Boy's Life (Japanese magazine)

Boy's Life
ボーイズライフ

Cover of Boy's Life, August 1969

August 1969 cover
Categories Shōnen, shōnen manga
Frequency Monthly
First issue April 1, 1963
Final issue August 1, 1969
Company Shogakukan
Country Japan
Language Japanese

Boys' Life (ボーイズライフ Bōizu Raifu) was a Japanese monthly shōnen magazine published by Shogakukan from April 1963 until August 1969. The magazine was marketed to boys in junior high school and older, and included a manga section as well as general interest articles and information.

Outline

Boys' Life was launched on April 1, 1963 to take the place of Chūgakusei no Tomo. The first editor of the magazine, Yūnosuke Onishi, went on to be editor of Big Comic and many other magazines.

The magazine included several regular features, including a life counseling column, novel reviews, discussions of popular culture topics such as aliens, androids, cryptids, the Hollow Earth hypothesis, and the Vietnam War. The editors of the magazine often travelled abroad to gather information and photographs for stories on adventures (such as cave exploration)[1] and unexplored regions of the world as well as the indigenous peoples inhabiting them.

Boy's Life also published a number of well known artists including Sanpei Shirato, creator of The Legend of Kamui.

The last issue of Boy's Life was the August 1, 1969 issue, and the magazine was replaced by the Weekly Post, also published by Shogakukan.

In 1967, Shogakukan wanted Shirato's The Legend of Kamui. They planned to purchase Garo, the magazine in which it was serialized, then merge it with Boy's Life into a new magazine. However, this idea was never realized because Katsuichi Nagai, the editor of Garo, declined the offer. Shogakukan pursued another angle on the idea, however, and launched Big Comic in April 1968. They published "Stray Dog" (野犬 Yaken), the sixth chapter of Shirato's Sanpei Gekijō (三平劇場), in full color after the first five had originally appeared in Boy's Life.

Works which appeared in the magazine

Listed alphabetically by year(s) of appearance.

References

  1. ↑ "NPO法人　日本洞穴探検協会　日本の代表的な探検" [NPO Corporation: Japan Cave Exploration Association: Japanese Model Explorations] (in Japanese). NPO Dōketsu Tanken Kyōkai. 2003. Archived from the original on February 20, 2010. Retrieved February 20, 2010.