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 thirty-four entries, this month’s July 2024 issue brings us Toyotarō (Dragon Ball Super) and their take on the series’ 39th volume cover:
Toyotarō commented:
When it comes to snow country, I immediately think of Muscle Tower, so I went with a situation where they’re being chased by the ghosts of the Red Ribbon Army! All of Toriyama-sensei‘s illustrations are already perfectly composed, so I was quite humbled by the experience. Come to think of it, Toriyama-sensei had said right along that out of the illustrations he drew, there were hardly any he really liked. “That can’t be true when he draws such amazing stuff!” I thought, so one time I went ahead and asked him directly. His response was, “People of our generation don’t really do stuff like bragging about our own work.” Judging from that, I think he probably did have a favorite illustration or two, but that wasn’t the sort of thing the creator himself should be going on about. That’s how I interpreted it. I remember thinking that was so cool and just like him, and I came to admire him even more than before. Congratulations on 40 years! Now and forever, Dragon Ball will never die.
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 in 2021 (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: Meteor Mission! manga series and Yūji Kasai’s Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Avatars!! manga series. 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.