Megatokyo (メガトーキョー) is an English-language webcomic created by Fred Gallagher and Rodney Caston. Megatokyo debuted on August 14, 2000, and has been written and illustrated solely by Gallagher since July 17, 2002. Gallagher's style of writing and illustration is heavily influenced by Japanese manga. Megatokyo is freely available on its official website. The stated schedule for updates is Tuesday and Friday, but they typically are posted just once or twice a month on non-specific days. Recently, this schedule has slipped further, due to the health issues of Sarah Gallagher (Seraphim), Fred's wife. Megatokyo was also published in book-format by CMX, although the first three volumes were published by Dark Horse. For February 2005, sales of the comic's third printed volume were ranked third on BookScan's list of graphic novels sold in bookstores, then the best showing for an original English-language manga.
Rumiko Takahashi is a Japanese manga artist. With a career of several commercially successful works, beginning with Urusei Yatsura in 1978, Takahashi is one of Japan's best-known and wealthiest manga artists. Her works are popular worldwide, where they have been translated into a variety of languages, with over 200 million copies in circulation. She has won the Shogakukan Manga Award twice, once in 1980 for Urusei Yatsura and again in 2001 for Inuyasha, and the Seiun Award twice, once in 1987 for Urusei Yatsura and again in 1989 for Mermaid Saga. She also received the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême in 2019, becoming the second woman and second Japanese to win the prize. In 2020, the Japanese government awarded Takahashi the Medal with Purple Ribbon for her contributions to the arts.
Riyoko Ikeda is a Japanese manga artist and singer. She is included in the Year 24 Group. She was one of the most popular Japanese comic artists in the 1970s, being best known for The Rose of Versailles.
Yotsuba&! is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kiyohiko Azuma, the creator of Azumanga Daioh. It has been serialized since March 2003 in the monthly magazine Dengeki Daioh by ASCII Media Works, formerly MediaWorks, and has since been collected into 15 tankōbon volumes. It depicts the everyday adventures of a young girl named Yotsuba as she learns about the world around her, guided by her adoptive father, their neighbors, and their friends. Several characters in Yotsuba&! were previously featured in a one-shot manga by Azuma called "Try! Try! Try!" The phrase Yotsuba to means "Yotsuba and," a fact reflected in the chapter titles, most of which take the form "Yotsuba and [something]."
Nana is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ai Yazawa. It was serialized in Shueisha's Cookie magazine from May 2000 to May 2009, and then entered on indefinite hiatus, with almost all its chapters collected into twenty-one tankōbon volumes. The series derives its title from the name of the two main characters, both of whom are called Nana. Nana Komatsu is a small town girl who goes to Tokyo to follow her boyfriend and college friends, with the hope of having her dream life. Nana Osaki was in a popular punk rock band in her hometown. She goes to Tokyo with the goal of making it big as a singer. The two Nanas meet on the train ride to the city. Later, they run into each other again when they happen to check out the same apartment, and the girls decide to become roommates. The series chronicles their friendship and their lives as each chases her dreams.
Monster is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoki Urasawa. It was published by Shogakukan in their Big Comic Original magazine between 1994 and 2001, with the chapters collected and reprinted into 18 tankōbon volumes. The story revolves around Kenzo Tenma, a Japanese surgeon living in Düsseldorf, Germany whose life enters turmoil after getting himself involved with Johan Liebert, one of his former patients, who is revealed to be a dangerous serial killer.
Miho Obana is a shōjo manga artist born in Tokyo, Japan. Her best-known work was Kodomo no Omocha, also known as Kodocha, which was published in Ribon magazine, and won the Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo in 1998. Other works include Partner, Andante and Honey Bitter.
20th Century Boys is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoki Urasawa. It was originally serialized in Big Comic Spirits from 1999 to 2006, with the 249 chapters published into 22 tankōbon volumes by Shogakukan. In January 2007, a sixteen chapter continuation titled 21st Century Boys ran until July, and was gathered into two tankōbon. It tells the story of Kenji Endō and his friends, who notice a cult-leader known only as "Friend" is out to destroy the world, and it has something to do with their childhood memories. The series makes many references to a number of manga and anime from the 1960s–1970s, as well as to classic rock music, its title being taken from T. Rex's song "20th Century Boy".
Moto Hagio is a Japanese manga artist who is considered a "founding mother" of modern shōjo manga, especially shōnen-ai. Hagio rose to prominence in the 1970s as a member of the influential Year 24 Group, and has been described as "the most beloved shōjo manga artist of all time." Hagio's notable works include The Poe Clan (1972–1976), The Heart of Thomas (1974), They Were Eleven (1975), and A Cruel God Reigns (1993–2001).
Taeko Watanabe is a Japanese manga artist. She made her professional debut in 1979 with the short story Waka-chan no Netsuai Jidai. In 1987, she won the Excellence Award at the 16th Japan Cartoonists Association Awards for her comedy series St. 14 Graffiti. She has twice received the Shogakukan Manga Award in the shōjo (girls') manga category: in 1991 for Hajime-chan ga Ichiban! and in 2003 for Kaze Hikaru.
Yumiko Ōshima is a Japanese manga artist and a member of Year 24 group.
Keiko Takemiya is a Japanese manga artist and the previous president of Kyoto Seika University. She resides in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture. She is included in the Year 24 Group, a term coined by academics and critics to refer to a group of female authors in the early 1970s who helped transform shōjo manga from being created primarily by male authors to being created by female authors. As part of this group, Takemiya pioneered a genre of girls' comics about love between young men. In December 1970, she published a short story titled Sanrūmu Nite in Bessatsu Shōjo Comic, which is possibly the first shōnen-ai manga ever published and contains the earliest known male-male kiss in shōjo manga.
The Year 24 Group is a grouping of female manga artists who heavily influenced shōjo manga beginning in the 1970s. While shōjo manga of the 1950s and 1960s largely consisted of simple stories marketed towards elementary school-aged girls, works by members of the group significantly developed shōjo manga by expanding it to incorporate new genres, themes, and subject material. Narratives and art styles in shōjo manga became more complex, and works came to examine topics such as psychology, gender, politics, and sexuality. Manga produced by the Year 24 Group brought the shōjo category into what scholars have described as its "golden age".
Wandering Son is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Takako Shimura. It was originally serialized in Comic Beam from the December 2002 to August 2013 issue, and published in 15 tankōbon volumes by Enterbrain from July 2003 to August 2013. The series is licensed in English by Fantagraphics Books, which released the first volume in North America in July 2011. A 12-episode anime adaptation produced by AIC Classic and directed by Ei Aoki aired in Japan between January and March 2011. Eleven episodes aired on television, with episodes 10 and 11 edited into a single episode, and were released individually on their respective BD/DVD volumes.
Miyako Maki is a Japanese manga artist, and one of the earliest female manga artists. During the 1960s, Maki contributed significantly to the development of shōjo manga, and became one of the most popular shōjo authors of her generation. She later became a pioneer in manga for adults, producing gekiga and redikomi towards the end of that decade.
Reiko Shimizu is a Japanese shōjo manga writer and illustrator. She made her professional debut in 1983 with Sansaro Monogatari in LaLa, and has written primarily for the publisher Hakusensha. She is noted for her works of science fiction and her art style, and is also known for her illustrations of tarot cards called the Miracle Tarot deck.
Sondermann is a cartoon character of the painter and cartoonist Bernd Pfarr, which appeared, until August 1994, in a column of the same name by the writer Simone Borowiak and, from 1987 to August 2004, regularly in the satirical magazine Titanic. Model for the name was Gerhard Sondermann, the first publisher of Titanic.
Mikiko Ponczeck is a German-Japanese comic book and manga artist.
Yoshitoki Ōima is a Japanese manga artist and writer, best known for her manga series A Silent Voice and To Your Eternity.
Stardust Wink is a Japanese manga series by Nana Haruta. Stardust Wink was serialized in the monthly shōjo manga magazine Ribon from the February 2009 issue to the February 2013 issue.
