Snatcher ~ A Day to Celebrate ~

NOTE – Links to scans are at the bottom of this article.

Hello! My name is Sky, the owner of the copies of the book you’re (hopefully) reading. I wanted to take the opportunity to explain how this came to be in the first place.

I’ve been a SNATCHER fanatic for about 15 years – since watching slowbeef and Diabetus’ Let’s Play of the game. After watching it, I became obsessed. I played the game multiple times over. I collected as much obscure merchandise as I could discover. I gathered as many versions of the game as my wallet would allow. I’ve even reached out to many of the surviving English voice cast and had lovely conversations with each of them (and received their autographs). This isn’t even my full collection.

In 2022, I found out about the SNATCHER manga by total accident. I was searching for a different piece of art when I discovered this tweet. A lost story in an old obscure Japanese publication, based on –- but with no ties to –- one of my favorite games? I had to learn more.

Monthly ASCII Comic ran from July 1992-August 1995. Full of both serials and one-shots, I learned that the SNATCHER book by the late Osamu Kobayashi ran on and off from February through October of 1993. It follows the story of a JUNKER named Nirasawa (much more cool-headed and reserved than the game’s protagonist Gillian Seed) as he and his crew investigate the SNATCHERs. Two pages of the book were translated and re-released in Kobayashi’s 2014 art book One Night City. However, no other pages were republished (despite his desire for it to happen), and no digital archive has ever existed.

Later in 2022, I found a listing on Yahoo Auctions containing a complete set of the Monthly ASCII Comic publication. However, it was way out of my price range, so I left it alone. I opted for listings with individual issues, and began importing those. Over time, I slowly grew my collection. However, I’d see long stretches when the well ran dry; my patience wore thinner every time.

Two years later, the listing was still up, so. I bit the bullet and made the purchase. The price was high –, the import price was worse – but. I knew it’d be worth it. Two months passed and the collection arrived in two big boxes. It felt surreal being in possession of what was essentially a whole collection of lost media. It wouldn’t be lost for too much longer, I thought.

My one problem was that I didn’t own a scanner. Even if I did, I had (and still have) next to no knowledge on how to properly preserve media like this. Earlier this year, I discovered the Gaming Alexandria Discord server and asked if anybody could help. Within minutes I became acquainted with Rage_Beat06. Not only was she willing to help, but she lived just one state up. We got into the flow of me sending one or two books, she would scan them and do cleanup, then send the pages back while I sent another batch. We’d both post updates – one chapter at a time.

As of this writing, we have preserved and released every Monthly ASCII Comic issue with the SNATCHER story. We will continue to scan and preserve all the other issues, but these ones are special to me. I’ve enjoyed reading Nirasawa’s story, and can’t help but feel proud to have helped unearth lost media. On a deeper level, I’m glad I got to help honor Kobayashi’s wish. If you’re a fan of the game, Kojima, Kobayashi, or hard boiled cyberpunk stories, definitely give this one a shot.

I want to thank the folks at Gaming Alexandria for what they do, and for giving me the opportunity to babble on about this aspect of my life. An especially big shoutout goes to Rage_Beat – she’s been an amazing partner in this endeavor and I can’t thank her enough. I hope you all enjoy what we’ve gathered for you!

“SEE YOU IN NEO KOBE…”