VIZ's monthly Dragonball issues

[russ869]

I've come into possession of one of the monthly issues of the Dragonball manga under the VIZ COMICS line. You know, they look kinda like this:



Except mine is the one that's titled "Part Two: Issue 3." It's still wrapped in its original plastic in untouched mint condition.

I was just wondering about anything you guys could tell me about this without me opening it. Like maybe what chapters it covers, if its edited/unedited, is it worth anything, etc. (probably not...)

Thanks,

[Chuquita]

Oh I always open my stuff; I can understand preserving, but I'd go crazy if I could only look and not touch. ^^;


That aside, these issues are usually one chapter each. Sometimes they have a "fan" section in the back featuring Q&A's, or some fanart people have sent in. Most of the advertisements were for other Viz monthlies at the time such as Ranma or InuYasha.
There are no "color" pages; those are in grey scale much like they are in the regular books.
Sometimes certain sentences are altered in these once they hit book format. There's one sentence in one of the dbz ones where Captain Ginyu mocks Vegeta by calling him "Vegeta-chan". This was changed to something else in the books.


I remember the dbz ones had this "Ask Vegeta" segment that I always enjoyed. X3
They ironically put an end to it once Vegeta died in the actual series (Freeza) in order to keep with logistics.


Needless to say I loved the monthlies WAY more than Shounen Jump.

[SSJ Helldog]

I highly doubt it has any significant monetary value, and the plastic isn't "original" so I wouldn't bother keeping it on. They shipped like any other American comic. I've got a couple from the beginning of the series and they seem to be entirely uncensored, but I don't know if that was true of the later issues. Still not sure how the "Part/Issue" division worked.

[russ869]

That aside, these issues are usually one chapter each.

Is that right? Because looking at the "Manga Reference Guide" here:
http://www.daizex.com/guides/manga/manga_reference.html

It doesn't look like they're one chapter exactly. Probably something between one and occasionally two.

What I mean by plastic is it's wrapped the kind of plastic sleeve that you see American comics issues in a comic book store. Well anyway, I guess their really isn't anything else to know about this. Thanks, guys.

[TheGreatness25]

Are these censored or not? What's the deal here? lol They are rated for "Teens". But I haven't seen anyone claiming anything groundbreaking out of them, so I don't think they're uncensored.

[SSJ Helldog]

The plastic (read: mylar) bags are only applied by shop owners and super-nerds when the comics are filed away. They ship as just paper-and-staples. No need to worry about opening it to read it.

As far as I can tell, they're uncensored. I have an issue where Bulma's boobs appear, and it was totally uncensored. The first printing viz did in tankobon format had the nipple covered up by a sound effect, and looking at my VizBig, they've retouched it so that the reader doesn't see boob at all.

In other news, I feel a small amount of shame for knowing this.

[TheGreatness25]

If the reader doesn't see boob at all, then it is censored though.

[Artificial Human #887]

I just checked my store's price guide, and here's the official Overstreet Price Guide listing for all the DBZ comics at a 9.2 Grade:

Dragon Ball Z
Viz Comics 1998 - Present ($2.95, B&W, Manga reprints read right to left)

Part 1 1 - 12.00
2-9 - 5.00
1-9 (second printing) - 3.00
Part 2 1-14 - 4.00
Part 3 1-10 - 3.00
Part 4 1-15 - 3.00
Part 5 1-10 - 3.00

So... they're not worth much. Most paper comics aren't worth much these days, anyway.

The DB ones are the same, except all Part 6 issues are worth 3.50.

[SSJ Helldog]

If the reader doesn't see boob at all, then it is censored though.

Yes, that's the VizBig. The original single-issue comic I have in uncensored, nipple and all.

[djkalteraphine]

That aside, these issues are usually one chapter each.

It doesn't look like they're one chapter exactly. Probably something between one and occasionally two.

All of my monthlys have two chapters in them. Since a standard monthly comic is usually around 32 pages, this would make sense; Dragon Ball chapters are generally 15 pages, so 15+15+two pages of extra bits at the end (which all of mine have), and ta-da! 32 pages.

[SSj_Rambo]

How do you get on the mailing list for these? They sound pretty neat and seem like a cool thing to collect.

[NeptuneKai]

How do you get on the mailing list for these? They sound pretty neat and seem like a cool thing to collect.

You'll have to find a working time machine first.

[SSj_Rambo]

How do you get on the mailing list for these? They sound pretty neat and seem like a cool thing to collect.

You'll have to find a working time machine first.

Seriously! That sucks, oh well, I guess I'll just have to wait for some issues to pop up on Ebay or at a local comic shop, unless anyone knows a better place to buy them...

[SSJ Helldog]

Yeah, I got these like 10 years ago. Also have a copy of the Mexican edition in the exact same format.

[Mike]

I own every DBZ monthly issue in this format. It was divided into 5 parts of about 10 or so issues each I believe. The comics end at the conclusion of the Freeza saga. Afterwards they were transitioned into the monthly Shonen Jump magazine. DBZ continued in SJ from the Trunks saga to the end of Cell. I'm pretty sure that monthly DBZ ended there and that the Buu saga exists only in graphic novel form.

I assume all of Dragon Ball was also covered in monthly issues but can't be certain as I only own three such issues.

-Mike

[SSJ Helldog]

That's really odd that they didn't milk it to sell SJ. I guess they thought it would be a good way to get readers buying graphic novels.

[Artificial Human #887]

That's really odd that they didn't milk it to sell SJ. I guess they thought it would be a good way to get readers buying graphic novels.

I thought that SJ wasn't running in America UNTIL that point.

[Ex-Dubbie369]

I own every DBZ monthly issue in this format. It was divided into 5 parts of about 10 or so issues each I believe. The comics end at the conclusion of the Freeza saga. Afterwards they were transitioned into the monthly Shonen Jump magazine. DBZ continued in SJ from the Trunks saga to the end of Cell. I'm pretty sure that monthly DBZ ended there and that the Buu saga exists only in graphic novel form.

I assume all of Dragon Ball was also covered in monthly issues but can't be certain as I only own three such issues.

-Mike

They brought it back to the magazine for Volume 42 ("Vegerot"-the End) to advertise for the DBZ 24 graphic novel.

[laserkid]

"Part Two" of the comic releases of Dragon Ball revolved around the 21st Tenka-ichi Budokai. Part 2 issue 3 contained the following chapters (I still have a lot of these >.>):

Chapter 28: Let the Training Begin! (Lunch is around, they're moving Kame House to the bigger island, runs through Roshi showing his sprint speed, and Lunch sneezing and telling Roshi to let go of her beer)

Chapter 29: Bad Day at Turtle Rock (the find the drawn rock incident, ending with everyone but Goku eating Lunch's cooked Pufferfish and describing that everyone will be sick)

Hope that helps.

[Super Sonic]

I remember the one with the Dr. Slump crossover actually had a section after the chapters that explained who the Dr. Slump characters were. And also saw some fan letters saying they thought Goku should hook up with Arale.