Manga! Manga!: World of Japanese Comic Books [Hardcover]

Frederik L. Schodt (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 260 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha America, Inc; 1st edition (August 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870115499
• ISBN-13: 978-0870115493
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #819,050 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Frederik L. Schodt is a writer, translator, and conference interpreter based in the San Francisco Bay area. He has written widely on Japanese history, popular culture, and technology. His writings on manga, and his translations of them, helped trigger the current popularity of Japanese comics in the English-speaking world, and in 2000 resulted in his being awarded the Special Category of the Asahi Shimbun's prestigious Osamu Tezuka Culture Award. In the same year, his translation of Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama's 1931 pioneering graphic novel,_The Four Immigrants Manga_, was selected as a finalist in Pen West USA translation award. In 2009, Fred was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, for his work in helping to promote Japan's popular culture overseas. Also, in the same year he was awarded the "Special" category of the Ministry of Foreign Affair's 3rd International Manga Award.

Fred's WEBSITE-- http://www.jai2.com | TALKS-- http://www.jai2.com/ABE_Talks.htm | BIBLIOGRAPHY-- http://www.jai2.com/Mybiblio.htm

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The best in modern comics, April 13, 2009

By 

Tomoaki Hirai - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Manga! Manga!: World of Japanese Comic Books (Hardcover)

Though now out-dated by 2 decades, the book allows a fine introduction to the roots of manga that should be the foundation of any knowledge of recent developments in Japanese comics.

4.0 out of 5 stars Lovely survey, November 13, 2004

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Manga! Manga!: World of Japanese Comic Books (Hardcover)

Ever wonder about those crazy Japanese comics called manga? So different from American comics. Well, Schodt gives you a very readable historical perspective on them, drawing all the way back to pre-industrial Japan. But he shows that the true flowering of manga arose in post-War Japan. Manga is seen in Japan as a serious literary form. While some manga are indeed trash, others are considered on a par with novels.

The book has colour plates and black and white pictures of many manga, with English commentary. Glimpses of quite a different culture.

Schodt wrote his study in 1983, when manga was still relatively unknown in the US. Few such comics were available in translated form. Hence the book was very useful in breaking through a formidable langugage barrier. But things have changed. Now US bookstores stock many English versions of manga. In fact, manga in the US possesses a unique trait. It is the only major printed form in English that often has the pages numbered from back to front, as we would term it. This of course follows the Japanese page numbering convention. The English manga retains this, to add to the ambience.

The only drawback about the book is that it aches for a second edition. The intervening years have seen an even greater flowering on new manga in Japan. Plus, he could also study the influence of it on the Japanese computer games.