Black Blizzard
by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
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Description
THE PREEMMINENTGEKIGA-KA'SFIRST GRAPHIC NOVEL FROM FIFTY YEARS AGO Created in the late 1950s,Black Blizzardis Yoshihiro Tatsumi's remarkable first full-length graphic novel and one of the first published examples ofGekiga. Tatsumi documented how his love for Mickey Spillane and hard-boiled crime novels led him to create this landmark genre of manga in his epic, critically acclaimed 2009 autobiography,A Drifting Life. WithBlack Blizzard, Tatsumi explores the dark underbelly of his show more working-class heroes that five decades later has made him one of the best-known Japanese cartoonists in North America. Susumu Yamaji, a twenty-four-year-old pianist, is arrested formurder and ends up handcuffed to a career criminal on the train that will take them to prison. An avalanche derails the train and the criminal takes the opportunity to escape, dragging a reluctant Susumu with him into the blizzard raging outside. They flee into the mountains to an abandoned ranger station, where they take shelter from the storm. As they sit around the fire they built, Susumu relates how love drove him to become a murderer. A cinematic adventure story,Black Blizzarduncovers an unlikely love story and an even unlikelier friendship. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
In his interview with Adrian Tomine that concludes this volume, Tatsumi comments that he's slightly embarrassed to have this work republished over 50 years after its first appearance. It's in some ways easy to see why: the artwork is more than a little crude (not all of which can be blamed on the reproduction process of the time), as is the dialogue, and the plot is a tad on the simplistic side. Though he already had a few works behind him at this point, it's still quite clearly the work of a relatively inexperienced contributor to the medium, working to finish a piece as fast as possible.
That said, it is an important step in the development of Tatsumi's work (of which more details can be found in A Drifting Life), and is one of the few show more artifacts of the '50s rental manga boom — outside of the omni-present Tezuka — available in English publication. All of which makes this work of interest, even if largely for historic reasons. show less
That said, it is an important step in the development of Tatsumi's work (of which more details can be found in A Drifting Life), and is one of the few show more artifacts of the '50s rental manga boom — outside of the omni-present Tezuka — available in English publication. All of which makes this work of interest, even if largely for historic reasons. show less
Rated “Indifferent" in our old book database.
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ThingScore 75
Yoshihiro Tatsumi was, when young, a fan of Mickey Spillane, the poor man's — the very poor man's — Raymond Chandler, and Spillane's fingerprints are all over "Black Blizzard," a page-turner in the best pulp style, published in 1956.
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Author Information
32+ Works 2,107 Members
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Classifications
- Genre
- Graphic Novels & Comics
- DDC/MDS
- 741.5 — Arts & recreation Drawing & decorative arts Drawing Comic books, graphic novels, fotonovelas, cartoons, caricatures, comic strips
- LCC
- PN6790 .J33 .T376 — Language and Literature Literature (General) Literature (General) Collections of general literature Comic books, strips, etc.
- BISAC
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- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.52)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 1
- ASINs
- 1
