Pokémon Newspaper Comics

[winstein]

I am not sure how many people heard of this, but I stumbled on this forgotten version of Pokemon when I saw a picture of different versions of Misty. One Misty that I didn't recognise was the Western-looking Misty. Fortunately, the comments reveal that there indeed is a Pokemon newspaper comic, which surprised me. I like newspaper comics, so I am inclined to check it out. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any circulating in the web, save for this website. Here are two comics to get you started:

Spoiler

I can understand if they don't look particularly impressive to you, compared to say, the yonkoma (4 panel gag comics) by soara, a Japanese artist. There are also elements in this comic that might possibly irk anime fans, although I can't say for sure. However, I thought it's cool to see the characters drawn in a more Western style, which I hope to see more often because I think of Pokemon as something universal. I do admit that I laughed at the ones shown in that website I linked, and it's too bad there are no Team Rocket appearances based on the website, which is a pity because they might be suitable for a newspaper comic (I guess; don't every quote me on that).

Thoughts on the Pokemon Newspaper Comics?

Thanks for reading.

 

[Dogasu]

They actually printed a collected volume back in 2001, but it's out of print now and is therefore really expensive now.

The art in these is alright, but the "jokes" are just typical newspaper strip jokes with pokemon thrown in there for good measure. I certainly wouldn't pay the $70 the Amazon.com sellers are asking for this.

 

[garrison-san]

I remember finding that "Pikachu Meets The Press" book in Borders in 2001 and giving it a read-through. No, I don't recall Team Rocket ever showing up, save for a cast drawing which included Meowth. The overwhelming majority of strips seemed to revolve around Misty being in a sulky mood with Ash and Brock for whatever reason, and Pikachu refusing to go inside his pokeball, to Ash's detriment.

The connection to the Pokemon franchise really was minimal at best - they essentially just lifted a handful of concepts and characters and dropped them into a generic newspaper strip setting, with equally generic jokes. The Japanese origins of the franchise were not acknowledged - Ash and friends celebrate Thanksgiving in one of the strips - though I suppose that's not surprising given that it was created exclusively for US newspapers. All in all, this was quite blatantly an attempt to capitalize upon the current popularity of Pokemon by people who could barely be arsed to familiarise themselves with what they were even capitalising upon...though you might find some "so bad it's good" humour in that, I suppose.

 

[Karamazov]

I dunno. I'm a PokeShipper, but seeing Misty's emotions played with like that was pretty hilarious. And this strip is better than Family Circus, at least.

 

[Eitarou]

Can you find Zapdos and Can you find Aerodactyl? You'd have to have pretty bad eyesight to miss those...

 

[garrison-san]

And this strip is better than Family Circus, at least.

Well, no argument there. It does take a very special kind of strip to compare unfavourably to Family Circus.