Garo (magazine)

was a monthly manga anthology magazine in Japan, founded by Katsuichi Nagai and published by Seirindō from 1964 until 2002. It was fundamental for the emergence and development of alternative and avant-garde manga.

History

Katsuichi Nagai founded ''Garo'' in July 1964 in order to publish the work of ''gekiga'' artists who didn't want to work for mainstream manga magazines after the demise of the rental book industry ( ''kashihon''). The magazine offered artists artistic freedom, but didn't pay them any salaries. Nagai particularly wanted to promote Marxist ''gekiga'' artist Sanpei Shirato's work, naming the magazine after one of Shirato's ninja characters. The first series published in ''Garo'' was Shirato's drama ''Kamui'' explored themes of class struggle and anti-authoritarianism around a Burakumin ninja boy with an Ainu name. Nagai originally intended the magazine to be for elementary and middle school children to become educated about antimilitarism and direct democracy, publishing essays against the Vietnam War and the rise of the price of school lunch alongside manga. Eventually it became a hit with college students instead.Kinsella, p. 31-32 ''Garo'' attracted several influential ''gekiga'' artists such as Yoshihiro Tatsumi and Yoshiharu Tsuge, and discovered and promoted many new artists.

From 1965 on and especially from 1967 on, the magazine published more and more manga with unconventional form and themes. At the same time, the magazine abandoned its political education project and, while manga published in the magazine stayed critical of militarism and corporate greed, serializations became increasingly "little committed to social change" according to Ryan Holmberg. ''Garo'' circulation at the peak of its popularity in 1971 was over eighty thousand. The magazine was politically affiliated with the Zengakuren and had a big following among the left-wing student movement.

During the 1970s and 1980s its popularity declined. By the mid-1980s its circulation was barely over twenty thousand, and its demise was rumored to be imminent. Nagai managed to keep it going independently until 1991, when it was bought out by a game software company. Although a new, young president was installed and advertisements for computer games (based on stories featured in ''Garo'') started to run in the magazine, Nagai was kept on board as chairman until his death in 1996.

After being bought out by a new owner, here were allegations of the anthology taking a more commercial path. Eventually authors who were regular to ''Garo'' went their own ways and founded other anthologies like '' Ax''. ''Garo'' is no longer being published.

Style and themes

Over the years, ''Garo'' went through many artistic phases, including Shirato's leftist samurai dramas, abstract art and surrealism, erotic/grotesque, and punk.

Sharon Kinsella writes that the magazine explored "the realm of dreams, collective memories and social psychology" and that its manga were "characterized by obscure and typically nihilistic vignettes about individuals living on the fringes of modern society." She cites Yoshiharu Tsuge's ''Screw Style'' as an example.

The early period of the magazine saw manga inspired by "kamishibai paper theatre of the 940s and 1950s rental kashihon manga of the late 950sand early 960s children’s illustrated fiction from the 1930s and 940s pre-modern travel literature and Buddhist parables, and Japanese folklore and ghost stories". Ryan Holmberg calls this period traditionalist.

The magazine was considered too specialist to be clearly identified with one of the four classic manga categorizations ''shōjo'' manga, ''shōnen'' manga, ''josei'' manga and ''seinen'' manga.

Legacy

For much of its existence, ''Garo'' was the premiere showcase for "art" manga in Japan. It was popular enough during its heyday to inspire several imitators, including ''COM'', founded by manga legend Osamu Tezuka, ''Comic Baku'' and ''Comic Are''. Because ''Garo'' was the artistic center of alternative manga production for decades, alternative manga in Japan are often called ''Garo-kei'' (ガロ系), even if they were not published in ''Garo''. The term was first used by manga critic Tomofusa Kure in order to describe Garo's influence on the style of mainstream ''seinen'' manga published in magazines like ''Afternoon'' and ''Morning'' in the 1980s and 1990s.

''Garo'' influence both within the manga business and in Japanese society as a whole has been considerable. Many manga artists who got their start in ''Garo'' went on to do much higher-profile work elsewhere, and several films have been produced based on stories that originally ran in ''Garo''. Contemporary graphic design in Japan owes much to ''Garo'' artists, particularly King Terry, Seiichi Hayashi, and Shigeru Tamura. Retrospectives on the magazine have appeared in mainstream non-manga magazines, and in 1994 the Kawasaki city museum had a special exhibit of work by ''Garo'' alumni.

''Garo'' in English

For the most part, commercial manga translators have passed over the offbeat works showcased in ''Garo'' in favor of more mainstream, action/adventure and romance stories from the major publishers. Similarly, scanlation translators have mostly overlooked experimental fare. However, some ''Garo'' comics are available in English.

In 2008 Drawn & Quarterly published '' Good-Bye'', the third volume of their ongoing edition of the work of Yoshihiro Tatsumi. Some of the comics collected in ''Good-Bye'' originally appeared in ''Garo''. In 2010 an English version of the anthology ''AX'' was published by Top Shelf Productions under the title ''AX: alternative manga'' (edited by Sean Michael Wilson and former ''Garo'' editor Mitsuhiro Asakawa). It featured several of the creators who had previously appeared in ''Garo'' in its later years and received a high level of praise from critics.

Artists associated with ''Garo''

* Shinichi Abe
* Suzy Amekane
* Nobuyoshi Araki
* Yoshikazu Ebisu
* Usamaru Furuya
* Kazuichi Hanawa
* Ikuko Hatoyama
* Seiichi Hayashi
* Hideshi Hino

* Yuji Kamosawa
* Susumu Katsumata
* King Terry
* Suehiro Maruo
* Hiroshi Masumura
* Shigeru Mizuki
* Shinji Nagashima
* Kiriko Nananan
* Nekojiru

* Takashi Nemoto
* Kyoko Okazaki
* Shoichi Sakurai
* Erica Sakurazawa
* Carol Shimoda
* Sanpei Shirato
* Hinako Sugiura
* Oji Suzuki
* Shigeru Tamura

* Yoshihiro Tatsumi
* Tadao Tsuge
* Yūko Tsuno
* Kuniko Tsurita
* Yoshiharu Tsuge
* Shungicu Uchida
* Muddy Wehara
* Hanako Yamada
* Murasaki Yamada

Published manga

* ''Kamui'' by Shirato Sanpei (1964-1971)
*''Screw Style'' (''Nejishiki'') by Yoshiharu Tsuge (1968)
*''Trash Market'' by Tadao Tsuge (1968-1972)
*''Red Colored Elegy'' by Seiichi Hayashi (1970-1971)
*'' A Single Match'' by Oji Suzuki
* '' Minami-kun no Koibito'' by Shungicu Uchida (1986-1987)
*''Palepoli'' by Usamaru Furuya (1994-1996)

References

Literature

*''Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga'' by Frederik L. Schodt ()
*Introduction to ''Comics Underground Japan'', edited by Kevin Quigley ()
*''Garo Manga: The First Decade, 1964–1973'', by Ryan Holmberg (The Center for Book Arts, 2010)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garo (Magazine)
1964 establishments in Japan
2002 disestablishments in Japan
Anime and manga magazines
Defunct magazines published in Japan
Monthly manga magazines published in Japan
Magazines established in 1964
Magazines disestablished in 2002
Ero guro
Gekiga