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    GVN Talking Comics: Kristiina Korpus on Naoki Urasawa’s Billy Bat English Translation

    Talking Comics interview with Abrams ComicArts/Kana editor Kristina Korpus about the English translation of Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki’s "Billy Bat," featuring comic panels.

    Famed Manga creator Naoki Urasawa and collaborator Takashi Nagasaki’s Billy Bat has lived in that rare air of “legendary but out of reach” for English‑language readers—until now. Abrams ComicArts’ Kana imprint is finally cracking open one of manga’s most ambitious conspiracy thrillers, and editor Kristiina Korpus is at the center of bringing this long‑requested epic to the West. We caught up with Kristiina to talk about why Billy Bat matters, what makes this translation unique, and how you prepare readers for a story that rewires your brain from page one.

    So, let’s welcome Abrams ComicArts/Kana Editor Kristiina Korpus to GVN Talking Comics.

    The Time to Bring “Billy Bat” to English Readers

    GVN: Thank you for sharing a bit of your day with us. Let’s jump into this exciting new project, the first-ever English translation of Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki’s Billy Bat. This story has been one of the most requested untranslated manga for over a decade. From an editorial perspective, what made now the right moment to bring Naoki Urasawa’s masterpiece to English readers finally?

    KRISTIINA: There’s a huge surge in demand for what people are calling “classic” manga. Finally, there is a part of the market that’s willing to support older series that perhaps weren’t viable choices for publishers early on. Billy Bat has been one of the most requested manga series for English publication for years, so there has always been interest from readers. The challenge was making sure we could bring the series to market in a way that respected the creators’ intentions and gave the book the attention it deserves.

    For Kana, the timing was right because the English-language manga market has matured significantly, particularly among adult readers who are looking for ambitious, genre-defying series beyond the most mainstream series. Billy Bat is exactly that kind of book.

    Cover of "Billy Bat" volume 1 featuring a man in a beige shirt in the foreground, with comic-style illustrations and a red bat symbol in the background.

    The Challenges for the English Edition

    GVN: As the editor overseeing the English edition, what were the biggest challenges in adapting a series that blends conspiracy thriller, metafiction, and historical fiction across multiple eras and cultures?

    KRISTIINA: I don’t think I’d be able to manage this project and all its complexities if it weren’t for the varied talents of my whole team. I trusted my translator with my life giving them this project (laugh). For one, with the history involved, we’re comparing events to historical record and even going back to speeches and trying to figure out if a difference is just due to translation or due to some reason of Urasawa-sensei’s plot. My copyeditors and fact checkers are always researching some facet of American or Japanese history, so that’s definitely our biggest challenge with Billy Bat.

    The other challenging aspect is the lettering, which I’m so glad to have two amazing letterers on Billy Bat, who are also huge fans of Urasawa’s works and very familiar with his style. The reading experience is a huge part of the Billy Bat plotline, and so with the main character being a western-style cartoonist, we wanted “his” style to carry through the series. The guys behind the lettering said “Bet” and made it happen, doing meticulous retouching, so I hope readers feel like their reading experience is as the author intended.

    Takashi Nagasaki’s role and how it affects editing?

    GVN: Takashi Nagasaki’s role as a writer and producer is often described as the “invisible architecture” behind many major works. How did his storytelling fingerprints shape your editorial approach to Billy Bat?

    KRISTIINA: I think it’s important to note that it doesn’t feel like there’s two authors when you read Billy Bat. Nagasaki-sensei’s influence is untraceable, much like any good editor who’s on a project team. Urasawa-sensei’s vision is clear and his plot doesn’t hit the breaks: the story moves at a fast clip right from the start of Volume 1. So, likewise, I took my editorial cue from these two great creators and I let the team I’d curated for the English edition do what they do best; Kristi Iwashiro’s translation does a lot of heavy lifting on character voice and style, and as I mentioned, the lettering team (Aidan Clarke and Brendon Hull) are amazingly talented people.

    Navigating Translations

    GVN: The series plays heavily with symbols, recurring motifs, and shifting realities. How did you and the translation team navigate moments where the creators’ meaning is layered, ambiguous, or intentionally destabilizing?

    KRISTIINA: It’s hard to see some of the motifs and symbols when you’re head down working on an epic as sprawling as Billy Bat, so I’m very thankful that the translation team is many volumes ahead of me. They often see themes appear later on in the plot and then usually come back to me with slight edits or changes to how they’d approach the translation of a challenging line from an earlier volume. It’s a great system for us, as it means I can have all the information at hand when we’re making editorial decisions.

    Comic book page showing a cat character named Billy Bat in the title panel, with subsequent panels of a woman being confronted by another woman on a city street at night. A masked character carries a surprised woman while escaping through a window at night as gunshots shatter glass; the woman expresses concern about being dropped. A comic page shows a man grabbing and kissing a woman near a bridge; she slaps him, insults follow, and he looks disappointed as she walks away. Two anthropomorphic characters, a pig and a dog, have a serious conversation at night by a canal. The scene alternates between their close-ups and long shots on a stone walkway. A woman in a trench coat and a cat-like character walk through a city at night, having a serious conversation about tracking and motives for a crime. A wolf and a pink dog in coats converse outside a building at night, discussing the husband's work and criminal affiliations. Text dialogue appears in speech bubbles. A dog character in a trench coat questions a poodle character; a shadowy figure appears behind with a raised weapon, surprising the dog. Bold text reads "DESTROY AMERICA.

    Billy Bat and American Pop-Culture

    GVN: Billy Bat is deeply rooted in American pop culture—Golden Age comics, noir, political intrigue. How did you balance preserving the Japanese perspective on these influences while making the references accessible to English-language readers?

    KRISTIINA: This is where I think some of the lettering decisions the letterers have made are genius: all the sound effects are retouched in English in a style that closely matches Urasawa’s own pen work. It strengthens the feeling of reading a western comic, especially when we get glimpses of the original “Billy Bat” comic pages. But sometimes Kevin is in Japan and some of the old “Black Bat” texts are ancient Japanese, so those are left alone and subtitled for readers. For example, readers will note that the “Batboy” manga pages are left in Japanese and we subtitle them. We’re walking a bit of a translation/localization tightrope that Kevin himself is also subject to, so we want readers to feel that delicate balance for themselves. We’ve put a lot of thought into this!

    Bringing MANGA to Audiences with Care

    GVN: Abrams ComicArts and Kana have been expanding their manga footprint with carefully curated titles. What does publishing Billy Bat signal about the imprint’s long-term vision for bringing prestige manga to the English market? (You can’t get more prestige than this one)

    KRISTIINA: We hope that people come to expect us to handle all our manga offerings with the same kind of care we’ve approached Billy Bat with. All of our list will be treated with the greatest care for author’s original intent. Billy Bat is really our signal to the market that we’re hearing their demands for more adult manga and more classics. We’re constantly searching for what we can add to the manga market for readers who grew up reading the early days of manga and now continue with the medium as adults with diversified reading tastes.

    Following the Abrams ComicArts/KANA Imprint

    GVN: Thanks again for visiting with us. Finally, for readers discovering Billy Bat for the first time, what should they pay attention to in Volume 1 that hints at the larger, mind-bending structure Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki build across the series?

    KRISTIINA: The Bat lies! (laugh) Be wary of the bat and careful of who’s side you take… History is not all that you’ve believed it to be. We hope readers will follow @kanamanga_us on socials and share their guesses and theories with us in our Kana official discord server!

    Bringing Billy Bat to English readers has been one of those “when, not if” moments in manga publishing, and Editor Kristiina Korpus has clearly been one of the steady hands guiding that long‑awaited leap. Her work with Abrams ComicArts and Kana doesn’t just localize a legendary series—it opens the door to a new wave of readers finally able to experience the full scope of what Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki built. As this edition hits shelves, it’s hard not to feel the electricity of a modern classic finding its next life. Huge thanks to Kristiina for taking us inside the process, the challenges, and the thrill of bringing Billy Bat into the spotlight, as it always deserved!

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