Attracting Mature Readers[1]
By Peter W. Y. Lee
Among the 1954 Comics Magazine Association of America’s Comic Code’s many regulations was a directive to company admen: “Liquor and tobacco advertising is not acceptable” (Nyberg 168). The ubiquity of alcohol in mainstream media certainly concerned social guardians in post-war America (Rotskoff). However, liquor manufacturers did not solicit to minors in the comics, but another demographic group: their parents.
The first part of my article looked at how Lev Gleason Publications responded to the public alarm over comic books. Gleason and his chief editor, Charles Biro, pushed comics as a progressive medium with educational and artistic merit. This second part explores their second strategy: courting adults. Gleason hoped that an expanded readership would bolster support and offset rising production costs. However, critics rejected comic books’ potential beyond that of disposable children’s entertainment. The Comics Code sanitised comic books and stigmatised readers beyond middle-school age.
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Tags: Abraham Lincoln, adult readership, Alan Valentine, Amazing Adult Fantasy, anticrime comic magazines, Association of Comic Magazine Publishers, Atlas, Boy Comics, Charles Biro, comics code, comics industry, crime comic books, Crime Does Not Pay, Dell Comics, economics, education, educational comics, Frederic Wertham, Fredric Wertham, Great Depression, Henry E. Schultz, History, juvenile delinquency, Lev Gleason, Lev Gleason Publications, mature readers, Mortimer Smith, pre-code, sexual imagery, social progressivism, St. John Publishing, superheroes, USA, violence, WWII
The monthly manga magazine Garo (published by Seirindō 1964–2002) has gained a certain visibility outside of Japan throughout the past few years: more and more of its authors have been translated and recognized, exhibitions are being held [1] and articles released, even in non-specialized magazines.[2] While Garo authors and their work attract increasing attention outside of Japan, the magazine itself doesn’t seem to be a popular topic within manga studies despite – or precisely because of – its link to the so-called “alternative manga” (Asagawa 2015), the 1960s counterculture, the rise of a new readership and its role as an aesthetic forerunner during its first decade of existence. Bearing this in mind, this column will try to give an overview of the sources currently available on the magazine itself, identify those which can be used as proper academic references and demonstrate the possibilities afforded by studying the magazine itself, going beyond the focus on its authors.
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Tags: 9e Art, adult readership, alternative manga, antiwar orientations, autobiography, Ax, Béatrice Maréchal, Big Comics, Claude Leblanc, counterculture, dōjinshi, educational comics, Frederick Schodt, Garo, Garo Mandala, gekiga, government criticism, Hayashi Seiichi, Japan, Japanese manga, Japanese Society for Studies on Cartoons and Comics, Jean-Marie Bouissou, kamishibai, Kamui-den, kashihon, Kashihon manga Kenkyūkai, Kure Tomofusa, Kōbunsha, Le Monde, mainstream manga, manga, manga criticism, manga studies, Mangashugi, Media Studies, Mizuki Shigeru, Nagai Katsuichi, Ninja Bugeichō, Paul Gravett, post-war period, reverse-importing, Ryan Holmberg, Sai Comics, Sasaki Maki, seinen, Seirindō, Shirato Sanpei, Shōgakukan, Takita Yū, Tatsumi Yoshihiro, The Comics Journal, The Comics Journal Online, Tom Gill, Tsuge Yoshiharu, watakushi shōsetsu, Ōshima Nagisa
Previously on Comics Forum, Monden Masafumi shed light on the fact that Japanese shōjo manga discourse tends to prioritize a gender-related perspective, disregarding the majority of graphic narratives which do not fit a subversive reading of the genre, or even dismissing them for their allegedly conservative representation of femininity. But this is not the only one-sided approach to shōjo manga, there is also a historical bias at play. Shōjo manga of the 1970s, notably works by the so-called Magnificent 49ers (see below), have been the main focus of discussion, overshadowing other eras, both before and after. In the following overview, I will outline how the 70s and especially the 49ers ended up as the center of attention, how this favoritism has obscured other periods, and finally how views on shōjo manga history are beginning to change.
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Tags: A history of postwar shōjo manga, adult readership, Aim for the Ace!, authorship, cross-dressing, Dachs, Eureka, French revolution, Fried burdock for maidens in full bloom, Fujimoto Yukari, Gender, gender roles, Hagio Moto, haha-mono, Hashimoto Osamu, History, Igarashi Yumiko, Ikeda Riyoko, Ishiko Junzō, Iwashita Hōsei, Japan, Japanese manga, kashihon, Magnificent 49ers, Maki Miyako, manga, manga criticism, manga studies, Mizuno Hideko, Murakami Tomohiko, Nakajima Azusa, Osamu Tezuka, Princess Knight, Puff, Satonaka Machiko, sexuality, Shōji Yōko, shōjo, shōnen, Shūkan Margaret, Takemiya Keiko, tankōbon, Tezuka Osamu, The Rose of Versailles, The world of shōjo manga, Watanabe Masako, watashi-gatari, Westernization, Yamagishi Ryōko, Yonezawa Yoshihiro, Ōgi Fusami, Ōshima Yumiko, Ōtsuka Eiji
Shōjo manga varies in style and genre.[1] But despite this diversity, there is a certain conception of shōjo manga aesthetics, dominated by images of flowers, ribbons, fluttering hem skirts, and innocent-looking girls with large, staring eyes.[2] Traditionally, the beginning of shōjo manga has been equated with Tezuka Osamu’s Princess Knight (Ribon no kishi), but more recent studies have instead focused on prior texts,[3] namely the creations of Takahashi Macoto, who was influenced by the so-called lyrical illustrations (jojōga) of artists such as Nakahara Jun’ichi, Takabatake Kashō and Takehisa Yumeji.[4] Manga influenced by jojōga have arguably prioritized visual qualities.[5]
The importance of visual qualities has increasingly been recognized in shōjo manga studies.[6] However, most critical examinations of shōjo manga place emphasis on the role of narrative structure and representation of gender. This applies particularly to those who read shōjo manga as a medium to challenge conventional gender roles. As Iwashita Hōsei points out, female manga researchers especially have tended to focus on biological and socially constructed gender (2013a: 58). This column discusses two such works, Fujimoto Yukari’s Where is my place in the world? (1998, revised edition 2008) and Oshiyama Michiko’s Discussion of Gender Representation in Shōjo Manga: Forms of “Cross-dressed Girls” and Identity (2007, revised edition 2013).
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Tags: adult readership, aesthetics, Ariyoshi Kyōko, Ballet manga, Berusaiyu no bara, Boys’ Love, Chao, costume, fandom, fashion, France, French revolution, Fujimoto Yukari, gender roles, gender-subversive narratives, Hagio Moto, Hana-Kimi, Hanazakari no kimitachi e, Hatori Bisco, Honda Keiko, Ichijō Yukari, Ikeda Riyoko, Iwashita Hōsei, Japan, Japanese manga, jojōga, josei, Kyoto International Manga Museum, LaLa, Maki Miyako, manga, manga criticism, manga studies, Margaret, Matsunae Akemi, Mizusawa Megumi, Nakahara Jun’ichi, Nakajo Hisaya, Nakayoshi, Negative Perceptions of Comics, Nishitani Shōko, Nishitani Yoshiko, objectification, Osamu Tezuka, Oshiyama Michiko, otomechikku, Ouran High School Host Club, Ouran kōkō hosuto kurabu, passivity, Princess Knight, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Ribon, Ribon no kishi, Saitō Chiho, sexuality, Shimizu Reiko, shōjo, Shōjo kakumei Utena, Takabatake Kashō, Takahashi Macoto, Takehisa Yumeji, Takemiya Keiko, Takeuchi Naoko, Tezuka Osamu, The Cherry Project, The Rose of Versailles, Toe Shoes, transgression, Tsuki no yoru hoshi no asa, Yamagishi Ryōko, yaoi, Yokomori Rika
In part one, I showed how the manga artist Tezuka Osamu and his body of work function as more than a mere object of analysis within manga studies but as a totalizing discourse upon which a number of larger critical concerns are projected. This has the rather odd effect of rendering “Tezuka” a milieu which can absorb even those critiques which seek to overcome a Tezuka-centric purview as to what manga might be in both historical and formal terms. I used the critical writings of Takeuchi Osamu not to evaluate them as such but to demonstrate the discursive mechanics of this totalizing absorption. In part two below, I will once again use Takeuchi’s critical oeuvre to examine, in addition to how the critic’s own personal predilections can become subsumed into seemingly objective claims, the assumptions underlying manga formalism: how manga fit with other media, how manga is understood as children’s literature, and how manga is treated as, if not entirely presumed to be, a predominantly postwar phenomenon.
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Tags: adult readership, aesthetics, akahon, Allied occupation of Japan, boku-gatari, Chame, children readers, children’s literature, Chōjū jinbutstu giga, ehon, emakimono, emonogatari, fandom, Gendai manga hakubutsukan, Giants of Children’s Manga, graphic narrative, Hasegawa Machiko, historiography, History, illustrated stories, Japan, jaqueline berndt, Kitazawa Rakuten, koma manga, manga criticism, manga hyōgen, Manga no sengo shisō, Mangashugi, Meiji Restoration, Miyamoto Hirohito, Natsume Fusanosuke, newspaper strips, Osamu Tezuka, Paul Gravett, periodicals, post-war period, rakugaki, Ryan Holmberg, Sazae-san, semiotics, Sengo manga no 50nen-shi, Sharon Kinsella, Shisō no kagaku, shōjo, shōnen, sociology, subjective criticism, Takeuchi Osamu, Tezuka, Tezuka Osamu, Thoughts on Manga in the Postwar, Tokyo Puck, Tsurumi Shunsuke, WWII, Yamada Tomoko, Yomota Inuhiko, Yonezawa Yoshihiro
