e-mail                     home

                                               

                                                     MANGA

1. Hinotori (Original B5 version)

A complete run of the first publication of Tezuka Osamu's classic manga Hinotori (Fire Bird or Phoenix) in the original COM Meisaku Comics edition. Five volumes, soft cover, B5, 26 x 18 cm. (10 x 7.5 inches), with volumes 4 and 5 wrongly identified on the title pages as the 5th and 6th volumes. These five volumes correspond to the first five volumes of the nine-volume set featured below. These are later printings (1972); the cover artwork is as in the originals, but with some modifications to the print layout (see here for the first issues for comparison).

 

2. Hinotori (Second B5 version)

The COM Meisaku B5 version of Tezuka Osamu's classic manga Hinotori was followed by a 9-volume A5 version by the same publisher. Then came the Gekkan Manga Shounen B5 publication, again in 9 volumes. Above is a complete set of this edition. Soft cover, B5, 26 x 18 cm. (10 x 7.5 inches). It is a mixed set, in excellent condition, of first and later printings of this edition, dating from 1976 to 1981.

 

3. Yamashita Shoufu

Yamashita Shoufu, Namida Ame (Light Rainfall/ Raindrops like tears). 21 cm., 136 pages. No date, but 170 yen price tag puts it in the late '50s. Lovely period manga.

 

4. Gendai Mangaka Jisen Shiriizu

Aki Ryukan, Aa! Ranchiki Ningen (Ah! Humans Having Fun). 1971, first edition. 21 cm., 237 pages. The third book in the cult '70s Gendai Magaka Jisen series.

 

5. Eguchi Hisashi

EGUCHI, HISASHI, Hinomaru Gekijou (The Theatre of the Flag of the Rising Sun). First edition, 1995. Soft cover with d/j, 21 x 15 cm. The title is tongue in cheek; the comic strips in this manga are fiercely iconoclastic and satirical. This compilation of Eguchi's work is vividly illustrative of antiestablishment youth culture in modern Japan.


 

6. Matsumoto Reiji

MATSUMOTO, REIJI, Yon Jigen Sekai (World of Four Dimensions) First edition, 1992. Hard cover, 19.5 x 13.5 cm. A well-constructed science fiction manga by a world-class manga artist.

 

 

 

 

7. Matsumoto Kazuchi

MATSUMOTO, KAZUCHI, Kurakurumichan (Kokushohankoukai, 1987). Two volumes. Soft cover, with d/j, A5, 21 x 15 cm.).First edition in book form. The funny adventures of a sweet little girl - very Japanese. Originally published in magazine form between 1939 and 1964. This compilation, the first in book form, was put together a year after the author's death in 1986.

 

Others:

HASHIMOTO, MASAE, Maharaja (1988, 1989, 1991). Five volumes. A good example of an "intelligent" manga for children - a kind of Japanese Mowgli.

 

KUROTETSU, HIROSHI, Pokochin Monogatari (The Story of Pokochin) (1973). First edition. A send-up of the Samurai dramas which continue to be a popular feature of Japanese television and manga culture.

 

MINAMOTO, TARO (after HUGO, VICTOR), Les Miserables (1987). First appeared in instalments in the magazine Kibou no Tomo from 1973-74. This is the first edition in book form. Converts Victor Hugo's story into a very witty and amusing manga.

 

Footnote: The History of Manga

 

 

The manga, or comic strip, is a very old way of transmitting information in Japanese. This, for example, is a page from a textbook for school-children published over 200 years ago.

 

 

Click here to see more details of this book.

 



 

                                                  e-mail                home               next