is a Japanese

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

series written and illustrated by

Hideko Mizuno is one of the first successful female Japanese '' shōjo'' manga artists. She was an assistant of Osamu Tezuka staying in Tokiwa-sō. She made her professional debut in 1955 with ''Akakke Kōma Pony'', a Western story with a tomboy heroine. S ...

. It was serialized in

Shueisha is a Japanese publishing company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Shueisha is the largest publishing company in Japan. It was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The ...

's magazine '' Seventeen'' from 1969–1971.Buckley, Sandra (1991) "'Penguin in Bondage': A Graphic Tale of Japanese Comic Books", pp. 170-171, In ''Technoculture''. C. Penley and A. Ross, eds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota It is about the rise and fall of an American rock star named Aaron. It won the 1970

Shogakukan Manga Award The is one of Japan's major manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is ...

. Aaron Browning is an American teenager who gets sent to juvenile prison after being caught with a delinquent named Fire Wolf. He finds solace in music and later manages to sort-of bond with Fire Wolf himself, and he ultimately leaves to Detroit determined to make it in the musical industry. He leads a band named Fire! and seeks to lead people to freedom with their music. The hedonistic Aaron is neither a 'boy next door' character, nor a 'shining prince', and Sandra Buckley states that it was his 'non-conventional, rebellious behavior' that was part of the attraction for the fans of ''Fire!''. It was innovative for shōjo manga by having the first sexually explicit scenes in post-World War II manga, and by having a male protagonist. The model for Aaron was Scott Walker of

The Walker Brothers The Walker Brothers were an American pop group formed in Los Angeles in 1964 by John Walker (musician), John Walker (real name John Maus) and Scott Walker (singer), Scott Walker (real name Noel Scott Engel), with Gary Walker (musician), Gary Wal ...

. The story has been read as a "conservative morality tale", but Buckley states that this ignores the two-year run of readers following Aaron's exploits avidly. There are accounts of teenage girls queueing for the next issue to come out.

References

External links

E-books of ''Fire!''
{{Shogakukan Manga Award - General 1969 manga Shōjo manga Winners of the Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga Asahi Sonorama manga Music in anime and manga

References

Further reading

External links