Lum

Bursting onto the scene in 1989 through Antarctic Press's Ninja High School Yearbook #1, Lum is a Copper Age curiosity with a charmingly eclectic comics footprint — turning up across titles like Mangazine, Ninja High School Yearbook, and Ranma 1/2, sharing pages with the likes of A-ko and C-ko in that wonderfully chaotic, manga-influenced corner of the American indie scene. Created by Chas Berlin, this character represents exactly the kind of cross-cultural enthusiasm that made Antarctic Press such a distinctive publisher in the late '80s and '90s. With only a handful of catalog appearances, Lum is a collector's gem — a small but vivid thread in the tapestry of early Western manga fandom.