HOTD: Full Color Edition

I’m always on the lookout for works that can inspire me and give me a kick in the behind to get moving on my own projects and ideas. In my ongoing attempt to get a new webcomic started, I’ve been looking for inspiration to help me get motivated.

While Highschool of the Dead itself might not be a groundbreaking story, it is fun in its own way. I actually rather enjoyed the anime, over-the-top situations included. It’s just fun to watch. The manga, on the other hand, didn’t have that same oomph.

However, now they have a full colored edition of the manga, and I must say, I’m pretty impressed. Not only is the book hardcover and weigh a ton, they didn’t just do a simple color-over of the pages. They actually used the black and white line art to work from instead of just coloring over the toned images you seen in the original manga.

It’s printed on heavy semi-gloss stock with a smattering of extra pages with bonus images and information. They even include a nice full color image inside the dust cover. The dust cover has high-gloss markings on the outside for the blood print and others that look like fingerprints. It’s also fairly large at about the same size of normal American comics, and two quarters (25 cents) thick! I’d say it’s a very high quality product. In fact, it was actually cheaper to buy this edition than the four included volumes as separate b&w manga, shipping included.

But see for yourself with these images. As for myself, this is a nice source of inspiration. Not only from a coloring perspective, but from page layouts as well.

Even the hardcover itself is in full color.

If you’re a HOTD fan, or just like high-quality manga, I’d recommend this. It’s not often you find a manga product of this caliber. It’s certainly worth looking into.