Ghost in the Shell, Masamune Shirow's landmark cyberpunk manga, began in Kodansha's Young Magazine in 1989. It introduced Major Motoko Kusanagi and Public Security Section 9, and it set the template for a generation of science fiction about networked minds, artificial bodies, and the question of what makes a person human.
Cover of the Ghost in the Shell manga. Source: Wikipedia
Major Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell (1995). Source: Ghost in the Shell Wiki
The first appearance
The series debuted in 1989 in Young Magazine. The copy in our store is Young Magazine Extra Edition #5, dated May 6, 1989, the issue carrying the first appearance of Ghost in the Shell. Shirow's detailed, technical art and his footnotes on the technology of his near-future Japan made the series stand out immediately in a magazine better known for other genres.
Why it matters
Ghost in the Shell went on to become one of the most influential manga of its era, adapted into the acclaimed 1995 anime film and a franchise that continues today. Its ideas about the ghost in the machine, about identity in a world of replaceable bodies, shaped science fiction well beyond manga. The first appearance in magazine form is the key issue for collectors of the series, and early Young Magazine issues in collectible condition are scarce.
Prime City Comics copy
Our copy is Young Magazine Extra Edition #5, May 6, 1989, the first appearance of Ghost in the Shell, listed at $75,000. You can view it here: Young Magazine Extra Edition 5, May 6, 1989.