Remembering Matt

I am sure those of you who were already interested have heard, but Matt of Star Fruit Books passed away last month. His celebration of life was yesterday. I, like many other people, considered him a friend. 

I’ve known Matt since 2017, but he had been around for much longer than that (he registered on mangahelpers back in 2006 and has been working with manga since at least then). He was always around where people gathered, and was never afraid to join and introduce himself to any specific place that was doing things that interested him. Nor was he afraid to approach those who could help him. So it’s not surprising that many people knew him. And as others have said, he was always friendly, always encouraging, always looking forward to the future. He had plans and ambitions, ones that excited me too. His death was swift and sudden, and we were all optimistic about his health. Right. Fuck cancer. 

As you may know, Star Fruit is an indie publisher, working with authors directly to license their owned works for English without going through a major publisher. Star Fruit is very much a reflection of Matt’s taste in manga. He didn’t choose series that he thought would appeal to a wide audience and sell, he chose series because he liked them and believed that they deserved to be licensed into English. And he had such a huge and varied interest in manga. His knowledge and awareness of manga, magazines, and authors far exceeded my own. He liked coro coro series, horror shoujo/josei, BL, adventure shounen, video game adaptations, vintage shoujo, vintage shounen, sci fi, action shounen, gekiga, tezuka, queer josei, and so many other things I’m sure I’m not aware of. There was just so much he brought into english that neither scanlations nor officials ever cover. When you’ve been active for that long it’s inevitable that you become very prolific. There are a handful of people who have also been around for that long, but they tend to form a more concentrated niche for their tastes. I’ve never met anyone quite like him.

And we will never have someone like that again.

Sunabozu Volume 22 Chapters 130-139 [END]

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Finally, the last volume of desert punk. I hope you enjoyed this series as much as I have.

We may do a quick and dirty with the first few chapters of volume 14 since the translation quality is less than stellar.

Still have stickers. Email quicksandscans@gmail.com with a mailing address if you want one.

Links: Mega, Google, Mangadex

QSS x QSS collab – I’m No Mangaka

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We have recently collaborated with Quicksilver Scans to release a oneshot about working in the Chinese manhwa industry. I’m actually very interested in series about working in the industry of comics so this was super exciting for me. Please give it a read, it’s a rare and raw glimpse into the experiences of manhwa authors and artists.

Some other poignant short series I’ve enjoyed are Series Axed! and Youth Shounen Magazine 1978-1983, both scanlated by the very talented Runaway Scanlations. Please check them out too!

Links: Mega, Google, Mangadex

Happy New Year! And Update

I owe an update, don’t I? Life’s been busy.

Currently in plans/progress, not necessarily in order other than Desert Punk being the priority:

  • Finishing Desert Punk (volume in middle of TS)
  • Catching up to Shikeishuu (no new raw chapters in almost a year, so we are 3 chapters behind)
  • Finishing Coral
  • Work on Hyakki (I haven’t given up yet)
  • More Kishibe
  • Going through our 2 paranoia street scripts and seeing if the TL is still interested

Basically, assume the about page is always up-to-date. Of course, none of this is going to happen super quickly, but at the least, we can’t leave perfectly good translated scripts untouched forever. I appreciate everyone’s patience.

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