Andrea Horbinski, "Manga's First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905-1989" (U California Press, 2025)

About this episode

Andrea Horbinski discusses the history and impact of manga from its origins to its global popularity.

Andrea Horbinski's Manga's First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905-1989 (U California Press, 2025) centers the fans and creators who built Japanese comics into a massive global phenomenon. The book traces the history of manga from the art form's distinctly modern emergence in the early 1900s, one that first hybridized the artistic legacy of Japan with the world of Western political satire but very quickly expanded its scope. By the 1920s and 1930s, manga was already beginning to show some of the breadth of genre and style that has become a trademark of Japanese comics and their byproducts today. In the postwar, manga's embrace of new audiences and stylistic conventions, and the embrace of these new forms by audiences of amateur consumer-creators especially since the mid-1970s, led to an explosion in popularity that has made manga a global phenomenon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/popular-culture

People in this episode

Host: Marshall Poe

Guest: Andrea Horbinski

Topics covered

• Japanese comics
• manga history
• cultural phenomenon
• fan culture
• artistic legacy

Keywords

• manga
• Japanese comics
• cultural history
• fan creators
• artistic styles

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: U California Press

Books & works: Manga's First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905-1989

More episodes of New Books in Popular Culture

• Cape Fear Retells an Archetypal Revenge Story for a New Generation · June 10, 2026 · 57 min
• Aditya Deshbandhu, "The 21st Century in 100 Games" (Routledge, 2024) · June 9, 2026 · 1h 1m
• Ginger Dellenbaugh, "Maria Callas's Lyric and Coloratura Arias" (Bloomsbury, 2021) · June 6, 2026 · 57 min
• Adam Phillips, "The Life You Want" (FSG, 2026) · June 5, 2026 · 38 min
• Mary R. Lanni, "Using Nursery Rhymes with Today’s Kids: Their Legacy and Evolution" (Bloomsbury, 2026) · June 4, 2026 · 39 min
• For All Mankind Concludes Its Search For New Life · June 2, 2026 · 30 min