F-Con 1: Sep. 25-27, 2015
in Parkville, Maryland
by N. Scott Robinson
For Baltimore Comic Con 2015, Foreign Comic Collector Magazine staff had the support of
CBCS but due to late programming, a panel
discussion slot on foreign comics was not possible. Instead, Tim Bildhauser, S.R. “Henro”, N.
Scott Robinson, Matt Roybal, and Liam Stur- Liam brought foreigns to get signed like this Spindelmannen
from Sweden. He found Louise Simonson at Baltimore.
gess met each night after a full day at BCC
and discussed foreign comics, showing culturally and historically important issues, and discussed us how Marvel had
licensed Moon Knight
how to develop awareness of the hobby, and the
in manga form and a
magazine in general. S.R. “Henro” came up from
Kentucky bringing with him one of the most impres- variety of sentai characters that pre-date
sive foreign comic collections I had ever seen. He
the Power Rangers
specializes in Marvel and DC editions published in
phenomenon in issues
Japan since the late 1940s; every one of them! He
had about 50 issues with him—none of which could of Terebikun. We were
be described as “key issues.” Nearly all of those is- presented with issues
of Weekly Playboy
sues were completely unknown to the rest of us.
from 1976 that were
almost entirely comHe began a presentation
ics and manga (unlike
that had all of us jaw dropㇺ- ソ ナィㇳ (= Moon Naito =
ping with envy, enthusiasm, the American counter- Moon Knight)
and inspiration. Personally, I part) and included the
was impressed with the cul- first translations of American issues of The Amazing Spider-Man in Japanese. The very first issue
tural and historical significance of the issues he was had not only a translation of Amazing Fantasy #15
but a Japanese interpretation of that iconic origin
showing and his detailed
story with new art done completely by Japanese
knowledge of the issues,
creators. We looked at and discussed a variety of
writers, artists, publishers,
Star Wars issues from Japan. He went into great
and a wide variety of other
detail about the Hulk manga originally published
details. He had Superman
in Shukan Bokura Magajin in the early 1970s. A
editions from Japan published in the 1950s in hard- variety of other Spider-Man issues were shown that
are indigenous to Japan including Spider-Man J
スーパーマン #5, 1959,
back that were in amazShōnen Gohensha
and the Spider-Man manga from Shukan Shonen
ing condition. He showed
(Suupaaman = Superman)
34
Magajin. “Henro” brought along the English partial
translations published by Marvel in 1998 showing
us where original aspects of the Japanese stories
were censored and deleted from the American
publications in Spider-Man: The Manga. A variety
of digest-sized manga featuring stunning cover
art of Hulk, Fantastic Four, and Silver Surfer published by Kobunsha were shown. We also looked
at and discussed Japanese editions of Vampirella
in addition to Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel
X issues that featured X-Men stories. The most
impressive part of the presentation was hearing
how “Henro” obtained these issues through years
of diligent daily searches of auction websites
completely in Japanese, and how he maintains a
network of helpers on the ground in Japan that
search used bookstores constantly.
After a weekend of stimulating discussion
among the experts gathered, it became clear to
all five of us that meeting together was of value
and should continue. We looked over my home
and saw how there is ample space for presentation tables and a gathering of about 20 people.
That was F-Con 1. In September 2016, the staff
of Foreign Comic Collector Magazine and guests
will be at F-Con 2 in Baltimore County, Maryland.
Where will you be?
Scott found a dealer keeping foreign books out of sight.
He purchased a pretty killer collection of key foreigns.
ハルク #2, 1978, Kobunsha (Haruku = Hulk)
週刊ぼくらマガ ジン #51, 1970, Kōdansha
(Shūkan Bokura Magajin = Weekly We
Magazine)