akira toriyama

I've never really been into Dragon Ball. I mean, look, yes, there was that brief period in high school where I was getting my one and only P.E. credit by taking a table-tennis class, and a friend of mine and I would kick off our shoes in the gym and claim that we had been using them to train in ten times Earth's gravity, but that was more down to being a couple of teenage goofballs than any particular love of the source material. I've seen the show, but I never bought a club shirt with Goku on it or anything, you know? Even so, I was pretty curious about Jaco the Galactic Patrolman, a new manga from Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. The only thing that was really holding me back was finding out that even though it was a self-contained story in one volume, it's tied into Dragon Ball, set in the same universe and serving as something of a prequel. I wasn't sure if I'd jump on, but then former CA contributor David Brothers offered to send me five bucks to cover the cost of the first volume if I didn't like it. It turns out that was a pretty safe bet, but I'm guessing he knew going in that it had a scene where a tiny spaceman punches out a monster shark.

Each weekday, ComicsAlliance brings you a carefully selected variety of links from around the web about comics and comics-related media, including movies, video games, toys, and whatever else might be worth noting. Quite frankly, these are items you may just need to know about to have a productive day. Take a look at today's hand-picked links after the jump.

We make a regular practice at ComicsAlliance of spotlighting particular artists or specific bodies of work, as well as the special qualities of comic book storytelling, but because cartoonists, illustrators and their fans share countless numbers of great pinups, fan art and other illustrations on sites like Flickr, Tumblr, DeviantArt and seemingly infinite art blogs that we’ve created Best Art Ever (This Week), a weekly depository for just some of the pieces of especially compelling artwork that we come across in our regular travels across the Web. Some of it’s new, some of it’s old, some of it’s created by working professionals, some of it’s created by future stars, some of it’s created by talented fans, awnd some of it’s endearingly silly. All of it is awesome.

We make a regular practice at ComicsAlliance of spotlighting particular artists or specific bodies of work, as well as the special qualities of comic book storytelling, but because cartoonists, illustrators and their fans share countless numbers of great pinups, fan art and other illustrations on sites like Flickr, Tumblr, DeviantArt and seemingly infinite art blogs that we’ve created Best Art Ever (This Week), a weekly depository for just some of the pieces of especially compelling artwork that we come across in our regular travels across the Web. Some of it’s new, some of it’s old, some of it’s created by working professionals, some of it’s created by future stars, some of it’s created by talented fans, awnd some of it’s endearingly silly. All of it is awesome.

Today marks 22 years since Dr. Gero and his Androids attacked Earth in Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball manga and its Dragon Ball Z anime adaptation. Thanks to a time-traveling Trunks untold humans, Namekians and Saiyans were spared a grisly fate in age 767 at 10 a.m. Still, it can't hurt to keep an eye out for two old-looking cyborg guys and/or three teens with edgy '90s earrings nonetheless -- espec

Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama is on a roll lately when it comes to expanding the lore of his 42-volume manga series. On top of completing his latest manga, Jaco the Galactic Patrolman and a 12-page Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z prelude story known as Dragon Ball Minus, the creator recently provided siblings Android 17 and Android 18 with some added backstory (and epilogue) in a Q&A in Shueish

Earlier this month the latest entry into Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball canon arrived in the April 7th issue of Shonen Jump, officially tying together the creator's most beloved series with his recently completed (and potentially final solo) work Jaco the Galactic Patrolman. Dubbed Dragon Ball Minus, the 16-page tale spells out DB protagonist Goku's alien origins and how his doomed parents sent him

Ever since Bandai's S.H. Figuarts version of Android 18 from Dragon Ball Z went on preorder, fans knew it was only a matter of time before her brother Android 17 joined the plastic party. Well, the time has come. Starting today fans can preorder the web-exclusive S.H. Figuarts Android 17 for ¥4104 (about $40.14 USD), and expect to get it by September. Bluefin Tamashii Nations has announced that it

As horrifying as it is has become to utter the words "Dragon Ball" and "Evolution" in the same sentence since the 2009 live action film, I've got to say, Viz's new Dragon Ball Color (which begins at Dragon Ball chapter 195 a.k.a. Dragon Ball Z chapter 1) feels like the natural next step for Akira Toriyama's beloved 30-year-old manga. After reading the story of Goku in almost ha

When Akira Toriyama first introduced Goku in the pages of Dragon Ball, things were simple: He was a monkey-tailed boy from the wilderness who was raised by a martial arts master who wore a magical ball that when you combined it with six others it summoned a dragon for a wish and there was a girl who wanted them and -- fine, fine, things weren't that simple. As time went on and Dragon Ball shifted