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Gekiga
, literally "dramatic pictures", is a style of Japanese comics aimed at adult audiences and marked by a more cinematic art style and more mature themes. ''Gekiga'' was the predominant style of adult comics in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s. It is aesthetically defined by sharp angles, dark hatching, and gritty lines, and thematically by realism, social engagement, maturity, and masculinity. History In the 1950s, mainstream Japanese comics (manga) came from Tokyo and was aimed at children, led by the work of Osamu Tezuka. Before Tezuka moved to Tokyo, he lived in Osaka and mentored artists such as Yoshihiro Tatsumi and Masahiko Matsumoto who admired him. Although influenced by Tezuka and his cinematic style, Tatsumi and his colleagues were not interested in making comics for children. They wanted to write comics for adults that were more graphic and showed more violence. Tatsumi explained, "Part of that was influenced by the newspaper stories I would read. I would have an emotion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yoshihiro Tatsumi
was a Japanese manga artist whose work was first published in his teens, and continued through the rest of his life. He is widely credited with starting the gekiga style of alternative manga in Japan, having allegedly coined the term in 1957. His work frequently illustrated the darker elements of life. Biography Childhood and early work Tatsumi grew up in Osaka, near a U.S. military base called Itami Airfield. As a child, with his old brother Okimasa, Tatsumi contributed amateur four-panel manga to magazines that featured readers' work, winning several times. After corresponding with like-minded children, Tatsumi helped form the Children's Manga Association. This led to a round-table discussion for the grade school edition of ''Mainichi Shimbun'' with pioneering manga artist Osamu Tezuka. Tatsumi formed a relationship with Tezuka, who encouraged him to try making longer stories. Another well-known manga artist, , also gave Tatsumi feedback and advice. Ōshiro later asked to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yoshiharu Tsuge
is a Japanese cartoonist and essayist. He was active in comics between 1955 and 1987. His works range from tales of ordinary life to dream-like surrealism, and often show his interest in traveling about Japan. He has garnered the most attention from the surrealistic works he had published in the late 1960s in the avant-garde magazine '' Garo''. Tsuge began producing comics in 1955 for the rental comics industry that flourished in impoverished post-War Japan. Initially, he made comics in the hard-boiled ''gekiga'' style–dark, realistic tales with negative endings. When rental comics ceased to be viable employment in the mid-1960s, Tsuge was in dire straits until he was picked up by the publishers of the avant garde comics magazine '' Garo''. From 1965 to 1970, he entered his most widely known phase when he produced often surrealistic and introspective works for ''Garo''. The June 1968 issue saw the most famous of these: the dream-based "''Neji-shiki''" (most commonly re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alternative Manga
Alternative manga or underground manga is a Western term for Japanese comics that are published outside the more commercial manga market, or which have different art styles, themes, and narratives to those found in the more popular manga magazines. The term was taken from the similar alternative comics. The artistic center of alternative manga production was from the 1960s until the 1990s the manga magazine ''Garo'', which is why in Japan, alternative manga are often called ''Garo-kei'' (ガロ系, "Garo-tique"), even if they were not published in ''Garo''. History Alternative manga originated in the lending libraries of post-war Japan, which charged a small fee for borrowing books. This mark et was essentially its own marketplace with many manga being printed exclusively for it. The market was notorious amongst parental groups for containing more lewd content than the normal mainstream manga publishers would allow. Consequently, the market tended to appeal to a slightly older ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Takao Saito
was a Japanese manga artist, although he rejected the term and considered his work gekiga. He was best known for '' Golgo 13'', which has been serialized in '' Big Comic'' since 1968, making it the oldest manga still in publication. ''Golgo 13'' holds the Guinness World Record for "Most volumes published for a single manga series" and, in accordance with Saito's wishes, it continues to be serialized following his death from pancreatic cancer in September 2021. Saito won several awards in his 66-year career, including the Shogakukan Manga Award twice, and received the Medal with Purple Ribbon and Order of the Rising Sun from the Japanese government for his contributions to the arts. Early life and career Born in Nishiwasa city (now Wakayama city), Saito's family moved to Osaka soon after and opened a barbershop. He did not know he was born in Nishiwasa until he was 43 years old. After his father left the family to become a photographer, his mother raised Saito and his fou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Osamu Tezuka
Osamu Tezuka (, born , ''Tezuka Osamu''; – 9 February 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist, and animator. Born in Osaka Prefecture, his prolific output, pioneering techniques, and innovative redefinitions of genres earned him such titles as , and . Additionally, he is often considered the Japanese equivalent to Walt Disney, who served as a major inspiration during Tezuka's formative years. Though this phrase praises the quality of his early manga works for children and animations, it also blurs the significant influence of his later, more literary, gekiga works. Tezuka began what was known as the manga revolution in Japan with his ''New Treasure Island'' published in 1947. His output would spawn some of the most influential, successful, and well-received manga series including the children mangas '' Astro Boy'', '' Princess Knight'' and '' Kimba the White Lion'', and the adult-oriented series '' Black Jack'', '' Phoenix'', and ''Buddha'', all of which won severa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garo (magazine)
was a monthly manga anthology magazine in Japan, founded by Katsuichi Nagai and published by Seirindō from 1964 until 2002. It was fundamental for the emergence and development of alternative and avant-garde manga. History Katsuichi Nagai founded ''Garo'' in July 1964 in order to publish the work of ''gekiga'' artists who didn't want to work for mainstream manga magazines after the demise of the rental book industry ( ''kashihon''). The magazine offered artists artistic freedom, but didn't pay them any salaries. Nagai particularly wanted to promote Marxist ''gekiga'' artist Sanpei Shirato's work, naming the magazine after one of Shirato's ninja characters. The first series published in ''Garo'' was Shirato's drama ''Kamui'' explored themes of class struggle and anti-authoritarianism around a Burakumin ninja boy with an Ainu name. Nagai originally intended the magazine to be for elementary and middle school children to become educated about antimilitarism and direct democr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sanpei Shirato
, known by the pen name , was a Japanese manga artist and essayist known for his social criticism as well as the realism of his drawing style and the characters in his scenarios. He was considered a pioneer of the controversial ''gekiga'' genre of adult-oriented manga. The son of the Japanese proletarian painter Toki Okamoto, his dream to become an artist equal with his father started when he became a kamishibai artist. He is also known for his work published in the early issues of the manga anthology magazine ''Garo'' in 1964, which he began publishing so as to serialize his comic ''Kamui''. Early life Shirato was born in Tokyo, Japan. In Shirato's childhood his father was active in the proletarian culture movement, being one of the few people to be photographed with the tortured corpse of proletarian leader Takiji Kobayashi. As he grew up he experienced the rancor of the war years, and it is said that these grim emotions come out in the nihilistic society portrayed in his w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manga
Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is used in Japan to refer to both comics and cartooning. Outside of Japan, the word is typically used to refer to comics originally published in the country. In Japan, people of all ages and walks of life read manga. The medium includes works in a broad range of genres: action, adventure, business and commerce, comedy, detective, drama, historical, horror, mystery, romance, science fiction and fantasy, erotica (''hentai'' and '' ecchi''), sports and games, and suspense, among others. Many manga are translated into other languages. Since the 1950s, manga has become an increasingly major part of the Japanese publishing industry. By 1995, the manga market in Japan was valued at (), with annual sales of 1.9billion manga books and mang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kamui (1964 Manga)
is a manga series written and drawn by Sanpei Shirato. Set in feudal Japan, it tells the story of a low-born ninja who has fled his clan. The series combines historical adventure with social commentary and themes of oppression and rebellion that reflect Shirato's Marxist convictions. Plot Kamui is a ninja from the Edo period who has decided to leave his clan. After doing so he is pursued relentlessly by the members of his former clan; who consider him to be a traitor and therefore wish to kill him. Kamui then wanders around Japan to escape from them by using his intelligence and great abilities to survive. In the course of the series Kamui begins to suffer from paranoia because of his status as a persecuted man. Kamui then started to believe that everybody wished to murder him and became distrusting of everyone he came across. Publication The original series, , ran from December 1964 to July 1971 in the monthly gekiga magazine '' Garo''. The sequel titled ran from 1982 t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drawn & Quarterly
Drawn & Quarterly is a publishing company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, specializing in comics. It publishes primarily comic books, graphic novels and comic strip collections. The books it publishes are noted for their artistic content, as well as the quality of printing and design. The name of the company is a pun on "drawing", " quarterly", and the practice of hanging, drawing and quartering. Initially it specialized in underground and alternative comics, but has since expanded into classic reprints and translations of foreign works. ''Drawn & Quarterly'' was the company's flagship quarterly anthology during the 1990s. It is currently the most successful and prominent comics publisher in Canada, publishing well-known comic artists such as Lynda Barry, Kate Beaton, Marc Bell, Chester Brown, Daniel Clowes, Michael DeForge, Guy Delisle, Julie Doucet, Mary Fleener, Joe Matt, Shigeru Mizuki, Rutu Modan, Joe Sacco, Seth, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Adrian Tomine a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ryoichi Ikegami
is a Japanese manga artist that usually works as the illustrator in collaboration with a writer. He is best known for '' Crying Freeman'' (1986–1988), written by Kazuo Koike, and ''Heat'' (1999–2004), written by Buronson. The latter won the 2001 Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga. Yoshihide Fujiwara is a former assistant of Ikegami's. Career After graduating from junior high school, Ikegami moved to Osaka and drew manga while working as a billboard sign painter, debuting at the age of 17 writing rental comics. Urasawa Naoki no Manben: Ikegami Ryoichi (S3E1, 2016), NHK Educational TV In 1966, he published a story called in the gekiga magazine '' Garo'' that caught the eye of fellow ''Garo'' contributor, Shigeru Mizuki, who offered him a job as his assistant. Ikegami accepted and moved to Tokyo where he worked as Mizuki's assistant for two and a half years. From a young age Ikegami had admired Takao Saito and Yoshiharu Tsuge, so he was delighted to work with Tsug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
