Marx was right

First it's tragedy, then comes the farce:

Just in time for Christmas, Karl Marx is finding a new audience among Japanese comic-book fans.

The manga edition of his masterpiece, "Das Kapital," hit Japanese bookstores this month and sold about 6,000 copies in its first few days, said Yusuke Maruo of EastPress.

"I think people are looking to Marx for answers to the problems with the capitalist society," Maruo said. "Obviously, the recent global crisis suggests that the system isn't working properly."

Maruo said he hoped the comic version would provide an enjoyable introduction to the German socialist's original work, written in 1867. The targeted readers are office workers in their 30s.