When I did, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that they include a specially commissioned Manga every month, called Kita Koga, which is written and illustrated by Takanori Yasaka. What was even more surprising was the fact that the installment I had used the cycling world as it’s backdrop.
It shouldn't come as a great shock that the angle of the story is about drugs, or as the sub caption on the cover states "on the trail of a Belgian drug mule." The basic plot is that Kita Koga’s protagonist, Niels Wattanabe, is sent to Belgium by the Japanese government, to investigate an anonymous tip off about a drug ring. A professional cyclist is linked to the drug cartel, and the yarn that unfolds is “an intricate tale of competitive wrong-doing, fading careers, and athletic excellence.” It almost sounds like Astana or Rock Racing.
While the story leaves something to be desired from a cyclists point of view, and a little more research into the physiques of road cyclists would not have gone amiss, it was a welcome treat, with some fine bits of detailed draftsmanship, not to mention a plug for Luis Garneau. I wonder if the Monocle's Canadian editor Tyler Brûlé had something to do with that?

If only Liege looked so good in person.

Apparently the Devil is in the details.
2 comments:
Tyler H and Tyler B will be pleased. Better late than never.
exactly.
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