Comics Global History: Nakazawa Shigeo, Shōjo Club 1956

I continue my sporadic exploration of old shoujo manga through obscure (to me, anyway) books obtained through Yahoo Japan auctions.  I got my hands on this Shōjo Club “supplement” from 1956.  It’s a tiny paperback (4′ by 6″), poorly stapled (I basically had to pull the thing apart to get usable scans, which I hate to do).  That contains a single long story, Yukimura izumi chan monogatari  (Yukimura Izumi’s Story).Shojo Club 1956 coverShojo Club 56 -splash 1

The artist is Nakazawa Shigeo (中沢しげお).  I assume artist-writer, since there’s only one name credited.  I don’t know anything about him, but there is some quite nice work here, with that introspective shōjo mood (see my previous post).

Shojo Cub 56  9-17Shojo Cub 56 -70-73

I like the heavy line around the characters, and the nicely detailed settings, with various textures.  Also, I would say it’s a pretty sophisticated use of “camera angles,” for a kids’ comic from the mid-50s.

Also, notice that they were still numbering the individual panels at this point.

Shojo Cub 56 18

Shojo Cub 28And I love the panel with Izumi’s reflection in the teacup as she’s thinking!

 

Comics, a Global History: Pilote, the Early Years

Uderzo - ASTERIX -le combat des chefs - p46 1966 DETAILComing in June from publisher Thames and Hudson, “Comics: A Global History, 1968 to the Present,” written by Alexander Danner and me.    Here are some excerpts and expanded material, including some great images that couldn’t fit in the book.Text in italics is directly from the book.

The decision to start the book in 1968, to define it as a sort of “comics come of age” narrative, sprung from the idea of “watershed” events like the appearance of Zap in the U.S., of Tsuge’s Nejishiki (Screw Style) in Japan, and, in Europe, and the changes seen in the pages of Pilote all taking place in that same year. In all these cases, of course, the breakthroughs of ’68 had been brewing throughout the earlier years of the decade.  As it says in the introduction…

 In Europe, the maturing of the comics audience was accompanied by a rebalancing of the creative center from Belgium toward France. This began with the establishment in 1959 of the Paris-based Pilote magazine by writers René Goscinny and Jean-Michel Charlier, and artist Albert Uderzo. Like Tintin or Spirou, Pilote was initially aimed at schoolboy readers and had a distinctly wholesome and pedagogical tone. But Goscinny, who became editor-in-chief, envisioned a more adult tone for bande dessinée, and Pilote began to move in that direction, helped by the popularity of Uderzo and Goscinny’s Astérix le Gaulois (Astérix the Gaul, 1959) and Charlier and Jean Giraud’s Lieutenant Blueberry (1963). Astérix, which was set in France during the period of Roman occupation, offered sly, anachronistic satire of contemporary culture, while Blueberry was a western with revisionist, antiauthoritarian undertones.

This Norman Rockwell hommage (or is it a parody) encapsulates the position of the early Pilote perfectly: still depicted in a classical mode, young French children gazing at the rebellious future as symbolized by French rock star Johnny Hallyday.
This Norman Rockwell hommage (or is it a parody) encapsulates the position of the early Pilote perfectly: still depicted in a classical mode, young French children gazing at the (mildly) rebellious future as symbolized by French rock star Johnny Hallyday.
Cabu - cover, Pilote 179, 1963. Cabu's insouciant teenage character "Le Grand Duduche," is another indicator of Pilote's trajectory toward youth culture and unconventional graphic styles.
Cabu – cover, Pilote 179, 1963. Cabu’s insouciant teenage character “Le Grand Duduche,” is another indicator of Pilote’s trajectory toward youth culture and unconventional graphic styles.

In its first few years, Pilote’s content was only subtly different from that of  Spirou and Tintin.  Though the tone was perhaps a bit breezier, Pilote, like its Belgian elders, featured articles on current events, sports, pop culture and exotic cultures.

From March 1963, "Les Jeudis de Pilote," a feature that included letters to the editor, articles on sports and pop music, and a contest for readers to send in photos of themselves resembling celebrities like Charlie Chaplin or the Prince of Wales (below)
From March 1963, “Les Jeudis de Pilote,” a feature that included letters to the editor, articles on sports and pop music, and a contest for readers to send in photos of friends who were “sosies” (lookalikes) for celebrities like Sir Edmund Hillary, Charlie Chaplin, Ian Fleming or the Prince of Wales (below)

les jeudis de pilite 28-3-63 DETAIL

For the most part, the bandes dessinées found in early Pilotes are also in the Spirou/Tintin mold, with a mix of humor and action/drama:

Martial - "Jerome Buff, homme a toute faire" (Jerome Buff, Handyman), March 1963
Martial – “Jérôme Bluff, homme à toute faire” (Jerome Buff, Handyman), March 1963

 

Charlier & Poivet, "Allo DMA" June, 1962
Poivet, “Allo DMA” June, 1962

What soon set Pilote apart, and what set it on course to surpass its Belgian rivals, was the strip by founders Goscinny and Uderzo.  Like any other strip in the journal, Asterix was serialized one page per week:

Goscinny & Uderzo, Asterix, September 1962
Goscinny & Uderzo, Asterix, September 1962

Asterix’ combination of slapstick comedy and anachronistic satire were two of the elements that made it a sensation:

Goscinny & Uderzo, Asterix et le combat des chefs, 1966
Goscinny & Uderzo, Asterix et le combat des chefs, 1964
Uderzo - ASTERIX - Chez Les Bretons p19 1966 DETAILBeatles
Giscinny & Uderzo – Asterix chez les Bretons, 1965

The second pillar of Pilote’s success came in 1965 with Lieutenant Blueberry, written by Charlier and drawn by newcomer Jean Giraud.  In its early years, Giraud’s art for Blueberry was often stiff and undistinguished when compared with other Franco-Belgian westerns:

Giraud & Charlier, Fort Navajo 1965; page four  of the first Blueberry story.
Giraud & Charlier, Fort Navajo 1965; page four of the first Blueberry story.
Fronval , "Jeff Stevens" from Pilote, 1962
Fronval , “Jeff Stevens” from Pilote, 1962

From the start however, Charlier and Giraud brought a refreshing, contemporary rebelliousness to the protagonist of their strip, a quality reinforced by Giraud’s depiction of Blueberry as a sosie for New Wave film star Jean-Paul Belmondo.

blueberry belmondo 2

 

Within a few years, though, Giraud’s style would progress astonishingly, just one of the many major developments that Pilote would undergo during the eventful late ’60s-early ’70s period.

Giraud - General Tete Jaune p43 1971

Giraud - General Tete Jaune p8 1971 Giraud - General Tete Jaune p39 1971

(Above: Giraud & Charlier, 3 pages from Le Général Tête Jaune, 1968)

COMING SOON: “Pilote ’68!”

Comics, a Global History: Hara Kiri, the Stupid, Nasty Journal.

harakiri-04
Hara Kiri #60, February 1966. “Journal bête et méchant”: Stupid, nasty journal.

Though  not exclusively a comics magazine, the French satirical journal Hara Kiri was very important in the movement toward a bande dessinée adulte that gathered force during the 1960s.

Reiser, from Hara Kiri #62, 1966.  An early Reiser gag, still relatively restrained but displaying the characterisically morbid Hara Kiri humor.
Reiser, from Hara Kiri #62, 1966. An early Reiser gag, still relatively restrained but displaying the characterisically morbid Hara Kiri humor.

Hara Kiri, which billed itself proudly as “le Journal Bête et Méchant’ (stupid and nasty)  was founded in 1960, originally hawked on the street corners of the Latin Quarter*. Founders Francois Cavanna and George Bernier soon demonstrated a propensity for sick, shocking humor, which resulted in the magazine being banned several times.

 

GEBE - Hara Kiri 59 1966 1200bw
G̩b̩ Рfrom Hara Kiri #59, 1966.
WOLINSKI - Lily La Pute - HaraKiri 59 1966
Wolinski, Hara Kiri #59, 1966
1: Open the door, someone’s knocking.
2: Hello. / Hello, madame.
3: I am Lily the Whore. Do you need anything? / No, madame.
4: Are you sure? / Yes, madame.
5: Too bad… goodbye. / Goodbye, madame.
6: Who was it?
7: Lily the Whore.

While MAD Magazine was certainly an influence on Hara Kiri, its brand of satire was far less innocent, and aimed at older readers (a better comparison in terms of format and content would be National Lampoon, which appeared in 1970).  The comics in Hara Kiri were raunchy, political, dark and decidedly adult.  In spirit, the magazine might be compared to the early underground newspapers in the U.S., like the “East Village Other” and “Berkeley Barb,” but France’s cultural climate was different — there wasn’t the same sort of burgeoning youth counter-culture economy that could generate a true underground press– so French mainstream culture had to absorb the full,  bête et méchant brunt.

HARA KIRI 59 artist photos 1966
A photo feature on the Hara Kiri staff, from 1966. The satirical self-presentation was a factor in breaking down the “fourth wall” of bande dessinee, establishing a hip, knowing camaraderie between creators and readers.
hara kiri 10 cover Fred1961 - from Groensteen
Fred, Hara Kiri #10, cover, 1961

Early covers featured illustrations, but these were soon replaced by infamous staged photographs that demonstrated the magazine’s sensibility: gross-out humor and political/social satire, often completely sexist (you’ll have to google it yourself to see the worst ones).

HARA KIRI 59 cover 1966
Hara Kiri #59, 1966
Reiser HK 86 1968
Resier, Hara Kiri #86, 1968. His style became looser, his jokes wilder and grosser.
1: I’m fed up, I’m a loser, a nothing.
2: I’m not good for anything in this life.
3. Nothing, nothing, nothing at all
4. I’m only good for cooking, buying the groceries…
5. Nothing! I never make anything of beauty in life!
6. Dammit! I’d rather throw myself in front of a bus!

 

Hara Kiri foto roman 51 1965
Sick humor in a Hara Kiri photo-funnies feature from 1965, asking the question, “If your wife cut your child’s throat, would you forgive her?” (Based on a real incident from the headlines of the day!)

The magazine featured articles and photo-romans (photo-funnies), and  some brilliant cartooning, by a stable of artists that included Wolinski, Reiser, Gébé, Fred, Topor and Cabu (there was, I believe, a law that Francophone cartoonists were entitled to only one name apiece).

Fred - Le Petit cirque -Harakiri 51 1965
Fred, “Le Petit cirque,” Hara Kiri #51, 1965

Most of the bd  in Hara Kiri were panel gags and short humor strips, but there were some important longer series as well, such as Fred’s Le Petit Cirque, Guy Peellaert’s Pravda, and a little-known but fascinating collaboration, in which American expatriate writer Melvin Van Peebles collaborated with cartoonist Wolinski to adapt the Chester Himes crime novel, “A Rage in Harlem” (known in French as La Reine des pommes)

wolinski - Reine des pommes HK 51 1965
Wolinsk (art) Melvin Van Peebles (writing), La Reine des pommes, adapted from the novel “Rage in Harlem” by Chester Himes. Hara Kiri #51, 1965
hara kiri hebdo cover oct5 70 Reiser
One tactic employed by Hara Kiri’s publishers to get around the censors who’d banned the magazine, was simply to start a new one, such as “L’Hebdo Hara Kiri” (Hara Kiri Weekly) which appeared in a tabloid format. Here, Reiser’s cover mocks Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir’s reaction to the death of Egypian leader Nasser (“He was a loyal adversary and a great head of state. He leaves a great emptiness in the middle-east.”)

By the early 70s, Hara Kiri had been shut down by censors often enough (most notoriously for a headline that mocked the death of Charles DeGaulle), that the magazine’s cartoonists sought greater security, first by a short-lived emigration to the pages of Pilote (only Fred became a mainstay there, with his glorious strip Philémon), and then by starting a new publication, Charlie Mensuel, devoted entirely to comics.  Charlie would represent another major support for grown-up bande dessinee for the next 20 years.

* Thierry Groensteen, La bande dessinée, son histoire et ses maitres, Skira Flammarion, 2009

Comics, a Global History: “Fumetti neri”

Magnus - Satanik 38 p40-41 1966Magnus (Roberto Raviola) (art) Max Bunker (writing) Satanik #38 • 1966 In Italy a new genre of dark, violent and erotic comics in the crime genre, called fumetti neri (“black comics”), reflected the era’s cultural freedoms and the loosening moral grip of the Catholic Church. Another major fumetti neri was sisters Angela and Luciana Giussani’s Diabolik.
(From the introduction to Comics: A Global History, 1960 to the Present )

 

Satanik #38, June 1966
Satanik #38, June 1966

Magnus - Satanik 38 p112-113 1966Magnus (art) Max Bunker (writing), Satanik #38, June 1966

Fumetti neri  can certainly be seen in context of  the broader movement toward adult comics in Europe (where they’d been pigeonholed as a children’s medium for even longer than in the U.S.), which also included  Barbarella, The Adventures of Jodelle, the work of Guido Crepax, and journals like the Italian Linus.

Magnus - Satanik 29 p-41 1966
Magnus (art) Max Bunker (writing), Satanik #29, Feb 1966

But fumetti neri were more disreputable than those high-toned examples: lurid, sexy, violent… trashy fun, definitely not for all-ages. I’m far from an expert on this stuff.  If you want to read up on Italian comics, I highly recommend Drawn and Dangerous: Italian Comics of the 1970s and 1980s, by Simone Castaldi, one of the best books in English on European comics, with a lot of insight into Italian culture and politics as well.

The most striking work that I’ve seen in this genre is by Magnus (Roberto Raviola), who collaborated with writer Max Bunker (Luciano Secchi) on the titles Kriminal and Satanik (all the work in this post is by them).

Magnus (art) Max Bunker (writing), Satanik #38, June 1966

 

The rigid 2-panel-per-page format (printed as small, digest-size paperbacks) had the effect of a productive creative restraint on their composition and story-telling.  Magnus did amazing things with blacks and sillhouettes, creating some very interesting layouts, with amazing use of negative space, and there’s some feathered inking in there that looks like it inspired Charles Burns.

Magnus - Satanik 29 p89 1966
Magnus (art) Max Bunker (writing), Satanik #38, June 1966

Magnus - Satanik - original art scan grey

 

Comics, a Global History: Early shoujo manga

Leiji Matsumoto - Midori no tenshi (Green Angel) 1959, detail
Leiji Matsumoto – Midori no tenshi (Green Angel) 1959, detail

Now available from publisher Thames and Hudson, “Comics: A Global History, 1968 to the Present,” written by Alexander Danner and me.  The book covers the period from, roughly, 1968 to 2010, with an  introduction providing some background on the development of comics around the world (focusing mainly on Europe, Japan and the U.S.) during the post-war era through the mid-60s.  Here are some excerpts and expanded material, including some great images that couldn’t fit in the book.  Text in italics is directly from the book.

Delving into the history of shōjo manga was one of the most exciting parts of researching/writing this book.  The revolutionary material produced in the 1970s by the “Year 24 Group” — the first major wave of women mangaka — was a culmination of aesthetic and thematic developments of the previous 50 years.  I don’t think the term “genre,” as we generally use it, fits here; for me, shōjo manga, as it has evolved, embodies a broad, complex aesthetic category, one that can accomodate many genres — maybe we can call shōjo a gender of manga (regardless of the biological gender of its creators or readers — see Itō, Kimiō, When a “Male” Reads Shōjo Manga).

Macoto Takahashi, "Paris-Tokyo" (1959) p 9-8
Macoto Takahashi, “Paris-Tokyo” (1959) p 9-8

Shouo represents an example of the power of a marginalized aesthetic, one of those cases in popular culture where a form designed to reinforce a power structure (in this case the gender roles of girls and women in Japan), can expose the conflicts and contradictions within that structure and have a destabilizing effect.

Koji Fukitani - Shojo gaho (Shojo Pictorial), cover, 1933
Koji Fukitani – Shoujo gahō (Shoujo Pictorial), cover, 1933 (source: http://blog.livedoor.jp/illtopia/archives/2013-11.html)

Pre-war shoujo shōsetsu (shōjo novels)

In the pre-Second World War period, when most Japanese comics had been aimed at very young readers, the main vehicles for popular culture designed for adolescent girls had been shōjo literary magazines and novels. This material reinforced prevailing notions of proper feminine roles and characteristics in Japanese society, which was extremely restrictive. Heterosexual romance was rarely depicted; the literature focused primarily on the all-female world of girls’ schools, and on female friendships, often in a dreamy and flowery literary style (the term shojo carries connotations of cloistered maidenhood, not captured by the usual translation as “girl”).

Jun'ichi Nakahara, cover for Hana Monogotari (Flower Stories) by Nobuko Yoshiya
Jun’ichi Nakahara, cover for Hana Monogotari (Flower Stories) by Yoshiya Nobuko

Shōjo shōsetsu was, for the most part, “highly formulaic and didactic, inculcating the cardinal virtues of girlhood.”(1)  But this literature, while ostensibly supporting the  proscribed role of girls and women in the broader society, could also express rebellion against it.  One of the most popular writers in the genre was Yoshiya Nobuko (1896-1973), who lived openly in a romantic relationship with another woman for more than 50 years and whose shōjo writing  reflected her sexual politics. E59089E5B18BE4BFA1E5AD90

Yoshiya Nobuko
Yoshiya Nobuko

The Japanese girls schools of the day were intended to steer young shōjos toward “the dream of becoming happy future brides, isolated from the real-life public world outside the family.”(2)  But Nobuko’s work, “defying masculine domination and feminine submission…, constructs two radically opposed universes: on the one hand, the dreamy, fantasizing world of young girls, where they carry out their amorous intrigues, elevated by their purity and erotic beauty. … On the other, the adult world, where young girls become women, torn from their universe of innocence by men and confronted with a painful reality…. Homosexual love, idealized and constructed on a basis of equality between the two lovers, is constantly opposed to heterosexual love, which can only be built on the subjugation of women by men.”(3) The style of illustration that accompanied these stories, known as jojo-ga (叙情画), “lyrical drawing,” matched the tone of the prose. Lyric painting and illustration depicted women and girls of  slender, ethereal beauty.  The eyes, in particular, were emphasized: the large, liquid eyes suggested deep inner emotions; this treatment of the eyes would become an essential characteristic of shōjo manga.

Yumeji Takehisa, painter and illustrator, was one of the key figures in the lyric style that adorned the early shōjo magazines and novels.
Yumeji Takehisa, painter and illustrator, was one of the key figures in the lyric style that adorned the early shōjo magazines and novels.
Junichi Nakahara, cover for Shōjo no tomo, 1939
Junichi Nakahara, cover for Shōjo no tomo, 1939 (source: http://showamodern.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-268.html)
Katsuji Matsumoto, cover for a post-war edition of Nobuko's "Mitsu no hana." Katsuji Matsumoto bridged the period of the shojo novel and shojo manga.
Hiroshi Katsuyama, cover for a post-war edition of Nobuko’s “Mitsu no hana.”   According to manga blogger Matt Thorn: “Katsuyama was hugely popular in the 50s as an illustrator and creator of shojo emonogatari [picture stories – a precursor of story manga]”

Takarazuka Kagekidan

The other pop-cultural phenomenon that should be noted in the “pre-history” of shōjo manga is the popular Takarazuka Kagekidan theatre company, founded in 1913. The  company put on lavish musical spectacles full of action and romance, with women playing all the roles, including the “male” heroes. Some members of the company — known as otoko yaku — specialized in playing the male roles, essaying them with macho swagger.  The company was especially popular with female audiences; some women reportedly sent love letters to their favorite otoko yaku performers.

A Takarazuka spectacle from 1930
A Takarazuka spectacle from 1930

This spirit of spectacle, adventure, and gender masquerade, was perhaps an influence on one of the earliest examples of shōjo manga — Nazo no Clover (Mysterious Clover) (1934) by Katsuji Matsumoto, in which a young girl dons Scarlet Pimpernel-like disguise to fight wicked nobles.  

Nazo no clover by Katsuji Matsumoto, 1934
“Nazo no clover” by Katsuji Matsumoto, 1934

 

More notably, the Takarazuka revue was a definite influence on Osamu Tezuka, who lived in the city of Takarazuka where it was based, and was a fan of the troupe. Tezuka’s Ribon no kishi (Princess Knight) (1953), an epic tale of a princess who is accidentally given both female and male “hearts” in heaven before birth, represented the most sustained narrative in the shōjo form and gave shōjo manga a huge boost in popularity.

Osamu Tezuka Scan from the original printing of the 1953 "Ribon no kishi" (source:
Osamu Tezuka, scan from the original printing of the 1953 “Ribon no kishi” (source: http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/tamatyannanatyan/6865155.html)

With themes and atmospherics deriving from Takarazuka, Ribon no kishi was stylistically in line with the Disney-influenced, dynamically paced manga that Tezuka had been producing in the shonen field for the previous six or seven years, with little relation to the tradition of lyric illustration. The Tezukean style would  be a major current in shōjo manga for the next several decades, as would the gender-shifting and masquerade themes inspired in part by the Takarazuka revue.

ribon no kishi 1953 2
Osamu Tezuka, scan from the original printing of the 1953 “Ribon no kishi” (source: http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/tamatyannanatyan/6865155.html)

Macoto Takahashi

Macoto Takahashi, Paris-Tokyo, 1959. The dreamy face, existing outside of the panel grid, defining the comics narrative in terms of emotion rather than panel-to-panel sequence, is a typical, early shōo manga innovation of Takahashi's.

Macoto Takahashi, Paris-Tokyo, 1959: the dreamy face, existing outside of the panel grid, defining the comics narrative in terms of emotion rather than panel-to-panel sequence, is a typical, early shōjo manga innovation of Takahashi’s.

The jojoga aesthetic, meanwhile, was carried forward by other shōjo artists, especially Macoto Takahashi. Though Takahashi’s work appeared in the early gekiga anthology Kage (1956; see previous post), he would be primarily known as a shōjo manga artist; he brought the dreamy, lyric style of art to the medium, developing comics-specific narrative techniques that grew from the delicate, emotion-driven content of shōjo literature (such as the “style figure” and  other devices that paved the way for the collage-like page composition that would become characteristic of shōjo manga in the 1970s).

Sakura Namiki (The Rows of Cherry Trees). Takahashi uses the motif of the round ping pong ball as a visual narrative element.
“Sakura namiki” (The Rows of Cherry Trees): Takahashi uses the motif of the round ping-pong ball as a visual narrative element.

Sakura namiki (The Rows of Cherry Trees) (1957) is firmly in the tradition of shōjo shosetsu, an almost painfully sensitive meditation on friendship, set in a girls school.  Though structured around two excitingly staged ping-pong matches, the manga dwells almost entirely in the realm of emotions and subtle social interaction. The protagonist, Atsuko, after losing in a match to the older girl she loves, suffers the suspicions of her schoolmates that she’s lost on purpose and wonders if she truly understands her own motives. Much emphasis is put on ambiguous glances and shifting emotions; the atmosphere is suffused with beauty and chaste tristesse.

Macoto Takahashi - (The Rows of Cherry Trees) 1957
Macoto Takahashi — “Sakura namiki” (The Rows of Cherry Trees) 1957
Macoto Takahashi - Saka Nimura (The Rows of Cherry Trees) 1957
Macoto Takahashi — “Sakura namiki” (The Rows of Cherry Trees) 1957
Takahashi Paris-Tokyo 49
Macoto Takahashi — an innovative “musical” page design from “Paris-Tokyo” (1958)

Miyako Maki

Makis whistle 4
Miyako Maki — “Maki’s Whistle” (1960)

Maki was one of the handful of pioneering women manga creators of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Following Takahashi’s lead, she continued the tradition of the lyric style in shōjo manga.  Maki’s Whistle (1960) is voluptuously sentimental, a mother-daughter love story set in the world of ballet and film, with emotions flowing through the large expressive eyes of the characters. Maki was another important artist in the development of the archetypal shōjo approach to page layout, often emphasizing feelings and atmosphere over forward-driving narrative.

Makis Whistle-200
Miyako Maki — “Maki’s Whistle” (1960)
Makis Whistle 179
Miyako Maki — “Maki’s Whistle” (1960)

Leiji Matsumoto Matsumoto was a protegé of Tezuka’s. He worked in shōjo manga before moving on to shonen and seinen in the late 1960s. His Midori no tenshi (Green Angel) (1959) combines science fiction, fantasy, and the Tezukean action-packed approach with hints of the ethereal, lyric style. Leiji Matsumoto - Green Angel 58 Leiji Matsumoto - Green Angel 53

Leiji Matsumoto - Green Angel 1960
Leiji Matsumoto — “Midori no tenshi” (Green Angel) 1959

Hideko Mizuno Another of the early women manga creators, Mizuno was also a Tezuka protegé (she was the only woman to live for a time at the famed Tokiwa-so “manga apartment” in Tezuka’s building). By the end of the 1960s she would become one of the most important innovators in manga.

Hideko Mizuno, Gin no habira (Silver Petals) 1960
Hideko Mizuno, “Gin no habira” (Silver Petals) 1960
Hideko Mizuno, Gin no habira (Silver Petals) 1960
Hideko Mizuno, “Gin no habira” (Silver Petals) 1960
Hideko Mizuno, Gin no habira (Silver Petals) 1960
Hideko Mizuno, “Gin no habira” (Silver Petals) 1960

Though the majority of shōjo creators of the ’50s and early ’60s were men, there was a considerable and growing number of women as well: Chieko Hokosawa

Chieko Hosokawa - Naku na parikko - Shojo Friend #24, 1963
Chieko Hosokawa — “Naku na parikko” 1963

Setsuko Akamatsu

Setsuko Akamatsu - Apprentice Angel - 1963
Setsuko Akamatsu — “Apprentice Angel” 1963

These and others (such as Toshiko Ueda, Yoko Imamura, Masako Watanabe, Yoshiko Nishitani) paved the way for the great period of shōjo manga that would begin with the emergence in the early 1970s of the Year 24 Group, a generation of women artists, born in or around Showa year 24 (1949), who made use of the traditions of lyric illustration, shōjo shosetsu, Takarazuka and Tezukean manga, in effecting a radical transformation of the entire medium.

NOTES: (1) Mizuki Takahashi, Opening the Closed World of Shojo Manga, Japanse Visual Culture (2) ibid (3) Karen Merveille. “La révolte du lys: une odyssée du yuri”  in “Manga 10000 images: le manga au féminin”, Editions H, 2010 (my translation from French)

Comics a Global History: Post-war Belgian bande dessinée 2: Spirou

 

Upcoming in June from publisher Thames and Hudson, “Comics: a Global History, 1968-present,” written by Alexander Danner and me.  Here are some excerpts, and additional material including some great comics images  that we couldn’t fit in the book.  

 

As the title suggests, the book covers the period from, roughly, 1968 until 2010. The introduction, though, provides some background on the development of comics around the world (focusing mainly on Europe, Japan and the U.S.) during the post-war era through the mid-60s.  Text in italics is directly from the book.

Continuing with the post-war Franco-Belgian comics, and focusing on the two cornerstone comics periodicals of the era, we move from Le Journal de Tintin to:

Franquin - Spirou 488 - 21-8-47 cover

 Spirou cover/strip from 1948, by André Franquin

 

Spirou #748 by Franquin, 1952
Spirou #748 by Franquin, 1952

Spirou, first published in 1938, was home to the style known as the École de Charleroi, or École de Marcinelle [for the Brussels neighborhood where Spirou was located], later referred to as the “Atom Style.” In contrast to the precise, cool and orderly approach of the Hergéan Bruxelles style, the Charleroi was more exaggerated and elastic, with a more varied and dynamic quality of line. It was perfected by a strong team of artists, including André Franquin, who took over the title character Spirou and created his beloved sidekick the Marsupilami. Others included Morris (Maurice De Bevere) with Lucky Luke, Peyo (Pierre Culliford) with Les Schtroumpfs (aka   Smurfs), Maurice Tillieux with Gil Jourdan, and Roba, with Boule et Bill.

An early (1952) Lucky Luke script by Morris.
An early (1952) Lucky Luke script by Morris.
Peyo - Les Schtroumpfes, Spirou #1409, 1965
Peyo – Les Schtroumpfes, Spirou #1409, 1965

 

Roba - Boule et Bill - Spirou 1226 - 1961 detail
Roba – Boule et Bill – Spirou 1226 (1961) detail

 

André Franquin

Franquin  - Gaston lagaffe - Spirou 1480 Aug 66 DETAIL LR

Franquin ranks with Hergé as the most revered bande dessinée artists of the postwar decades. In the late 40s, Franquin took over the title character of Spirou, and soon created the bellboy’s crazy animal sidekick, the Marsupilami.

Franquin's creation Marsupilami, the unspecified-species sidekick of Spirou is one of the most popular characters in Franco-Belgian comics

Franquin’s creation Marsupilami, the unspecified-species sidekick of Spirou is one of the most popular characters in Franco-Belgian comics

While there’s much in common between L’Ecoles Bruxelles and Marcinelle (particularly on the level of composition and layout), in Franquin’s work the differences become apparent. Instead of the cool clarity of the ligne claire style, we have here a more energetic approach to line and shading, a rounded cartooning style that owes more to the Disney model, but also a more nervous, even violent “graphism” as the French call it (a great word that means more than simply “graphic style,” I think, implying greater depths of content and meaning in the way an artist composes and draws).

Franquin Jideheim Gaston  spirou 1563 1968 DETAIL 4
Franquin and Jidehem, Gaston LaGaffe, 1968

The style bespeaks an undercurrent of anxiety and chaos, as oppose to the comforting stability of the ligne claire, and this is seen also in Franquin’s approach to character.  In the late 50s he created Gaston Lagaffe, a bumbling, lazy office worker, in the words of Matthew Screech, “the first morally ambiguous bande dessinée hero.” (from Screech’s, “Masters of the Ninth Art,” which has the best writing on Franquin in English that I’ve come across, along with great chapters on Hergé, Moebius, Tardi, Goscinny & Uderzo and other topics.)

Franquin - The Bravo Brothers, 1965
Franquin – The Bravo Brothers, 1965

 

Franquin - Modeste et Pompom, a strip he did during a brief stint working for Le Journal De Tintin
Franquin – Modeste et Pompom, the only strip he did  for Le Journal De Tintin (from 1955-58)

 

 

Maurice Tillieux

 In his private-eye series Gil Jourdan, Tillieux combined the elegance of the ligne claire with the expressive elasticity of L’ecole de Marcinelle, moving easily from comedy to action and drama, with a great sense of atmosphere.  You can see the influence of Tillieux’s  suave but comical style  on Yves Chaland,  one of the best artists in the revival of the Tintin / Spirou styles in the 198os (more on that in later posts).

Tillieux - Gil Jourdan - Spirou 1228 1961
Tillieux – Gil Jourdan – Spirou 1228 1961
Tillieux - Gil Jourdan - le grand souffle - spirou 1560 1968
Tillieux – Gil Jourdan – le grand souffle – spirou 1560 1968
Tillieux - Gil Jourdan - Spirou 1480  1966
Tillieux – Gil Jourdan – Spirou 1480 1966
Tillieux - Gil Jourdan - Spirou 1231 1961
Tillieux – Gil Jourdan – Spirou 1231 1961

The Atom Style

In my opinion, while the Journal de Tintin / ligne claire style reached its peak in the early-mid ’50s., the archetypal Spirou look emerged slightly later, as the cartoonists working in the Charleroi/Marcinelle style fully embraced the aesthetic of 1950s-early 60s Atom-age design.  Joost Swart (another key artist in the 1980s stylistic revival, who also coined the term ligne claire),  later referred to the Spirou sensibility as the “Atom Style,” with reference to this cartoony modernism.

Franquin - Modeste et Pmpon - TINTIN35 DETAIL
Franquin – Modeste et Pompon – DETAIL
Franquin - SPIROU 907 9-55 - cover La Super Quick
Franquin – SPIROU 907 1955
Mallet - Pegg - Spirou 1231 1961
Pat Mallett – “Pegg” – Spirou #1231, 1961


Even a middle-ages-set gag strip can have that “Atom style” look:

Noel Bissot - LesHallucinationsDuBaron - Spirou 1440 - 18 Nov 1965 DETAIL
Noel Bissot – Les Hallucinations Du Baron – Spirou #1440, 1965 (detail)

Not all the content of Spirou was comical.  There was also a large component of muscular action comics, the best featuring the heavy-lined exaggerated styles of Eddie Pappe and Jiji. Two examples, 20 years apart, of the two artists work on the long-running strip Jean Valhardi:Paape - Jean Valhardi - Spirou No436 -- 22  Aout 1946

Eddie Paape – Jean Valhardi – Spirou 436, 1946
Jije - Jean Valhardi - Spirou 1226 - 1961
Jije – Jaen Valhardi – 1961 Jiji (Joseph Gillain), joined Spirou in the late 1930s and drew the title strip before handing it over to Franquin. Working for the journal through the 1970s, he was a mentor and stylistic influence on artists as diverse as Franquin, Jean Giraud (Moebius) and Yves Chaland.

 

 

Jije - Jean Valhardi - L'affair Barnes, 1957.  Scan of original art, source: Galerie Laqua
Jije – Jean Valhardi – L’affair Barnes, 1957. Scan of original art, source: Galerie Laqua


 

As for covers, since the Spirou approach was generally to run a comic page on the cover, they weren’t as dazzling as in Le Journal de Tintin.  By the late 60s, though, Spirou shifted to a more conventional approach to cover, with some wonderful results:

Roba - SPIROU 144 - 18 Nov 1965
Roba – Spirou 144, 1965
Berck  - couverture - Spirou 1600   1968
Berck – Spirou #1600, 1968
WILL Spirou 1480 1966 cover
Will – Spirou 1480, 1966. The word balloon reads “That noise – t’s coming from pages 8 and 9!” Do I detect an echo of MAD #1?

mad-magazine-1-kurtzman (1)

Comics A Global History: Post-war Belgian bande dessin̩e РLe Journal de Tintin

Upcoming in June from publisher Thames and Hudson, “Comics: a Global History, 1968-present,” written by Alexander Danner and me.  I want to post some snippets from the book, including some great comics images (from foreign lands and bygone days) that we couldn’t quite fit in the book.  

As the title suggests, the book covers the period from, roughly, 1968 until 2010. The introduction, though, provides some background on the development of comics around the world (focusing mainly on Europe, Japan and the U.S.) during the post-war era through the mid-60s.  Text in italics is directly from the book.

Postwar European  Comics

Edgar P. Jacobs, from Blake et Mortimer, “Le Marque Jaune.’

 

French-language comics created in Belgium rose to international prominence in the postwar years. While most major European countries had their own comic book industries, their comics were generally popular only within their own borders and tended to be derivative of pre-war American newspaper strips. In Belgium, however, bandes dessinées quickly developed a decidedly modern flavor that made them popular throughout the continent.  The most popular Belgian comics periodicals, Tintin and Spirou, represent two influential stylistic branches.  

Herg̩ РTintin in Tibet

Tintin, founded in 1946, was named for the popular reporter hero created in 1929 by Hergé, who was the magazine’s first artistic director. Tintin’s pages showcased the École de Bruxelles, a style later dubbed the ligne claire (“clear line”) style. Pioneered by Hergé, the style was practiced by other artists, such as Edgar P. Jacobs (Blake et Mortimer), Willy Vandersteen  (Suske en Wiske) and Bob De Moor.

Fred Funcken – Le Trone de Gilgit, 1953. Colonialist themes were very prominent in the Francophone comics of the period.

Le Journal de Tintin demonstrated the high level of artistry and imagination comics creators could bring to the form, in the decades when it was primarily a commercial children’s medium. Following the example of Tintin creator Hergé, artists such as Bob De Moor offered European readers the bright, clean, modern style known as l’Ecole de Bruxelles, later dubbed the ligne claire or “clear line” style. Graphically, the hallmarks of the ligne claire are the use of an even, unvarying line to define contours, flat color and avoidance of cross-hatching or other graphic forms of shading. In storytelling as well as graphcs, an inviting clarity and legibility were emphasized. 

The Ecole d’Herge’s emphasis on lisibilité – legibility – can be seen in an ideological light.  The entire graphic approach: unvarying line, the lack of dramatic lighting effects, consistency of background and foreground; as well as the approach to layout, using only “medium shots” and regular grids, with no close-ups or unusual angles, suggest an objectivity and stability to the universe being depicted.  In a period where France and Belgium were still  Colonial powers, the clearly-defined graphic and narrative quality of the ligne clair was a support for the rationalist, hierarchical world view that benefitted the existing power structure, helping to mold the journal’s youthful readership into good citizens.  As the great French comics critic Bruno Lecigne says, “Toute l’œuvre d’Hergé témoigne d’une doctrine d l’art classique;” (Hergé’s entire Å“uvre demonstrates a doctrine of classical art. “) the ligne claire was the High Classicism of European comics art.

Jacques Martin – Alix, L’ile Maudit – 1951.

 

 This classicism also expressed itself in a sort of playfully reassuring cartoon modernism, brimming with optimism about technology and progress.

Bob De Moor, 1955

What I love most about the ’40s and ’50s Tintin are the covers.  Can you  imagine being a French or Belgian kid, running to the newsstand kiosque every week for one of these jewels of color and drama?

Willy Vandersteen

Jacques Laudy is a neglected artist from this period.  He did some breathtaking covers:

 

 

More Laudy, from his fanciful, Orientalist series Hassan et Kadour:

 

 

Bob De Moor’s style was the closest of all the Journal de Tintin artists to that of Herge.

 

For French comics critic Lecigne, this stylistic simulacrum is what reveals the essence of the Hergean ligne claire:

“In Barelli [De Moor’s best known series], it’s the fascinating appearance, the opaque surface of the style d’Hergé that’s on display.  Hypnotized, I read Barelli without deciphering the text, unable to follow the plot, fascinated by the dramaturgy, the gestures.  What I have before me is Hergé emptied of substance, depth and mythology; the signifier without the signified…  reading Bob De Moor is an experience that permits me to perceive a language solely from the point of view of the signifier, syllables repeated until meaning disappears, whose existence becomes purely, concretely sonorous.” (Lecigne, Les Heritiers d’Hergé, p 39, translated by me)

 

Edgar P JacobsBlake et Mortimer rivaled Hergé’s Tintin in populariy; Jacobs represented the opposite pole of the Ecole de Bruxelles: moodier and more gothic than Herge, the series was an espionage thriller that also blended science fiction and horror.  His detailed, atmospheric London was an influence on young fan Jacques Tardi.

 

More great TINTIN covers:

Tibet
Reding
Reding
Panis
Follet
Cheneval
Bob De Moor

 

 

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Comics A Global History: Introduction, part 1 – 1950s gekiga.

Upcoming in June from publisher Thames and Hudson, “Comics: a Global History, 1968-present,” written by Alexander Danner and me.  I want to post some snippets from the book, including some great comics images (from foreign lands and bygone days) that we couldn’t quite fit in the book.  

As the title suggests, the book covers the period from, roughly, 1968 until 2010. The introduction, though, provides some background on the development of comics around the world (focusing mainly on Europe, Japan and the U.S.) during the post-war era through the mid-60s.

In the Japanese section, after exploring Osamu Tezuka’s breakthrough work of the late 40s and early 50s, we move on to the 1950s gekiga movement:

By 1956 or so, a small rebellion against Tezukian hegemony was stirring in Osaka,
led by a group of young up-and-comers including Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Takao Saito¯
and Masahiko Matsumoto. Reverent admirers of Tezuka, they nonetheless felt
the need for more bite in their manga, and hence gekiga (meaning “dramatic
pictures” as opposed to manga, “playful picture”) was created to, as Tatsumi
put it, provide “material for those in the transitional period between childhood
and adulthood.” * Distributed through the inexpensive rental library—or
kashihon—market, the early gekiga stories were mostly thrillers and mysteries
for adolescent male readers, with cinematic paneling and lighting effects
inspired by French and American film noir.

Matsuhiko Matsumoto – Rinshitsu no otoko (The Man Next Door) – 1956 from Kage #1

The young gekiga artists of the 1950s, like Matsumoto, were great fans of Osamu Tezuka, and their cartooning style owed much to his. They pushed his “cinematic” qualities a little further, with more use of angles and of “aspect-to-aspect” paneling (images of details within a scene, employed to build atmosphere or, in the case of this page, suspense), and in general brought a darker, tougher mood to juvenile thrillers  and mysteries.

The covers the first issues of Kage (Shadow) and Machi (City). The manga anthologies that marked the beginnings of what would be called gekiga.  The covers are unsigned.  I’ve seen them attributed to Ryota Masami

This first wave of gekiga** creators collaborated on two anthology periodicals, Kage (“Shadow”) was launched in 1956. The magazine was a success, sparking a boom in crime-themed, short story manga collections for the inexpensive kashihon market. But Kage’s small Osaka publisher, Hinomaru Bunko, was in perpetual financial straits, and when in the following year it appeared that the firm would go under, Matsumoto and Tatsumi accepted an offer from a rival to start a second, noir-ish anthology, Machi (“City”).***  Here are some images scanned from facsimile editions of the first issue of each of those titles:

Yoshihiro Tatsumi , 私は見た Watashi wa Mita  from Kage #1, 1956

 

An early page by Takao Saito – later of Golgo 13 fame – from Kage 1

 

Masaaki Sato – Hakaba kara ki ta otoko” (The Man from the Grave) from Machi 1, 1957

 

Makoto Takahashi, “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” from Kage 1, 1956. Interestingly, Takahashi, one of the most important creators of early shoujo (girls’) manga, also appeared in the noir-ish Kage.
Fumiyashu Ishikawa, “Bullet of Fear” from Machi 1, 1957

 

Shoichi Sakurai. from Kage 1, 1956 (Sakurai was Tatsumi’s elder brother; see Tatsumi’s “A Drifting Life”)

 

Mitsuko Kuroda (?) from Kage 1, 1956
Masahiko Matsumoto “Jigoku Karaki ta tenshi” (Angel from Hell), from Machi 1, 1957

 

*Quoted in “God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post-World War II Manga” by Natsu Onoda Power

** The term “gekiga” wasn’t yet used during the heyday of Kage and Machi.  Matsumoto favored the term “Komaga” to differentiate their work, geared for older readers, from manga, which was still thought of as a children’s form. Tatsumi coined the term “gekiga” a few years later.

***As recounted by Matsumoto in his autobiographical “Gekiga Fanatics”