By Seiichi Hayashi edited & translated by Ryan Holmberg (Picturebox)
ISBN: 978-1-939799-07-4
When talking about Japanese comics most fans are generally thinking of the mainstream mass-entertainment form which began with Osamu Tezuka in the years following the end of World War II, and which within a generation had grown into a multi-genre print phenomenon adored and compulsively consumed by the greater part of Japan’s population.
However where there’s a mainstream there are always fringes, and the all-pervasive success of commercial manga naturally threw up experimental and alternative publications: the sort of forums and arenas where the most interesting and challenging works of every art form usually first begin…
A companion to the “Ten-Cent Manga†collections, this superlative hardback begins a series celebrating “Masters of Alternative Mangaâ€, with resident Editor, historian and translator Ryan Holmberg offering comprehensive background and fascinating insights into one of the most respected envelope-pushers in the business and presenting a tantalising selection of shorter pieces by a compelling master of evocative sequential narrative.
Avant-garde illustrator, poster artist, filmmaker and poet Seiichi Hayashi was born in 1945 and became a star of Japan’s counterculture movement in the Swinging Sixties. He also created a number of comic strips for alternative periodical Garo during the turbulent late 1960s and early 1970s and four of them grace this captivating collection. His most well known work is probably the wildly experimental romance Red Colored Elegy.
The artist’s flawed and tragic relationship with his mother informed many of his stories and reprinted his insightful personal memoir ‘Azami Light: Childhood Remembrances (1972)’ as well as Holmberg’s contextualizing essay ‘Momoko and Manga: Seiichi Hayashi’s Maternal Roots’.
Each is copiously illustrated with photos, illustrations, covers and formative artworks, providing documentary and commentary to augment the striking strips which make up the largest portion of this volume.
Created at a time of rising Right Wing Nationalism and with Western popular influences such as comicbooks, TV shows and pop music seemingly inundating the nation’s kids, the tales reprinted here also display a broad flavour of cross-cultural contact and pollination, albeit with a ferocious undercurrent of intellectual criticism…
The powerful, deeply moving stories begin with the full, flat-colour ‘Dwelling in Flowers’ (1972): a sly, lyrically wistful examination of fragmenting relationships, followed by the charmingly sinister monochrome ‘Red Dragonfly’ from 1968: an apparently rustic and nostalgic fable of a child’s experience playing at war and observing his mother’s clandestine liaisons…
‘Yamanba Lullaby’ (also 1968) features many anomalous and anachronistic pop culture intruders as it allegorically ponders American influences whilst relating some explosive exploits of legendary heroic “Golden Boy†super-baby KintarÅ, his horrific supernatural mater and a host of quirky opponents (giant robots, mad scientists, DC comics superheroes) – all rendered in stark black and white with gory red splashed on as appropriate…
This intriguingly appealing primer ends with the sadly unfinished ‘Golden Pollen’ from 1971. Printed in indigo and red, this is another allegorical foray investigating Nationalism and again co-opts traditional Japanese legends and Buddhist tales: updating the raucous saga of heroic newborn Hinomaru (also the name of the WWII Rising Sun flag) and his demon brother Jaki in their battles against a vast skeletal monster mother…
Holmberg describes in fascinating and forensic detail the origins of the assorted stories, the state of political and social play in Japan and the emotional turmoil which drove the artist to produce such eye-catching, earnest comics but the real draw is the sheer graphic escapism, spectacular storytelling and astoundingly skewed views of a driven, inspired craftsman.
Not for the squeamish, nor the naïve, Gold Pollen and Other Stories is a challenging ride no serous lover of comics will want to miss.
This book is printed in ‘read-from-back-to-front’ manga format.
© 2013 Seiichi Hayashi. Translation and essay © 2013 Ryan Holmberg. All rights reserved.