#electroid zaborger

Denjin Zaborger, aka Electroid Zaborger (1974), was a toku series from P-Productions that presented the adventures of secret agent Yutaka Daimon (Takehisa Yamaguchi, aka Riderman from Kamen Rider V3).

The cover to the first issue of Spectreman Heroes by Matt Frank, which arrived today at my comic book store.

This five-issue series is a co-production of Antarctic Press, Phase 6, and P-Productions.  The series will present translated and color manga stories about older P-Productions tokusatsu heroes that have an avid fan base in Japan, but are rather obscure here in the West.

The back cover presents the line-up of heroes that will be featured.  As you can see, they’re running behind in the publication schedule as this issue was supposed to be released in February.  That’s probably due to the comic being printed and bound in South Korea and getting caught up in all the international shipping tangle that’s going on now.

Matt Frank provides page one of the comic, with Spectreman introducing the story of Electroid Zaborger, which is written, drawn, and colored by Hiroshi Kanatani.

The story is a very good introduction to the Denjin Zaborger (aka  Electroid Zaborger) TV series, which originally was broadcast in Japan in 1974.

Zaborger as he originally appeared in his tv series

This is especially tru for someone like me who has never seen the original series.  My only exposure to the character was the 2011 film Karate-Robo Zaborgar.

It’s been several years since I watched the film, but what I remember of it is that it was a tongue-in-cheek remake of the series, with the main protagonist being played as a comical loser.  My memory ain’t what it should be, so I’ll have to rewatch the film after I read the comic again.