The Verge reports that the first volume of Mari Yamazaki's manga adaption of Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography has launched in Japan, appearing in the May issue of the girl-focused Kiss anthology.
The first thing you'll notice in these opening pages is that Yamazaki has pulled off the artwork beautifully; far from the spiky-haired caricatures that may come to mind when you think of manga, Jobs has been brought to life in a semi-realistic monochrome style that is never off-putting, but stays in the Japanese manga tradition.
The Verge summarizes this first volume as including fifteen pages of Steve Jobs trying to convince Walter Isaacson to write his biography before jumping into Jobs' childhood and moving through to his college years.
Once Jobs is of college age, Yamazaki swiftly transforms him into the type of character any schoolgirl reader could fall in love with. In one memorable two-page spread, Jobs goes from accepting a bribe of $5 and candy from his influential teacher Imogene Hill, to replying "Sure!" when encouraged to try LSD by a long-haired peer in college corridors.
The first volume ends as Jobs meets Steve Wozniak for the first time, setting the stage for their partnership and the formation of Apple.
Yahoo has also posted a preview of the first volume showing Jobs and Isaacson discussing the possibility of a Steve Jobs biography.
