What do Ryoichi Ikegami, Yamanaka Akira, Sharad Devarajan, Suresh Seetharaman, Jeevan J. Kang, Juzo Tokoro, Jiro Kuwata, Kia Asamiya, Yukio Togawa, Kazuo Koike, Kosei Saigo, Yoshihiro Morito, SiYeon Park, Jim Zub and Woo Bin Choi have in common? All of them have created an oriental version of graphic characters which were released to and for the western market. Spider-man, Spider-man J & Spider-man India (Ryoichi Ikegami, Yamanaka Akira, Sharad Devarajan, Suresh Seetharamany and Jeevan J. Kang) Spawn: Shadows of Spawn (Juzo Tokoro); Batman & Batman: Child of Dreams (Jiro Kuwata and Kia Asamiya); Hulk (Yukio Togawa, Kazuo Koike, Kosei Saigo and Yoshihiro Morito); Avengers K (SiYeon Park, Jim Zub and Woo Bin Choi) are all reinterpretations of well- known characters, settings and situations but following the rules and the narrative style of the Japanese, Korean and Hindi market.
Their stories are usually set in alternative universes with no direct relation with those series published in the United States of America, but this does not mean the work of these artists is less interesting than their American counterparts. Unfortunately, most of these stories are still “the missing link” in contemporary graphic history with many hard-core comic readers completely ignoring of their existence, or having only heard about them. © Eduardo Serradilla Sanchis, 2018