Shu not kigen (The origin of the species)

If the faith means ignorance and denial of the thought: that goes away to the hell!

If the target of the science popularization is to present the science of a lively way and with an accessible language, the cómic is the perfect instrument for it. Dokuha sleeve: Shu not kigen (East Press, 2009) turns the life and work of Charles Darwin into sleeve and explains in simple and easily understandable terms the concept of evolution and the revolution that provoked the publication of The origin of the species.

The sleeve is, together with the animation and the video games, one of three fundamental props of the Japanese leisure industry and a cultural product that has been exported to the whole world. At present, it is diversified enormously and the genres can qualify according to the topic and the age of the readership whom it is directed. The subject-matter is practically unlimited: there are sleeves sports, of science fiction, of mystery, historical, of terror, writers of folk literature, of absurd humor, comical, romantic, gastronomic, erotic, etc. They are also infantile, juvenile, for adults (and sleeve for adults is not necessary synonymous of sleeve erotically or pornographic but it tackles subject-matters of major complexity than a sleeve destined to a younger reader), for masculine public, for feminine public and from housewives up to office personnel, happening for gourmets.

And like not, also there exists a genre of sleeve — the sleeve educational — that, without stopping being an entertainment product, explains complex topics of form simple and easy to understand. Shu not kigen belongs to dokuha Sleeve, a series of sleeves educational published by the Japanese publishing house East Press whose target is to facilitate the comprehension of some concepts (the evolution, in this case) and to do more accessible the outstanding figures of the universal literature.

Dramatis personae. Principal personages of Shu not kigen. On the right page: Charles R. Darwin (arrives) and Emma Darwin (below). On the left page: Robert W. Darwin (it arrives, right), John S. Henslow (it arrives, left), Thomas H. Huxley (below, right) and Joseph D. Hooker (below, left).

Shu not kigen is, basically, a biosleeve, a sleeve biographical of Charles Darwin. In the technical aspect, it is necessary to admit that the drawing is not precisely to throw rockets (something that, beforehand, does not also matter too much bearing in mind the public the one that is directed), although it fulfills his target to illustrate the life of the English naturalist. Of course, the absence of papers in some aspects is more than notable. Leaving aside the marvelous bangs that the Darwin of the sleeve shows at the moment of the publication of The origin of the species (I assume that to give more dramatism to the history), they should have investigated a little more the fashion of the Victorian epoch (to see Joseph Dalton Hooker dressed in suit and tie in plan office worker or to priests who seem extracted of a roll game turns out to be shocking) or the planes of the Beagle to do a ship more similar to the real one. It usually criticize the absence of rigor that is had in Occident when the Far East enjoys itself, although also it is possible to say the same on the contrary.

Darwin in the Turtles. Darwin, the captain of the Beagle, Robert FitzRoy, and iguanas.

As sleeve educational, it fulfills perfectly his function to explain the evolution of a form so simple and so easy to understand that up to the most recalcitrant creacionista there would turn a fervent defender that the evolution is a fact and not a theory. The only outstanding mistake is that when one speaks about the ADN it is said that it was discovered in 1953 and is not like that. The ADN was already known from the ends of the XIXth century and what was discovered in 1953 was his structure in double helix.