If you read manga at all, you've no doubt heard of Naoki Urasawa, Japan's current king of suspense. Monster, 20th Century Boys, and Pluto have been released in the US, all to critical acclaim, so Billy Bat being at least halfway decent is pretty much a given at this point. Urasawa can't seem to do one series at once. He started Happy! while he was still working on Master Keaton, started Monster while he was still working on Happy!, started 20th Centurys Boys while he was still working on Monster, started Pluto while he was still working on 20th Century Boys, and he started Billy Bat while he was still working on Pluto!
If 20th Century Boys was his nostalgia trip to the 60s and 70s, and Pluto was his look to the future, then Billy Bat is his history lesson on Japan (early post WWII, to be exact). Urasawa kind of tricked readers when the series first started. Before the first chapter, the promos for it would only say it's about a long lost hero from the golden age of comics known as Billy Bat. And in the first chapter, that's exactly what we got, but it was not typical Urasawa. An anthropomorphic detective Bat helping out a pink poodle? Huh? Most of the first chapter is a story involving these two cartoony characters, until the last few pages, the art all of a sudden looks rough and unfinished, then the final page pulls back to reveal a man drawing this comic at his desk. Good one, Urasawa! The next chapter gets the real story going, with the artist behind Billy Bat, Kevin Yamagata, a Japanese American living in the US who once translated for the Allies, being the main character. While working on one of his comics, two police officers enter his apartment in order to get a better view of another building where they believe a Russian spy might be hiding out. On their way out, one of the officers notices Kevin's drawing and say's that he's seen this character before, but not in any of his comics. He saw the exact same character in a Japanese comic. The mysteries start here, when Kevin says that's impossible as Billy Bat is his own creation.
From there, Kevin heads to Japan to find out what's what, and possibly to find out if he also saw this character and unknowingly copied him. The truth might be slightly bigger than that, as the Billy Bat symbol appears over and over again and is possibly at the center of a cult of worshipers (sounds a bit like the eye symbol in 20th CB). He'll also have to deal with hallucinations of Billy Bat, himself! Kevin will most likely get wrapped up in a juicy mystery the likes of which only Naoki Urasawa can deliver, all mixed in with some Japanese history and unsolved mysteries. I haven't read past the second chapter, first, because the scanlations for it are a little scattered, second, I know this will be good and I also know it will most likely be licensed, so I rather wait for that. 20th Century Boys and Pluto are keeping me more than satisfied until then.
Who: This is a tricky one. All of Urasawa's work that has been released here so far, has been released by Viz. But this one could be DelRey. You see, all of his other works were done with Shogakukan (who Viz is in cahoots with), but for Billy Bat, Urasawa is working with Kodansha (in their Morning anthology, I believe). Del Rey usually handles Kodansha titles, so Del Rey could very well get it if Viz somehow can't.
Likelihood: 100%. Absolutely. All of his previous series have received a lot of critical praise, so neither Viz nor Del Rey would skip this one for anything.
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