Paul Gravett, Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics (Lawrence King Publishing, 2004)
Manga, for the uninitiated, are essentially Japanese comic books, though they're definitely not your father's comics -- or your mother's for that matter. It should come as no surprise to anyone picking up this book that Paul Gravett is a manga fan, and a very well-versed fan at that. This over-sized, glossy book is his tribute to this expanding, if not always well-understood, worldwide pop culture phenomenon. In his brief introduction, Gravett touches on the central misconceptionc people hold about manga: that it's all big-eyed characters engaging in sex or violence ... or both. Gravett says he didn't intend this book to be an apology for manga, but he clearly sets out to dispel misconceptions, and he largely succeeds.
Manga is a gorgeous book, filled with numerous black and white and colour plates and samples of manga pages, both in Japanese and translated into English. Gravett has even managed pictures of the various artists, who are typically camera-shy. Unsuspecting readers might suffer from sensory overload, as there's so much going on on every page. In that sense, it's very manga-like indeed.
After the intro, Gravett devotes a few whirlwind pages to describing manga's place in Japan, touching on the industry and the profession of mangaka (manga artists and/or authors). He provides some interesting statistics -- manga magazines make up 10.7% of all publishing, and of those, 76+% are intended for a male audience (sounds not unlike the American comic scene, in that sense). It's also interesting to note that editors play a more active role in the creative process than in the American comic industry. He asserts that editors and artists alike make their money off reprints of their collected works. This may be true of widely distributed genres, but I happen to know it's not true of niche publishers, who are notoriously gun shy about reprints of even moderately popular works (and what about all that merchandising?).
With this background established, Gravett then devotes an entire chapter to manga's seminal figure, and godfather of sorts, Tezuka Osama, creator of manga icons Black Jack and Tetsuwan Atom (that's Astro Boy to you and me) and such well-known titles as Jungle Tatei (Kimba the White Lion here) and Metropolis. Tezuka's influence is undeniable and this is an excellent introduction to his work (later chapters display even more). Given the contempt many of his fans hold for Disney, given the similarities between Jungle Tatei and The Lion King, it's interesting to note that Gravett underscores that Tezuka was, himself, a fan of and indebted to Disney's early works.
Gravett devotes the next few chapters to specific genres of manga -- shonen (boys), shojo (girls), young men, women, and even fringe and underground comics. In each chapter he discusses the defining features of a genre and lists significant works and authors, devoting sidebars to particularly well-known or important persons or titles. Given the vast numbers of manga artists and titles out there, Gravett does an admirable job of covering the big names and introducing lesser known artists. However, there are a few omissions I found curious. First, arguably the best known shojo manga artist in the West, Watase Yuu (Fushigi Yuugi), is not mentioned at all. A very strange omission indeed. And Konomi Takeshi, creative force behind the shonen juggernaut Prince of Tennis (a title with great crossover appeal to girls) merits no mention either. Also oddly, shojo powerhouse group CLAMP (X) only receives passing mention for a pair of shonen titles (Tsubasa and Chobits); they're entirely absent from the girls' chapter.
Wisely, Gravett doesn't shy away from the "darker" side of manga, devoting a chapter to titles with more mature or outré themes. The images in this chapter are decidedly NOT for kiddies (tentacles, blood, frank depictions of sex, etc.) so readers beware if you're thinking of buying this book for your younger children.
The last chapter discusses the expanding worldwide influence of manga, and then Gravett wraps up the book with a list of resources, including books, lists of Japanese and American publishers, a handful of creator Web sites and museums in Japan itself.
While perhaps not the best title for children familiar with titles intended for the younger set, Manga is an easy-to-read, knowledgeable discussion of this unique literary form. Interested newbies and long-time fans alike will find much to like about Gravett's hard work
