A collection of short stories from the grandfather of Japanese alternative comics.
Legendary cartoonist Yoshihiro Tatsumi is the grandfather of... read full description
Legendary cartoonist Yoshihiro Tatsumi is the grandfather of... read full description
reviews
Apr 03, 2008
Trevor
rated it: 
A colleague let me borrow this and I'm probably going to have to replace the copy now because I've read and re-read these dystopic little vignettes over and over again and can't stop. Tatsumi's characters strike a similar chord with me that my favorite English-speaking fiends do from drama and fiction (Shakespeare's Iago and Nabokov's Humbert come immediately to mind). Previous reviewers have already pointed out here that these stories tend to revolve around men who feel oppressed by women and
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Jul 01, 2007
Albert
rated it:
Amazing, disturbing, revolting. Revolutionized the way I look at manga. Yoshihiro's protagonists (dare I call them "heroes?" )are mostly speechless; they're mute observers to the senselessness that surrounds them. Yoshihiro's depiction of post-war Japan is very different from the standard narrative we read in textbooks of the Japanese economic miracle coupled with orderly, conservative social norms. Rather it's one of moral confusion, sexual perversion, and soul-crushing anonymity. Fo
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Dec 05, 2010
Artur
rated it:
Marcadamente diferente do que habitualmente entendemos por manga, e particularmente notável por ter sido criada nos anos 60, a obra de Yoshihiro Tatsumi enfrenta dentro dos limites da gramática gráfica da banda desenhada japonesa temas fortíssimos, a anos-luz da puerilidade que é assinalada ao género.
Neste The Push Man and Other Stories as histórias são abertamente sexualizantes. Mas não se espere contos de encantar, delírios românticos ou estórias titilantes para fazer sonhar adolesc More...
Neste The Push Man and Other Stories as histórias são abertamente sexualizantes. Mas não se espere contos de encantar, delírios românticos ou estórias titilantes para fazer sonhar adolesc More...
Nov 30, 2009
Scott
rated it: 
Yoshihiro Tatsumi is a little known artist in the states. Well, he may be better known since this came out 4 years ago. But his slice-of-life stories are sad glimpses into the darker territories of life (these are set in late 60's Japan, but still hold up today.)
Most of these short stories are 8 pages long, due to constraints put out by the magazines publishing them. But they convey a lot in those pages. True, some feel rushed or incomplete, but more surprising is most don’t.
Instead, More...
Most of these short stories are 8 pages long, due to constraints put out by the magazines publishing them. But they convey a lot in those pages. True, some feel rushed or incomplete, but more surprising is most don’t.
Instead, More...
Nov 16, 2009
Parka
rated it:
(More pictures at parkablogs.com)
Before I read the book, I had no idea who Yoshihiro Tatsumi is. He has been called "the grandfather of Japanese alternative comics" and he certainly deserves it.
The Push Man and Other Stories is a collection of short stories previously published in Japanese, now translated and reformatted for the western audience by Adrain Tomine.
In each story, Yoshihiro Tatsumi looks at a different facet of Japanese society. Th More...
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Feb 27, 2010
Emilia
rated it: 
So erm, yeah. I just purchased A Drifting Life, and I hope it is more fun/weirder/clearer than this. I think this was alot like Goodbye except every story was more clearly about sexual awfulness, impotent men and grating women. And oh yeah! Dead/aborted babies in sewers as a palatable symbol of the results/detritus of this cultural awfulness. Swell! On one hand, I can't imagine any culture ever being as completely dark and awful as this vision of post-war Japan, on the other hand, isn't every cu
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Dec 01, 2008
Paul
rated it:
What am amazingly bleak read. Sixteen short stories, and at best they end with an uplifting "I'm not quite as worthless and hopeless as I'd feared!" message.
What's really amazing is that this array of similarly themed stories, in terms of emotion, have such a broad spectrum of characters. Sure, they're all down-and-outers, but for different reasons, leaving different lives. Too many authors I've encountered have an entire character in mind, and that characters is just plug More...
What's really amazing is that this array of similarly themed stories, in terms of emotion, have such a broad spectrum of characters. Sure, they're all down-and-outers, but for different reasons, leaving different lives. Too many authors I've encountered have an entire character in mind, and that characters is just plug More...
May 30, 2010
Grace
rated it:
Tatsumi uses simple, uncluttered drawings to depict the gritty and quietly shocking lives of ordinary Japanese people. This book is a series of very short stories. The narratives are unembellished. The people are not admirable. They work in sewers, bars, train stations, factories. An atmosphere of something very human, private and bare is evoked through the stripped-back style of storytelling, which makes the unexpected moments of tragedy or perversion all the more provocative. Loneliness, sile
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Sep 08, 2011
Mjhancock
rated it:
I thought I had Tatsumi figured out somewhat after reading Abandon the Old in Tokyo, another collection of comics/short stories. But this is... still good, but a lot weirder. There's Piranha,which tells of a man who makes a very specific sacrifice for his wife. And Projectionist, about a man who provides a home video pornography service. And My Hitler, which is about a man who keeps a rat as a pet. Tatsumi's protagonists are largely silent, which works very well--their oddities are present
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May 12, 2009
Lars
rated it:
A collection of Tatsumi's work from 1969 that presaged comics by modern authors like Daniel Clowes, Seth and Adrian Tomine. Indeed, Tomine's thoughtful and well-written introduction and his postscript interview with Tatsumi enhance the value of these sixteen decidedly off-beat, yet quotidian, vignettes. The quirky Japanese sensibility that kind of bothers me in Murakami made these a little difficult for me to get into, but once I did, I found the stories deep and thought-provoking. I'm not sur
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Aug 10, 2011
Mikael
rated it:
Short, sharp and smart stories from Yoshihiro Tatsumi. This collection is all about the invisible people who have difficult lives and bad jobs; people, who are constantly on the verge of slipping through the cracks of society. Every story is colored with quiet despair and barely controlled hate. There is some really dark, gloomy stuff here, and Tatsumi’s approach to humanity feels almost hopeless; his characters are defined by the selfishness and carnality. Yet there is a compassionate aspect pr
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Sep 19, 2011
Sam
rated it:
Yoshihiro Tatsumi's "The Push Man" is a collection of 8 page stories detailing the lives of young people in working class areas of a nameless city. As usual with Tatsumi's work the stories are highly imaginative, well drawn, and utterly compelling to read. Once you pick up the book you won't put it down until you've finished. Then you'll go back and re-read some of the more haunting stories.
The themes are of betrayal, isolation, revenge, sacrifice, and loneliness. It isn't More...
The themes are of betrayal, isolation, revenge, sacrifice, and loneliness. It isn't More...
Jul 05, 2011
Vicky
rated it:
The first few stories gave me a bad impression of what this book might be like. Each story features a working class man who might be a plantation worker, a push man, a projectionist. What made me skeptical was how cold and materialistic the women were in the beginning. The men would be absolutely helpless and act upon fantasies of hurting the women, like hiding a scorpion in a purse or sticking the woman's arm into a tank of piranhas. And then I would be positioned in the protagonist's perspecti
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Nov 15, 2008
Jennn
rated it:
The Push Man was centered around ordinary men in odd jobs including being a Push Man (to push people into subways), a sewage worker (and finding several dead babies over time), a car mechanic (who lated killed himself after rigging the brakes of a porn star), a factory worker (who mutilated himself for money), etc.
Most were about sex, death, killing, helplessness, violence, manipulation, etc. It was weird though since it was drown in a very simple "old-school" way, so it d More...
Most were about sex, death, killing, helplessness, violence, manipulation, etc. It was weird though since it was drown in a very simple "old-school" way, so it d More...
Jun 11, 2009
Adam
rated it:
A collection of works complete in '69 by way of Tatsumi. I'd read the third collection (71-72 works) first and find the art work of '69 to be of a higher polish, however, revisiting the third collection the characters are violently more sumptuous. AT ANY RATE, in this, the first collection, published by Drawn and Quarterly, all the story are highly sexualized in the oddest of ways, but don't feel far fetched. As some of the in-book commentary stated, perhaps this is a view into the world of real
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Jun 05, 2011
MariNaomi
rated it: 
The art was good, but the stories were so poorly written (and ridiculously executed, but not in a good way) I wanted to cry. What a waste of art-that-doesn't-suck! And to add injury to insult, almost every story in this book of shorts was a violent misogynist fantasy (executed with the grace of a warped, hateful child), many of them not even making much sense. Normally I'd give at least two stars for art this good, but the stories were that abysmal. I want my hour of reading back!
Dec 16, 2009
Adam N.
rated it:
A few weeks ago I borrowed “The Push Man and Other Stories” by Yoshihiro Tatsumi. It’s a compilation of Tatsumi’s serialized work from 1969: very short, very dark tales from the underside of maligned post-post-war Japan. Tatsumi is widely regarded as the heir to what people regard as “alternative” comics, and a quick summary of some of the stories definitely supports that: deformed sex slaves, cross dressing office workers, fetuses floating in sewers. His character work is elegant but emotional,
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May 21, 2011
Gee... Like seriously, what's with Japanese artists' and sexuality? Is it just me or do they really focus on the issue of sex over and over and over and over..
I can't think of one story in the book that remained devoid of any theme based on sex. I should add violence to that as well. Violence driven by sex.. or lack of love.. Why have women been portrayed so negatively? I think it boils down to the last story, where what a man really wants is a "sex slave" who'd sleep all day l More...
I can't think of one story in the book that remained devoid of any theme based on sex. I should add violence to that as well. Violence driven by sex.. or lack of love.. Why have women been portrayed so negatively? I think it boils down to the last story, where what a man really wants is a "sex slave" who'd sleep all day l More...
Feb 17, 2009
Andrew
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Mar 03, 2009
scarlettraces
rated it:
the women are scary. particularly the ones with the filled-in, blacked-out eyes. they're the scariest, completely unpredictable and likely to come at you with a really big knife. which is to say it's a weird sensation as a female reading this collection; it's rare that i feel so firmly placed as other.
other than that, it's jaw-droppingly awesome. i may have to own these.
other than that, it's jaw-droppingly awesome. i may have to own these.
Oct 16, 2009
Brenton
rated it:
This is the first in a proposed series of translations that will bring the bulk of Tatsumi's lifetime of work to English readers. I'd never heard of Tatsumi before, but he's been cartooning since the 50s; all of the stories in this volume were originally published in 1969. Tatsumi, apparently, is a big name in Japanese gekiga, the grittier, more realistic counterpart to manga. The stories collected here explore the lives of characters trapped in hopeless blue collar existences amidst the dirt
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Jun 12, 2011
Gareth
rated it:
Powerful short comics that are at moments funny, at moments dark, and which always manage to probe deeply into the minds of their characters. A fascinating example of good alternative Japanese comics.
Nov 29, 2008
Craig
rated it:
Amazing, short, and heartbreaking stories of Japanese working class and poor life. The whole series from D&Q is like this and all worth reading. Also, the books are all beautifully designed.
Feb 23, 2010
Jenny
rated it: 
if you think, "man i need more books with prostitutes, hitler, and disfiguring injuries leading to unhappiness," this is surely the book for you.
Aug 22, 2008
Alexander
rated it:
Wow. This is the first in a series of books of an incredibly bleak series of short stories from one of Japans least-published by widely-know/respected cartoonists/manga-writers. He depicts life in 1960's/70's Japan as a cruel, harsh, oppressive, and psychologically crushing. The artwork is fantastic, and the little subtle details Tatsumi drops in here and there are just wonderful. I am glad that Drawn & Quarterly decided to finally present this work to western audiences, because it is seriously
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Mar 27, 2011
Roman
rated it:
Not Tatsumi's best work in my opinion, but there are a few great stories in this collection, particularly Telescope. I much prefer Abandon the Old in Tokyo though.
Jul 25, 2010
Saw this collection of short stories in graphic novel form on the library shelf and took it out. Read a couple of them, they were fun.
Apr 23, 2010
Muriel
rated it:
Japanse film noir in manga vorm. Helaas is er nog niet zo veel van Tatsumi vertaald want dit smaakt naar méér.
Apr 28, 2009
Rachelle
rated it:
I found it morbid, it made me feel uneasy at times but I'm not sure that's a bad thing. I think I'll have to read more of his books before I have a real opinion.
