The history of manga

Manga began in the post-World War II years in Japan, its origin largely credited to Osamu Tezuka, who turned Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" into a manga version called "New Treasure Island" in 1947. Tezuka later went on to create one of the most well-known examples of modern manga, "Astro Boy."

As the postwar generation grew up, they took manga with them, navigating it from childhood hobby to adult-worthy art. In the late '60s, manga became a popular student movement.

By the '80s, manga had expanded into a number of genres, including sports, romance, erotic, historical, comedic, fantasy, sci fi, horror and informational. Its audience is now as diverse as its subject matter, and women and men of all ages occupy distinct manga niches.

Today, manga is published in phonebook-sized magazines, serialized and in black and white. It reportedly accounts for as much as 40 percent of printed material in Japan.

Manga began to appear in the U.S. in the early '80s. Its popularity took off in the wake of the anime explosion of 1999-2000, according to Milton Griepp, publisher of ICv2, a pop-culture trade Web site.

"Manga got a huge boost with Pokémon," he said. "All of a sudden, people started to become aware of this big world of Japanese pop culture, of which manga is part."

In recent years, three large publishing companies have continued to expose manga to the American scene: Viz Communications, TOKYOPOP and the Portland-based Dark Horse Comics. TOKYOPOP, especially, targeted the diverse audiences manga enjoys in Japan, Griepp said.

"They really showed the salability of manga directed at female consumers" he said. "TOKYOPOP really broke that wide open."

Source: A History of Manga, an article by Go Tchiei, and Milton Griepp, publisher of ICv2, a pop-culture trade Web site.

Lisa Heyamoto