500 Manga Heroes & Villains
“.. a truly astounding range of the most important and influential manga characters of all time. Unlike most books about manga which focus exclusively on recent and popular series, this has comprehensive coverage of older and rarer works from many genres.”
– Tezuka In English
“.. an essential and accessible reference tool for first-time enthusiasts and manga historians alike.”
– Google Book Search
This book came about because another project didn’t fly. Chrysalis Books asked me to put together a book of manga cover art. That concept was shelved for later discussion when we came up with the idea of a manga version of Mike Conroy’s 500 Comic Book Action Heroes and 500 Comic Book Villains. Along the way, a management buyout at Chrysalis meant the book was published by the new company, Anova, in the UK, and the manga covers idea vanished into the limbo of unrealised projects that lurks somewhere in most corporate structures.
This was one of the most enjoyable books I’ve ever had to research – no matter how many on the pile, reading comics never feels like work. It also reminded me just how little we see of the huge range of graphic material appearing week after week in Japan.
Crammed between the covers are characters you might already know, and some you may never have heard of. I hope the book will introduce you to new artists and writers, as well as showing you some of the great characters and stories to be found in Japanese comics.
You can read an extract by clicking here.