Manga

A New History of Japanese Comics

Eike Exner

$61.95

Hardback

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English

Yale University Press
07 May 2025

A groundbreaking story of Japanese comics from their nineteenth-century origins to the present day

The immensely popular art form of manga, or Japanese comics, has made its mark across global pop culture, influencing film, visual art, video games, and more. This book is the first to tell the history of comics in Japan as a single, continuous story, focusing on manga as multipanel cartoons that show stories rather than narrate them. Eike Exner traces these cartoons' gradual evolution from the 1890s until today, culminating in manga's explosion in global popularity in the 2000s and the current shift from print periodicals to digital media and smartphone apps.

Over the course of this 130-year history, Exner answers questions about the origins of Japanese comics, the establishment of their distinctive visuals, and how they became such a fundamental part of the Japanese publishing industry, incorporating well-known examples such as Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon, as well as historical manga little known outside of Japan. The book pays special attention to manga's structural development, examining the roles played not only by star creators but also by editors and major publishers such as Kōdansha that embraced comics as a way of selling magazines to different, often gendered, readerships. This engaging narrative presents extensive new research, making it an essential read for enthusiasts and experts alike.

By: Eike Exner
Imprint: Yale University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 254mm, Width: 178mm,
Weight: 800g
ISBN: 9780300280944
ISBN 10: 0300280947
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 07 May 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , A / AS level , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Eike Exner is a historian of graphic narrative. His previous book, Comics and the Origins of Manga, received the Will Eisner Comics Industry Award for Best Academic/Scholarly Work. He is based in Houston, TX.

Reviews for Manga: A New History of Japanese Comics

""With prodigious research, a global perspective, and abundant new insights, Eike Exner cuts through misunderstandings and myths to bring us an instant classic about the evolution of modern manga.""--Frederik L. Schodt, author of Manga! Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics (1983) ""With fascinating examples and behind-the-scenes anecdotes, Exner shows how manga is the result of decades of creative exchange between American, European, and Japanese visual storytellers.""--Deb Aoki, co-host and manga editor, Mangasplaining ""Exner is here to remedy the incoherent hodgepodge of decidedly unscholarly baby boomer fanfic that has long passed for 'the history of manga, ' and he's brought all the receipts.""--Rachel Thorn, Kyoto Seika University ""Manga: A New History is a significant and much-needed book that both expands and deepens how we understand Japanese comics in all their varieties and complexities.""--Paul Gravett, author of Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics ""Manga: A New History breaks ground with tremendous new research, deflates long-held notions, fills in historical gaps, and showcases seldom-seen-before illustrations.""--John A. Lent, founder, publisher, and editor in chief of International Journal of Comic Art