Hitler

水木しげる漫画大全集 [Mizuki Shigeru Manga Daizenshū] #68

by Shigeru Mizuki

Quem foi Adolf Hitler? Um jovem megalomaníaco e obsessivo, frustrado em suas aspirações artísticas que se tornou um ditador com a ambição de dominar o mundo. A história contada com maestria por Shigeru Mizuki é um relato próximo da realidade sobre a vida e os desejos de um homem que marcou a História da Alemanha e do mundo – desde a sua juventude, passando por sua improvável carreira militar e o seu papel fundamental na II Guerra Mundial, até a sua morte.

Um mangá biográfico desenhado com pinceladas ousadas, que apresenta uma perspectiva japonesa sobre os acontecimentos que levaram ao maior conflito do século XX. Mizuki traça aqui um paralelo com a própria história militar do Japão, um tema que se tornou central na sua obra devido a sua posição pacifista e aos traumas causados por sua participação na guerra.

No mangá Hitler, Shigeru Mizuki mergulha nos livros de história para criar um retrato intenso e eloquente da figura de Adolf Hitler.

Genres: Manga, Graphic Novels, History, Comics, Nonfiction, Biography, War

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 17, 1989

About the author

Shigeru Mizuki (水木しげる) was a Japanese manga cartoonist, most known for his horror manga GeGeGe no Kitaro. He was a specialist in stories of yōkai and was considered a master of the genre. Mizuki was a member of The Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology, and had travelled to over 60 countries in the world to engage in fieldwork of the yōkai and spirits of different cultures. He has been published in Japan, South Korea, France, Spain, Taiwan, the United States and Italy. He is also known for his World War II memoirs and his work as a biographer.

Reviews

[Greta G · Rating 3 out of 5]

This graphic novel has everything...

Stunning art




Inspiring artists






Romance




and Jealousy




Humor




Loyalty




Philosophy




Drama




Pet love






Politics




and Patriotism




Public health issues




Tips to successfully convert to Judaism




Resemblance to actual living persons




Wonderful prose






and Action






A dramatic ending




But this graphic novel basically reads like a textbook and is not particularly engaging.






6/10

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every work I read by Shigeru Mizuki impresses me...this work on Hitler is amazing. So much has been written about Hitler that much has become redundant; so much that has been written borders the thin line between history and fiction. This book takes a look at Hitler from a detached yet engaging perspective - following his arc from corporal to Führer - and attempts to put the interpersonal relations that shaped his personality into perspective. The only perspective that I think is missing is the relationship between Hitler and his father - having said that I highly recommend this groundbreaking work.

[Mizuki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pre-review: I read some of this and the story and the artwork (it's amazing to see how Mr. Mizuki drew those Nazi guys!) is nice and as a survivor of WWII, Shigeru Mizuki really had an interesting angle to tell Hitler's tales, although the book was written 3 decades ago and the details might be outdated...

I found the Afterword penned by the author around 2003, 30 years after the creation of his works, 'Mister Hitler' to be highly amusing. Mr. Mizuki recalled how he, as an 18 years old Japanese young man, became aware of Hitler and his popularity in Europe. Like many other, he was intrigued by Hitler's outlook and his powerful speeches, although even as a young man, Mr. Mizuki knew how reckless it is for Hitler to launch war at USSR.

Although I have to point out concentration camps and the Holocasust are hardly mentioned in the story.

PS: For the longest of the time, no one takes Hitler seriously! LOL

PSS: Italy is such a dead weight, hahahah!

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. It was really engaging, I was expecting it to be a little dry but Mizuki's art combined with the storytelling made this book almost comical despite the serious content. Putting an evil figure such as Hitler in a weird cartoon setting is a little strange but it makes for an entertaining read. I got this book from my dad and I now understand why he enjoyed it.

[Sud666 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shigeru Mizuki (1922-2015) was a Japanese manga artist best known for his horror manga. But Mizuki had also served in the Pacific War and lost an arm in the war. He wrote a magnum opus of a historical-fiction manga called "Showa: A History of Japan". This large three-volume history of the Japanese involvement in the war was excellent. When I saw that he had also written a similar manga about Hitler, I went and bought it.

Mizuki's "Hitler" uses the same style as his "Showa" series- highly detailed backgrounds and copious notes contrast with the cartoonish nature of the characters that inhabit this setting. Mizuki starts with Hitler's birth, his service during WWI, his struggles as an artist, and finally his rise to power.

While it is well done, the brevity of this single volume causes it to feel far more rushed and clipped in the history versus his Showa history. This is likely because of his knowledge of the Japanese military, as opposed to the Nazi campaign. While there are some tidbits that were new to me (Hitler was a good whistler), there are others that I tend to disagree with-such as Mizuki crediting Hitler's "tactical and strategic" brilliance during the Blitzkrieg of France. While Hitler deserves the political credit for taking the gamble for war against France, the actual operational plan was developed by a far greater military mind-primarily Heinz Guderian, the father of modern armored doctrine. Truth be told when it comes to "tactical and strategic" brilliance on a military front-well let's say the LAST person you'd ask is Hitler.

Thus a good book and well done, the single-volume coverage of this massive period of history seems to be a disservice to the topic at hand. Still, a unique and accurate, for the most part, history of Hitler's rise and fall all done in a manga format.

[Billie Tyrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Very informative and easily digestible biography of Hitler that leaves me with only one question.

Did Hitler only have one ball?

According to Google he had an "unilateral cryptorchism" which means he had a "undescended right testicle". So that answers that question. This comic goes into all the details about everything else, not that I'm some Hitler expert or anything, I'm sure there's other things that were missed. One disappointment was that I didn't get to see a cartoon image of Hitler shoot his brains out. I was waiting to get that final panel of his horrid head getting blown apart. I'm not normally such a bloodthirsty person but hey, it's fricking Hitler alright?

[Álvaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este no es un cómic fácil, y requiere una lectura con las miras muy amplias.

Nos cuenta la vida de Hitler desde que éste era casi un vagabundo en Viena, hasta su suicidio en el bunker de Berlin.
De todas las personalidades del monstruo, se centra en tres: la de la persona megalómana, incansable y apasionada, la del político que muñe, engaña, encandila y convence, y la del estratega militar sin piedad, terco, y práctico.
Deja fuera, de una manera un poco extraña para mí, la del genocída asesino.

En cualquier caso, el arranque y ascenso al poder está muy bien contado (aunque en ocasiones se usan muchas páginas en conversaciones políticas difíciles de seguir), y el desarrollo y posterior caída de la figura mucho mejor, si bien un poquito acelerado en comparación con lo parsimonioso del primer tercio.

No es este cómic una historia de la II Guerra Mundial, la guerra aparece y mucho, pero siempre vista desde la personalidad y decisiones de Hitler.

El estilo es extraño, mezclando cuasi litografías en algunos paisajes y monumentos, caricaturas grotescas y cabezonas (las de los personajes principales, cuyas expresiones son, en ocasiones, muy risibles, a pesar de lo contado en la viñeta), y dibujo mucho mas..."normal" (seguro que en manga esta mezcla tiene un nombre pero lo desconozco, el manga no me va demasiado).

Una gran lectura biográfica.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the title says, this is a manga biography of Adolf Hitler. Some of you may have heard of him? The manga is written and drawn by Shigeru Mizuki, one of Japan's all time greats. It was ... interesting. It's not bad, but Mizuki has done better work. It's like the old story about the talking dog, where the fact that it exists at all is more interesting than the actual content. I'm not enough of an expert on WWII or Hitler in particular to say how good of a biography it is, but it seems decent enough. It's readable. It's not boring. It's recognizably a Mizuki manga. It's probably my least favorite Mizuki book, but even at his worst he's still better than many artists could ever hope to achieve. If you've never read his work before, I'd urge you to start with Onwards to Our Noble Deaths or something intead. Not great, but not terrible either.

[Medha · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh. I didn't find this enthralling at all. I was bored throughout it and I just wanted to finish it and be done with it which clearly means I wasn't enjoying it much. So yeah...

[Ian Hrabe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shigeru Mizuki illustrates Hilter cartoonishly because Hitler behaved cartoonishly. The book is told from Hitler's point of view, and though it plays out as a blow-by-blow of the rise of the Third Reich, World War II, and Hitler's downfall, the general tone on display is absolute senseless madness. This isn't a deep character study of Hitler, but a cautionary tale of the elements that led to his rise to power and the fever of a world turned upside down. It's a horror story of what happens when a man's delusion become reality and how modern history's most horrific years were effectively the work of one man. Sure, he had help, but as the book gets into the assassination attempts, you really get the feeling that without Hitler, Nazi Germany would have surrendered. Mizuki's artwork is an incredible mix of photo realistic backgrounds and cartoonish representations of the who's who of the Third Reich. It's a jarring mixture that drives home the divide between the real world and the insane notions of these horrible broken people. Note: Reading this in the current political climate, the comparisons between Hitler and Donald Trump are eerie. I'm a big believer in the "So and so is as bad as Hitler" being a bunch of crap because it cheapens the monster Hitler actually was, but man, it's hard to ignore.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much like the writer of the introduction of this book, I realized that my whole life I've seen Hitler as some sort of inhuman monster. This work by Shigeru Mizuki places him squarely back inside the human realm. It is important to see Hitler not as inhuman because that prevents us from seeing our own capability for evil. I also appreciated the way Hitler was shown to be pathetic and self-aggrandizing. It was a real take on one of the worst humans. My biggest complaint about this book is the lack of Holocaust representation. It's acknowledged at the beginning and end but this book itself focuses more on the military aspect. I really think that was a big flaw with this. However, I appreciated the perspective of someone (a former soldier of the Imperial Japanese army) who's view we don't often see on this subject. I also want to acknowledge the art and it's jarring and ominous quality. The juxtaposition of comic art and photo-realism was perfect for this.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a child of the United States, my education regarding WWII was dominated by the Holocaust. Now, the Holocaust is absolutely worthy of study, so I have no complaint of it being heavily covered. My issues lie with what wasn’t covered—how did Hitler rise to power? Why did people support him? How did the Nazi soldiers justify their actions? What did the Japanese want? Why did they attack Pearl Harbor (always seemed like a weirdly stupid move)? Wait, there were concentration camps in the US?

Yes, my education was sadly lacking, and I’ve been filling in the gaps during my adult life—looking for sources that focus on aspects of the war that are not a European-Jewish perspective.

This manga is one of the texts I've been looking for. Penned by a well-known, influential Japanese artist, this is a rare look at Hitler from the eastern perspective. It focuses on who Hitler was and how he schemed and manipulated his way from a failed art student into a political superpower. It dispels certain myths that many believe. No, not everyone loved Hitler. There were several assassination attempts that failed (so going back in time to kill Hitler probably won’t work).

The narrative moves quickly, offering only brief endnotes to fill in the gaps. The characters mention events, people, and places and expect the reader to keep up. In a way, this was disorienting in a good way, because it kept me off balance as the narrative raced forward without leaving me any time to react. I imagine this was a taste of what the rest of Europe had when Hitler made his moves.

While the book is humanizing of Hitler, it is not sympathetic to him. I couldn’t find any agenda other than here’s what happened with the politics.

I thought the artwork portrayed the subject matter well. Hitler is an over-the-top figure, and I think most people today recognize him as not quite of this world. He inhabited his own reality and ended up a caricature—a caricature with a disastrous influence, but a caricature nonetheless. He’s drawn in a cartoonish fashion with a humorous quality in his exaggerated expressions and the simplistic lines. The backgrounds, however, are strikingly realistic. I think this captures the essence of Hitler well. He didn’t fit into the real world, and most people can’t relate to him. His portrayal emphasized that. It also maintained a distance between Hitler and the reader.

This is a great addition to the resources we have regarding WWII and Hitler. Teens would enjoy it, as well as adults. If a reader is unfamiliar with manga, the right-to-left reading will take a bit to get used to, but it shouldn’t be a problem for long.

[Lucía · Rating 3 out of 5]

Manga interesante para profundizar en la vida de Hitler y en la SGM. Me gustó mucho el principio, desconocía la vida de Hitler antes de llegar a la política. Pero creo que hay cosas que se pasa por alto que van totalmente unidas a la vida de Hitler. No menciona, salvo en alguna viñeta suelta, la historia de los judíos y los campos de concentración. Sin embargo, entra en todo tipo de detalles en cuanto a la guerra. En ocasiones tanto detalle bélico se me ha hecho largo, pero en general lo recomiendo si te interesa esta parte de la historia.

[Adam Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting retelling from an Eastern perspective, chronicling who this man really was, including his weaknesses and delusions, without the holocaust as the main focus. I hadn't realized Hitler considered himself so divinely appointed, hoping to usher in some Germanic millennial rein. I was also struck by how his movement barely took off, and how Hitler never would have succeeded had he not had the support of so many other conspiring, ambitious, and self-serving men.

[Mateen Mahboubi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoy Mizuki but this one really didn't work for me. For an individual who had such an impact on 20th century history, this volume was far too brief. Once it got to the WWII it was a mile a minute with whole months going by in mere pages. And dedicating only one single panel to acknowledging the Holocaust is frankly unjustifiable.

I'm looking forward to tackling all of Showa next and I hope that the length there will help alleviate some of the issues I had with this one.

[Brújulo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este retrato japonés de Hitler es fascinante. Un loco, un mendigo, que se convierte en un líder “respetable” y que por poco -y por suerte- no cambió el destino del mundo entero. No se menciona casi nada del Holocausto o la noche de los cristales rotos. Pero ayuda a comprender la extraña admiración que causaba el personaje en la época (el propio autor confiesa que quería dejarse un bigotito nazi a sus 18 años).

[Kenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. A bio on da Fuhrer focussing on him as a person as he impacts all round him and beyond.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rendered in Shigeru Mizuki’s signature style—hyper-realistic backgrounds inhabited by deceptively cartoony figures—the book is as visually striking as it is informative. I was surprised by how much I didn’t know about AH and how genuinely absorbing these discoveries were. Mizuki’s depiction of the person of Hitler is unsettlingly effective: he is goofy, manic, ambitious, fearless, and unwavering in his belief in his own racial superiority. Of course, the real Hitler was even worse, but this portrayal makes the mechanics of his charisma disturbingly legible.

Mizuki attempts to make the reader understand—but certainly not excuse—how such a figure could rise, especially in a post–World War I Germany battered by humiliation, hyperinflation, poverty, and political paralysis, desperately searching for a solution. As history grimly reminds us, that search ultimately took on a horrifying finality.

At times, the sheer volume of political maneuvering can feel overwhelming. There are so many figures wheeling, dealing, enabling, and jockeying for power on the road to Hitler’s ascent that it’s hard to keep them all straight. Still, Mizuki works hard to simplify this complexity without sanitizing it—and that confusion almost becomes the point. This wasn’t only the story of one man acting alone, but of a worldwide messy, opportunistic system that allowed him to rise by exploiting his own nation’s collective exasperation with itself- its incompetence, its poverty, and its stupidity and blindness.

What lingers most are the relentless “what ifs” that shaped Hitler: What if he’d been accepted into art school? What if he had been able to pursue that dream instead? What if one of the many bullets that narrowly missed him during his obliviously and disastrously planned military campaigns or political rallies had hit their mark? What if his niece —or anyone— had truly loved him? Mizuki excels at making the reader feel the weight of these near misses, revealing just how fragile—and terrifyingly contingent—history can be, where a single domino falling, or the flap of a butterfly’s wings across the world, can change everything.

A magnum opus graphic novel and a helpful accessible and foundational text for those wanting to tackle historical books of that era.

[Miguel Domínguez]

Es una biografía peculiar por acarrear los tics de Mizuki que descubrí en su autobiografía: esa extraña ligereza del narrar que da tanta importancia en el panel a un Hitler asombrado por la champaña en una cena, como a su intento de suicidio mientras planeaba la traición de sus rivales Nazis. No parece tampoco acertar ningún juicio explícito contra el personaje, aunque claramente se trata de una tragedia ¿cuasi cómica? Mizuki parece entender a Hitler como una caricatura desmedida, que pasa de vagabundo a Führer, y cuyas excentricidades y fantasías genocidas fracutran el mundo y arruinan Alemania. No obstante, casi no hay mención del genocidio Judío. Se centra sobre todo en su ascenso dentro del partido Nazi, como en el desarrollo militar de la guerra, cosa que parece interesarle de sobremanera a Mizuki, como también se ve en su Autobiografía cuando narra su participación en la Guerra del Pacífico. Tiene esa cosa extraña del ritmo donde intercala escenas de diálogos breves, con expresiones cómicas, junto a paneles que no son más que texto y descripciones muy técnicas del avance de los frentes de la guerra.

Es también una biografía particular pues Mizuki luchó para el Eje, y según cuenta en el Epílogo, se encontró "hipnotizado como tantos otros" por Hitler, hasta el punto de querer dejarse el bigote como el suyo, sin poder dadas las capacidades de su vello facial. Osea, que esto no significa, pero ni un poco que sea una biografía simpatizante; es un descenso a la locura y el caos. Pero si revela esa cualidad un poco neutra, un poco ligera, un poco simpática, descarriada y por momentos desinteresada, o hasta ausente de moralidad, que sienta desconcertante durante toda la lectura.

[Tenebrous Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

The task of crafting a biography of an individual widely reviled (and mythologized) as “history’s greatest monster” is no small undertaking. Crafting a visual narrative of such a figure is an even more daunting task, but Mizuki manages to paint a portrait that’s recognizably human without drifting into “sympathy for the devil” territory. There are moments of sardonic humor that feel intentional on the translator’s part that I have to assume exist in the Japanese language (in one panel, Hitler admires how “cool” his new mustache style looks). The quirks of manga style (nasal huffs, wacky eye gestures, flat drawing style) are present and historical figures appear as comical grotesques, but Mizuki combines caricature with traced wartime photos as a visual reminder of the deadly seriousness of the proceedings. A nice counterpoint to heroic wartime comics storytelling.

[Aditya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a lot of good stuff this year, but this is at the top of the list. Excellent use of the format, very usefully peppered with context and sources.

[Manfred Moonlight Ackermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Parlons en premier lieu de la couverture. Oui cela m'a causé quelques sueurs froides. Disons qu'aller au boulot, devoir montrer son sac au vigile, je fais attention à ce que ce ne soit pas le zip où il y a le livre et .. raté. Du coup il a dû voir un joli truc rouge avec cette croix gammée. Bon ok, je suis affiché. Comment veux-tu t'expliquer ? 'non mais euh .. c'est un manga hein, pas mon idéologie .. etc' .. bref tout sonne faux, forcément, quoi qu'on dise, les gens prennent ça mal, par définition. A vrai dire, ça me fait plus sourire qu'autre chose.

Qui était Hitler ? L'auteur en fait une biographie assez humaine. Qui n'est pas dans une volonté de réécrire l'histoire, mais plutôt d'essayer de comprendre ce personnage, et du coup on en apprend beaucoup avec ce livre, et ça permet aussi d'ajouter des détails dans l'histoire qu'on raconte, toujours trop simple face à la réalité. Car oui, c'est un dictateur, un tyran, tout ce que vous voulez, bien entendu.

Mais il n'est pas arrivé là comme ça, par magie. Il y a eu un cheminement, des douleurs, une vie avant celle que tout le monde connait.

Je ne dévoilerai pas tout, car l'intérêt est justement de découvrir tout cela lors de cette lecture, qui s'avère assez primordiale au final.

Un album assez riche, intense, rempli de faits qui ont finalement influencé l'avenir de cette seconde guerre mondiale, et donc du monde entier.

On en ressort avec l'envie de recommencer le livre, et de lire la "suite" : Opération Mort, que je mets d'emblée dans ma wishlist

[Luis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este volumen de novela gráfica nos acerca a la vida pública y privada de Adolf Hitler, desde sus 24 años hasta su muerte.

Como la historia la conoce todo el mundo, con mayor o menor profundidad, cabe centrarse en el análisis que se ofrece de esta despreciable figura. El libro está lleno de momentos álgidos muy destacados y sorprendentemente bien documentados, pero también de valles que podrían haber estado mucho mejor plasmados (por ejemplo, se habla mucho de la sobrina Geli pero casi nada de Eva Braun). Los más entendidos pueden extraer un punto de vista ideológico mucho más nacionalista que fascista en esta novela gráfica, quizás el autor lo quisiera plasmar así.

Es una lectura corta, que se lee sola. Lo más interesante, sin duda, es la acción previa a la guerra, se describen muy bien los movimientos de Hitler a la hora de vender la propaganda del partido. Una vez en el terreno bélico, la acción se sucede demasiado rápido, como con ganas de cerrar la historia de forma apresurada.

Un intento interesante de perfilar una novela gráfica de un personaje tan horroroso. Lejos de ser perfecta biográficamente, pero resulta recomendable.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learning about the life of Adolf Hitler is somewhat of a hard undertaking sometimes. Outright buying certain books on him is generally not favorable to algorithms and special “watch lists”, and unless you are in a college class, some of said information can be hard to come by. Because of this well deserved stigma, many people don’t actually know much about the life of the man that has gone on to epitomize evil incarnate, thus dooming us to relive a similar situation at some point in the future. You hear the jokes about how the entire course of world history could have been altered if a certain Austrian art school director made a few different decisions, and not much else. This fact is what I was excited to come across a graphic novel called Shigeru Mizuki’s Hitler from 1971. This is a Japanese manga that goes about the arduous task of creating a fairly detailed biography of the man’s life without trying to make light of anything or downplay any of his deeds.

“A master cartoonist and veteran tells the life story of the man who started the second world war Seventy years after his death, Adolf Hitler remains a mystery. Historians, military tacticians, and psychologists have tried in vain to unravel his complex motivations for leading Germany into the Holocaust and World War II. With Shigeru Mizuki’s Hitler, the manga-ka (Kitaro, NonNonba, Showa: A History of Japan) delves deep into the history books to create an absorbing and eloquent portrait of Hitler’s life. Beginning with Hitler’s time in Austria as a starving art student and ending with a Germany in ruins, Shigeru Mizuki’s Hitler retraces the path Hitler took in life, coolly examining his charismatic appeal and his calculated political maneuvering. The Munich Beer Putsch, Hitler’s ascent to chancellor, the sudden death of his half-niece Geli, the Battle of Stalingrad, his relationship with Eva Braun, and his eventual demise: all are given equal attention in this thorough and compelling biography. In Mizuki’s signature style, which populates incredibly realistic backgrounds with cartoony people, Japan’s most famous living cartoonist has created an overview of Hitler’s life that is as fascinating as it is informative”

Shigeru Mizuki is one of those legendary manga artists that I have yet to read anything by (until now), largely due to his style being out of favor with the tastes of modern manga fans. It was not until his recent death, I believe, that volumes of his most popular manga, GeGeGe no Kitarō (from the 1960s), got published in English alongside a couple of films. Luckily, there has been a LOT of classic manga, previously deemed “un-releasable”, being released in English in the past decade or so, so times are finally changing. Aside from Kitarō kicking off the whole yokai craze that can be seen as the basis for the popular show Yokai Watch, he is known for military history manga as well, which is pretty interesting considering his “cartoonish” art style.

You see, Mizuki will create scenes with gorgeous, almost photorealistic backgrounds, that are populated by silly caricatures of people. Adolf Hitler, himself, is depicted as a perpetually morose looking man that constantly exhales little puffs of air out of his nose when he’s flustered that flies off on wild bursts of anger or sadness at the drop of a hat. He’s never made to look like some sort of comic relief character, but you can tell Mizuki treads the fine line between poking fun at how much of a child he could be at times and making a book feel comedic in tone. This art style actually reminds me a lot of One Punch Man, surprisingly as that series has the same juxtaposition between lush character designs and an underdeveloped, cartoony, main character.

The story follows Hitler from his life as a vagrant at around eighteen years old, trying to survive on so called “orphan benefits” while perusing his dream of becoming an artist, through his unlikely military career, political career, World War II, and eventual death. It’s an uncompromising look that does surprisingly well to stay somewhat “neutral” despite Japan’s place in World War II. Hitler is not romanticized, in fact the book can be seen as a sobering look at what hatred, poverty, and desire for fame can do to a young man. I learned a lot of information from reading this, as most of his background is pretty much never spoken about casually for fear of being seen as an ally of his in some way.

Perhaps my only real qualm with this book is that The Holocaust is somewhat left in the background of the overall story, perhaps to avoid getting too far “in the weeds” of this being a biographical book. It’s there, but it doesn’t really factor a whole lot into the narrative. Perhaps the author felt that it was too important to try to shoe-horn into this story and do it justice? Who knows? Having some information on the rocky relationship between Hitler and his abusive father may have also been interesting to see, as one could argue his heavy-handed style of parenting directly led to some of Hitler’s more egregious character flaws. Sadly this is nowhere to be seen.

This is a great graphic novel that should be seen as being on par with something like Maus when it comes to understanding World War II and The Holocaust. despite being a FIFTY year old book, it is still refreshing in both style and execution likely due to the author’s separation from Western war scholarship. Aside from slogging through the messy full-book run-on-sentence that is Mein Kampf (of which I have read a bit for a class), this is probably the best book I have read that details Hitler’s life. I feel like I learned a lot and was glad the book did not try to make a wild claim such as many books trying to spitball “hot-takes” into their works that you see nowadays. It’s VERY historically accurate and shows that the author was fascinated on how such a man rose to power, a fact that is echoed in the afterward which was written much later. I went into this with a curiosity on how it would play out, and left with a classic piece of comic history in my collection.

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[Camille · Rating 4 out of 5]

Riveting account of the life and times of Hitler by a true master of Manga and storytelling. I am always embarrassed to realize how the version of history I got in American school textbooks was so abbreviated. People talk about going back in time to kill Hitler, but the most amazing revelation for me was that loads of people tried to kill him IN HIS OWN TIME. It's like the dude refused to be killed save by his own hand. That persistence, luck, and ability to champion batshit crazy ideas (along with leveraging a weak state and receiving ample funding from anti-communist aristocrats) was really what kept him in circulation long enough to gain a popular foothold. Hitler's rise was quite slow and improbable in many ways (and ALWAYS vigorously contested by a vocal few!) but I have no doubt the same sort of person could rise to power today and probably has in a great many places where people either don't know or refuse to acknowledge history.

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once I realised I was reading the panels the wrong way (it is printed in the Japanese style) this book made a lot more sense! It is a sort-of biography of Hitler's life, from just before World War I until he died. I knew a bit of the stuff in here and I learned quite a bit too. It was interesting to read something that was not written from a Western perspective. It does not contain much about the treatment of people under Nazi rule or "The Final Solution", rather it focuses on Hitler's rise to power and his machinations to maintain it. A really interesting read. Highly recommended.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think that this format works as well for the biography of a single person. I love Showa and found it to be an incredible way to showcase the breadth of war's impact on society and the individual, while also highlighting how sad and absurd it all is, but in this case it seems to muddy and undermine things. Treating Hitler as a goofy caricature doesn't come off right, and the timeline and motivation for various aspects of his goals and actions don't line up perfectly. It feels as though there's a lot missing, which I never felt with Showa. I don't know, it just seems off somehow.

[Derek Royal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been looking forward to this for a while, and I'm glad that D&Q has just published this. I'm a fan of Shigeru Mizuki's work, and I find his take on the more "human" side of Hitler to be interesting. We'll be discussing this, along with Tezuka's two-volume Message to Adolf, on this month's manga episode of the podcast.

[Carol Storm · Rating 2 out of 5]

A manga style biography of Adolph Hitler . . . what a great idea! Or not. Artwork is lousy, Hitler looks like Gerard Depardieu playing Quasimodo. Facts are all garbled and out of order. Obvious translation and spelling errors. (Hitler faces "exploding musket balls?" Bavaria should "succeed" from Germany?)

You're actually better off watching HITLER: THE RISE OF EVIL on DVD.

[Romeo Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Again, Shigeru Mizuki shows why he is the master of Japanese Manga. His retelling of Hitler's rise and fall is beautifully captured in his images. He tells the story from an unbiased approach and this biography of Hitler is spot on.