Plenty of Nothing

Young Kawabata

Bungō Shunjū is a manga series drawn very convincingly in the style of Shigeru Mizuki, about the secret lives of celebrated Japanese authors. In this chapter we learn about the affair that led Yasunari Kawabata to write "The Dancing Girl of Izu".

Love and Rockets by Frank Godwin

 

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Big Comic Spirits, June 29, 1998

A friend brought this from Japan 24 years ago, and I still haven't learned enough Japanese to read it, but with the help of the internet it's possible to figure out the table of contents. In this issue you have:

1) Ii Hito, chapter 238, by Shin Takahashi. This story about office work was eventually published in 26 volumes.

2) Aozora, chapter 9, by Hidenori Hara. Baseball. 13 volumes.

3) Happy! chapter 218, by Naoki Urasawa. Tennis. It went to 23 volumes. Urasawa is better known in North America for 20th Century Boys.

4) Ogotte Janken Tai, part 29, by Yoko Gendai. This seems to be part of a series of interviews in comic form. Today's guest is Genichiro Takahashi. It was collected into 5 volumes.

5) Oishinbo, chapter 417, by Tetsu Kariya and Akira Hanasaki. This famous food manga has gone to 111 volumes. I find the human figures rather wooden, and having read some of this in English I can say the same about the plots.

6) Tokyo Daigaku Monogatari, chapter 259, by Tatsuya Egawa. Kissing. 34 volumes. It became a TV show in 1994 and a film in 2006.

7) Yoiko, chapter 136, by Yugo Ishikawa. This comedy about an elementary school student with the body of a grown woman would just never get made in North America, because ick. 15 volumes.

8) Puri Puri Ken, chapter 198, by Sensha Yoshida. 5 volumes. An alien inhabits a local restaurant.

9) Naoko, chapter 185, by Nobuhiro Sakata and Yuu Nakahara. A manga about running. 33 volumes.

10) Otona Bukuro, chapter 155, by Isami Nakagawa. A four-panel comic. Collected into 7 volumes.

11) Gekki no Kishi, chapter 237, by Junicho Nojo. This manga about a shoji prodigy has a very appealing style centering on finely detailed portraiture. 32 volumes.

12) Iwamal, chapter 28, by Yukio Tamai. About a wandering veterinarian. 9 volumes.

13) Chyinmabadon (?). A four-panel comic about a giant iguana in New York.

14) Jimihen, chapter 428, by Tatsuya Nakasaki. A policeman on a desert island. 11 volumes.

15) Daiyamondo, chapter 13, by Hiromi Aoyama. Baseball. Went to 8 volumes.

16) 2 Kumi no Otomodachi, chapter 35, by Yuuko Ichijou. There are only two volumes of this story, yet this is the one that has piqued my interest the most. Ichijou's style is like something from the 1920s that was influenced by Edo period manga. (See below.)

17) Otanko Nurse. Noriko Sasaki. I was surprised to find a nurse story in a seinen magazine, and it's the longest piece in the magazine at 55 pages. This went to 6 volumes

18) Love Letter, chapter 43, by Hiroaki Jinno and Takeshi Wakasa. Calligraphy. 4 volumes.

19) Ikimagure Concept (?) by M. Matsuda. Quite a rude 4-panel cartoon.

20) Shippuu Dotou, chapter 118, by Kenji Morita. Kendo. Ran to 11 volumes.

Zetsubou Sensei by Rumiko Takahashi

This is one of a series of end cards drawn by eminent mangaka for the Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei anime. Rumiko Takahashi drew Ranma 1/2 from 1987 to 1996.  Source.

Beautiful A Bride's Story Panel

Kaoru Mori, A Bride's Story, chapter 70. I want to see the uncropped original artwork.

Waseda University Mangaka

See here for an article about Waseda University alumni who have gone on to become mangaka. One of them is Yaroh Abe of Midnight Diner fame.

Gaston Lagaffe

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Classics Illustrated Don Quixote

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Love and Rockets T-Shirt

Starved by a "Christian" Government, 1888

Political cartoon by J.W. Bengough, 1888. Source.