Make Me A Nerd: The Manga Bible on Mandy Kaplan’s Fab Podcast

Lobby card for the podcast has a partial portrait of Mandy Kaplan at far right, lower face hidden behind a book, and half length portrait of Helen, smiling broadly. She's wearing bronze winged serpent earrings, a miniature silver T-Rex skeleton necklace, and multicarat rings, with a spice yellow t-shirt.

The Manga Bible is out today in the US – the right time for me to give the fabulous Mandy Kaplan a crash dive into manga on her podcast Make Me A Nerd We talked One Piece, Nana and Nausicäa, amid many of my trademark diversions, and you can hear us on TruStory FM or […]

The Manga Bible: The Movie!

A frame from the Reels video shot by and ©Octopus Books/Octopus Publishing, shows someone flipping through The Manga Bible

My lovely PR team at Octopus shot some videos of me to promote The Manga Bible and I thought it might be fun to share them. This one is all about why the book came to be. Thanks to Matilda, director and cinematographer, and Keiron and Emma for support and great company during the shoot! […]

Christmas in January: Italian Edition of The Manga Bible!

Front cover of La Bibbia dei Manga, published in Italian by Gribaudo. The cover is deep pink, overprinted with a page of manga art by Baron Yoshimoto in black ink. The title is in large, bold, bright yellow block capitals, with the author's and publisher's names in smaller white capitals.

I was absolutely thrilled to receive an advance copy of La Bibbia dei Manga – Gribaudo’s Italian edition of The Manga Bible. Just when that after-Christmas, no-more-exciting-parcels feeling usually kicks in, this gem shot through my letterbox and made my day.   Many thanks to translator Paolo Silvio Poli for making my work accessible in […]

That New Book Feeling – In Triplicate!

From left to right, the German, English and French editions of The Manga Bible by Helen McCarthy. The book covers are identical, a purple background overlaid with manga art, with the book title in bold yellow capitals and other text in white. In the background, enlarged copies of the ENglish cover on advertising boards, one with the launch date, 5 March 2026.

Advance copies of The Manga Bible fell into my eager hands this morning, and after I’d finished inhaling that unique, intoxicating new book smell – equal parts fresh ink, newly cut paper and author excitement – I couldn’t wait to share. So here they are in all their shiny new massively-illustrated gorgeousness – the English, […]

LATEST ON THE NEW EDITION OF “HAYAO MIYAZAKI: MASTER OF JAPANESE ANIMATION”

The cover of the 1999 Stone Bridge Press edition of "Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation". On a gradated orange background, a head and shoulders profile image of San wielding her long knife, facing right, with the title to the right above the blade and the subhead and author name below.

Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation was published by Stone Bridge Press in 1999. It was the first book on Miyazaki in English and I had so much fun writing it.  In 2026, over a quarter of a century later, McFarland & Company, Inc., will publish an updated edition covering Miyazaki’s 21st century works. That, […]