Product Description

Japan's output of manga is massive, accounting for 40 per cent of everything published in the country annually. There has also been a boom in sales outside Japan, with the manga aesthetic spreading from comics into all areas of Western youth culture through film, computer games, advertising and design.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #140228 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Review
...If you don't know Manga, then this is a great introduction - if you think you do, then this will lead you to many more fascinating discoveries. --Creative Review

Review
...Assisted by rich graphics and interesting facts...this engaging read is a bound-to-be bestseller.

About the Author
Paul Gravett is a freelance journalist curator lecturer and broadcaster. He has curated numerous exhibitions of comic art from the first retrospective of Carl Giless work to 20th anniversary celebrations of Viz.

Customer Reviews

Manga Mania Made Sense
It's been six long years since Frederik L Schodt updated his seminal 1983 study, Manga! Manga! World of Japanese Comics. Since then manga's unstoppable rampage across the West has become inescapable. So it's appropriate that someone took stock of this comic 'sub-genre' and updated and re-examined what has become the world's most prevalent comic art form. Paul Gravett manages not only to cover the history of manga, but in doing so explores the social and cultural evolution of Japan from its post-war reinvention to its modem-day literary imperialism. Gravett's book excels not only in discussing such, but also by displaying hundreds of examples of artwork in glorious detail. Everything is here from the crassly commercial Dragon Ball Z and Yu-Gi-Oh! to the grotesque Grand Guignol artwork of Hideshi Hino. It even made this jaded cynic get excited about Nipponese comics once more. No mean feat. Authoritatively written and exquisitely designed, this book demands space on your shelf.

Educating read
Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics is a must. Every page is domintated by useful information and the layout throughout is highly atttractive.
It covers every subject in manga, including sci-fi, shounen-ai, kodomo, and hentai.
However, if you are just a fan of simple shoujo manga, full of cuddly cute characters and happy scenes, this book is probably not for you. It includes pictures of horror manga, and it is a little strong on the hentai side.
But, the pictures themselves make this book worth purchasing as in contains some rare manga strips.
So even though it may hold content that some readers' may not find to their taste, there's enough information in here for any manga fan. A must buy.

Casual Manga Fan: Beware!
This book is an depth look at the history of Manga, and it's key movers and shakers of the last 60 years (No surprises there then). And that is exacally how it reads, like a history book. The text is informative, but mostly uninteresting. This might not be a problem if your a student with a deep interest in all things manga (Like myself), but if your anything less than a totally dedicated nutcase you'll probably find yourself skipping large chunks of text.

The book is not completely without charm though, it contains large amounts of actual Manga at the end of each section. Every page has pictures of covers of manga from pretty much every major character out there. (Manga pages are mostly English format, but some are in japanese, or even in french!)

If your looking for a good source of manga history this is the book for you, but don't expect the text to be as witty or creative as it's subject matter.