Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt Manga Kicks Off Brief Hiatus
Another hiatus is here for the Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt manga. According to this year’s 10th issue of Shogakukan’s Big Comic Superior magazine, the series by Yasuo Ohtagaki is entering a brief hiatus, with a June 28 return planned in the pages of the magazine’s 14th issue of 2024.
Thunderbolt has experienced a few hiatuses of varying durations over the course of its 12-year run so far. It was on break from September to December 2018, during which Ohtagaki dealt with tenosynovitis, which involves inflammation around the tendons. Since then, he has had to change his drawing style to ensure the condition doesn’t get any worse.
A two-month hiatus took place in December 2022, and there was a brief hiatus back in January of this year. According to what Ohtagaki said in February 2022, the manga is in its “final stage,” so hopefully the strain isn’t too much on his condition.
Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt has been running in Big Comic Superior since March 2012, and has been collected in 23 volumes so far, with VIZ Media having released 20 in English as of November 21, 2023. The series previously inspired a pair of net anime series that were also adapted into compilation films.
Synopsis:
Into this maelstrom of destruction go two veteran Mobile Suit pilots: the deadly Zeon sniper Daryl Lorenz, and Federation ace Io Fleming. It’s the beginning of a rivalry that can end only when one of them is destroyed. The lightning-streaked debris fields are about to become the stage for an epic duel where death is the only true winner.
