Taiyō Matsumoto

Matsumoto's manga of a manga editor who grows disillusioned with his work belongs alongside books that question the artistic process like Pale Fire, The Ghost Writer, Breakfast of Champions.

Shiozawa quits his job, but his work has a gravity of its own. He finds himself unable to define a next step, and instead is drawn back to his old ambitions. The crux is the cross purposes that his ambition and his old job seem to have been driving him towards.

Matsumoto's art is detailed and literal. show more His characters say what they are doing without ever crossing into abstraction or subtext. The two exceptions to this rule give me great hope for the next volumes:
A splash of color that lights up a few pages when Shiozawa reverses course and decides not to sell off his precious manga collection but instead to try to produce one more work. Like Dorothy stepping into Oz the colors are shocking. While they don't recur, they give me hope for a more variety art ahead.
The second is a pet bird who carries on full conversations with Shiozawa. The former editor later remarks on a phenomenally offhand way that he understands birds, and we're left wondering whether that is a literal truth, or a metaphor for Shiozawa 's subconsciously caged creativity.

I would be very happy to see both hints at a more enchanted and enchanting world more fully explored. show less

GoGo Monster is instantly my new favorite book. I've read a couple of titles from Taiyo Matsumoto previous to this one, and while they were both great, I was not prepared for just how incredible GoGo Monster turned out to be. This is an absolutely beautiful tale of a Japanese schoolboy caught between a "real world" in which he does not feel he belongs and an alternate world which is mysterious and foreboding, but nonetheless welcoming to the isolated boy. Matsumoto's chaotic but masterful show more black-and-white pen work is stunning, and the variety of visual techniques that he employs to pull this tale off is breath-taking. What could have been a mawkish, sentimental tale of troubled youth is rendered into genuine art in Matsumoto's hands, since the author refuses to settle for obvious narrative solutions. GoGo Monster is graphic story-telling of an unusually accomplished nature, and absolutely recommended on all fronts. show less

Oof! So melancholy!

Another study of comic book creators that proves that quote attributed to Jack Kirby: "Kid . . . Comics will break your heart." (See also: The Winter Of The Cartoonist by Paco Roca)

Former editor Kazuo Shiozawa continues his quest to publish an independent collection of manga short stories, making the rounds of people who have already committed and artists he'd like to recruit. Everyone's life is for crap, but in compelling and heartbreaking ways.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: show more Chapter 9. A late-night visit from Chosaku -- Chapter 10. Request work from Makoto Nishioka Sensei -- Chapter 11. Wednesday, 3 p.m.: Go to Editorial -- Chapter 12. August: Kusakari picks up apples -- Chapter 13. Pay a visit to Machiko Iidabashi Sensei -- Chapter 14. Today: Visit 30 bookstores -- Chapter 15. Aoki struggles with insomnia -- Chapter 16. Aoki returns to his hometown show less

Despite a slow start and the occasional depiction of cats as half human that triggered a shuddering flashback to the appalling movie version of the Cats musical, I warmed to this fantasy of a night watchmen who looks after stray cats in the Louvre's attic and then spends the rest of his night seeking traces of his sister who went missing in the museum fifty years prior. He shares his cat care-taking chores with and confesses his suspicion that his sister must have gone into a painting to a show more new watchmen and a sympathetic museum tour guide. Meanwhile, the cats traipse around in their shifting forms, fighting frequently amongst themselves and sometimes with a passing dog.

It's weird, but builds steadily toward an emotional climax. show less