Manga

Sixty Years of Japanese Comics

Bibliographic Data

ID19128254
AuthorsRobert Sabin (University of the Arts London, corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume18
Issue2
Pages222-224
Publication date2005-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Design History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0952-4649 • E-ISSN: 1741-7279
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/jdh/epi030
OpenAlexW2026784905
LanguageEN
Citations received24

Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics Paul Gravett. Laurence King Publishing, 2004. 176 pp., 360 illus. £19.95 paper. ISBN 1–85669–391–0. This solidly researched introduction to manga belongs on the reading list of any student interested in Japanese popular culture. With 360 intelligently chosen illustrations, there is a real sense of allowing the strips to speak for themselves: the book's main strength is its range of material, from girls' comics to salaryman funnies. Thus, there is an implicit, and very welcome, challenge to the stereotypical view held in the West that manga are merely about sex and violence—‘tits and tentacles’ fodder for Beavis and Butthead-like teens. The ten chapters range from historical narratives (e.g. ‘From pay libraries to newsstands’) to more focused themes (‘Through a woman's eyes’), while the illustrational content also includes helpful extras such as a time-line and pie charts to indicate the genres sold. This care and attention

Art · Comic strip · Comics · Linguistics · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Popular culture · Publishing · Reading (process) · Sociology · Visual arts · Comics and Graphic Narratives · Digital Games and Media · History · Japanese History and Culture · Philosophy