Since Fred Schodt, Leonard Rifas, Toren Smith, and a few others introduced manga to the US more than 30 years ago, the books have had huge impacts on the publishing, content, and audiences of American comics. Brienza (City Univ. London, UK) thoroughly covers this transformation in Manga in America, dipping into, and sometimes lingering on, topics such as cultural production ... Read moreand other theories, history of manga in the US, licensing and negotiating rights, home-based labor, and digital manga publishing. The author takes pride in her meticulous research approach, devoting a detailed appendix to describing how she interviewed 70 people working in various positions in 16 publishing companies in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Toronto; the extreme care she took in preserving their anonymity; her ethnographic research at comic cons, book launches, etc., purposely as a semi-outsider ; and her use of social media and other sources. She makes reading easy by organizing material well, with categories of her own creation; presenting parts of interesting conversations held with informants; critically processing information; arguing her points; and revising earlier notions she held. Manga in America is, without a doubt, the most important scholarship on the subject and, hopefully, will be an exemplar for comic art scholarship. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals.
CHOICE
Brienza's groundbreaking research contributes greatly to the literature on consumption, globalization, cultural production, and much more. Her writing is witty, funny, and accessible ... The book has something for everyone-the scholar, the industry worker, the everyday fan and consumer, and the person who is just trying to understand what exactly is ``manga.''
Publishing Research Quarterly
If one has any interest in this category of books, it can be very beneficial to educate yourself about just how you get to hold them in your hands. I heartily encourage everyone to read Manga in America.
More Bedside Books
Show Less