Snatcher Da! - A Parody Comic

When I was in Super Potato, I stumbled upon this insert from a 1992 issue of Monthly Magazine PC Engine. It was "discounted" to 1200 yen, still pricey for a thin 24-ish page pamphlet, plus it was sealed, but I took the chance since I love Snatcher so very much. Most of it is character bios and pictures - standard magazine promo stuff - along with an interview for one of the voice actresses, one of those Japanese obsessions that confound everyone else in the world. I think she played Isabella, who was an extremely minor character anyway. What made it worthwhile, which I haven't seen anywhere on the 'net, was the two page "Snatcher Da!" parody comic, which I've scanned after the jump.



The title is a reference to "Parodius Da!", the second game in the Parodius series and probably the most widely recognized. Seeing the Snatcher cast dressed as Parodius characters hammers this home - notice the Snatcher Moai on the left side, along with "Pen-Gillian", the Vegas dancer Mika, the sexy Jamie as the famed "nearly naked girl with blanket", and the apparently unrelated "Fugu" blowfish in the corner.

My Japanese isn't good enough for a really proper translation, so let me give the gist - Gillian and Jamie are on a TV show telling the public how to deal with the Snatcher menace. In relating where to look for them, they check under the sink. The guy acts suspiciously, so Gillian blasts him - luckily, he is, in fact, a Snatcher. Gillian reminds the audience that the Snatcher wreckage is not burnable (the Japanese separate their trash into "burnable" and "non-burnable" i.e. whether it can be recycled or not) and tells the viewer to put it out for collection on the proper day.

The last panel leads into the next story, where this guy, presumably a Snatcher, has come up with a clever disguise to shield him from sunlight. (Snatchers have faulty artificial skin which doesn't work well with UV rays.)



Random identifies him, obviously, and Gillian and Jamie rush to the scene to report. However, another guy dressed in exactly the same manner, overcoat and all, sneaks in and flashes Jamie, and Gillian immediately shoots him. Gillian then reminds the viewer that speed is of the essence to exterminate Snatchers, while Randam and Jamie muse that the person he shot was, in fact, the human. The last panel just shows Jamie in her Parodius "sexy" pose, asking for forgiveness (in that coy sort of way), while Jean Jack Gibson fires Gillian.

On an unrelated note, while googling around to see if this comic was already scanned, I discovered that someone out there had done a Snatcher / My Little Pony crossover. I'm an expert at the internet, and even I am flummoxed.