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Letter Bee, D.Gray-man Artists Do Classic Novel Covers
posted on by Egan Loo
Not-So-Daily Link of the Day II: The Japanese publisher Shueisha has recruited three manga creators to illustrate the mass-market paperback covers of literary classics this year. Tegami-bachi (Letter Bee) creator Hiroyuki Asada illustrated a new cover for Night on the Galactic Railroad, Kenji Miyazawa's surreal fantasy novel that had inspired an acclaimed anime film.
Similarly, D.Gray-man's Katsura Hoshino drew a new cover for The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the first set of short stories featuring Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic detective. Doyle not only provided the loose inspiration for Tokyo Movie Shinsha's Sherlock Hound anime, but also part of the inspiration for the pseudonym of the main character in Detective Conan.
Ichigo 100% (Strawberry 100%) and Hatsukoi Limited creator Mizuki Kawashita illustrated a new cover for Higuchi Ichiyō's Takekurabe novella. The novella inspired an anime project which Central Park Media released in North America under the name Growing Up.
Shueisha is also reprinting Oyuki Konno's Maria Watches Over Us (Maria-sama ga Miteru) light novel with a cover photograph from the live-action film adaptation, which will open in Japan this fall.
In 2007, Death Note and Hikaru no Go artist Takeshi Obata drew a cover for Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human (Ningen Shikkaku) novel. Snce then, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure's Hirohiko Araki drew a cover for Yasunari Kawabata's Izu no Odoriko, Bleach's Tite Kubo did the same for Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's Hell Screen (Jigoku Hen), and Video Girl Ai's Masakazu Katsura illustrated Jules Verne's Deux ans de vacances (Two Years' Vacation/Jūgo Shōnen Hyōryūki). Each of these previous novels has inspired at least one anime adaptation.
[Via Temple Knights]
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