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Il lupo dei bassifondi
“Non c'era niente di speciale in Keisei Tateishi. Era un quartiere come un altro. Perché allora mi ha lasciato tante impressioni indelebili? A quei tempi non c'era lavoro. C'era penuria di tutto, a partire dal cibo. Molti adulti si trascinavano in giro con l'aria persa, senza nulla da fare. Ai miei occhi di bambino sembravano tutti delinquenti e teppisti”.
Dopo il grande successo de La mia vita in barca, il maestro del manga Tadao Tsuge torna per narrare il lato oscuro della storia del Giappone. Un’antologia di racconti ambientati nella Tokyo del dopoguerra: una città di sconfitti, reietti, vagabondi, prostitute e piccoli criminali, dove un personaggio come Sabu, ex kamikaze sopravvissuto, può diventare una leggenda popolare.
“La zona di Tokyo dove sono cresciuto era un agglomerato composto da un quartiere a luci rosse, un mercato delle pulci e una baraccopoli. Le case erano affastellate alla rinfusa, attraversate da vicoletti che finivano spesso per fungere da fogne… Oggi è difficile immaginare posti del genere, ma tra il 1950 e il 1955 quasi tutta l’area a est di Tokyo era così”. I ricordi d’infanzia del maestro del manga Tadao Tsuge sono il filo conduttore del suo capolavoro: Il lupo dei bassifondi, un ritratto crudo della vita di strada in Giappone dopo la Seconda Guerra Mondiale. Tra le baracche, nei vicoli più bui e violenti della Tokyo postbellica, dominano i fantasmi della povertà e della sconfitta. In questo teatro si aggirano i personaggi di questa antologia a fumetti: reietti, vagabondi, prostitute, truffatori e piccoli criminali come il teppista alcolizzato Sabu, il “lupo” sempre in cerca di risse, un ex kamikaze che diventa una leggenda tra gli emarginati.
In queste storie si trova il meglio dell’arte di Tsuge, con echi che rimandano al cinema di Ozu e Kurosawa, alla letteratura decadente di Dazai Osamu e alla fotografia sperimentale degli anni Sessanta e Settanta. Il lupo dei bassifondi è l’epopea minimalista, toccante, al tempo stesso poetica e violenta di un coro di disperati in cerca di se stessi e di un futuro migliore. Completano il volume una serie di articoli e illustrazioni dell’autore sulla Tokyo del dopoguerra e un saggio del noto critico americano Ryan Holmberg.
Dopo il grande successo de La mia vita in barca, il maestro del manga Tadao Tsuge torna per narrare il lato oscuro della storia del Giappone. Un’antologia di racconti ambientati nella Tokyo del dopoguerra: una città di sconfitti, reietti, vagabondi, prostitute e piccoli criminali, dove un personaggio come Sabu, ex kamikaze sopravvissuto, può diventare una leggenda popolare.
“La zona di Tokyo dove sono cresciuto era un agglomerato composto da un quartiere a luci rosse, un mercato delle pulci e una baraccopoli. Le case erano affastellate alla rinfusa, attraversate da vicoletti che finivano spesso per fungere da fogne… Oggi è difficile immaginare posti del genere, ma tra il 1950 e il 1955 quasi tutta l’area a est di Tokyo era così”. I ricordi d’infanzia del maestro del manga Tadao Tsuge sono il filo conduttore del suo capolavoro: Il lupo dei bassifondi, un ritratto crudo della vita di strada in Giappone dopo la Seconda Guerra Mondiale. Tra le baracche, nei vicoli più bui e violenti della Tokyo postbellica, dominano i fantasmi della povertà e della sconfitta. In questo teatro si aggirano i personaggi di questa antologia a fumetti: reietti, vagabondi, prostitute, truffatori e piccoli criminali come il teppista alcolizzato Sabu, il “lupo” sempre in cerca di risse, un ex kamikaze che diventa una leggenda tra gli emarginati.
In queste storie si trova il meglio dell’arte di Tsuge, con echi che rimandano al cinema di Ozu e Kurosawa, alla letteratura decadente di Dazai Osamu e alla fotografia sperimentale degli anni Sessanta e Settanta. Il lupo dei bassifondi è l’epopea minimalista, toccante, al tempo stesso poetica e violenta di un coro di disperati in cerca di se stessi e di un futuro migliore. Completano il volume una serie di articoli e illustrazioni dell’autore sulla Tokyo del dopoguerra e un saggio del noto critico americano Ryan Holmberg.
328 pages, Paperback
First published August 21, 2018
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592 people want to read
About the author
Tadao Tsuge
12 books29 followersTadao Tsuge (born in 1941) has been drawing comics since the late 1950s. In the 1960s and 1970s, he was one of the central contributors to the underground comics magazine Garo, and the magazines Yako and Gento. In addition to cartooning, Tsuge is an avid fisherman and has written essays on the subject. He has held full-time blue-collar jobs for most of his artistic career, most significantly on the cleaning staff at one of Tokyo’s for-profit blood banks, which figures prominently in a number of his works. In 1995, cult-film director Teru Ishii made a movie based on Tsuge’s comics. Tsuge lives in Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
March 5, 2019
“Without receiving a dose of pain once in a while, it was hard to remember the point of staying alive.”
Slum Wolf was written in the early seventies as a kind of portrait of under-class Japan, in the fifties post-war period, deeply damaged by WWII defeat and occupation. Traumatized, seemingly lost, though there is evidence of a survival instinct. A series of stories now in English translation and available in a beautiful edition thanks to NYRB, it’s a work of sadness and empathy for the desperate, the punks, gangsters, strippers, living in trashy flats, doing anything for a living just to get by.
And we care about them, as in “The Death of Ryokichi Agoshi,” that brings a bunch of people living in a flophouse together, meditating on the meaning of life, and not really finding much to say or do except play mah jongg and gamble and go on. Or not. At the very end of the story, someone requests this song from Sado Island, a place of exile, about a man longing for his lost lover, “Sado Okesa”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfFcS...
Tsuge’s art is black and white, shadowy, engaging,a work of humanism. I liked also “Sentimental Melody,” and “Vagabond Plain,” (which is in a rural area, not urban), too, but most of it is based on the neighborhood Tsuge grew up in, Tokyo’s Keisei Tateishi.
The translator and historian Ryan Holmberg writes a wonderful essay on Tsuge and the period, and he also includes an excerpt from an autobiographical essay by Tsuge himself. Wonderful publication.
I had read and reviewed Tsuge’s Trash Market when it was released in English in 2015 and liked it very much, as bleak and affecting as it is.
If you are interested in gekiga manga (for adults) I also will recommend related works such as Masahiko Matsumoto’s Cigarette Girl, or any of the several works of Yoshihiro Tatsumi now in translation: Abandon the Old in Tokyo, Good-Bye, The Push Man.
Here’s The Comics Journal review by Greg Hunter with some images in it:
http://www.tcj.com/reviews/slum-wolf/
Slum Wolf was written in the early seventies as a kind of portrait of under-class Japan, in the fifties post-war period, deeply damaged by WWII defeat and occupation. Traumatized, seemingly lost, though there is evidence of a survival instinct. A series of stories now in English translation and available in a beautiful edition thanks to NYRB, it’s a work of sadness and empathy for the desperate, the punks, gangsters, strippers, living in trashy flats, doing anything for a living just to get by.
And we care about them, as in “The Death of Ryokichi Agoshi,” that brings a bunch of people living in a flophouse together, meditating on the meaning of life, and not really finding much to say or do except play mah jongg and gamble and go on. Or not. At the very end of the story, someone requests this song from Sado Island, a place of exile, about a man longing for his lost lover, “Sado Okesa”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfFcS...
Tsuge’s art is black and white, shadowy, engaging,a work of humanism. I liked also “Sentimental Melody,” and “Vagabond Plain,” (which is in a rural area, not urban), too, but most of it is based on the neighborhood Tsuge grew up in, Tokyo’s Keisei Tateishi.
The translator and historian Ryan Holmberg writes a wonderful essay on Tsuge and the period, and he also includes an excerpt from an autobiographical essay by Tsuge himself. Wonderful publication.
I had read and reviewed Tsuge’s Trash Market when it was released in English in 2015 and liked it very much, as bleak and affecting as it is.
If you are interested in gekiga manga (for adults) I also will recommend related works such as Masahiko Matsumoto’s Cigarette Girl, or any of the several works of Yoshihiro Tatsumi now in translation: Abandon the Old in Tokyo, Good-Bye, The Push Man.
Here’s The Comics Journal review by Greg Hunter with some images in it:
http://www.tcj.com/reviews/slum-wolf/
January 1, 2023
"'It's true...it really is true... There really is nothing left,'" broods the star of Tadao's 'Sabu the Bruiser' (April 1974), back in Tokyo after the war to find his home gone, his girlfriend missing, and his mother and brother nothing but ash."
.
From 'The Vagabond Zone' (essay) in SLUM WOLF by Tadao Tsuge, translated from the Japanese with commentary and supplemental essays by Ryan Holmberg / 2018 NYRB Comics @nyrbooks
Tsuge's alt-manga distills post-war sentiment and psyche into this graphic form. His settings are the tenements, the ruins post-firebombing of Tokyo, the red-light districts and black market pop-ups. His characters are lone wolf violent types, punks, wounded veterans, yakuza gangsters, addicts, sex workers, and largely poor and disenfranchised peoples in the years after WWII.
Slum Wolf gathers these translated comics, initially appearing in several underground papers / zines in the 1960s-1990s. We have reoccurring characters, specifically Sabu, a former Kamikaze pilot and now drifter. He fights, he defends, but Tsuge states 'he's not a hero'. His character is based on the memory of a man who "passed through" his own Tokyo neighborhood when he was a boy.
Tsuge, with some of his co-contributors are recognized for their art and storytelling 'on the margins'. Tsuge doesn't take a firm political stance in his art, but the movement in general has an anarchist vibe. This *feel* is echoed in the paper with his sketches and setting. The art is not beautiful, it's devoid of color, and often heavy handed or very sparse (some characters are drawn faceless).
.
Fascinating look at the sociology of this time through the "street art" of manga. Also translated are 4 short essays by Tsuge of his inspirations in Japanese and American film (westerns and gangster films). Holmberg, the translator, includes a fantastic synthesis essay on the alt-manga in context of post-war Japan.
My second of the NYRB Comic series (first was Voices in the Dark by Ulli Lust, German translation), and very impressed with the quality and supplements in these translated graphic works.
.
From 'The Vagabond Zone' (essay) in SLUM WOLF by Tadao Tsuge, translated from the Japanese with commentary and supplemental essays by Ryan Holmberg / 2018 NYRB Comics @nyrbooks
Tsuge's alt-manga distills post-war sentiment and psyche into this graphic form. His settings are the tenements, the ruins post-firebombing of Tokyo, the red-light districts and black market pop-ups. His characters are lone wolf violent types, punks, wounded veterans, yakuza gangsters, addicts, sex workers, and largely poor and disenfranchised peoples in the years after WWII.
Slum Wolf gathers these translated comics, initially appearing in several underground papers / zines in the 1960s-1990s. We have reoccurring characters, specifically Sabu, a former Kamikaze pilot and now drifter. He fights, he defends, but Tsuge states 'he's not a hero'. His character is based on the memory of a man who "passed through" his own Tokyo neighborhood when he was a boy.
Tsuge, with some of his co-contributors are recognized for their art and storytelling 'on the margins'. Tsuge doesn't take a firm political stance in his art, but the movement in general has an anarchist vibe. This *feel* is echoed in the paper with his sketches and setting. The art is not beautiful, it's devoid of color, and often heavy handed or very sparse (some characters are drawn faceless).
.
Fascinating look at the sociology of this time through the "street art" of manga. Also translated are 4 short essays by Tsuge of his inspirations in Japanese and American film (westerns and gangster films). Holmberg, the translator, includes a fantastic synthesis essay on the alt-manga in context of post-war Japan.
My second of the NYRB Comic series (first was Voices in the Dark by Ulli Lust, German translation), and very impressed with the quality and supplements in these translated graphic works.
November 10, 2025
Kamikaze pilots who have survived the war...prostitution...soldiers selling blood to get just enough money to buy a meal...arm wrestling with US soldiers to earn enough money to buy a drink...tough guys getting drunk and fighting until they are knocked unconscious: this is Japan after WW II. Haunting examination of the betrayal of a generation who fought for their country.
August 29, 2018
Outstanding! This is the second work by Tadao Tsuge that I’ve read — the first being 2015’s Trash Market — and I can’t help but be highly impressed by his gekiga, both in terms of style and theme. (Then again, there are only two books by Tsuge in English that have been published, and that’s not counting the comic book, Sabu the Bruiser.) As with the earlier text, Slum Wolf is a collection of stories previously published in such magazines as Garo and Yagyo. I hesitate to determine which of these pieces are my favorites, although a few do stand out as notable. For me these are “Sentimental Melody,” “Vagabond Plain,” and “Wandering Wolf: The Bloodspattered Code of Honor and Humanity.” I hope that in the near future there are more translations of Tsuge’s manga. Plus, Ryan Holmberg‘s concluding essay is outstanding. Then again, I wouldn't expect less.
Note: We DEFINITELY need English translations of the work of Tadao’s older brother Yoshiharu. To my mind, there are none. Shame.
Note: We DEFINITELY need English translations of the work of Tadao’s older brother Yoshiharu. To my mind, there are none. Shame.
January 14, 2024
Post-war Japan is depicted in these graphic short stories as broken, traumatized, bitter, and dirty. Vagabonds collect garbage to make shanty-towns. Hoodlums harass strangers. Idlers sit for hours on a bench, hungry and penniless. Men are war-damaged, and women are prostitutes. U.S. soldiers are hated, feared, and viewed as a resource to exploit.
Tadao Tsuge's was born in 1941, and his realism, or his view of realism, was not widely appreciated in a ruined country seeking to rebuild and recover. The defeat in the war was something not to be mentioned, not something to be made visible, seen in wounded veterans begging, and lineups at the blood bank (ooze for booze, it was called; selling blood was what poor people did).
This collection is made more personal and accessible by autobiographical essays from the creator, which are charming. There is also a more academic essay from the translator, Ryan Holmberg.
Tadao Tsuge's was born in 1941, and his realism, or his view of realism, was not widely appreciated in a ruined country seeking to rebuild and recover. The defeat in the war was something not to be mentioned, not something to be made visible, seen in wounded veterans begging, and lineups at the blood bank (ooze for booze, it was called; selling blood was what poor people did).
This collection is made more personal and accessible by autobiographical essays from the creator, which are charming. There is also a more academic essay from the translator, Ryan Holmberg.
January 15, 2021
English-language collection of short Tadao Tsuge comics from the Japanese indie/underground scene of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Tsuge attempts to find the melancholic beauty of the postwar Japanese underclass, a population of working-class “incorrigibles” that even Karl Marx dismissed as the “lumpenproletariat”: homeless people, sex workers, the criminal underworld, and so on.
In Tadao Tsuge’s gritty world, for all of its dark ugliness, there are occasional moments of surprising lightness, humor, and fantasy. Nevertheless these comics retain a distinctly bleak vision of life for those left behind by Japan’s sudden economic growth and national wealth in the decades following the war and subsequent US occupation.
In Tadao Tsuge’s gritty world, for all of its dark ugliness, there are occasional moments of surprising lightness, humor, and fantasy. Nevertheless these comics retain a distinctly bleak vision of life for those left behind by Japan’s sudden economic growth and national wealth in the decades following the war and subsequent US occupation.
August 28, 2018
I know very little about manga, much less alternative manga circa late 1960s, early 1970s, but what these stories say about Japan after the war floored me. Tsuge's loose style and subject matter reminded me of Raymond Pettibon's early zines like Captive Chains. Ryan Holmberg's afterward was also enlightening. Call me a fan.
October 31, 2023
While I appreciate Tsuge's tales of the seedy, depressing side of post-war Japan, I'm almost always bored by brawling hoodlums and vagabonds punching each other in various body parts. The last story in the collection, "The Death of Ryokichi Aogoshi" (not clear whether this is the same Aogoshi in "The Flight of R. Aogoshi"), has a quiet charm with its quirky and colorful characters living in a rundown boarding house.
July 6, 2019
Likely to be mentioned alongside Yoshihiro Tatsumi but actually an altogether different kind of writer. Whereas Tatsumi's stories are usually pin sharp in illustration and narrative alike, Tsuge's stories meander, drawn in a sketchy, expressionistic style. Tsuge's drawn-from-life portraits of drifters and hoodlums moving amongst the ruins and shanty towns of post-war Japan are complex studies in trauma and burnt-out masculinity. These stories don't lead anywhere particularly memorable but the evocation of an existence without purpose makes a lasting impact.
June 19, 2019
Dark and gritty tales from Japanese slums in and around Tokyo. Tsuge doesn't sugarcoat the struggle but also keeps things pretty light. Lots of drinking, fighting and singing folk songs.
July 20, 2024
Really enjoyed the stories and artwork. The essay added great background history and context.
June 25, 2023
Większość tych opowiadań Tadao Tsuge prezentował na łamach „Garo” – chyba najważniejszego czasopisma dla rozwoju alternatywnej mangi. Nie będę udawał, że jestem w tej sztuce ekspertem, ale od jakiegoś czasu wabi mnie różnorodność środków wyrazu stosowanych na przestrzeni kolejnych dziesięcioleci w środowisku związanym z tym magazynem.
Twórczość Tsuge nosi ogromne piętno wojny. Traumy z nią związane przebijają się przez te historie w sposób bardzo sugestywny. Bohaterowie zbioru „Slum Wolf” to uliczni rabusie, weterani wojenni, zawadiacy, prostytutki i odmieńcy. Tsuge lubi motyw postaci znikąd lub samotnika z przeszłością, która często dotyczy wojny. Nie opiera się miejskim legendom i bohaterom małych społeczności, którzy ciągną za sobą swe tajemnice. Nie obawia się sięgać również po wątki irracjonalne, dodatkowo rozbudzając wyobraźnię odbiorców. Świat powojennej Japoni jest brutalny, ponury i obdarty z propagandowych złudzeń o budowaniu jasnej przyszłości. Kraj formalnie pozostawał pod okupacją wojsk sojuszniczych do 1952 r. i wątek wrogości do okupanta jest tu mocno zarysowany.
Jestem pod wrażeniem dojrzałości tej sztuki. Autor już w latach 60-tych miał świetny warsztat, a z czasem jego opowiadania stawały się coraz bardziej wyrafinowane. Całość sprawia wręcz „literackie” wrażenie. Dosyć surową kreskę Tsuge raz za czas różnicuje dodając zakreskowane plansze z duża rolą światłocienia – efekt bywa niezwykły. Takie pozycje zmieniają perspektywę i spojrzenie na historię medium, w której to prace Eisnera uznaje się za kamień milowy komiksu dla dorosłego czytelnika. Tu są rzeczy być może oszczędniejsze w formie, ale bardziej niejednoznaczne i wymagające treściowo – przynajmniej dla mnie.
Ten tomik to moje powolne wejście w świat, który już od dawna bardzo mnie kusił, ale którego chyba trochę się obawiałem. Artystyczna manga, będąca przez lata awangardą w stosunku do głównego nurtu, wydaje się dziś jednym z najbardziej fascynujących obszarów sztuki komiksowej do zgłębienia.
Twórczość Tsuge nosi ogromne piętno wojny. Traumy z nią związane przebijają się przez te historie w sposób bardzo sugestywny. Bohaterowie zbioru „Slum Wolf” to uliczni rabusie, weterani wojenni, zawadiacy, prostytutki i odmieńcy. Tsuge lubi motyw postaci znikąd lub samotnika z przeszłością, która często dotyczy wojny. Nie opiera się miejskim legendom i bohaterom małych społeczności, którzy ciągną za sobą swe tajemnice. Nie obawia się sięgać również po wątki irracjonalne, dodatkowo rozbudzając wyobraźnię odbiorców. Świat powojennej Japoni jest brutalny, ponury i obdarty z propagandowych złudzeń o budowaniu jasnej przyszłości. Kraj formalnie pozostawał pod okupacją wojsk sojuszniczych do 1952 r. i wątek wrogości do okupanta jest tu mocno zarysowany.
Jestem pod wrażeniem dojrzałości tej sztuki. Autor już w latach 60-tych miał świetny warsztat, a z czasem jego opowiadania stawały się coraz bardziej wyrafinowane. Całość sprawia wręcz „literackie” wrażenie. Dosyć surową kreskę Tsuge raz za czas różnicuje dodając zakreskowane plansze z duża rolą światłocienia – efekt bywa niezwykły. Takie pozycje zmieniają perspektywę i spojrzenie na historię medium, w której to prace Eisnera uznaje się za kamień milowy komiksu dla dorosłego czytelnika. Tu są rzeczy być może oszczędniejsze w formie, ale bardziej niejednoznaczne i wymagające treściowo – przynajmniej dla mnie.
Ten tomik to moje powolne wejście w świat, który już od dawna bardzo mnie kusił, ale którego chyba trochę się obawiałem. Artystyczna manga, będąca przez lata awangardą w stosunku do głównego nurtu, wydaje się dziś jednym z najbardziej fascynujących obszarów sztuki komiksowej do zgłębienia.
March 7, 2021
A surreal interpretation of postwar Japan and the displaced characters that try to navigate through it. This was my first time reading Tadao Tsuge’s work and I totally get why he’s considered one of the greats of alt manga.
January 9, 2021
The early stories in the text are rough. Not enough text and the images can be disorienting, BUT I kept reading because I like hearing about the underbelly of the world, and I read so much traditional manga last year that it was refreshing to see the coin flipped, and some different tropes explored.
The narrative issues with the stories are cleared up about 100 pages in, which means 2/3 of the book is both easy to follow and has compelling content. It is about post WWII poverty in Japan, but mostly it’s just about poverty. The celebration of poverty that only those who grew up poor can understand.
I grew up poor, but not this poor. Even the poorest people I knew were better off than a lot of these folks, but I was close enough to this life that it resonates with me.
Taking value in things that we inherit, like strength, ruggedness, natural beauty. There’s a different kind of social value when money gets all but taken out of the equation. It isn’t fair, but society is hierarchical by nature, whether we want it to be or not.
There’s a lot of philosophy of poverty here too. You can tell the author is thoughtful about the topic. Why do people toil when there is no upward mobility? People seem to be compelled to move, whether they drift, sprint, or just meander aimlessly, they rarely hold still. There may be no upward mobility.
But goddamn can mankind toil or what?
I started off just liking the book, but by the end, I almost loved it. I might even keep it on my shelf (I usually donate 90% of the books I but to my wife’s library).
The narrative issues with the stories are cleared up about 100 pages in, which means 2/3 of the book is both easy to follow and has compelling content. It is about post WWII poverty in Japan, but mostly it’s just about poverty. The celebration of poverty that only those who grew up poor can understand.
I grew up poor, but not this poor. Even the poorest people I knew were better off than a lot of these folks, but I was close enough to this life that it resonates with me.
Taking value in things that we inherit, like strength, ruggedness, natural beauty. There’s a different kind of social value when money gets all but taken out of the equation. It isn’t fair, but society is hierarchical by nature, whether we want it to be or not.
There’s a lot of philosophy of poverty here too. You can tell the author is thoughtful about the topic. Why do people toil when there is no upward mobility? People seem to be compelled to move, whether they drift, sprint, or just meander aimlessly, they rarely hold still. There may be no upward mobility.
But goddamn can mankind toil or what?
I started off just liking the book, but by the end, I almost loved it. I might even keep it on my shelf (I usually donate 90% of the books I but to my wife’s library).
August 23, 2018
Another excellent Tsuge collection, this time by New York Review Comics. “Alternative” manga is a relatively new thing for English readers, spearheaded by those fantastic Tatsumi collections from Drawn and Quarterly, and this book fits nicely along those volumes.
Tsuge’s style is definitely more loose and surreal than Tatsumi though, and reminded me of early Yummy Fur era Chester Brown, while the narrative flow and dashes of magical realism felt similar to Gilbert Hernandez at times.
Tsuge’s style is definitely more loose and surreal than Tatsumi though, and reminded me of early Yummy Fur era Chester Brown, while the narrative flow and dashes of magical realism felt similar to Gilbert Hernandez at times.
April 7, 2021
Guess my favourite here was Vagabond Plain, and I had forgotten about the Ishii adaption so maybe have a look out for this. Really great selection which leaves you hoping for more. Holmberg's added essay at the end makes for enlightening context for Tsuge's output. Perhaps reading this I was reminded of The Sting of Death and Other Stories by Toshio Shimao which I think I'll have to reread, and also to an extent Dark Pictures by Hiroshi Noma.
December 26, 2021
Tadao Tsuge's storytelling and pacing from panel to panel is truly eloquent and riveting.
March 15, 2019
"Альтернативна манга" - це була фраза, яка спокусила мене на покупку цієї графічної історії. Це справді дуже незвично. Книга складається з різних історій, коротких ідовгих, деякі з них не завершені, розповідь нелінійна, вимагає одночасно зосередження і уміння go with a flow. Спочатку мені було дивно, потім навіть якось не йшло, але врешті історія і перфектна графіка зробилисвою справу. Врешті, це те, чого шукаєш в "альтернативному", щоб тебе здивували.
Це дивні історії про поствоєнну Японію, життя в химерних і текстурних районах нетрів. Герої сконструйовані з дитячих спогадів, чужих розповідей і фантазій автора. Це жителі нетрів і скитальці без біографій, це офісні працівники, собаки, що розмовляють і травмовані війною зсередини люди. Все таке роз’єднане і поєднане водночас. Суцільна густа дивність з гарним ритмом.
У кінці є невеликий текст від автора, про його дитинство, дуже проникливий.
Ну і само собою, це просто неймовірно гарно. Візуальний оргазм! всі ці лінії, штрихи, трав’яні моря, цей вітер що аж відчувається шкірою, ах!
Це дивні історії про поствоєнну Японію, життя в химерних і текстурних районах нетрів. Герої сконструйовані з дитячих спогадів, чужих розповідей і фантазій автора. Це жителі нетрів і скитальці без біографій, це офісні працівники, собаки, що розмовляють і травмовані війною зсередини люди. Все таке роз’єднане і поєднане водночас. Суцільна густа дивність з гарним ритмом.
У кінці є невеликий текст від автора, про його дитинство, дуже проникливий.
Ну і само собою, це просто неймовірно гарно. Візуальний оргазм! всі ці лінії, штрихи, трав’яні моря, цей вітер що аж відчувається шкірою, ах!
January 7, 2021
An extremely ugly and filthy portrait of post war Japan. These stories follow characters who are depraved, lonely, selfish and horrible. They feel lost in a world that actively does them no favors.
This work is extremely cynical and something about the style makes it feel purely working class. These were comics read by similar people in the stories, they were outcasts and punks. The formal elements of this book are rooted in the 8 panel grid which makes my heat sing. Seeing a Japanese approach to a storytelling style I already felt I had a great grasp on was extremely humbling. Tadao Tsuge’s use of the base 8 grid felt extremely manga-esque while also utilizing the grid’s rhythm and call and response nature beautifully.
The book also features some essays by Tsuge in the back which gives fantastic context for the material and manga from the time period.
Really great stuff. Not for everyone, the cynical plots and characters with ugly (in the best way) art style can be off putting but it serves the stories extremely well.
This work is extremely cynical and something about the style makes it feel purely working class. These were comics read by similar people in the stories, they were outcasts and punks. The formal elements of this book are rooted in the 8 panel grid which makes my heat sing. Seeing a Japanese approach to a storytelling style I already felt I had a great grasp on was extremely humbling. Tadao Tsuge’s use of the base 8 grid felt extremely manga-esque while also utilizing the grid’s rhythm and call and response nature beautifully.
The book also features some essays by Tsuge in the back which gives fantastic context for the material and manga from the time period.
Really great stuff. Not for everyone, the cynical plots and characters with ugly (in the best way) art style can be off putting but it serves the stories extremely well.
May 31, 2020
I really enjoyed Tadao's drawings of shadowy, decaying architectural spaces. His humans didn't appeal to me as much: the rudimentary depictions made it hard to tell characters apart or identify them when they showed up in subsequent stories, and at times they were drawn in a style weirdly reminiscent of Bob's Burgers. Similarly, mood is everything here, and dialogue doesn't do much work. The stories tend toward opacity and play out without conventional plot development.
While I found it difficult to engage deeply with the content, I found the settings for these comics to be fascinating. The collection provides a vivid look into the slums of postwar Japan, and it inspired me to learn more about this aspect of the country's history. The lengthy essay by Ryan Holmberg that completes the book is especially helpful in that regard.
While I found it difficult to engage deeply with the content, I found the settings for these comics to be fascinating. The collection provides a vivid look into the slums of postwar Japan, and it inspired me to learn more about this aspect of the country's history. The lengthy essay by Ryan Holmberg that completes the book is especially helpful in that regard.
February 17, 2021
Bleak and haunting tales that seem rough but are really brilliant for the way they stick in your craw.
May 5, 2020
The art was pretty scratchy/cool, and I somewhat enjoyed reading the lives of vagabonds & low-lifes & people unwilling or unable to conform to society in post-war japan. Most of the narratives of these scrappy vignettes were impossible to follow or nonexistent which was fine with me, but didn’t leave me with a massive impression. A very male-centric picture of postwar trauma/PTSD and pushing-to-the-edges of the poor, rejected & unacceptable in 60s and 70s Japan.
March 1, 2023
Skilled manga artwork. Stories illustrate post-war-Japan street life & Tsuge's money earning during the period — riveting, due to substantial & disturbing contrast to my own culture, times, circumstances. Poignant. Tsuge is strikingly talented.
September 16, 2018
SLUM WOLF by Tadao Tsuge is a literary collection of graphic short stories about lowlife in the red light districts of postwar Japan. The same characters stroll through the book, either fighting the humiliation of occupation or dying from it in slow, sad vignettes that seem to have no structure and yet capture the mood of the aftermath of war in a way that feels genuine. Not that I’d know, but Tsuge would. He grew up in this desolate neighborhoods after the surrender of Japan in WWII, which he draws so starkly beautiful in their ramshackle impermanence. Tsuge sketches and tells episodic stories that work in the pulpy medium of magna, which has a wide lens, big enough and expressive enough to encapsulate worlds as diverse as the big-footed animals descendents of Walt Disney to existential down-and-outers like these.
September 17, 2021
A collection of alternative manga stories set in the slums of postwar Japan. Slices of life based on the author’s experiences. The art, like the characters is rough, loose, and sketchy.
The characters seem haunted, both by the past and the present. The stories, also like the characters, wander from one encounter to the next. There are no easy answers here. Although the stories are bleak, I found myself drawn to the characters and their struggles.
The stories were originally published in magazines such as Garo and Yagyo. This volume includes four short autobiographical essays by the author and a longer essay by Ryan Holberg. They really help put the stories in perspective. I found that they added quite a lot to the experience.
If you enjoyed this collection I recommend checking out the author’s collection of earlier stories, “Trash Market.”
The characters seem haunted, both by the past and the present. The stories, also like the characters, wander from one encounter to the next. There are no easy answers here. Although the stories are bleak, I found myself drawn to the characters and their struggles.
The stories were originally published in magazines such as Garo and Yagyo. This volume includes four short autobiographical essays by the author and a longer essay by Ryan Holberg. They really help put the stories in perspective. I found that they added quite a lot to the experience.
If you enjoyed this collection I recommend checking out the author’s collection of earlier stories, “Trash Market.”
September 17, 2019
I like graphic novels but I’ve never read any Manga, and don’t really know much about it. But I heard this book was good. It turns out this is a sub-genre of Manga called Gekiga, and that Gekiga is to Manga as Graphic Novels are to Comic books. Which is to say Slum Wolf is very dark. These were written and drawn in the late sixties and seventies and are about the life of the outcasted in a Tokyo slum in the aftermath of WWII. The artwork is pretty rudimentary—so much so that it was sometimes hard to tell which characters were which from panel to panel. And the stories were often just fragments of ideas. But together the words and art create a mood that’s poetic and evocative of an underbelly of Tokyo that may or may not have existed (though that’s not really the point). The two essays at the end help contextualize what I was reading.
May 30, 2019
Interesting to read what would classify as an alternative manga. It does seem to share a lot with the alternative comics or indies here. This one takes on Japan after the war and two ex-military man and their lives. I found some of the layout and the sparse drawing bleak and it drew me in. Somehow it made me think of R. Crumb but more in the ways that Crumb relates to mainstream comics echoes what I have read of more mainstream manga and Tadao.
The essays in the back did a lot to situate and give background to the stories. I think that they were a good addition.
The essays in the back did a lot to situate and give background to the stories. I think that they were a good addition.
November 17, 2019
Quick Review: I've never read Manga before, and this was my first encounter with Gekiga. An impressive collection of short stories about those living on the margins during Postwar Japan; Tsuge's artistic style of loosely drawn lines works perfectly in this context. The raw bleakness found in Tadao Tsuge's short stories is a welcome antidote to the more popular narratives of Postwar Japan in which hardship and marginalization are given a redemptive and positive spin. I am definitely interested in reading more of Tadao Tsuge's short stories; I'm so happy to have come across his work.
October 21, 2021
I love when we get a glimpse into alternative manga from decades ago. It's not always my thing, and it's often really rough, especially to its female characters, but it's a great way to see that comics in all countries are far more that what's on the surface.
This one can be really rough, but it's an unflinching look at the darker side of Japan in the 60s and 70s, illustrated without extensive detail but in a style that's strikingly different from what people think of when they picture manga. Great job bringing this over from an often overlooked publisher of comics.
This one can be really rough, but it's an unflinching look at the darker side of Japan in the 60s and 70s, illustrated without extensive detail but in a style that's strikingly different from what people think of when they picture manga. Great job bringing this over from an often overlooked publisher of comics.
June 7, 2024
Another set of post-WW2 street level stories with street urchins, prostitutes. This one has a few recurring characters. Not my favourite Garo stories, the art work is a bit weak and the stories are a bit too meandering and meditative for my tastes.
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