Book Review: Manga: A New History of Japanese Comics by Eike Exner (UPDATED)

Reviewed by John A. Lent, International Journal of Comic Art (UPDATED 12/28 with a response from Exner)

Eike Exner. Manga:  A New History of Japanese Comics. New Haven:  Yale University Press, 2025. 256 pp. US $37.50. ISBN:  978-0-3002-8094-4. https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300280944/manga/

  In just his first two books so far [Comics and the Origins of Manga: A Revisionist History and this one], the young--and independent--researcher, Eike Exner, has made monumental contributions to manga studies, revising historical points; taking exception to, and challenging, long-held “facts” and notions with newly-discovered evidence that he has uncovered; filling in gaps in manga’s timeline, and carefully and methodically analyzing nearly every aspect of manga.

A couple of his revisions pertained to the origin of the term “manga” and the connection between early audio-visual technology and comics. Exner reasoned, the claim that Hokusai Katsushika’s Hokusai Manga was connected to Japanese comics was unfounded; though some of the 19^th-Century woodblock printer’s manga were meant to be funny, none was of a narrative stripe and many were simply images of buildings and plants. To make his point, Exner made the analogy that to connect the sketches to comics is,

 

akin to suggesting that the history of Super Mario Bros. should be traced back to shōgi (Japanese chess) because they are both games. Games did not change from one thing into another; people decided to apply the word game to a new category of objects. Likewise, manga did not change or evolve from Hokusai’s manga into comics; people began using the word for a new category of objects, based on an assumed shared characteristic rather than a direct connection between the two (11).

 

To Exner’s thinking, the connection between early audio-visual technology and comics is more than “sheer coincidence” as commonly assumed. Rather, it is because of a “casual connection” that comics creation followed the “spread of pantomime cartoons, motion lines, pain stars, and depictions of sound, and coincided with the spread of film and sound recording” (22).

Among many misconceptions that Exner rectifies are the almost-sacrosanct image of the so-called “god of comics,” Tezuka Osamu, pointing out his tendency to exaggerate and, occasionally, lift whole scenes from others’ works, and that akahon (cheap comics that plagiarize popular characters with new stories) were published solely by small, short-lived firms, when actually, a huge percentage of them were the product of a large enterprise into other forms of entertainment.

Exner makes a herculean attempt to fill out the entire timeline of manga history, providing a six-page chronology from 1890 to 2017 as an appendix, and supplementing periods shortchanged in previous research, such as the 1920s, which, he showed, yielded the establishment of today’s top three comics publishers and the first Japanese magazine that topped a million circulation, namely, King.

At times, Manga: A New History of Japanese Comics goes into diversion mode, dishing out what can be classified as mini-instructional “lectures,” for example, on how styles change; the technical use of color, hatching, and stripping; the importance of viewing topics in a contextual manner, etc. When doubt clouds conclusions, Exner utilizes common sense logic--e.g., the “simplest explanation is most likely the correct one” (22) or the most plausible reason among a batch of notions should be chosen.

As is his nature, Exner spent many hours in national and university libraries across the United States and in Tokyo, scouring the original newspapers and magazines and referring to any relevant correspondence available. He also gathered data from collectors of manga and other researchers’ interviews. The book is thoroughly documented, with notes that carefully explain, add to, take exception to, and even supplement, what Exner wrote in his first book. It appears that interviews were not conducted.

One of the few shortcomings of the book is the sparse treatment of manga during the war years, 1940-1945, although Exner devotes some space to the 1930s’ wartime comics. But, for those five years of the early 1940s, it would be useful to know how many manga were published, by government and private publishers, under what restrictions, by whom, with what type of content, and with what effect? What were the contents of any decrees issued referring to censorship generally, and how did they apply to manga? Where there any instances of publishers or artists who dared to ignore censorship rules; any examples of underground publishing or artistry activity?

The other criticism of Manga… is directed at the publisher, Yale University Press. It would seem that a press of Ivy League prestige and out of respect for the work of a dedicated scholar, would have treated the work more professionally A large section of the book is barely readable, using a smaller and faint typeface--pages 214-248, that include a chronology, notes, bibliography, and index. A number of the images stood to be upgraded by enlargement and better placement while being photographed.

Readers of Manga:  A New History of Japanese Comics, or any work by Exner for that matter, can expect the excellence associated with his name--research that is very comprehensive and wide-ranging, an abundance of information that is rigorously scrutinized and carefully analyzed, and writing that is clear and concise--even casual and seemingly effortless at times--, meant to instruct, educate, and entertain. A full package, to my thinking.

[Full Disclosure:  The reviewer was one of five individuals who wrote testimonials for this book.]

A version of this review will appear in IJOCA 27-1. 

UPDATE: Notes from Eike Exner:

I'm very grateful for the kind review (and John's previous support for my work). 

I'll add two small points of clarification: the reason for the little space devoted to manga between 1942 and 1945 is that there were only a handful of serialized strips during this time and I already had to ask for an extension to the original word limit. Discussing that period in greater detail would have given it undue prominence compared to its historical importance. My next book will examine the period in great detail, however. 

Yale University Press is not primarily to blame for the images not being perfectly aligned. Many materials were only available from institutions that will only make physical copies for patrons. I could have tried purchasing more historical materials myself but that would not have been possible for all. Most images should ideally be larger, but the larger the images, the weaker the claim to fair use, for which there are no clear standards. 

One reason why I went with YUP is that they were willing to claim fair use, which not all presses are. I looked into asking for permission for all images but learned that this is not practically feasible; in many cases it's not even simple to find out who currently holds the rights to works by deceased creators, and even if you do figure this out it's often not clear how to reach the rightsholders. It was also important to me to include those images that I thought were most useful to understand the history, not whatever images I could get permission for, which would skew the visual representation towards certain creators.

The Huge Comics Exhibition at the Pompidou Center in Paris - A View from Finland

by  Harri Römpötti, a journalist and critic of comics based in Finland, who has been a freelancer for 35 years writing reviews, articles and books about comics among other subjects

Bande dessinée, 1964-2024,  https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/program/calendar/event/9htHbj4  

Corto Maltese: Une vie romanesqu, https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/program/calendar/event/h0PE028

La BD à tous les étages,
https://www.centrepompidou.fr/fr/programme/agenda/evenement/zozduYP

Paris: The Centre Pompidou. May 29 - November 4,  2024. https://www.centrepompidou.fr/fr/programme/la-bd-a-tous-les-etages

Comics have taken over the Pompidou Center in Paris. The facility advertises that there are comics on all floors. The entirety of the exhibition is exceptionally extensive, even by the Pompidou’s scale.

   It is also exceptional in the history of comics. The world’s most famous and prestigious museums of modern and contemporary art are probably Pompidou and Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Neither has had anything similar before.

   “There have been big comics exhibitions in France, but nothing like this. In the early 1990’s, MoMA had an exhibition called ‘High and Low:  Modern Art and Popular Culture,’ which included comics. But cartoonists led by Art Spiegelman criticized it for its condescending attitude,” says comics scholar Thierry Groensteen.

   Groensteen (born 1957) is known for, among other things, his book Systéme de la bande dessinée (1999, System of Comics in English 2007). He has also managed the comics museum in Angoulême and founded the publishing house Éditions de L’An 2. Groensteen has curated some of France’s previous major exhibitions and is one of the four curators of the Pompidou exhibition.

   Spiegelman, who won a Pulitzer Prize for the comic Maus, is not only an artist, but also one of the most authoritative comics experts in the United States. At the exhibit opening in the end of May, Spiegelman applauded the Pompidou exhibition. “Beforehand, I was afraid of the worst, but this advances the status of the comics by years,” Spiegelman stated.

   The defining of the time period covered by the main exhibition, “Comics 1964-2024” (or “Bande dessinée, 1964-2024”), is interesting. The 60-year period covers the development arc of contemporary comics. Comic books have long been considered children’s culture. In the U.S., newspaper comics were aimed at adults or the whole family. Comic books that only appeared in the 1930’s were mostly made for children. In Europe, the early Tintin and a large part of the rest of the comics were aimed at children. Similarly, manga production in Japan swelled after World War II. The heyday of children’s comics lasted mostly from the 1930’s to the 1960’s.

   After that, artists in many different parts of the world, who grew up with comics for children and young people, started making comics for adults. That’s where Pompidou’s main exhibition begins. “The counterculture highlighted arts that were previously neglected. The boundaries between high culture and pop started to break down,” Groensteen says.

   In France, one of the milestones was Jean-Claude Forest’s erotic science fiction comic Barbarella. In the U.S., Robert Crumb and others broke taboos in underground comics, and in Japan, Yoshihiro Tatsumi and others developed manga into gekiga, dramatic pictures, in Garo magazine. Garo artists didn’t see themselves as part of the manga industry.

   “It was my idea to start from the 60’s and not from the beginning of the history of comics. At first, I thought we’d stop at 2000, because it’s hard to choose the most relevant ones from the latest developments. Then we would have gone from Barbarella to Persepolis, but very few women would have been included. Most of the female artists have established themselves only in the 21^st Century.” Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical success, Persepolis, would indeed have been a rarity in an exhibition limited to the 20^th Century.

   Although the exhibition is breathtakingly extensive, it only scratches the surface. The three main regions of the comics--U.S., Europe, and Japan--appear side by side for the first time on such a large scale. But the Nordic countries are represented only by Sweden’s Joanna Hellgren. Groensteen explains, “I’m the only one of us curators who knows Nordic comics at all. To be honest, we didn’t even consider the others. We had a list of over 200 must-have artists, but we had to cut it down to about 130. The artists’ home country was never a selection criterion. I would have liked to include Africa as well, but we ran out of space.”

   For Groensteen, it was important that next to well-known artists, others were exhibited for the general public. He brought along, among others, the German Anke Feuchtenberger and the Austrian Ulli Lust.

   Groensteen came up with the idea that “Comics 1964-2024” be divided into themes. Chronological order would have brought out the historical development, which now remains obscure. However, the division into themes also creates other small problems. For example, Crumb and Satrapi are not to be found in the room of autobiographical comics--or personal stories, as they are called at the Pompidou. Crumb is in the room of underground and other taboo-breakers, and Satrapi is in comics about history. Of course, they also belong to those rooms, but, many themes are strangely lacking expected cartoonists, when the artists belonging to several sections are in some other one.

   If you’re familiar with comics at all, you’ll miss some of your favorites at Pompidou, even though you’ll find many others. Groensteen says that he has a meter-long list of those left out. The omissions emphasize one of the key messages of the exhibition: that comics art is so vast that even a giant exhibition does not cover nearly everything. “Comics 1964-2024” is a slightly chaotic kaleidoscope that doesn’t even stay within its own limits. The all-time favorites, Asterix, Tintin, and Lucky Luke, are included. “Admittedly, they are rather from a different generation than the core of the exhibition, but, in France, we would never have been forgiven if they were missing,” Groensteen explains.

   One of the achievements of the exhibition is the large number of Japanese originals. Traditionally, it is very difficult to get them for exhibitions. There are also funny details. Maybe only the French could think of putting Guido Crepax’s erotic comics in the section of geometry, even though they fit there based on the exceptional compositions of the pages. Erotica doesn’t have its own section.

    Below the main exhibition, on the fifth floor, there is the museum’s traditional main collection exhibition. Comics have been placed there in dialogue with visual art in the “La bande dessinée au Musée” exhibition. Groensteen participated in its preparation only in discussions, not as an actual curator. The temporal limitation has been waived there. Among others, Winsor McCay, George Herriman, and George McManus have their own small but impressive showcases in the corridors between main spaces.

   The works of 15 contemporary comics artists are hung side by side with the big names in art. For example, David B., the creator of the Epileptic, is placed next to the surrealist André Breton, and Joann Sfar, the creator of The Rabbi’s Cat, hangs side by side with Jules Pascin. “However, the purpose is not to justify the position of comics in the museum, because it is no longer necessary,” Groensteen points out.

   Hugo Pratt’s Corto Maltese has been given its own exhibition in the museum’s library. Marion Fayolle, the author of surrealistic studies on human relationships, has set up a village for the whole family on the terrace of the main lobby.

   The share of actual experimental comics remains somewhat small, although for example Yuichi Yokoyama is prominently presented. The experimental magazine, Lagon, whose authors include Joe Kessler and Olivier Schrauwen, has its own extensive exhibition in the basement.

   The exhibitions were created relatively quickly, in 16 months. Groensteen says the biggest credit goes to Laurent Le Bon, who became director of the Pompidou Center in 2021. “Le Bon is a big fan of comics. For years, he and collector Édouard Leclerc dreamed of a big comics exhibition. Previously, they hoped to get it in the Louvre or d’Orsay. Leclerc has a huge collection, from which about a third of the originals in the exhibitions come from.” Of course, there have been cartoon exhibitions at the Pompidou before, but the giant entity became possible when Le Bon was chosen as the director of the museum.

   The Pompidou Center has also started acquiring its own collection of original comic art. The works of ten artists have been acquired first, featuring David B, Edmond Baudoin, Blutch, Nicolas de Crécy, Emmanuel Guibert, Benoit Jacques, Éric Lambé, Lorenzo Mattotti, Catherine Meurisse, and Fanny Michaëlis. Most of the exhibitions are on display until November 4^th. After that the entire Pompidou will be closed for extensive and long-lasting renovations.

[Versions of this article have previously appeared in Finnish newsmagazine Suomen Kuvalehti and will be published in the Swedish Comics Society’s newsmagazine Bild & Bubbla. This article was translated using Google, edited by John A. Lent, and then reworked by the author, and re-edited by Rhode and re-posted on Aug. 26, 2024.]