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Noir Caesar Launches Kickstarter Campaign for Graphic Novel Based on Osamu Tezuka's Alabaster Manga
posted on by Alex Mateo
Noir Caesar announced on Wednesday that it and Osamu Tezuka Productions have launched a Kickstarter campaign for its graphic novel adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Alabaster manga. The campaign posted a video.
The campaign aims to raise US$30,000 by November 3. As of press time, the campaign has earned US$464. If the campaign does not raise the listed funds, it will not receive the money. Backer rewards include digital and physical copies, including autographed ones.
Chuck Brown is writing the graphic novel with artwork by Anna Weiszczyk.
Noir Caesar describes the graphic novel:
Reimagined for a new generation of readers as a contemporary graphic novel from Noir Caesar, Alabaster reinterprets Ralph Ellison's novel "The Invisible Man," and follows a former successful Black athlete, James Block, who is framed by his girlfriend and wrongfully imprisoned. While inside, James befriends a disgraced scientist that gives him the solution to his problems—a laser gun that either turns its subject invisible or kills them upon usage. After serving his prison sentence and locating the device, James disfigures himself in a failed experiment that turns him partially translucent, like alabaster. Angry, vengeful, and with a new identity, Alabaster wreaks havoc on bigots and hypocrites alike.
The company stated that the reimagined story aims to "add some depth and layers" to the titular main character, and add details about the African American civil rights movement in the 1970s.
North American publisher Digital Manga funded a Kickstarter campaign to localize and publish the two-volume Alabaster manga in 2015.
Tezuka launched the manga in Akita Shoten's Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine in December 1970. The manga ended in June 1971.
The manga inspired a stage musical that ran in Tokyo and Osaka in June and July last year.
Source: Press release
