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Go Nagai Draws New Chapter for Tezuka's Barbara Manga

This year's ninth issue of Shogakukan's Big Comic magazine revealed on Saturday that legendary manga artist Gō Nagai and his Dynamic Production company will draw a new chapter for Osamu Tezuka's Barbara manga in the magazine's next issue on May 10.

The magazine also revealed that the 10th issue will feature a dialogue between Nagai and film director Shion Sono. Additionally, Nagai will start a new manga titled Yagyū Rashinken in the May 10 issue of Shogakukan's Weekly Post business magazine.

Digital Manga Publishing held a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in 2012 to fund an English release of the original Barbara manga. Digital Manga describes the series' story:

Barbara opens with famous author Yosuke Mikura wandering the packed tunnels of Shinjuku Station, where he makes a strange discovery: a drunk woman, her rags caked in mud, who can quote French poetry. Her name is Barbara. He takes her home for a bath and a drink, and before long Barbara has made herself into Mikura's shadow, saving him from egotistical delusions and jealous enemies. But just as Mikura is no saint, Barbara is no benevolent guardian angel, and Mikura grows obsessed with discovering her secrets, tangling with thugs, sadists, magical curses and mythical beings - all the while wondering whether he himself is still sane.

The manga inspired a live-action film adaptation that premiered at the 32nd Tokyo International Film Festival in November 2019. The film is an international co-production between Third Window Films, Japan's THEFOOL (River's Edge), and Germany's Rapid Eye Movies (Ruined Heart). Tezuka's son Macoto Tezka directed the film, and the project marked his first time directing a live-action film adaptation of one of his father's works.

The film also screened virtually at the 24th Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal in 2020, and it opened in Japan in November 2020.

Tezuka's original manga ran in Shogakukan's Big Comic magazine from 1973 to 1974. Digital Manga's English release of the manga was nominated for an Eisner Award in 2013.

Nagai debuted as a manga artist in 1967 with Meakashi Polikichi and went on to create many classic and genre-defining works, including Cutie Honey, Devilman, Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, and Harenchi Gakuen. In recent years, he has continued to pen new spinoffs, such as his ongoing Devilman Saga manga. He has also serialized the autobiographical Gekiman! manga about the creation of his various notable titles.

Source: Big Comic issue 9 and magazine's website