A Drifting Life

A Drifting Life, released last week here in the U.S., is an epic 856 page autobigraphical manga graphic novel by Yoshihiro Tatsumi. Published by Drawn & Quarterly, A Drifting Life is cartoonist Tatsumi's account of his formative years producing and submitting manga in 1945 through 1960 when he was well on his way as one of Japan's foremost manga cartoonists.

In addition to depicting his rise as a cartoonist, Tatsumi in his A Drifting Life, tells his story as it unfolds interwoven with some history of Japan and the rest of the world for added context. A Drifting Life is a fascinating look at how much a part of Japan's entertainment culture is devoted to manga, the way in which manga artists work (especially when compared to U.S. comic artists, with manga artists seemingly almost overwhelmingly more prolific), and the cultural differences between the Japanese people when contrasted to the way we live here in the U.S. A Drifting Life will surely be on a lot of top ten lists as 2009 closes and I hope with its publication we will see more manga that is not just of the fantasy, science fiction, or romance genres.