Yoshihiro Tatsumi

Yoshihiro Tatsumi is considered the grandfather of Graphic Novel in Japan for starting the gekiga style of alternative comics in 1957. His works only enjoy worldwide popularity when Canadian publisher Drawn & Quarterly started to publish them in annual anthologies. His comics deal with the human mind and condition, especially in the working class society. The stories are simultaneously haunting, disturbing, and darkly humorous. Tatsumi focus on the troubled emotion and sexual lifes of the individuals trapped in the overwhelming and crowded society of his time. He is absolutely fearless in his willingness to examine what it means to be human.
Designed and edited by Adrian Tomine, The Push Man and Other Stories is the debut volume in a the series of anthologies. Abandon the Old in Tokyo is the second of the series that continues to delve into the urban underbelly of 1960s Tokyo, exposing Tatsumi’s maturation as a story writer. I bought these two books at Kinokuniya a few years ago and look forward to acquiring the latest addition, Good-Bye. It's shortly after the war in the 70s that Tatsumi created these desperate stories about the aftershocks and desperation experienced by the men and women.