It’s no mystery why so many novels are about novelists, as the old adage “write what you know” becomes a self-devouring ouroboros. So too do some of the most entertaining manga-ka take themselves as a subject, creating works that provide an inside look at their lives and the workings of the manga industry. It’s not too surprising: If the […]
The epic autobiography of a manga master
Acclaimed for his visionary short-story collections The Push Man and Other Stories, Abandon the Old in Tokyo, and Good-Byeoriginally created nearly forty years ago, but just as resonant now as everthe legendary Japanese cartoonist Yoshihiro Tatsumi has come to be recognized in North America as a precursor of today's graphic novel movement. A Drifting Life is his monumental memoir eleven years in the making, beginning with his experiences as a child in Osaka, growing up as part of a country burdened by the shadows of World War II.
Spanning fifteen years from August 1945 to June 1960, Tatsumi's stand-in protagonist, Hiroshi, faces his father's financial burdens and his parents' failing marriage, his jealous brother's deteriorating health, and the innumerable pitfalls that await him in the competitive manga market of mid-twentieth-century Japan. He dreams of following in the considerable footsteps of his idol, the manga artist Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy, Apollo's Song, Ode to Kirihito, Buddha)with whom Tatsumi eventually became a peer and, at times, a stylistic rival. As with his short-story collection, A Drifting Life is designed by Adrian Tomine.
The epic autobiography of a manga master
Acclaimed for his visionary short-story collections The Push Man and Other Stories, Abandon the Old in Tokyo, and Good-Byeoriginally created nearly forty years ago, but just as resonant now as everthe legendary Japanese cartoonist Yoshihiro Tatsumi has come to be recognized in North America as a precursor of today's graphic novel movement. A Drifting Life is his monumental memoir eleven years in the making, beginning with his experiences as a child in Osaka, growing up as part of a country burdened by the shadows of World War II.
Spanning fifteen years from August 1945 to June 1960, Tatsumi's stand-in protagonist, Hiroshi, faces his father's financial burdens and his parents' failing marriage, his jealous brother's deteriorating health, and the innumerable pitfalls that await him in the competitive manga market of mid-twentieth-century Japan. He dreams of following in the considerable footsteps of his idol, the manga artist Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy, Apollo's Song, Ode to Kirihito, Buddha)with whom Tatsumi eventually became a peer and, at times, a stylistic rival. As with his short-story collection, A Drifting Life is designed by Adrian Tomine.
A Drifting Life
840A Drifting Life
840Paperback
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Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781897299746 |
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Publisher: | Drawn & Quarterly |
Publication date: | 04/14/2009 |
Pages: | 840 |
Product dimensions: | 8.74(w) x 6.52(h) x 2.10(d) |
Age Range: | 16 - 18 Years |