Big Comic Spirits and Alternative Comics

Big Comic Spirits has had my attention recently and I could not put my finger on why until I did some digging both through my memories and the internet searching type. Ikki comix an alternative comic magazine put out by Shogakukan was still around in my adolesence. IKKI itself is an offshoot magazine of Weekly Big Comic Spirits which emerged in the early 2000s. Over the next decade, it attempted to localize its titles in English through Viz an co-subsidiary of Shogakukan and Shueisha. This attempt failed but it was an important event for me as it was a time in my life I wanted more adult media while still interested in Japanese comics. Viz put out a free web magazine for a few years translated into English. However, this all died out with the bubble economy crash of the time. Anyway, I digress. IKKI was relabeled as Hibana independently of all this before Hibana folded with Weekly Big Comic Spirits and its monthly companion magazine Monthly Big Comic Spirits being the final resting place for many series from the magazine. I picked up Weekly Big Comic Spirits, dropped it then picked it up again inevitably falling in love with the comics from my youth all over again unknowingly. It all just comes full circle in the end.