| Summary: | Japan's output of manga is massive, accounting for a staggering forty per cent of everything published each year in the country. Outside Japan, there has been a global boom in sales, with the manga aesthetic spreading from comics into all areas of Western youth culture through film, computer games, advertising and design. "Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics" presents an accessible, entertaining and highly illustrated introduction to the development and diversity of Japanese comics from 1945 to the present. Featuring striking graphics and extracts from a wide range of manga, the book covers such themes as the specific attributes of manga in contrast to American and European comics; the life and career of Osamu Tezuka, creator of Astro Boy and the originator of story manga; boys' comics from the Sixties to the present; the genres and genders of girls' and women's comics; the darker, more realistic themes of gekiga - violent samurais, disturbing horror and apocalyptic science fiction; issues of censorship and protest; and manga's role as a major Japanese export and global influence.
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