Eike Exner
@eikeexner.com
アイケ・エクスナ
Striphistoricus writing on Japanese comics and the history of the comics medium.
eikeexner.com/books
- Comics and the Origins of Manga
(Rutgers UP, 2021)
- Manga: A New History of Japanese Comics
(Yale UP, 2025)
Striphistoricus writing on Japanese comics and the history of the comics medium.
eikeexner.com/books
- Comics and the Origins of Manga
(Rutgers UP, 2021)
- Manga: A New History of Japanese Comics
(Yale UP, 2025)
By all means do take peer review seriously, but sometimes there really are people who just don't know what they're talking about (or are acting in bad faith), so if you ever get a review like this one, know that this happens and that you can safely ignore it
¯\_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯
¯\_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯
November 12, 2025 at 7:03 PM
By all means do take peer review seriously, but sometimes there really are people who just don't know what they're talking about (or are acting in bad faith), so if you ever get a review like this one, know that this happens and that you can safely ignore it
¯\_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯
¯\_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯
Today's the four year anniversary of my first book, Comics and the Origins of Manga. To celebrate, I'm sharing a "Reviewer Two" review it received that delayed publication by a few months but which taught me the invaluable lesson not to listen to your haters.
November 12, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Today's the four year anniversary of my first book, Comics and the Origins of Manga. To celebrate, I'm sharing a "Reviewer Two" review it received that delayed publication by a few months but which taught me the invaluable lesson not to listen to your haters.
Hat erschreckend lange gedauert, bis ich geschnallt hab, dass 落下傘絵 ein Tippfehler für 屏風絵 ist... War ganz schön verwirrt, was das sein soll. Hatte nämlich noch nicht gehört, dass japanische Piloten ihre Ausrüstung bemalt hätten.
November 12, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Hat erschreckend lange gedauert, bis ich geschnallt hab, dass 落下傘絵 ein Tippfehler für 屏風絵 ist... War ganz schön verwirrt, was das sein soll. Hatte nämlich noch nicht gehört, dass japanische Piloten ihre Ausrüstung bemalt hätten.
Highly recommend occasionally verifying sources for claims that strike you as odd. Can be pretty amusing.
![The passage cited to support the claim that the Asahi Shinbun condemned a book of pornography titled Issei Teire: 警視庁防犯課による、いわゆるエロ・グロ本の「一斉手入れ」が行われた。("The Metropolitan Police Department's crime prevention unit conducted a 'simultaneous crackdown' [in Japanese: issei teire] against so-called erotic/grotesque books.")](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:nwvzwefanstmamz7gtdbus56/bafkreibb7vozgqanswka7fw5zqz4tlb6x2iol7aiaqvbyrm5masp7iaa7q@jpeg)
November 5, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Highly recommend occasionally verifying sources for claims that strike you as odd. Can be pretty amusing.
This is the energy I'm talking about
November 3, 2025 at 2:00 AM
This is the energy I'm talking about
The reason for my scare quotes around "four-panel" is that the term itself is an anachronism. Most weekday comics at the time did indeed use four panels, but some didn't and some were flexible. Mutt and Jeff usually used at least four and BUF has ranged from three to six (see images).
October 30, 2025 at 9:56 PM
The reason for my scare quotes around "four-panel" is that the term itself is an anachronism. Most weekday comics at the time did indeed use four panels, but some didn't and some were flexible. Mutt and Jeff usually used at least four and BUF has ranged from three to six (see images).
Please indulge me in a brief rant. Four years after I wrote a whole book about it, I still from time to time see the Japanese translation of Bringing Up Father described as a "four-panel" comic.
October 30, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Please indulge me in a brief rant. Four years after I wrote a whole book about it, I still from time to time see the Japanese translation of Bringing Up Father described as a "four-panel" comic.
Here's a good example of the burning eyes. And the realistic, densely-hatched close-ups. And some of the excessive crying, on the right-hand page.
October 28, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Here's a good example of the burning eyes. And the realistic, densely-hatched close-ups. And some of the excessive crying, on the right-hand page.
1930s Norakuro supplement included with Shonen Kurabu, for building your very own cardboard Norakuro, featuring movable arms.
October 23, 2025 at 9:46 PM
1930s Norakuro supplement included with Shonen Kurabu, for building your very own cardboard Norakuro, featuring movable arms.
Barnes & Noble's 50% manga discount also applies to Manga: A New History of Japanese Comics
www.barnesandnoble.com/w/manga-eike...
www.barnesandnoble.com/w/manga-eike...
October 18, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Barnes & Noble's 50% manga discount also applies to Manga: A New History of Japanese Comics
www.barnesandnoble.com/w/manga-eike...
www.barnesandnoble.com/w/manga-eike...
No no, manga preexisted Tezuka, it just wasn't *modern* yet. Technically Sazae-san made it modern first, I guess? Which is extra hilarious, because Sazae-san is almost indistinguishable from Hasegawa's earlier work.
October 18, 2025 at 9:22 AM
No no, manga preexisted Tezuka, it just wasn't *modern* yet. Technically Sazae-san made it modern first, I guess? Which is extra hilarious, because Sazae-san is almost indistinguishable from Hasegawa's earlier work.
Surely there can't be many things whose popular historiography is as untethered from reality as that of manga.
October 18, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Surely there can't be many things whose popular historiography is as untethered from reality as that of manga.
Society if the ratio of mass media reporting on homicides by drivers vs. homicides by immigrants was the same as the real-world ratio of those homicides.
October 16, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Society if the ratio of mass media reporting on homicides by drivers vs. homicides by immigrants was the same as the real-world ratio of those homicides.
That's an interesting point. Does "BUMP!" count (bottom middle panel)?
October 12, 2025 at 7:49 AM
That's an interesting point. Does "BUMP!" count (bottom middle panel)?
In case you can't access the article:
October 12, 2025 at 12:04 AM
In case you can't access the article:
Holy cow, you're right. Here's another one, in "School-boy on good time," same collected volume. I read these *after* One Piece, where I noticed the inverted tails all the time, so I'm kinda shocked I didn't notice them here. Yet more evidence that the "Otomo Revolution" in manga was real, I guess
October 10, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Holy cow, you're right. Here's another one, in "School-boy on good time," same collected volume. I read these *after* One Piece, where I noticed the inverted tails all the time, so I'm kinda shocked I didn't notice them here. Yet more evidence that the "Otomo Revolution" in manga was real, I guess
Meant to read this in time to cite it in Manga: A New History, but better late than never (^-^;
October 7, 2025 at 5:58 AM
Meant to read this in time to cite it in Manga: A New History, but better late than never (^-^;
Here's a little avant-garde manga from 1891.
October 6, 2025 at 6:42 AM
Here's a little avant-garde manga from 1891.
So this is just our new normal now? Government thugs get to brutalize whomever they want, whenever they want, no more laws, no more rights?
October 4, 2025 at 11:16 PM
So this is just our new normal now? Government thugs get to brutalize whomever they want, whenever they want, no more laws, no more rights?
After a while, the archivist wrote back that she'd found the cartoon! THE FIRST MANGA, REDISCOVERED!! Interestingly, it wasn't flipped in Japan, but only in NY! (Another mystery lost to time.)
In conclusion, an image may look like just another illustration, but behind it may lie hours of research.
In conclusion, an image may look like just another illustration, but behind it may lie hours of research.
October 4, 2025 at 8:00 PM
After a while, the archivist wrote back that she'd found the cartoon! THE FIRST MANGA, REDISCOVERED!! Interestingly, it wasn't flipped in Japan, but only in NY! (Another mystery lost to time.)
In conclusion, an image may look like just another illustration, but behind it may lie hours of research.
In conclusion, an image may look like just another illustration, but behind it may lie hours of research.
I spent a ridiculous number of hours doing this, to the point where I started to despair I was wasting countless hours with nothing to show for it. But then, finally, I found the cartoon! And woah, look at that, it's flipped! Possibly the first instance of comics flipping between the US and Japan!
October 4, 2025 at 8:00 PM
I spent a ridiculous number of hours doing this, to the point where I started to despair I was wasting countless hours with nothing to show for it. But then, finally, I found the cartoon! And woah, look at that, it's flipped! Possibly the first instance of comics flipping between the US and Japan!
Now I wondered if I could also find the original source of what I considered The Big One: the first narrative multi-panel cartoon to actually be labeled a "manga," seen here, published in April 1891.
October 4, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Now I wondered if I could also find the original source of what I considered The Big One: the first narrative multi-panel cartoon to actually be labeled a "manga," seen here, published in April 1891.
Looking through the major American cartoon magazines issue by issue for 1889 and 1890 (since the British and Japanese versions were published in 1890), I finally came across the original in the cartoon magazine Judge.
October 4, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Looking through the major American cartoon magazines issue by issue for 1889 and 1890 (since the British and Japanese versions were published in 1890), I finally came across the original in the cartoon magazine Judge.
After Comics and the Origins of Manga came out, someone messaged me on (pre-fash) Twitter, saying, "hey did you know that the weightlifter pantomime cartoon was published in Comic Cuts in Britain" (paraphrasing, since I've long deleted my Twitter account). And so a quest began.
October 4, 2025 at 8:00 PM
After Comics and the Origins of Manga came out, someone messaged me on (pre-fash) Twitter, saying, "hey did you know that the weightlifter pantomime cartoon was published in Comic Cuts in Britain" (paraphrasing, since I've long deleted my Twitter account). And so a quest began.