About the Mangaka

Malcolm Wong was born in Baltimore, MD. He graduated from high school in the Greater Boston area, attended two years at UMass and got his MFA in Sculpture from the University of Hawaii. After graduating, he moved to Japan where he directed music videos.  He started writing when a fortune teller told him he had a special talent.  Foolishly, he believed her and has been pursuing writing for the past 17 years…

About the Manga

This was the first time that the creator of a series has asked me to review a title. Initially I was eager to do so, until that is I found it was in comic book format. I hate comic books, and don’t consider them value for money. So how did this series fair against my prejudice?

When Malcolm Wong dropped me a line asking me to review his new series I was really interested. Something about the title “Dog Eaters” just sat right with me. Added that it was a new manga. Sadly the more I looked into it the more I was sure I wouldn’t either like it, or review it.

I don’t like comic books, it’s why I didn’t review the US versions of Witchblade, but rather waited for the UK manga version, which was in true manga style.

Sadly, Dog Eaters has everything I hate about comic books, it’s expensive, to short, coloured, and flipped.

But it does have the story and art to make a great manga, and from the way some of the text is oddly flipped, I gather was originally in true manga style.

Since it’s in comic book format there’s only two chapters available, but they’re more than enough for me to get a feel for the series. Dog Eaters art is great, and is easily some of the best I’ve seen to date. However it’s not without it’s flaws. Some of the characters look weird, and lack consistency in their designs. Tracy is a prime example, when she first appears I’d of put her around yen, she’s drawn that small and thin. Later however she’s pretty tall, and has a fuller body.

Though I have to admit I loved her when she did her dog impression, I found her to cute in that scene, as well as being hilarious given the context and story around it.

The only thing I felt was wrong with the art was that it feels to American. Oddly I didn’t get this with issue zero (free to download from the website), which was predominantly black and white.

Also the way the characters spoke was excessively American, which is common in manga these days true, but when coupled with everything else it just feels totally wrong for me.

One of the areas I do like however is the story, which is good and strong. The characters are well developed and interesting, and while it’s obvious who the leads are going to be, I like the way they were introduced. There isn’t much revealed about the story, but that’s understandable since it’s only two chapters at the moment. Though I do wonder how Malcolm intends to get everything in four more chapters.

Single volume series pretty much always end up feeling as though they lack a lot.

Will I be following the rest of the series? I have to say yes, while I hate the format, I do like the story and characters and I really want to see what happens to my two new fave characters. Though I do hope that Malcolm pulls a Bandai with this; as in he releases the collected version in true manga style: black and white and un-flipped.

The other thing I noticed is that this series now seems to be behind schedule. It was released in November initially and was supposed to be monthly, which would mean it should be up to issue four. Unfortunately it seems to be still on issue two, hopefully the other issues won’t be to much longer.

Where to Buy

• Brits: Krackers or Forbidden Planet (only use FP if you wanna be ripped off)
• Yanks: My Comic Shop
• Canadians: My Comic Shop

Since this isn’t in full manga format yet it can only be bought through your usual comic supplier. I’ve listed those I know of, but since I don’t buy comics I don’t know where to get them for the best prices. On the UK side, do not use Forbidden Planet, unless you want to be ripped off. They frequently over charge for everything they sell. You’re better off using a smaller local specialty store (such as Krackers for those that live in the SW England). It’ll save your wallet from groaning FP is only really worth trying for out of print titles.