Manga's First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905–1989

Andrea Horbinski

Univ of California Press, Oct 28, 2025 - Art - 448 pages

2026 Eisner Award Nominee—Best Academic/Scholarly Work

A comprehensive English-language history of a beloved medium, Manga’s First Century tells the story of the artists and fans who built a cultural juggernaut.

Manga is the world’s most popular style of comics. How did manga and anime—“moving manga”—become ubiquitous? Manga’s First Century delves into the history and finds surprising answers.

In fact, manga has always been a global phenomenon. Countering essentialist myths of manga’s emergence from the deepest wells of Japanese art, author Andrea Horbinski shows it was born in the early 1900s, a hybrid form that crossed single-panel satirical cartoons popular in Europe and America with the Edo period’s artistic legacy. As a medium, manga initially focused on political commentary, expanding to include social satire, children’s comics, and proletarian art in the 1920s and 1930s. Manga’s evolution into a medium embracing complex, long-form storytelling was likewise driven by creators and fans pushing publishers to accept new, radical expansions in manga’s artistic and narrative practices. In the 1970s, innovative creators and fans empowered a new breed of fan-generated comics (dōjinshi) and established robust audiences of adult, female, and queer manga readers, while nurturing generations of amateur and professional creators who continue to enrich and renew manga today.

Contents

• Introduction I: 1
• Cover of The Japan Punch 1865: 18
• Cartoon by Honda Kinkichirō from Marumaru Chinbun 1880: 21
• Manga by Imaizumi Ippyō from Jiji Shinpō 1899: 23
• Manga manbun by Okamoto Ippei 1916: 34
• Norakuro and his fellow recruits in Norakuro nitōhei 1933: 75
• The Norakuro Harmonica Band 1943: 77
• Page from Shōnen shukō book 1937: 79
• Issues of Yōnen Kurabu 1933 1941 1944: 91
• Erogurostyle manga by Yanase Masamu 1924: 102
• Proletarian manga by Yanase Masamu 1928: 105
• Cover of Manga Nihon by Katō Etsurō 1944: 120
• Eating Vegetables Rereading Manga: 122
• 5: 127
• Opening sequence of Shintakarajima 1947: 134
• Children watching a kamishibai performance ca 1948: 138
• Cover of Manga 1948: 140
• Movement: 158
• Readers in a kashihonya 1948: 159
• Shambling Toward the Postmodern: 185
• Cover of Garo no 1 with art by Shirato Sanpei 1964: 197
• Cover of Big Comic no 1 1968: 219
• The kiss scene from In the Sunroom 1970: 240
• 9: 253
• Opening pages of Kaze to ki no uta 1976: 265
• Cover of Manga Burikko 1983: 292
• Still Preoccupied with 1989: 303

About the author

Andrea Horbinski earned her PhD in modern Japanese history and new media from the University of California, Berkeley. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Anime and Manga Studies and as the submissions editor for Mechademia: Second Arc.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Manga's First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905–1989
• Author: Andrea Horbinski
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Univ of California Press, 2025
• ISBN: 0520403983, 9780520403987
• Length: 448 pages
• Subjects: Art / Asian / Japanese; Education / General; History / Asia / Japan; History / Modern / 20th Century / General; Literary Criticism / Asian / Japanese; Literary Criticism / Comics & Graphic Novels; Social Science / Media Studies; Social Science / Popular Culture