Today's episode is about Yoshihiro Tatsumi. The man who coined the term "Gekiga" and deliberately chose to make a new type of sequential art. One that explores the darkness and hardship of an adult, working class world. Thus continuing our season where we cover manga about being a manga artist. skip summary @ 5:14
084: A Drifting Life
By Yoshiro Tatsumi
Translation by Adrian Tomine
Yoshihiro Tatsumi was born 1935 and lived to the age of 79, having died of cancer on a Saturday in March 2015,
Tatsumi started doing 4 panel cartoons before doing more long form works with Hinomaru Bunko of the Shadow Magazine. In 1956 a studio was formed and named the Manga Camp, this would become the base of operations for Shadow and mangaka specialising in the genre of Gekiga, or Komaga as one of his peers called it, what they were working towards wasn't clear yet, but Shadow magazine made Manga for adults with emphasis on gritty drama inspired by hardboiled detective novels, film noir and the films of the French new wave.
Gekiga would truly find its purpose in 1959 when Tatsumi made stories for the Magazines City and Skyscraper alongside his group known as the Gekiga workshop. Whom together created a Gekiga manifesto. By the early 60's even Garo magazine, whom Tatsumi turned down due to lack of pay would become successful with its own Gekiga artists such as Sanpei Shirato. This proved that there was a need for long form storytelling, aimed at adults during a time when America's occupation of Japanese land was being challenged. And at the same time an economic boom was in full bloom.
Tatsumi's last Japanese published works was 'Fallen Words' a collection of Rakugo shorts, a sort of comedic folk tales known for ending on a punch line but done in the manga medium. This was followed by his award-winning manga memoirs in 2009 which will be the topic of our episode. According to the American publishing house Drawn and Quarterly, it is unclear if his memoirs, 'A drifting Life', was ever finished but in the edition that we've read there was a final epilogue chapter that ends with the funeral of Osamu Tezuka. Sadly, there is no mention of his marriage in his memoirs.
If Tezuka is seen as the god of Manga, then Tatsumi is undoubtedly the one who helped Manga mature, scholars now recognise Tatsumi's influence more so than ever now that we live in a world where adults need manga. And in a roundabout way Tatsumi did inspire Tezuka.
Topics:
- AX manga was James' first introduction to Tatsumi's work. Itself a book of alternative manga, and AX is a predecessor to Garo Magazine.
- Tatsumi shines a light on the business tensions of making manga. Specifically knowing when to jump ship of a failing company. You can't work for everyone and like the old saying when it rains it pours; Or you wait a long time for one bus then three come at once. This can happen. It's wise to keep your cards close to your chest when you go out drinking with the boss, being sure not to let them know all your plans regarding the future.
- What stops 'A Drifting Life' from being an entertaining read is that sensational titles and chapters rarely have a sense of tension, Tatsumi fails to convey the challenges of making manga during the 50's, oddly it makes sense that his most prolific work came out at the time that would make for boring memoirs. Because he would have met least resistance.
- Since the transition between magazine to Tankobon started there was a lucrative business that involved renting manga books that occurred in the late 1950's
- Still Life Classes are incredibly valuable to manga artists, but as James mentioned, action figures are also good too, recommending the brands Max Factory and Figma. More so because of the control one has over poses and lighting, however there is limits to using this as a learning instrument.
- The environment that Gekiga was made in is important to consider, especially when you realise that in the west, Frederic Wertham's 'Seduction of the Innocence' grew in popularity. Note that Wertham himself was not a bad guy, He treated black kids in 1946, a time of racial segregation, opening the Lafargue Clinic within Harlem, Manhattan.
- After leaving the Gekiga workshop Tatsumi wrote a 120-page long form story in 20 days. The manga was Black Blizzard. Cartoonist kayfabe has an interesting video about it.
- A 2011 Film adaptation directed by Eric Khoo, simply called 'Tatsumi' uses 'A Drifting Life' as a connective frame so to tell an anthology of Tatsumi stories.
- The writer to 'The Boys' is Garth Ennis, who has been very clear on his thoughts towards fantasy writing and the superhero genre. His contemporaries, Warren Ellis and Grant Morrison have their own opinions on the superhero genre also. Although their stories are very much fantasy and have subject matter about superheroes, their tonally dark stories and further exploration of more adult themes is antithetical to what we see in most manga aimed at young boys.
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