Peepo Choo, Volume One

Felipe Smith managed to do what many manga fans only dream about: he not only went to live in Tokyo but also managed to get his comic, Peepo Choo, published in the pages of a Japanese comics anthology, no small feat considering the insular nature of Japan’s comic industry. It’s an even bigger accomplishment considering how violent, explicit and just plain weird the series is. Peepo Choo critiques both American superheroes as well as Japanese manga, and under all the sex and violence there’s some very smart commentary going on. Peepo Choo requires the reader to be deeply ingrained in geek culture in order to get the joke, while at the same time not in so deep that they can’t laugh at themselves.