Editor's Sidebar: Where we hear directly from VIZ editors about series they're currently working on.

Longtime Lum fans, rejoice! Urusei Yatsura, Vol. 1 is out, and you get 400+ pages of space alien mayhem from your favorite tiger-stripe-bikini-clad cutie! Those of you who don’t know Lum, well, you’re in for a treat! I myself didn’t get to read Urusei Yatsura until I started editing this series (partly because it was difficult to find copies of the old graphic novels). I’m really excited that the whole series will be published in English for the first time, and I hope Lum’s antics will bring a smile to your face!

One of my favorite chapters in this volume is “Puppet” in which Lum shows unlucky Earthling Ataru Moroboshi her psychokinetic toy—essentially, she makes a doll of Ataru, and whatever movement the doll makes, poor Ataru has to follow along.

This type of physical comedy is part of why I love Rumiko Takahashi’s work, and it highlights the fun in Lum’s outrageous behavior. Lum tends to have a different thought approach to situations since she isn’t an Earthling or constrained by societal expectations. Her uninhibited actions make me laugh—even a simple “Beat him, Darling!” cheer has an unexpected energy.

You’d think that Ataru would love having such a hot babe around, but he has no interest in committing to one girl and has an unfortunate case of chronic wandering eye. And of course, there’s Lum’s electric shocks to contend with…

You can imagine how terribly painful it can get when Lum’s actually mad at Ataru…

I hope you all enjoy meeting Lum (or getting reacquainted with her) in this Urusei Yatsura graphic novel series! She’s certainly one-of-a-kind, and you just never know what sort of trouble she’ll get into in Takahashi Sensei’s first long-running manga series.

You can read a free preview of Urusei Yatsura, Vol. 1 here.