Message to Adolf (Vertical Inc.)

Message to Adolf (Vertical Inc.)

English Title: Message to Adolf
Japanese Title: アドルフに告ぐ
Publication Date: 2012
Publisher: Vertical, Inc.
No. of Volumes: 2
In Print: ✔
Digital: ✘

From the Publisher

A graveyard in contemporary Israel has an unlikely visitor. The elderly gentleman from Japan, a former news correspondent, lays a bouquet of flowers at the tomb of one Adolf Kamil. For he remembers the tale of three Adolfs: Kamil, a Jew who grew up in Kobe, Japan, the son of a baker; Kaufmann, only child of a German consul stationed at that port city and his Japanese wife; and the Führer with whom the Far Eastern nation made common cause.

This is the story of three men named Adolf”

A briskly paced political thriller, in this first part Message to Adolf takes us from the Nazi propaganda victory of the 1936 Berlin Olympics to the ravaging flames and atrocities of World War II. The disastrous education of Adolf Kaufmann in the ways and prerogatives of the master race begins.

What you should know

Drawn in a much less “cartoony” style than most of Tezuka’s manga work, Adolf is a commentary on the social impact of the second world war – telling the story of three individuals named “Adolf”: a Jewish boy living in Japan, a half-Japanese/half-German boy, and the infamous leader of Nazi Germany.

Although VIZ Media originally released the series as Adolf in 1995 through Cadence Books, featuring photo-realistic rather than Tezuka-drawn manga covers, the Vertical Inc. edition is not merely a reprint.  It has been completely re-translated and is arguably much closer to the original Japanese version, incorporating many of the subtle nuances the earlier translation may have glossed over.

Like many of  releases, Message to Adolf  was released with “flipped” artwork in order to make the reading order (left to right) more palatable for the average English-speaking fan. Published in two 6″ x 8″ format hardcover volumes, each one is over 600 pages in length.