As unearthed by Travis McGee in the comments of a previous post, Drawn & Quarterly will be releasing Black Blizzard (黒い吹雪 - Kuroi Fubuki) in April 2010. The details are listed on Amazon and in the Spring 2010 catalogue of FSG (D&Q's distributor). For folks that have read A Drifting Life, the publication of Black Blizzard in Japanese back in the 1950s features in the plot of that autobiography.
THE PREEMMINENT GEKIGA-KA'S FIRST GRAPHIC NOVEL FROM FIFTY YEARS AGO Created in the late 1950s, Black Blizzard is Yoshihiro Tatsumi's remarkable first full-length graphic novel and one of the first published examples of Gekiga. Tatsumi documented how his love for Mickey Spillane and hard-boiled crime novels led him to create this landmark genre of manga in his epic, critically acclaimed 2009 autobiography, A Drifting Life. With Black Blizzard, Tatsumi explores the dark underbelly of his working-class heroes that five decades later has made him one of the best-known Japanese cartoonists in North America.
Susumu Yamaji, a twenty-four-year-old pianist, is arrested formurder and ends up handcuffed to a career criminal on the train that will take them to prison. An avalanche derails the train and the criminal takes the opportunity to escape, dragging a reluctant Susumu with him into the blizzard raging outside. They flee into the mountains to an abandoned ranger station, where they take shelter from the storm. As they sit around the fire they built, Susumu relates how love drove him to become a murderer. A cinematic adventure story, Black Blizzard uncovers an unlikely love story and an even unlikelier friendship.
According to their listing, it will be a $20.00 softcover book, 144 pages, coming out on April 27, 2010. We'll post more details as the release gets closer-- very exciting!
As unearthed by Travis McGee in the comments of a previous post, Drawn & Quarterly will be releasing Black Blizzard (黒い吹雪 - Kuroi Fubuki) in April 2010. The details are listed on Amazon and in the Spring 2010 catalogue of FSG (D&Q's distributor). For folks that have read A Drifting Life, the publication of Black Blizzard in Japanese back in the 1950s features in the plot of that autobiography.
THE PREEMMINENT GEKIGA-KA'S FIRST GRAPHIC NOVEL FROM FIFTY YEARS AGO Created in the late 1950s, Black Blizzard is Yoshihiro Tatsumi's remarkable first full-length graphic novel and one of the first published examples of Gekiga. Tatsumi documented how his love for Mickey Spillane and hard-boiled crime novels led him to create this landmark genre of manga in his epic, critically acclaimed 2009 autobiography, A Drifting Life. With Black Blizzard, Tatsumi explores the dark underbelly of his working-class heroes that five decades later has made him one of the best-known Japanese cartoonists in North America.
Susumu Yamaji, a twenty-four-year-old pianist, is arrested formurder and ends up handcuffed to a career criminal on the train that will take them to prison. An avalanche derails the train and the criminal takes the opportunity to escape, dragging a reluctant Susumu with him into the blizzard raging outside. They flee into the mountains to an abandoned ranger station, where they take shelter from the storm. As they sit around the fire they built, Susumu relates how love drove him to become a murderer. A cinematic adventure story, Black Blizzard uncovers an unlikely love story and an even unlikelier friendship.
According to their listing, it will be a $20.00 softcover book, 144 pages, coming out on April 27, 2010. We'll post more details as the release gets closer-- very exciting!
Here's a bit of exciting news for the Same Hat community. Leigh at Top Shelf passed on the news that they have posted the Yoshihiro Tatsumi story from their upcoming Ax Anthology in its entirety on Top Shelf 2.0.
Deatils on this short story from their site:
His story "Love's Bride" (愛の花嫁) appeared in issue #34 (30 Aug 2003) of the Japanese Ax anthology, and will be included in Top Shelf's upcoming Ax collection.
Here's a bit of exciting news for the Same Hat community. Leigh at Top Shelf passed on the news that they have posted the Yoshihiro Tatsumi story from their upcoming Ax Anthology in its entirety on Top Shelf 2.0.
Deatils on this short story from their site:
His story "Love's Bride" (愛の花嫁) appeared in issue #34 (30 Aug 2003) of the Japanese Ax anthology, and will be included in Top Shelf's upcoming Ax collection.
[RSS readers, this post features galleries using PictoBrowser; Please click through to the blog to view them!]
There is a short but hallowed list in my head of older cartoonists that I adore and would travel to meet in person. And atop the list are perched Kazuo Umezu & Yoshihiro Tatsumi. This past weekend, as part of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF), the chance presented itself to meet Yoshihiro Tatsumi in person... and I took it!
I already put up my TCAF round-up, but wanted to take a little time to post just about Tatsumi stuff.
The first big event of the weekend was held on Friday at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre, featuring cartoonists Seth, Adrian Tomine, and Yoshihiro Tatsumi.
The Beguiling's excellent Chris Butcher MC'd the talk, which started with a preface by Adrian Tomine. Tomine talked briefly about the process by which his earliest Optic Nerve stories were re-printed in a boxed set as fascimilies of the original minicomics.
The talk also featured a long, personal lecture by self-proclaimed Luddite and master draftsman, Seth. It was really humid in the room, and Seth's pacing and points were not my cup of tea that night, so I barely made it through unscathed (and un-asleep).
But finally came... the main event! A 45 minute interview/discussion between Adrian Tomine and Yoshihiro Tatsumi. It was a treat to listen Tatsumi talk about his early days as a cartoonist, the tension of his relationship with Tezuka, and the release in English of many of his pioneering gekiga works. Here are a few photos:
Also from the talk, here's a 3 minute video (shot by me from my seat) of Tatsumi responding to a question from Tomine about getting his early short works published:
The interpreter for Tatsumi did a great job all weekend, I thought. Though, it was nice to be able to listen along to Tatsumi directly :)
At TCAF on Saturday and Sunday, Tatsumi was the main event and most in-demand cartoonist at the festival. He spent 2-3 hours at the Drawn & Quarterly booth each day, generously signing books and giving sketches to fans. Since he took so long giving personal drawings, the lines were out of control at the booth:
I got to the line too late on Saturday to make it before he finished, but was able to meet Tatsumi on Sunday after a 30 minutes wait. I just briefly spoke to Tatsumi (in Japanese), stammering out that I love his comics and that I used to live in southern Osaka, just a ways from Shinsekai and Tennoji, where a number of his gekiga tales take place.
Here are a dozen photos of Tatsumi generously signing books for a long and adoring line of fans:
My favorite thing I captured from TCAF, here is a short voyeur-esque clip of Tatsumi doing a nice sketch in a lucky fan's book. There is something really exciting and perfect about watching a talented cartoonist at work:
[Click here for another short video from a different part of TCAF of Tatsumi signing for fans]
Yoshihiro Tatsumi signed my book!
And here I present, the most hallowed page in my Disneyland Autograph Book!
About.com's manga guide Deb Aoki got some time to interview Tatsumi on Sunday, and just posted that article today. She asked him some interesting questions about his relationship in later years with Osamu Tezuka and his impressions of Tezuka's reaction to the "threat" of gekiga in the 1970s. Check it out!
[RSS readers, this post features galleries using PictoBrowser; Please click through to the blog to view them!]
There is a short but hallowed list in my head of older cartoonists that I adore and would travel to meet in person. And atop the list are perched Kazuo Umezu & Yoshihiro Tatsumi. This past weekend, as part of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF), the chance presented itself to meet Yoshihiro Tatsumi in person... and I took it!
I already put up my TCAF round-up, but wanted to take a little time to post just about Tatsumi stuff.
The first big event of the weekend was held on Friday at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre, featuring cartoonists Seth, Adrian Tomine, and Yoshihiro Tatsumi.
The Beguiling's excellent Chris Butcher MC'd the talk, which started with a preface by Adrian Tomine. Tomine talked briefly about the process by which his earliest Optic Nerve stories were re-printed in a boxed set as fascimilies of the original minicomics.
The talk also featured a long, personal lecture by self-proclaimed Luddite and master draftsman, Seth. It was really humid in the room, and Seth's pacing and points were not my cup of tea that night, so I barely made it through unscathed (and un-asleep).
But finally came... the main event! A 45 minute interview/discussion between Adrian Tomine and Yoshihiro Tatsumi. It was a treat to listen Tatsumi talk about his early days as a cartoonist, the tension of his relationship with Tezuka, and the release in English of many of his pioneering gekiga works. Here are a few photos:
Also from the talk, here's a 3 minute video (shot by me from my seat) of Tatsumi responding to a question from Tomine about getting his early short works published:
The interpreter for Tatsumi did a great job all weekend, I thought. Though, it was nice to be able to listen along to Tatsumi directly :)
At TCAF on Saturday and Sunday, Tatsumi was the main event and most in-demand cartoonist at the festival. He spent 2-3 hours at the Drawn & Quarterly booth each day, generously signing books and giving sketches to fans. Since he took so long giving personal drawings, the lines were out of control at the booth:
I got to the line too late on Saturday to make it before he finished, but was able to meet Tatsumi on Sunday after a 30 minutes wait. I just briefly spoke to Tatsumi (in Japanese), stammering out that I love his comics and that I used to live in southern Osaka, just a ways from Shinsekai and Tennoji, where a number of his gekiga tales take place.
Here are a dozen photos of Tatsumi generously signing books for a long and adoring line of fans:
My favorite thing I captured from TCAF, here is a short voyeur-esque clip of Tatsumi doing a nice sketch in a lucky fan's book. There is something really exciting and perfect about watching a talented cartoonist at work:
[Click here for another short video from a different part of TCAF of Tatsumi signing for fans]
Yoshihiro Tatsumi signed my book!
And here I present, the most hallowed page in my Disneyland Autograph Book!
About.com's manga guide Deb Aoki got some time to interview Tatsumi on Sunday, and just posted that article today. She asked him some interesting questions about his relationship in later years with Osamu Tezuka and his impressions of Tezuka's reaction to the "threat" of gekiga in the 1970s. Check it out!
As I mentioned last week, I decided this year to skip MoCCA and Comic Con and use that money to head to Canada for the Toronto Cartoon Arts Festival (TCAF). The festival is a bi-annual event featuring cartoonists from all over (and a preponderance of Canadians!).
The event is sponsored in part by The Beguiling, and the generous and nice Chris Butcher and Peter Birkemoe (co-owners of the shop) were running around the entire time to make sure things went smoothly. Interestingly, TCAF was held inside the Toronto Reference Library-- a public space with free admission and many non-comics folks doing their normal library business.
I headed out a little early on Thursday night, in order to have some time Friday before TCAF to explore Toronto. I left Sunday night, having gotten my fill of minis, panels, nerdity and meeting new people. Here is a quick, bulleted list of happenings (with a few additional posts to follow):
FRIDAY + Walked around Toronto on a Scott Pilgrimage, trying to locate Edgar Wright and the film production. I didn't have any luck, and was too lazy to walk to the house that is doubling as the exterior of SP & Wallace's house in the film (Thanks to Matt for the tips!). I did hit a bunch of book stores, and along the way saw the following notables from the comic: Honest Ed's megastore
Casa Loma
+Visited the Beguiling, arguably the best comics shop in N. America. Their manga and comics selections weren't as expansive as Comic Relief (in terms of raw volume of books), but it felt curated precisely to my tastes-- with lots of international manga and zines! I'll put up a whole post about Beguiling finds this week.
+ Attended an event featuring Adrian Tomine interviewing Yoshihiro Tatsumi. I am devoting a separate post tonight to all my Tatsumi sightings and interactions during TCAF, and will share everything there!
SATURDAY +Bought self-published comics and minis. There were lots of good finds to be had this year- I specifically avoided any book I could get back home (like from Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly). The best purchases of the trip were interesting newspaper zines, Remake by Lamar Abrams, and some new books by friends. I'll post pictures of the haul with recommendations too!
+Hung out in-person with new friends, like Saicoink and Michael DeForge. Both are awesome creators, and were super fun to tool around the show with. While visiting tables, ran into Electric Ant contributors Shawn Cheng, Derek Kirk Kim, Dash Shaw... and had a sighting of the fabled Shigacorn. I also spent a lot of time with manga master Jason Thompson, About.com's Deb Aoki, and my old Toronto buddies Vivian & Matt. NICE!
+Attended a few panels. The first was Perspectives on Global Manga, moderated by Deb and featuring a discussion with Bryan Lee O'Malley, Becky Cloonan, the Publisher at Udon, Antoine Dodé, and Jason Thompson about the influence of manga on their works.
O'Malley & Cloonan
DeForge and I also attended a panel moderated by the dude from Inkstuds featuring Dash Shaw, Frank Santoro, and some other dudes riffing on how "mainstream comics of the silver and bronze age have a relevance and impact on modern alternative comics," with lots of righteous discussions and images of Kirby, Ditko, and Steranko's work in the 1970s.
SUNDAY +Spent a few hours getting my Autograph book signed. I forgot or didn't get up the nerve to ask a few folks, but I was really pleased with the new additions. Check them out at this post.
+Lots of last minute purchases, and said congrats to the 2009 Doug Wright Award winners: Matt Forsythe (Ojinbobo), Seth (I did not actually say congrats to him, but was tempted to steal his fedora which I saw laying backstage at an event), and Kate Beaton (Never Learn Anything From History).
+IN SUMMARY: TCAF was a really rad show, with free admission and a strong emphasis on engaging the Toronto community. While I dug MoCCA last year, I'm super glad that I skipped it (and SDCC) to make this trip happen. Many kudos to Chris Butcher and the entire Beguiling/volunteer corps. crew for pulling together so many indie creators and international cartoonists in one spot. I'll definitely be there for the next one, in 2011.
THE REST OF THE POSTS (AND PICS/VIDEOS) COMING VERY SOON!
As I mentioned last week, I decided this year to skip MoCCA and Comic Con and use that money to head to Canada for the Toronto Cartoon Arts Festival (TCAF). The festival is a bi-annual event featuring cartoonists from all over (and a preponderance of Canadians!).
The event is sponsored in part by The Beguiling, and the generous and nice Chris Butcher and Peter Birkemoe (co-owners of the shop) were running around the entire time to make sure things went smoothly. Interestingly, TCAF was held inside the Toronto Reference Library-- a public space with free admission and many non-comics folks doing their normal library business.
I headed out a little early on Thursday night, in order to have some time Friday before TCAF to explore Toronto. I left Sunday night, having gotten my fill of minis, panels, nerdity and meeting new people. Here is a quick, bulleted list of happenings (with a few additional posts to follow):
FRIDAY + Walked around Toronto on a Scott Pilgrimage, trying to locate Edgar Wright and the film production. I didn't have any luck, and was too lazy to walk to the house that is doubling as the exterior of SP & Wallace's house in the film (Thanks to Matt for the tips!). I did hit a bunch of book stores, and along the way saw the following notables from the comic: Honest Ed's megastore
Casa Loma
+Visited the Beguiling, arguably the best comics shop in N. America. Their manga and comics selections weren't as expansive as Comic Relief (in terms of raw volume of books), but it felt curated precisely to my tastes-- with lots of international manga and zines! I'll put up a whole post about Beguiling finds this week.
+ Attended an event featuring Adrian Tomine interviewing Yoshihiro Tatsumi. I am devoting a separate post tonight to all my Tatsumi sightings and interactions during TCAF, and will share everything there!
SATURDAY +Bought self-published comics and minis. There were lots of good finds to be had this year- I specifically avoided any book I could get back home (like from Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly). The best purchases of the trip were interesting newspaper zines, Remake by Lamar Abrams, and some new books by friends. I'll post pictures of the haul with recommendations too!
+Hung out in-person with new friends, like Saicoink and Michael DeForge. Both are awesome creators, and were super fun to tool around the show with. While visiting tables, ran into Electric Ant contributors Shawn Cheng, Derek Kirk Kim, Dash Shaw... and had a sighting of the fabled Shigacorn. I also spent a lot of time with manga master Jason Thompson, About.com's Deb Aoki, and my old Toronto buddies Vivian & Matt. NICE!
+Attended a few panels. The first was Perspectives on Global Manga, moderated by Deb and featuring a discussion with Bryan Lee O'Malley, Becky Cloonan, the Publisher at Udon, Antoine Dodé, and Jason Thompson about the influence of manga on their works.
O'Malley & Cloonan
DeForge and I also attended a panel moderated by the dude from Inkstuds featuring Dash Shaw, Frank Santoro, and some other dudes riffing on how "mainstream comics of the silver and bronze age have a relevance and impact on modern alternative comics," with lots of righteous discussions and images of Kirby, Ditko, and Steranko's work in the 1970s.
SUNDAY +Spent a few hours getting my Autograph book signed. I forgot or didn't get up the nerve to ask a few folks, but I was really pleased with the new additions. Check them out at this post.
+Lots of last minute purchases, and said congrats to the 2009 Doug Wright Award winners: Matt Forsythe (Ojinbobo), Seth (I did not actually say congrats to him, but was tempted to steal his fedora which I saw laying backstage at an event), and Kate Beaton (Never Learn Anything From History).
+IN SUMMARY: TCAF was a really rad show, with free admission and a strong emphasis on engaging the Toronto community. While I dug MoCCA last year, I'm super glad that I skipped it (and SDCC) to make this trip happen. Many kudos to Chris Butcher and the entire Beguiling/volunteer corps. crew for pulling together so many indie creators and international cartoonists in one spot. I'll definitely be there for the next one, in 2011.
THE REST OF THE POSTS (AND PICS/VIDEOS) COMING VERY SOON!
...about 30 minutes ago. Three long-ass posts rounding up TCAF are coming tomorrow (with lots of pics and videos)!! Until then, here's a quick photo to tide you guys over:
...about 30 minutes ago. Three long-ass posts rounding up TCAF are coming tomorrow (with lots of pics and videos)!! Until then, here's a quick photo to tide you guys over:
Another short update. Since I won't be making it to Comic-Con or MoCCA this year, I decided to take a few days off and splurge on a trip to Toronto to attend the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF).
TCAF is a con like SPX or APE, spanning all-day Saturday and Sunday. It presents a new (and Canadian) opportunity to check out minicomics/zines, hang out with friends/Electric Ant contributors, and attend a few manga panels.
But... the main, MAIN reason I came was to have a chance to meet Yoshihiro Tatsumi! In celebration of A DRIFTING LIFE, Drawn & Quarterly flew Tatsumi out for events in New York and then for TCAF. Friday night, D&Q and The Beguiling are hosting an in-conversation event with Adrian Tomine and Tatsumi... I can't freakin' wait. Evan got to meet Tatsumi at SDCC back in 2006, but this will be my big chance!
I'm staying at a hotel nearby the Toronto Library, and flying home on Sunday night. Reports and pictures to follow once I get back!
Another short update. Since I won't be making it to Comic-Con or MoCCA this year, I decided to take a few days off and splurge on a trip to Toronto to attend the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF).
TCAF is a con like SPX or APE, spanning all-day Saturday and Sunday. It presents a new (and Canadian) opportunity to check out minicomics/zines, hang out with friends/Electric Ant contributors, and attend a few manga panels.
But... the main, MAIN reason I came was to have a chance to meet Yoshihiro Tatsumi! In celebration of A DRIFTING LIFE, Drawn & Quarterly flew Tatsumi out for events in New York and then for TCAF. Friday night, D&Q and The Beguiling are hosting an in-conversation event with Adrian Tomine and Tatsumi... I can't freakin' wait. Evan got to meet Tatsumi at SDCC back in 2006, but this will be my big chance!
I'm staying at a hotel nearby the Toronto Library, and flying home on Sunday night. Reports and pictures to follow once I get back!
In the comments of the 4th anniversary post, jimpac asked for a post sharing pics and details about TACO che. I've had dozens of photos saved up and now that I've been kicked in the pants (and found a happy solution for hosting lots of pictures with PictoBrowser), it's time to post everything!
Folks reading on RSS: PictoBrowser doesn't play nice with you, so please click through and come see the 100+ photos! Mouse over 'Notes' to read the photo captions.
If you've been reading Same Hat for a while, you've probably heard me talk about the Nakano Broadway Mall. It's located just west of Shinjuku, and home to a sprawling complex of strange, otaku stores-- including the massive 15+ Mandarake shops. It's like a more underground and less commercialized version of Akiba, minus the foreign tourists with cameras and with more of the stuff we all like. How to get to Nakano Broadway and maps/pics from the Mandarake shops can be found here.
Last Spring, my GF and I went to Japan for two weeks, and I managed to fit two trips to the greatest shop in Nakano Broadway (and quite possibly, my favorite shop of any kind in the world), TACO che!! I was originally told about the shop by my German buddy Ben (who gavee me the Shintaro Kago Bullying kit from there back in 2007). TACO che is pretty much THE underground manga shop of your dreams. They don't have a specific tie to any one publisher, but I heard that the owner is close with the folks that fun Seirinkogeisha. The shop carries fan zines, dojinshi, along with nearly every title by Seirinkogeisha, EnterBrain/Beam and all the other indies we love.
The shop is located on the 3rd floor, in the general vicinity of the northwest end of the Nakano Broadway mall. Here are some shots from inside the store. The place is tiny, but every square foot is something cool and tempting:
These photos are all from March 2008, and reflect the books and goods that were hot at the time. Kazuo Umezu's 50th Anniversary (of his career in manga) celebration was in full force, and the store was crammed full of incredible Umezz goods:
In my two trips to the shop, I spent (eeek) over 300 bucks and filled a suitcase with books. I didn't really have 300 bucks to spend on comics, but I. JUST. COULDN'T. HELP. MYSELF. In addition to the bigger pubs and indie zines I mentioned above, TACO che also publishes their own occasional zines and pamphlets (which are insanely excellent, like this). Here is just a small smattering of the manga gems I am talking about:
Not content to be simply the BOOK store of our dreams, TACO che also carries limited edition shirts, toys and DVDs, including Suehiro Maruo posters made just for TACO che (sorry, I can't find that pic at the moment, will take one of the miniposter on my wall). Here are some of the shirts:
And here are some of the goodies:
They also carry lapel pins by all our favorites:
I tried to include good captions for all those pics, but if you have any questions (or corrections!) leave a comment here! You can see the photos directly at the non-flashy Same Hat flickr, which I'm using just to store pics for PictoBrowser to pull from.
TACO che continues to be the epicenter for all the manga and art we all love so much, so I'll keep my eyes ope on their blog and post interesting news. In the coming month or so, TACO che will be hosting signing events with Takashi Nemoto and Jun Hayami- hopefully Nate or Schultz can check those out for us!!
In the comments of the 4th anniversary post, jimpac asked for a post sharing pics and details about TACO che. I've had dozens of photos saved up and now that I've been kicked in the pants (and found a happy solution for hosting lots of pictures with PictoBrowser), it's time to post everything!
Folks reading on RSS: PictoBrowser doesn't play nice with you, so please click through and come see the 100+ photos! Mouse over 'Notes' to read the photo captions.
If you've been reading Same Hat for a while, you've probably heard me talk about the Nakano Broadway Mall. It's located just west of Shinjuku, and home to a sprawling complex of strange, otaku stores-- including the massive 15+ Mandarake shops. It's like a more underground and less commercialized version of Akiba, minus the foreign tourists with cameras and with more of the stuff we all like. How to get to Nakano Broadway and maps/pics from the Mandarake shops can be found here.
Last Spring, my GF and I went to Japan for two weeks, and I managed to fit two trips to the greatest shop in Nakano Broadway (and quite possibly, my favorite shop of any kind in the world), TACO che!! I was originally told about the shop by my German buddy Ben (who gavee me the Shintaro Kago Bullying kit from there back in 2007). TACO che is pretty much THE underground manga shop of your dreams. They don't have a specific tie to any one publisher, but I heard that the owner is close with the folks that fun Seirinkogeisha. The shop carries fan zines, dojinshi, along with nearly every title by Seirinkogeisha, EnterBrain/Beam and all the other indies we love.
The shop is located on the 3rd floor, in the general vicinity of the northwest end of the Nakano Broadway mall. Here are some shots from inside the store. The place is tiny, but every square foot is something cool and tempting:
These photos are all from March 2008, and reflect the books and goods that were hot at the time. Kazuo Umezu's 50th Anniversary (of his career in manga) celebration was in full force, and the store was crammed full of incredible Umezz goods:
In my two trips to the shop, I spent (eeek) over 300 bucks and filled a suitcase with books. I didn't really have 300 bucks to spend on comics, but I. JUST. COULDN'T. HELP. MYSELF. In addition to the bigger pubs and indie zines I mentioned above, TACO che also publishes their own occasional zines and pamphlets (which are insanely excellent, like this). Here is just a small smattering of the manga gems I am talking about:
Not content to be simply the BOOK store of our dreams, TACO che also carries limited edition shirts, toys and DVDs, including Suehiro Maruo posters made just for TACO che (sorry, I can't find that pic at the moment, will take one of the miniposter on my wall). Here are some of the shirts:
And here are some of the goodies:
They also carry lapel pins by all our favorites:
I tried to include good captions for all those pics, but if you have any questions (or corrections!) leave a comment here! You can see the photos directly at the non-flashy Same Hat flickr, which I'm using just to store pics for PictoBrowser to pull from.
TACO che continues to be the epicenter for all the manga and art we all love so much, so I'll keep my eyes ope on their blog and post interesting news. In the coming month or so, TACO che will be hosting signing events with Takashi Nemoto and Jun Hayami- hopefully Nate or Schultz can check those out for us!!
Freshly printed and delivered to the Drawn & Quarterly office, they've posted on the D&Q blog a photo of what the English edition of Yoshihiro Tatsumi's massive A Drifting Life looks like...
Freshly printed and delivered to the Drawn & Quarterly office, they've posted on the D&Q blog a photo of what the English edition of Yoshihiro Tatsumi's massive A Drifting Life looks like...
Hot on the heels of the Most Anticipated Books of 2009 list, a glimpse into A DRIFTING LIFE, the upcoming manga autobiography/masterpiece from Yoshihiro Tatsumi, has made its way online. The book will be published by Drawn & Quarterly a little later this year, in a giant 800+ page hardcover tome designed and lettered by Adrian Tomine. Interestingly, the second and final installment of this book was just recently published last month in Japanese, by Seirin Kogeisha - quite a fast turnaround for English publication!
On the site of international lit magazine, Words Without Borders, they've debuted a 16 page preview of the forthcoming English edition of this book (link via MangaBlog!).
I've had the chance to read the first 100 pages or so, and it provides a personal history and eyewitness account of the early years of the manga industry, and the development of the gekiga movement. Incredible stuff, both for fans and for academically-minded manga/Japanese literature nerds. It's easy to imagine this alongside Schodt's Manga! Manga! in a syllabus for a college course on Japanese Pop Culture.
Here's an example of what we're talking about (click the preview above for more pages!):
According to Amazon, A Drifting Life will be released on 4/16/2009. The recently-updated marketing summary of the book reads,
Acclaimed for his visionary short-story collections The Push Man and Other Stories, Abandon the Old in Tokyo, and Good-Bye—originally created nearly forty years ago, but just as resonant now as ever—the 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.
Anyone else gonna be at the Toronto Comic Art Festival in May, and attending the Tatsumi/Tomine presentation? I'm leaning toward trying to go... I wonder if Edgar Wright (who is in Toronto for filming) will stop by with Bryan Lee O'Malley to talk about the Scott Pilgrim movie?
UPDATE! - I thought this excellent comment from my buddy Nate (SH's Man in Japan) was worth bringing up to the top of the page. Nate is living in Japan right now doing PhD dissertation work, and had this to share about A Drfiting Life:
Having just burned through this in Japanese, I can confirm that this book is indeed the shit, and I was happy to pay the almost 40 bucks that the two volumes of the Japanese version set me back.
The beauty of this book is that it's not only the story of Tatsumi's career and life, or of gekiga, but really of both manga itself and even early postwar Japan. If you know your postwar manga (which I don't...) the list of characters is stunning; if you don't, it's a great introduction - Tatsumi palled around with Saito Takao of Golgo 13 fame and tons of others who are no doubt waiting to be discoverd by manga fans.
If I could make a criticism it would be that he spends a long amount of time in the second half really going into a lot of nitty gritty about the formation of different associations and contracts with different publishers - it drags a bit, but its stuff like this that make it really valuable as history, like Ryan says. The other thing I wanted was more!! Apparently Tatsumi spent 13 years and 800 pages on it, but he still only gets up to 1960 - in other words, way before he even got around to crafting the stories that we all have been introduced to! I wanted to find out how he went from near-virginal young manga boy to chronicler of dirty down and out shit. There are hints, but I want to know about the NEXT decade of his life...
One interesting thing is that I always thought "gekiga" referred more to said gritty side of life tales, but it really is closer, at least at that point Tatsumi chronicles, to "hard-boiled" type noir stories, and apparently went through some similar censorship issues as American comics in the 50s (comics code, Wertham, etc) Hopefully this book opens up the way for more of those classics to be published in English!!
Short story long, if you're not waiting with bated breath you should be!
UPDATE #2: I wanted to remind folks that Evan actually met Tatsumi back at Comic Con 2006, and we have the posts and videos to prove it! He also got us autographed and personalized copies of Abandon The Old in Tokyo! CLICK HERE for those pics and videos.
Hot on the heels of the Most Anticipated Books of 2009 list, a glimpse into A DRIFTING LIFE, the upcoming manga autobiography/masterpiece from Yoshihiro Tatsumi, has made its way online. The book will be published by Drawn & Quarterly a little later this year, in a giant 800+ page hardcover tome designed and lettered by Adrian Tomine. Interestingly, the second and final installment of this book was just recently published last month in Japanese, by Seirin Kogeisha - quite a fast turnaround for English publication!
On the site of international lit magazine, Words Without Borders, they've debuted a 16 page preview of the forthcoming English edition of this book (link via MangaBlog!).
I've had the chance to read the first 100 pages or so, and it provides a personal history and eyewitness account of the early years of the manga industry, and the development of the gekiga movement. Incredible stuff, both for fans and for academically-minded manga/Japanese literature nerds. It's easy to imagine this alongside Schodt's Manga! Manga! in a syllabus for a college course on Japanese Pop Culture.
Here's an example of what we're talking about (click the preview above for more pages!):
According to Amazon, A Drifting Life will be released on 4/16/2009. The recently-updated marketing summary of the book reads,
Acclaimed for his visionary short-story collections The Push Man and Other Stories, Abandon the Old in Tokyo, and Good-Bye—originally created nearly forty years ago, but just as resonant now as ever—the 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.
Anyone else gonna be at the Toronto Comic Art Festival in May, and attending the Tatsumi/Tomine presentation? I'm leaning toward trying to go... I wonder if Edgar Wright (who is in Toronto for filming) will stop by with Bryan Lee O'Malley to talk about the Scott Pilgrim movie?
UPDATE! - I thought this excellent comment from my buddy Nate (SH's Man in Japan) was worth bringing up to the top of the page. Nate is living in Japan right now doing PhD dissertation work, and had this to share about A Drfiting Life:
Having just burned through this in Japanese, I can confirm that this book is indeed the shit, and I was happy to pay the almost 40 bucks that the two volumes of the Japanese version set me back.
The beauty of this book is that it's not only the story of Tatsumi's career and life, or of gekiga, but really of both manga itself and even early postwar Japan. If you know your postwar manga (which I don't...) the list of characters is stunning; if you don't, it's a great introduction - Tatsumi palled around with Saito Takao of Golgo 13 fame and tons of others who are no doubt waiting to be discoverd by manga fans.
If I could make a criticism it would be that he spends a long amount of time in the second half really going into a lot of nitty gritty about the formation of different associations and contracts with different publishers - it drags a bit, but its stuff like this that make it really valuable as history, like Ryan says. The other thing I wanted was more!! Apparently Tatsumi spent 13 years and 800 pages on it, but he still only gets up to 1960 - in other words, way before he even got around to crafting the stories that we all have been introduced to! I wanted to find out how he went from near-virginal young manga boy to chronicler of dirty down and out shit. There are hints, but I want to know about the NEXT decade of his life...
One interesting thing is that I always thought "gekiga" referred more to said gritty side of life tales, but it really is closer, at least at that point Tatsumi chronicles, to "hard-boiled" type noir stories, and apparently went through some similar censorship issues as American comics in the 50s (comics code, Wertham, etc) Hopefully this book opens up the way for more of those classics to be published in English!!
Short story long, if you're not waiting with bated breath you should be!
UPDATE #2: I wanted to remind folks that Evan actually met Tatsumi back at Comic Con 2006, and we have the posts and videos to prove it! He also got us autographed and personalized copies of Abandon The Old in Tokyo! CLICK HERE for those pics and videos.
