The September 2021 issue of Shueisha’s Saikyō Jump magazine kicked off a “Dragon Ball Super Gallery” series in commemoration of the Dragon Ball franchise’s upcoming 40th anniversary. The celebration aims to have different artists all contribute their own spin on the original 42 tankōbon covers, with the images and an accompanying comment published as the magazine’s back cover.
Following the previous twelve entries, this month’s September 2022 issue brings us Kyosuke Usuta (Pyu to Fuku! Jaguar) and their take on the series’ 23rd volume cover:
Usuta commented:
Welp, after considering the fact that I have zero knack for drawing mechanical stuff, as well as pondering how much of my own taste I could get away with incorporating on the sly, I chose this cover illustration. Really, for us, Freeza’s impact was absolute, so I was glad I got to draw him!
When I think of how its appeal hasn’t faded in the slightest, even though it’s coming up on its 40th anniversary, it just sets me trembling all the more from the bottom of my heart. Congratulations!! I mean it!
Saikyō Jump is currently a monthly magazine published in Japan by Shueisha under the “Jump” line of magazines. The magazine began as a quarterly publication in 2012, went monthly in 2013, went bimonthly in late-2014, and returned to a monthly format last fall (including a digital release for the first time). The magazine’s focus is spin-off and supplementary manga series aimed at a young audience, while also including game promotions, news coverage, and more. The magazine currently serializes content such as Yoshitaka Nagayama’s Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultra God Mission!!!! manga series, Yūji Kasai’s Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Avatars!! manga series, and the Dragon Ball GT Anime Comic. For calendar year 2019, Shueisha reported Saikyō Jump‘s circulation down at 130,000, with readership as 58.5% upper elementary school, 28% lower middle school, 11% middle school, and 2.5% high school or older.