The Devilman Manga Gallery
Five volumes from 1972, reprinted for fifty years, under more than one face.
Go Nagai's Devilman ran in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine from June 1972 to June 1973 and filled exactly five tankōbon. Kodansha has kept those five volumes in print ever since, under a rotating cast of editions that rearrange, expand, and repaint them. This gallery shows the covers that could be verified against the books themselves. Where a cover could not be verified from an openable source, the volume is documented in text instead, never pictured with a borrowed guess.
THE FIRST EDITION
Kodansha Comics · 1972–73
Volume 1 · October 20, 1972
The original cover art: Akira above the face of Devilman, the image reference works reach for first, and the art that has fronted the series ever since. Catalogued as ISBN 406109176X. (Copy photographed: the 1987 Deluxe hardcover, which reprinted the original art.)
Volume 2 · November 25, 1972
ISBN 4061091778. The second of the five Kodansha Comics volumes. Its cover could not be verified from an openable source, so it stands here in text, the standing rule of this gallery.
Volume 3 · April 18, 1973
ISBN 4061091891. Cover not yet verified from an openable source; documented, not pictured.
Volume 4 · July 10, 1973
ISBN 4061091980. Cover not yet verified from an openable source; documented, not pictured.
Volume 5 · September 10, 1973
ISBN 4061092073. The final volume of the first edition. Cover not yet verified from an openable source; documented, not pictured.
Reading the set
The five Kodansha Comics volumes are the only form of Devilman that matches the magazine serialization. Every later edition rearranges the story, expands it, or folds in Shin Devilman, which is why the edition census below matters.
THE SAME VOLUME, TWO FACES
1972 original art · 1993 painted cover
When Kodansha relaunched Devilman in its KCDX line in December 1993, volume 1 arrived under completely new painted covers. Same text inside, two different objects on the shelf, a collector who knows both faces can date a Devilman collection at a glance.
THE REISSUE SHELVES
One story, many Kodansha editions · 1977–2012Kodansha Bunko · 1977–78
The first reprint: five pocket-size bunko volumes, December 20, 1977 to April 30, 1978. A bunko volume of Shin Devilman followed in 1981.
KC Special · 1983
The story redivided into three thick volumes (July–August 1983), Kodansha was already repackaging Devilman within a decade of its end.
Deluxe Edition · 1987
Five hardcovers from September 1987: color pages, chapter frontispieces, a new 32-page prelude, and Shin Devilman folded into the story. The text most modern editions descend from.
KCDX · 1993–94
Five volumes under the painted covers (ISBNs 4063194353–4063194396), with Shin Devilman as a companion volume in May 1994.
Omnibus · 2000 / 2008
The whole saga in a single binding: a one-volume Kodansha omnibus in 2000, reissued in the KCDX line in 2008 (ISBN 4063754294).
Bunko, second series · 2009
The Deluxe text in four pocket volumes, November–December 2009, the connoisseur’s text at a commuter’s size.
Revised Edition · 2012
Four KCDX volumes, printed once: chapter divisions removed, some cut original pages restored, two Shin Devilman episodes dropped. The rarest of the modern texts.
Bilingual Comics · 2002–03
Kodansha’s five-volume bilingual set, built on the Deluxe text: English inside the balloons, Japanese in the margins. See the English editions page for its strange second life.
IN ENGLISH
Seven Seas · The Classic Collection · 2018
The Classic Collection 1 · May 22, 2018
Seven Seas’ hardcover omnibus: 680 pages, Devilman in red profile on a black field. Translated by Zack Davisson. Cover price $29.99.
The Classic Collection 2 · November 13, 2018
The second omnibus completes the original manga in English: Akira’s profile answers Devilman’s on the shelf. 680 pages. Cover price $29.99.