I just got Dr. Slump #5 today, and I'm feeling pretty smug. Twenty-some years ago I was an exchange student in Japan, and I read Dr. Slump. It was a teen gag comic, and with my limited Japanese, I got most of the gags. I still flip through my Dr. Slump books, and I still laugh at them.

Now I'm reading the translations, and I'm not finding the jokes as funny. I wonder if it's because the thrill of actually understanding them in Japanese was part of the enjoyment.

By the way, the art is by Akira Toriyama, the coloring is by me. And no, I'm not going to explain the joke. You will have to buy to book to find out.