Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics

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Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics is a 1983 book by Frederik L. Schodt. Published by the Japanese publisher Kodansha, it was the first substantial English language work on the artistic, literary, commercial and sociological phenomenon of Japanese comics, or manga. The book is copiously illustrated and features a foreword by Osamu Tezuka. It also includes translated excerpts from Tezuka's Phoenix, Keiji Nakazawa's Barefoot Gen and Riyoko Ikeda's The Rose of Versailles, and the Reiji Matsumoto short story "Ghost Warrior".

Manga! Manga! was enthusiastically reviewed in the mainstream and comics press and received a prominent endorsement from Stan Lee.

In 1996, Stone Bridge Press published Schodt's "sequel" to Manga! Manga!, Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga. In the introduction to this book, Schodt states that a Japanese bistro in Berkeley, California took its name from Manga! Manga!

[edit] Contents

1. Foreword by Osamu Tezuka
2. A Thousand Million Manga
   1. Themes and Readers
   2. Reading, and the Structure of Narrative Comics
   3. Why Japan?
3. A Thousand Years of Manga
   1. The Comic Art Tradition
   2. Western Styles
   3. Safe and Unsafe Art
   4. Comics and the War Machine
   5. The Phoenix Becomes a Godzilla
4. The Spirit of Japan
   1. Paladins of the Past
   2. Modern-Day Warriors
   3. Samurai Sports
5. Flowers and Dreams
   1. Picture Poems
   2. Women Artists Take Over
   3. Sophisticated Ladies
6. The Economic Animal at Work and at Play
   1. Pride and Craftsmanship
   2. Mr. Lifetime Salary-Man
   3. Mah Jongg Wizards
7. Regulation versus Fantasy
   1. Is There Nothing Sacred?
   2. Social and Legal Restraints
   3. Erotic Comics
8. The Comics Industry
   1. Artists
   2. Publishers
   3. Profits
9. The Future
   1. The New Visual Generation
   2. Challenges for the Industry
   3. First Japan, Then the World?

[edit] External links

• Frederik L. Schodt on Manga! Manga!