The worlds of manga and comic books often inspire devotion and passion, especially legacies like Shonen Jump. Nowhere is the passion and dedication of comic book collectors more evident than with Ryley Moore aka “The Omnibus Collector.” Moore, as the name suggests, is an avid follower and collector of a wide range of comic books, as well as comics-related to content, and he just unveiled a massive collection of every single issue of Shonen Jump ever published.
Comic books have been a part of American culture since the 1930s. In Japan, after the end of World War II, the American style of comic books influenced and intermingled with the ancient Japanese “art book” tradition to create modern Japanese manga. From that point, comics and manga largely developed independently of each other. However, over the past several decades just as American comics have become more available globally, so have Japanese manga. A large part of manga's American proliferation is the popularity of Shonen Jump, a magazine that collected new chapters of popular action manga for boys. Essentially the American version of Japan's Weekly Shōnen Jump, the magazine began publication in North America in 2002 and stopped publishing in 2012 as it moved to digital. Though Jump has its fair share of fans, one fan took their passion for the magazine to a whole new level.
Youtuber Ryley Moore, known as the Omnibus Collector, recently posted a video detailing his massive collection of every single issue of Shonen Jump ever printed. In the video, Moore details the first wave of manga releases in the United States. Though he was a fan of anime he had limited access to manga. As luck would have it, one day his grandfather bought him a copy of Shonen Jump. Moore was immediately smitten by the magazine. The magazine not only provided Moore with a direct link to the Japanese manga that he had been interested in such as Dragon Ball and Yu Gi Oh. From there, Moore would grow increasingly dedicated to following Jump, eventually leading him to track down every issue for his collection. The journey was far from easy and required months of searching online, though he did have help from the wider manga community.
What all of this shows is just how much manga and comics, in general, mean to fans worldwide. It's no understatement to say that assembling this collection was a monumental task as it took Moore a great deal of time and money to find each individual issue. The effort clearly paid off, as his collection is undoubtedly impressive just on a visual level alone. All of it makes sense though considering just how important these series are to so many people. In the video, Moore details how series like One Piece and Naruto resonated with him and inspired him to seek out more of Shone Jump's titles. As he himself put it, “there is just some special something that those series have as opposed to Shonen titles from other magazines, other publishers.”
It all certainly makes for a wonderful visual as Moore's collection is essentially wall-to-wall bookshelves covered in nothing but manga. It's no wonder that someone like Ryan Moore would be so passionate about Shonen Jump though as the magazine has undoubtedly inspired similar passions in manga fans across the entire globe.
Source: The Omnibus Collector