Old Boy/Old Doug
Added 2024-03-12 00:47:22 +0000 UTCI have been rereading the manga Oldboy (written by Garon Tsuchiya and illustrated by Nobuaki Minegishi). I read it 15 years ago when Dark Horse published the English translation and had been wanting to do so again. I had been reading Marvel comics on the Unlimited app since the beginning of the pandemic, and finally had enough, lol. I hadn’t read that many superhero comics since I had quit them back in college. I think I got a lot of inspiration art-wise from 60s-80s books, but 90s just didn’t cut it for me… I am back to reading the stuff I have loved all this time instead.
Volume 1 of Old Boy leapt off the shelf for me. I had no idea it was going to be 8 volumes that read really quickly, but I was along for the ride. I love the look of Shinichi Goto (the protagonist) and the artwork, and was heavily influenced in how I was drawing Doug, especially his hair. So I decided to do a bit of fan art of Goto, and then draw Doug in the same style. And here they are.
I had finished the series before ever seeing the acclaimed film adaptation. I loved the mellowness of Goto, his heart, his sexiness. Reading it again now I see he’s a lot like my favorite marvel character, Ben Grimm. Two of my comic book crushes. The story is a slow paced psychological thriller, with very little violence. The resolution is weird, but stems from awkward feelings. The film… is, apart from the premise, completely the opposite. The lead is ultra violent. The film is ultra violent. The lead is not any of the above mentioned things I used to describe Goto. And the resolution is vulgar and relies on shock value. I rewatched it again recently and liked it even less than the first time I saw it. I don’t care if I ever see the remake. I find it funny that I have described the manga to people who love the film and they say the manga sounds like something they wouldn’t like. That’s how I feel about the movie. It’s almost an either/or situation. You can’t like both.
