The Art of Denis Dupanovic

I started reading manga pretty late in life, as they weren’t readily available around me when I was younger, so, when I finally got around to it, I was already in my twenties and fairly formed artistically. That’s why I never drew in that style, although it did influence my work in many ways.

I loved it right away. I went on to read a few classics such as Berserk, Akira, and Battle Angel: Alita, but I never read Planetes by Makoto Yukimura, although in retrospect it seems to be right up my alley.

Originally published around the turn of the century, from 1999 to 2004, and collected in four volumes, it follows a crew of debris collectors in Earth's orbit, where they pick up trash or push it to burn in the atmosphere because it poses a danger to space flight.

Reading Planetes feels like reading Arthur C. Clarke, but it’s a lot more character-driven, which is great. It’s even very funny at times, like when Fee, one of the protagonists, an avid smoker, tries and fails miserably to smoke a cigar. In space, it’s anything but a simple matter, especially when smoking designated areas are targeted by a terrorist organization.

The art is incredible. It never ceases to amaze me how detailed and well-done the majority of mangas are with their environments, especially with future tech and landscapes like it is the case with Planetes.

Sure, in the digital age, you can just put on some filters over a photo or a 3d model, but how they did it manually decades ago was always awe-inspiring. It adds so much to the world-building.

But one thing I find most inspiring in any manga today is just the sheer volume of pages Japanese artists produce, often as a one-man band operation. I don’t mean to idolize their toxic working culture, but I’d be very happy to have that output, if nothing, just for a few years.

A warm recommendation for Planetes, especially if you like hard science fiction.