Dal Tokyo Hardcover – September 19, 2013

How to star this one?If you like Tender Buttons or, as fellow Amazon reviewer Mr. Cohen says, Pound's Cantos, and/or the Abstract Comics collection of Fantagraphics, if you like lines and shadows and figures and Kirby machinery and Bauhaus architecture, if the occasional female skimpily or nudely figured boats your float, if you believe with Susan S. on Photography that Surrealism is collection or verse-vice, if you are a fan of the Postmodern and cartoon figures and undersea creatures and dinosaurs and cars, if you have lived like me in Tokyo for plus-decades or have visited the Grassy Knoll and its environs, and traveled the Dallasian highways, if Martian things and science fiction and their intersections do thing-things for you, then you'll fivestar this all which way. Referring once again to the fellow reviewer, one does wish that the youthful Panter had crazily done this comic all the way with electrified energy fullblast, and not the more matured and sophisticated and contemplative artist he became. It is a twolayered cake, and the base layer has all the rich goodilies packed in full-fruitcake. Walls were smashed to make it no lie. The book itself is a gem of publishing, fits in your hands and feels like book should; that's good. Thanks for this, thank you all.

I had this in a version from zongo comics that was reproduced quite small and liked it but never really "got" Dal-Tokyo. This fantagraphics version is a whole 'nother thing. Each strip is an entire over-sized page and lovingly reproduced -- the speed-freak line quality and punky power of his brush work the and trippy elliptical quality of his Panter's narratives really shines through in this format.The first half of the books is truly inspired, pushing the graphic and narrative boundaries of comics to their farthest limits. The second half, produced 10-20 years later is ok .... he seems to have gone through an ezra pound/william burroughs phase where the linguistic mash-ups became more of the focus. And the ending is kind of bad -- might have been better to end about where the robots attacked and leave things open-ended..Anyway get this for the first half and enjoy the second part as a chaser.

Great offering of the artist's long running comic strip in Japan...translated into english or Gary just does the strip in english..the herolooks a bit like Jimbo at times, but he isn't Jimbo.... the art styles vary with the flow of the comic strips and it makes for great stuff for Panter fans...thick oblong book that will take two hands to hold while you read and marvel at the freedom of his imagination....

This book is weird, eccentric and wonderful. I have been a Panter fan for years. When I Got mine, it was Damaged but Amazon replaced it immediately. They were great to deal with.

An absolute masterclass in comics. The narrative aspect mostly vanishes almost halfway in but this book continues to astound. If u appreciate weirdo experimental comics get this!

Marvellous