About the Author:
Born in 1973 in the Iidabashi district of Tokyo, comic artist Kou Yaginuma made his debut with the Twin Spica pilot story The Fireworks of 2015 (originally published in the July 2000 issue of Media Factory's Comic Flapper magazine). That heartfelt story coupled with Yaginuma's warm artwork won the young artist won over many comic fans on his way to becoming the year's biggest new artist.
He followed his debut with a follow up mini-series called Asumi focusing on the early childhood of Twin Spica's young heroine Asumi Kamokawa. The Asumi series was such a runaway success Media Factory signed Yaginuma up to pen Twin Spica for Comic Flapper in the Fall of 2001.
Since Twin Spica's debut, Yaginuma has drawn promotional illustrations for the NHK, Japan's PBS. He has also worked with Japan's brightest young animation director Makoto Shinkai drawing the cover art for the novelization of Shinkai's internationally recognized one-man CG movie Voices of a Distant Star.
Twin Spica is Yagunuma's English language debut.
Review:
A Publishers Weekly Big Graphic Novels for 2010 selection!
"Twin Spica is told with an uncommonly graceful blend of optimism and melancholy. Artist Kou Yaginuma takes his sci-fi premise seriously, and he treats his characters with warmth and intelligence. Strongly recommended."--David Welsh, The Manga Curmudgeon
"I found Twin Spica to be a surprisingly compelling read, darting in and out its broad character types and standard set pieces with a light touch, offering up just enough that's different and comparably off to the side to hold my attention. Creator Kou Yaginuma displays a wonderful sense of when to push forward with his narratives and when to let them rest against the broad spectrum of character experience and odder-than-usual social themes against which any and all immediate dramas are played out. There's a cogency to the final package that has a good chance of carrying it through to the final volume with some of what I like about this book surviving the trip."--Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter
"TWIN SPICA is grounded in realism, and takes slow, purposeful steps in laying out its story, illustrated in a classic style that avoids both outrageousness and cutesiness. Because the work is a natural charmer with a protagonist you care about deeply shortly after the outset, this first volume gets you hooked in no time; the remaining 15 can’t come out fast enough."--Rod Lott, BookGasm
"Required reading. There’s a lot of heartfelt emotion balanced with space-based science in this tale of a young girl’s desire to visit the stars. Asumi’s single-minded dedication to her childhood dream is admirable, with a promising ending to this introductory volume. As soon as I finished this book, I found myself already longing to read more."--Lorena Nava Ruggero, i ♥ manga!
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