn by SGT, with a nice brooding Batman at the side.

The Goddamn Batman by Shigeto Koyama

The next two pictures are also done by Shigeto Koyama.

Deadpool by Shigeto Koyama, can you spot Wolverine?

Harley and Ivy by Shigeto Koyama

The next four pictures are drawn by Yoh Yoshinari displaying a whole range of artstyles.

Popbot by Yoh Yoshinari

Calvin and Hobbles by Yoh Yoshinari

Polly and the Pirates by Yoh Yoshinari

B.P.R.D. by Yoh Yoshinari

This next picture is drawn by Sushio, the Amazing Spiderman fighting off archnemesis Venom!

Spierman vs Venom by Sushio

The next two, I’m not sure why I took the pictures together, but they’re by Imaishi. The Nextwave image even managed to make it’s way to Warren Ellis, who actually wrote Nextwave.

Nextwave Agents of H.A.T.E. and The Umbrella Academy by Hiroyuki Imaishi

This picture is a nice double page by Nishimura Kinu, who is a Capcom artist.

X-Force by Nishimura Kinu

This next picture is from Hiromi Wakabayashi, who I didn’t realise was an artist until I saw this picture.

Wolverine's female counterpart: X23 drawn by Hiromi Wakabayashi.

The next set of pictures are by Atsushi Nishigori. I gotta say I really like his character designs. You can even see a hint of the Gurren Lagann kids in one of them.

Black Cat by Atsushi Nishigori

Power Pack by Atsushi Nishigori

Power Girl by Atsushi Nishigori

To end the book off you have a picture drawn by Shigeto Koyama of the legend himself, Stan Lee! You can also spot Heromanhiding in the background.

Excelsior!

There you have it guys, that rounds this book off, I hope you enjoyed these. I didn’t scan them because I’d end up having to rip this book apart and it took me a while to find a copy too. There is a second book aptly named Superhero2 which I’ll post up soon.

Do you guys have anything similar or interesting to share? I do love seeing artwork that crosses the over from the east to the west or vice versa.