Titan Brings Sherlock: A Study in Pink Manga to Western World

The BBC instant hit series, SHERLOCK, has already seen adaptation into manga. However, unless you can read Japanese, you probably did not know this nor did you care.

But now Titan Comics has released the English language version of the story for the first time in the US and the UK -- and the game is afoot. Okay, technically it's a comic, not a foot, but you get the idea.

SHERLOCK: A STUDY IN PINK is a straight up adaptation of the television pilot episode, released in chapter format. The script by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss loses none of its urgency under the adaptive care of Jay (just Jay). The minimalistic manga rendition of the characters nonetheless manages to completely capture the likenesses of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman in their roles of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson in crisp, bold lines.

While the series is presented in English, the pages and panels retain their original right-to-left format -- a task made even more difficult for Western readers when using a digital reader built with left-to-right as a default pagination method. However, it's not an insurmountable obstacle, and worth the effort to follow the comic adventure.

The only real downside is that this is an adaptation of a story we already know. With fans slavering for new SHERLOCK, this may do little to satifisfy a hungry audience, whereas new stories featuring this modern vision of the chractes might get some real traction in the comics medium.