Ah! The memories!

[The Crobatman]

Hi everyone. I really wasn't sure where to post this, but it technically is about Pokemon manga, so I'll post it here. I recently just bought this at a flea market:

http://i50.tinypic.com/2d7ao0g.jpg

In case you don't know, it's all 4 chapters of the electric tale of pikachu in its original monthly serialized comic form. Being a child of the 90s, I loved reading these things, and now being older Pokemon and comic books have become my two favorite things in the world! So I've come into a little conflict. The package is unopened, so the comic collector side of me tell me to keep it closed, but the nostalgic kiddy side of me tells me to open and read the things! I don't know how much these things may be worth in the future, so I don't know if I should take them out the original packaging or not! Well I'm done talking now. I'd love to hear some opinions!

[PheonixGRX]

Damn you are lucky, been trying to find these for so long. I decided to just try to get Chuang Yi to remake them (about a third of the way there with people)

Keep it packaged for now. If I succeed, the originals price should go way up.

[The Crobatman]

Thanks for responding! I honestly love these manga published as American style comic books. Ive tried to get into the other Pokemon manga, but the original Pikachu series is just so good! I guess I'll keep it packaged, but it's so tempting!

[PheonixGRX]

Keep strong, for both of us. Also, if I manage to get Chuang Yi to republish it, be careful on who you loan it to, because it will be uncensored, but not to the extent of the original Japanese version. Basically the original one was very risque, and Chuang Yi censored it a bit, then Viz Media highly censored it.

The page is http://www.facebook.com/BringBackElectricTalesOfPikachu in case you wanted to help out

[The Crobatman]

yes I'm aware of its original content.

[PheonixGRX]

I've seen worse in the anime though. Well, not to the extent of nudity, but some things in it are rather bad :P

[Kutie Pie]

There was a reason why The Electric Tale of Pikachu was censored for American audiences >_>. It's never going to be released uncensored here because Pokémon is targeted for children. If they were left uncensored, they'd have been rated T (and even then, you would've had dumb parents buying it without looking at the rating because Pikachu's on the cover). But that's a different conversation altogether.

Anyway, that's a nice find, I wonder if that cost a pretty penny. I sometimes wish I knew what happened to our copies of the Pokémon Adventures comics (we had the first volume, and the one where Red reached Lavender Town). I remember I thought it was cool for an Arbok to get cut in half when I saw it the first time, but I also wondered why that never happened in the game or in the anime. My brother once found a manga volume at a library years ago, and we both read it and were like "HOLY CRAP CHARIZARD ALMOST DIED". Today, I think it's an awesome idea to have included some realism in these books, even though I'm still surprised how the age ratings for these books manage to remain pretty low due to the violence. (Then again, the Digimon manga got just as violent... but it was always pretty brutal even in the anime, so I wasn't as surprised.)

From time to time I miss the copies we had, as I would like to look at them for nostalgic purposes, and also to see what mature moments flew over my head as a kid that I'd catch now. Though I would also like to see my younger brothers' reactions to such scenes. I don't think the middle brother has ever heard Pokémon has a manga adaptation, so I imagine he'd be shocked at just how violent they can get for a kid's manga. So I think one of these days, I'll start collecting the manga, though I don't know if the first set of volumes are still easy to come by or not.

[The Crobatman]

Yeah I'm pretty grateful for my find. You can tell for this particular manga all the inconsistencies that existed between this and more mainstream pokemon media. It's pretty great and I can't wait to collect the rest of the series. Unfortunately i don't think the other pikachu books were collected in a four pack reprint like the one i found was. You can tell it was released at the height of pokemon's popularity.

[Manga Reader X]

Hi everyone. I really wasn't sure where to post this, but it technically is about Pokemon manga, so I'll post it here. I recently just bought this at a flea market:

http://i50.tinypic.com/2d7ao0g.jpg

In case you don't know, it's all 4 chapters of the electric tale of pikachu in its original monthly serialized comic form. Being a child of the 90s, I loved reading these things, and now being older Pokemon and comic books have become my two favorite things in the world! So I've come into a little conflict. The package is unopened, so the comic collector side of me tell me to keep it closed, but the nostalgic kiddy side of me tells me to open and read the things! I don't know how much these things may be worth in the future, so I don't know if I should take them out the original packaging or not! Well I'm done talking now. I'd love to hear some opinions!

Well, volume 3 and 4 are worth a lot, but in order to know the value of the magazines you should check the sites I mention at the bottom of this post.
I'd keep it unopened and maybe get the volume editions to read.

I don't know if the first set of volumes are still easy to come by or not.

You'll get volume 1 and 2 in brand new condition from the UK for about $12 each, volume 3 in used condition for $30 and volume 4 in used condition for $70. Volume 3 and 4 are the most expensive Pokémon mangas you can get. Volume 4 is probably so expensive because of that chapter 16-20 were only published in it and not in magazines. It's times like these I'm happy that I have all the EToP volumes.
You can find links to all EToP volumes here.

Unfortunately i don't think the other pikachu books were collected in a four pack reprint like the one i found was.

Chapter 1-15 were collected in one magazine issue each:

Chapter 1-4: The Electric Tale of Pikachu 1-4
Chapter 5-8: Pikachu Shocks Back 1-4
Chapter 9-12 Electric Pikachu Boogaloo 1-4
Chapter 13-15: Surf's Up, Pikachu! 1-3

You can find them on eBay, Amazon, google.com/shopping, mycomicshop.com, mileshighcomic.com, newkadia.com, Google, etc... and you can also check with Canadian and UK sellers if you can't find what you want for an appropriate prize in the US.
But I prefer the volume editions. In the magazine editions chapter 2 and 3 are in reversed order and chapter 16-20 is volume exclusive.

[The Crobatman]

Thanks! That was super helpful! Ill just see how it works out but im gonna start collecting from the beginning. Maybe I'll just look for reader copies of all the books.

[Manga Reader X]

Thanks! That was super helpful! Ill just see how it works out but im gonna start collecting from the beginning. Maybe I'll just look for reader copies of all the books.

If you define reader's copies like this site does, then the magazine issues are not reader's copies.
Chapter 2 and 3 switched places because chapter 2's censoring was too time consuming and didn't make the deadline, so VIZ had to postpone that chapter.

You can find more info about EToP here:
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...ale_of_Pikachu
http://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/manga/..._pikachuu.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ele...ale_of_Pikachu

[The Crobatman]

Oh no in the world of comic books a reader copy is a set of comic books in not very good condition that are used strictly for reading and not collecting

[Manga Reader X]

Oh no in the world of comic books a reader copy is a set of comic books in not very good condition that are used strictly for reading and not collecting

Ah, that makes sense. Well the volumes fit perfectly for that since only volume 1 and 2 are available new at an affordable price ($12 each) and the brand new copies aren't packaged (at least not the ones I bought).

[The Crobatman]

My thoughts exactly!

[Heldigunner1]

the 4th book of the that manga goes for alot of money.

[Manga Reader X]

the 4th book of the that manga goes for alot of money.

Yeah, I'm glad I bought it for $8 some months ago.

But the prizes are rapidly increasing. A few months ago vol. 3 costed around $20 and vol. 4 costed around $50. For a manga's prize to increase with 10 or 20 dollars in just a few months is not very normal in my experience.

I hate greed.

[Kutie Pie]

But the prizes are rapidly increasing. A few months ago vol. 3 costed around $20 and vol. 4 costed around $50. For a manga's prize to increase with 10 or 20 dollars in just a few months is not very normal in my experience.

I hate greed.

I don't think greed has anything to do with it. Someone said somewhere (either in another thread or in a PM to me) that even in Japan, The Electric Tale of Pikachu is out of print, so obviously (original) copies are going to be hard to come by and thus valuable, even more-so when in good condition. And you did say the final chapters weren't printed in a magazine and were instead put together into a final volume, so that adds to the value.

It also depends on where and whom you're buying it from.

[Manga Reader X]

I don't think greed has anything to do with it. Someone said somewhere (either in another thread or in a PM to me) that even in Japan, The Electric Tale of Pikachu is out of print, so obviously (original) copies are going to be hard to come by and thus valuable, even more-so when in good condition. And you did say the final chapters weren't printed in a magazine and were instead put together into a final volume, so that adds to the value.

It also depends on where and whom you're buying it from.

Yes, I know that it's out of print. No big surprise there really since it's over 12 years old. The prizes I'm talking about are the prizes on the Internet.
And I would say that greed plays a big role here:
The cheap copies gets sold and then the other sellers start looking around and realize that most sellers charge 10 or 20 dollars more than a few months ago, so out of greed they also change the prize. Then all the new sellers follow the existing model, which effectively makes the prize levels rise. How nice the manga is, one can not say that a manga that originally costed $12.95 is worth $70 and I don't think that many people would or could buy it.
I mean, the majority of Pokémon fans are underage and would need a parent's permission and credit card to buy it online. What are the kids going to say? "Hey I'd like to buy a $70, 12 year old manga that is 5.4 times overprized from a complete stranger online". I think most parents wouldn't allow them to buy it.

[The Crobatman]

Yes, I know that it's out of print. No big surprise there really since it's over 12 years old. The prizes I'm talking about are the prizes on the Internet.
And I would say that greed plays a big role here:
The cheap copies gets sold and then the other sellers start looking around and realize that most sellers charge 10 or 20 dollars more than a few months ago, so out of greed they also change the prize. Then all the new sellers follow the existing model, which effectively makes the prize levels rise. How nice the manga is, one can not say that a manga that originally costed $12.95 is worth $70 and I don't think that many people would or could buy it.
I mean, the majority of Pokémon fans are underage and would need a parent's permission and credit card to buy it online. What are the kids going to say? "Hey I'd like to buy a $70, 12 year old manga that is 5.4 times overprized from a complete stranger online". I think most parents wouldn't allow them to buy it.

Supply and demand. Economics 101. ETOP is no longer a casually marketed book. The reason they haven't released is probably because there is really no widespread desire for people to read Pokemon manga about the first gen. It's been promoted to a collector's item now. It's like any other collector item. If you had this book, and you know it is VERY hard to come by, are you really just going to let it go for a petty price? You want to feel proud of its value, and the person who buys it next will feel just as proud. Sadly, the amount of people who want the ETOP strictly for reading its content and not for collecting are among an extreme minority. Pokemon RBY aren't at their peak anymore like they were in the 90s, which the books were a direct reflection of, obviously...

[Thomas Elliot]

I loved this comic, I remember reading this and was blown away at how scary the Pokemon were. The story was incredible. I had all of those issues and the follow up issues where he went to the Orange Islands. I think I still have them.