MISC. MANGA, *Queen Emeraldas

Kodansha Comics dipped way back to do the English release of this manga first done in 1978, but the American print is from a 2009 release. This is the first Queen Emeraldas manga to be released in English, even though a 4-issue American comic was put out by Eternity Comics. As a Leiji Matusumoto title, it ties into the "Leijiverse" with other anime/manga like Captain Harlock and Galaxy Express 999, although this manga was done in the early days of the shared continuity, meaning that a lot of the connections between Emeraldas and her sister Maetel doesn't come up much in it, but was likely rewritten later on. Even though the Harlock Saga showed an actual change in the timeline due to Norse gods screwing up the space/time continuum, the Queen Emeraldas manga is set prior to all that Dr. Who mess.

Emeraldas is a mysterious wandering space pirate who solely sails the "sea of stars" in her zeppelin-styled starship, the Queen Emeraldas, that we learn in on-again/off-again flashbacks that the scar-faced redhead came across in the ruins of a lost civilization. She is searching for someone to confront, exactly who isn't revealed at first, but more than likely has some connection to a brilliant young orphan, Hiroshi Umino. He escapes from Earth in a ship of his own making, and continuously keeps running into Emeraldas, who secretly helps him on his journey to create his own ship(that lasts). In her travels, Emeraldas meets old allies and enemies, each one give only a tiny clue to the endless enigma that she's built around herself.

One of the few manga to be printed in English in hardcover format, Kodansha did a great job formatting this restoration, even though its a bit pricey. The 3-volume manga is turning out to be a real collectors item so far, meaning its probably a good idea to get them out while their still fresh on the American market.