Proper Japanese Title: アックス
AX is Japan's primary anthology of alternative manga since the turn of the millennium and tries to carry on the editorial principles behind the legendary magazine Garo. AX's publisher, Seirin Kogeisha, had its own origins in the editorial staff of Garo and came about as a result of a split at that publisher (Seirindo) after the death of its founder in 1996. AX was launched soon after this split and though Garo tried to survive for a time, it ultimately ended in the early 00's.
AX has been released once every two months since its founding and is intentionally not designed to be commercially appealing and instead focuses on editorial freedom. This approach has led to it being embraced internationally with its works translated in many countries but it remains extremely niche within Japan and commercially unsuccesful. Because issues are distributed as books rather than as standard magazines, backissues are more easily available rather than disposable.
While AX has limited crossover with the mainstream industry, it does have a friendly promotional relationship and some talent crossover with Monthly Comic Beam (which although niche in its own way, is currently published through one of the biggest publishing companies in Japan). AX's publisher also reprints many older works by notable manga creators of the 20th century like Sanpei Shirato, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, George Akiyama, Susumu Katsumata, Hiroshi Hirata or Suehiro Maruo (some of whom were associated with Garo and others who were boundary-pushing but not at Garo). However, these types of creators rarely appear in AX itself and tend to only be referenced for special issues such as highlights of their career (41, 70, 119, 139) or tributes after their death (104, 109, 144, 145, 149).
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