Ultima Manga

Around 1988, when Origin and FCI began to roll out Japanese versions of the Ultima games, the Japanese publisher JICC created Japanese manga adaptations of the games. These adaptations differ greatly from the actual games.

Four mangas were published, with very little known about the last two.

Exodus

 * Publisher: JICC.
 * Author: Seiji Tanaka
 * Published: Aug. 15, 1988.
 * Length: 100 pages
 * Original List Price: 880¥ (about US$7)

This one contains two stories: "The Terror of Exodus" and "The Book of Mystic Wisdom". The first eight pages are in color, the rest is black-and-white. The manga interprets the events of Ultima III very freely. Some major differences include a missile-shooting robot that is part of the party and star ships that play a role in the story. Mondain and Minax, who were already dead in the game, appear beside Exodus, who has a stone-like form.

The following is the official description of the manga: "A space pilot named Genji gets sucked into Sosaria to battle Exodus, Mondain, and Minax, where he encounters the mage Aida, a robot named Bigelow, and a bard named...Lennon."

The hero roll-call includes:
 * Genji: space ace par excellence and the designated hero.
 * Aida: the girl of the group and empathic mage.
 * Lennon: a slightly paranoid bard.
 * Bigelow: a huge battle mech (!).

A complete English transcript of the story can be found here. Art examples in color and black-and-white can be found here.



Quest of the Avatar

 * Publisher: JICC.
 * Author: Yuko Tanaka
 * Published: Aug. 29, 1988
 * Original List Price: 900¥ (about US$7)

Like in the first manga, many things of Ultima IV are very freely interpreted, or outright changed. Instead of Iolo, a 14 year-old teenage girl named "Io" appears in the game (as seen the cover), while Julia is a man, still named "Julia" (this is a change that also happened in the NES-Port of Ultima IV). Katrina is also changed into a 10-year-old boy named "Kati"; Jaana is not present, replaced by a male druid named Shiva.

The story's hero is the 15-year-old Deane, son of a knight of the Order of the Silver Serpent. He is adopted in infancy by a druid of Yew after his mother's murder. The story revolves around his search as a teenager for his adoptive brother Shiva, who has gone missing in an attempt to become the Avatar.

The Fall of Magincia

 * Publisher: JICC
 * Author : Hiroyuki Watanabe
 * Published: Dec. 15, 1990.
 * Original List Price : ¥980

There is very little information available about this manga, apart from the title and cover. It can be speculated that the manga somehow ties-in with the destruction of the proud city Magincia, as told in Ultima IV. 

The Maze of Schwarzschild

 * Publisher: JICC.
 * Author: Seiji Tanaka
 * Published: Nov. 15, 1991
 * Original List Price: ¥980

Little is known about this publication, other than the title and the cover.

One bit that did surface is the illustration shown at the left. It shows an asteroid that is engraved with the Codex Symbol and the three people that are most likely the hero role call. However, from these bits no conclusion can be made about the story, other than it seems to be rather stranger (outer space after all...).