Japanese Notebooks: A Journey to the Empire of Signs

In this pleasantly meandering graphic album, Italian cartoonist Igort (The Ukrainian and Russian Notebooks) collects his scattered impressions of Japan, stitching together short stories, essays, and samples of the comics he drew for manga publisher Kodansha while living in Tokyo. As a foreign-born manga artist, he’s put through the rigors of the true manga-ka lifestyle, including the time-honored ritual of being shut in a hotel room by his editors—“under house arrest”—until he meets his deadlines. He talks art with renowned creators Yoshihiro Tatsumi and Jiro Taniguchi and discovers WWII-era manga and anime. Igort is enamored of all things Japanese, writing, “I had convinced myself and my editors at Kodansha that I was Japanese in a past life.” If this rose-colored view is a touch naïve, Igort’s warmly colored art, combining the elegant clear line of European comics with the expressive simplicity of manga and a touch of ukiyo-e, goes a long way toward selling his vision. Agent: Debbie Bibo. (May)