Part 1

Joel: A lot of Japanese adults read comic books. Do you find that strange at all? You said you read comic books too but I know in the United States, we think it's strange if you see an adult reading a comic book. Is it because the stories are different or because are you reading the same kind of story you would when you were a kid.

Tres: OK, to answer the first part of your question, when I first came over as a high school student in Japan I was quite shocked by how prolific comic books were throughout all layers of society.

I did not expect adults to read comic books, nor did I expect there to be comic books focusing on Japanese history, world history, cooking, what have you where you can actually learn useful information through a comic. I guess my understanding of a comic at the time was just sheer pleasure, Superman or Spiderman, it's something that you grow out, sort of like pimples. You grow out of it.

Tres: But nowadays in the U.S. I think Japanese comic books have become more popular. Of course more adults save rare comics than kids. I mean, right, it's a pretty big. You can make a lot of money if you have really old comics. And I think Japanese comic books are starting to help the domestic comics in the United States, by making it OK for adults to read comics because they can say listen this can be a satire of modern day society, or this may speak to me because it's about homosexual issues, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever. Joel: OK, I think that's the difference. There's a whole bunch of different genres than it seems like in the united states. In the United States there is just the super hero.

Tres: Yeah, the super hero comics. And it's starting to change. I think the idea of Japan's comic book where you create a world as opposed to just one super hero character. In this world you can follow various characters, and I think you can, in a sense you become closer to the characters within a comic book.