Description: "Oba electroplating factory shows Tsuge reflecting upon his own life, his work, and his contemporaries. While on a trip to hot springs, a wife teases her husband about a former fling: a young cartoonist is aghast at the cavalier conduct of his supposed betters; a child slaves away at a dangerous factory job, unaware of the danger and adult dramas surrounding him. Translated by Ryan Holmber, this volume is an indispensable addition to the literary comics canon and shining example of world literature at its most human. Following his breakthrough success of "Neijishiki, Yoshiharu Tsuge forgest a path for autofiction in manga and changes the cultural landscape of comics forever. The fourth volume of seven from the celebrated and influential Garo artist, Oba Electroplating Factory contains some of Tsuge's most revealing and personal works--studies in staging nature, working to evoke stillness and movement that renders his chosen setting a character all on its own"--
Brief description: Yoshiharu Tsuge was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1937. Influenced by the realistic and gritty manga of Yoshihiro Tatsumi, he began making his own comics and was briefly recruited to assist Shigeru Mizuki in the 1960s. In 1968, while working for Garo magazine, Tsuge published the groundbreaking story "Neji-shiki" (commonly called "Screw Style" by Western readers), which established him as an influential manga-ka and a cultural touchstone in the changing Japanese art world. He is considered the originator and greatest practitioner of the I-novel method of comics-making. In 2005, Tsuge was nominated for the Best Album Award at Angoulême International and in 2017 won the Japan Cartoonists Association Grand Award for Yume to tabi no sekai.
Review Quotes:
"Essential... Tsuge is at the top of his game in this dazzling collection from the 1970s, which finds the underground manga legend moving from nightmare surrealism to semi-autobiographical pieces that draw horror from unflinching realism." --Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"A revered creator of gekiga manga [who works] in a style both spare and lush." --New York Times Book Review "Evidence that Tsuge remains one of the world's great cartoonists." --The Toronto Star "Fascinating... one of Japan's most celebrated and reclusive artists." --The Guardian