Wow, here is a book we can’t wait to get our hands on, the story of early Everest explorer George Mallory by Yumemakura Baku and Jiro Taniguchi. The very real mystery of Mallory — last seen alive in 1924 nearing the summit of Everest, his frozen corpse discovered 70 years later minus the camera that could prove once and for all whether he made it to the top– is one of the great tales of adventure. Plus, Taniguchi is to drawing mountains what Jaime Hernandez is to drawing aging Latina punkers, so this is perfect casting.
PR:
85 years ago today, on JUNE 8, 1924 at 12.50pm, was the last time that George Herbert Leigh Mallory and his companion Andrew Irvine were seen alive. They were observed by the expedition geologist, Noel Odell, when the clouds parted briefly and allowed him a vision of the summit ridge and final peak of Mount Everest with the two tiny black specks moving towards the summit. Then the scene vanished and became enveloped in clouds once more. They never returned. There has been much speculation as to whether they ever reached the summit and were on their way down when disaster struck.
Almost seventy years later in 1993, with Mallory’s body still undiscovered on the mountain, a Japanese expedition photographer, Makoto Fukamachi, stumbles across a 1920’s Kodak camera in a Kathmandu bazaar which sparks a whole series of questions with few answers.
The Summit of the Gods is an epic story of man and his personal conquests against his own limitations. No mountain is too high, no peak too distant in his pursuit of this passion for achievement.
But Taniguchi’s realistic art and Baku’s tireless script will take you to such heights that mountaineers only dream about!
Winner “Best Art” Award at Angouleme Festival, France (2005)
Winner “Excellence Prize Manga Division” at Japanese Ministry of Culture’s Media Arts Festival (2001)
George Mallory’s body is discovered on Everest’s North Face minus his Kodak (1999)
Original novel, Kamigami no Itadaki, winner of the prestigious 11th Shibata Renzaburo Award (1998)
