Mysterious Rain Jack

Mysterious Rain Jack title page

Mysterious Rain Jack (謎のレインジャック) is a short gag manga made by Akira Toriyama in 1978.

Overview

First page to Mysterious Rain Jack

Mysterious Rain Jack is a short Star Wars parody with a main character who looks like Kurikinton Soramame. The manga marks debuts of Thunder Ogre Goronbo, Drop-kun, and R2-D2; three characters who also make appearances in Toriyama's later manga Dr. Slump, as well as several aliens who also make cameo in Dr. Slump.

Akira Toriyama made Mysterious Rain Jack when he participated for the second time at the Monthly Young Jump Award, in 1978. He made it to the final, but did not win the contest. After Mysterious Rain Jack, Toriyama received a call from his future editor, Kazuhiko Torishima, who told him not to give up and train harder. Torishima was impressed by Toriyama's particular lettering and onomatopoeia similar to that of the Western comics.

The story was made public in Bird Land Press # 3 ~ 4, the newsletter of Akira Toriyama's official fan club, published in two parts in October 1982 and January 1983 respectively. A few pages are also exposed in the Akira Toriyama Exhibition catalogues. Mysterious Rain Jack will probably never been reprinted, because the originals were stolen in the 1990s.