OSU Libraries/EASC Lecture: Ryan Holmberg, "Fukushima Devil Fish: Katsumata Susumu’s Anti-Nuclear Manga"

March 23, 2017

4:30PM - 5:45PM

Will Eisner Room, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum (1813 N High St)

Add to Calendar 2017-03-23 16:30:00 2017-03-23 17:45:00 OSU Libraries/EASC Lecture: Ryan Holmberg, "Fukushima Devil Fish: Katsumata Susumu’s Anti-Nuclear Manga" OSU Libraries and the East Asian Studies Center present:Ryan HolmbergVisiting LecturerDuke University"Fukushima Devil Fish: Katsumata Susumu’s Anti-Nuclear Manga"Flyer: Ryan Holmberg Flyer.pdfAbstract: One of the regulars of the legendary alternative manga monthly Garo in the magazine’s heyday of the late 60s and early 70s, Katsumata Susumu (1943-2007) has the curious distinction of having risen within the world of political cartooning and literary comics while studying toward a graduate degree in nuclear physics in Tokyo. While best known for his stories about life and myth in the Japanese countryside, Katsumata also drew frequently about political and social issues since the mid 60s, including numerous satirical strips about nuclear arms and the influence of big science within Japanese universities. After the anti-nuclear power movement gelled in Japan in the late 70s, Katsumata began illustrating critical science books about the history and dangers of nuclear power. He also drew frequent humor strips on related topics, as well as moving stories about the “nuclear gypsies” who maintained Japan’s nuclear plants under oppressive work conditions. This talk will survey Katsumata’s work on the subject of nuclear power, the largest, most diverse, and most trenchant such oeuvre in Japanese visual art prior to the 2011 meltdowns in Fukushima.Bio: Ryan Holmberg is a Visiting Lecturer and Postdoctoral Fellow in the Art, Art History, and Visual Studies program at Duke University. As a freelance art historian and critic, he is a frequent contributor to The Comics Journal, Artforum International, and Art in America. As an editor and translator of manga, he has worked with Breakdown Press, Drawn & Quarterly, Retrofit Comics, PictureBox Inc, and New York Review Comics. His edition of Tezuka Osamu’s The Mysterious Underground Men (PictureBox) won the 2014 Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material: Asia. He is also the author of Garo Manga: The First Decade, 1964–1973 (Center for Book Arts, 2010). He is currently working on a book tentatively titled Nuclear Literati, which looks at pro- and anti-nuclear visual culture in Japan between the 1960s and the 1990s. Free and open to the public This event is made possible in part by OSU Libraries and by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center. Will Eisner Room, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum (1813 N High St) OSU ASC Drupal 8 ascwebservices@osu.edu America/New_York public

Add to Calendar 2017-03-23 16:30:00 2017-03-23 17:45:00 OSU Libraries/EASC Lecture: Ryan Holmberg, "Fukushima Devil Fish: Katsumata Susumu’s Anti-Nuclear Manga" OSU Libraries and the East Asian Studies Center present:Ryan HolmbergVisiting LecturerDuke University"Fukushima Devil Fish: Katsumata Susumu’s Anti-Nuclear Manga"Flyer: Ryan Holmberg Flyer.pdfAbstract: One of the regulars of the legendary alternative manga monthly Garo in the magazine’s heyday of the late 60s and early 70s, Katsumata Susumu (1943-2007) has the curious distinction of having risen within the world of political cartooning and literary comics while studying toward a graduate degree in nuclear physics in Tokyo. While best known for his stories about life and myth in the Japanese countryside, Katsumata also drew frequently about political and social issues since the mid 60s, including numerous satirical strips about nuclear arms and the influence of big science within Japanese universities. After the anti-nuclear power movement gelled in Japan in the late 70s, Katsumata began illustrating critical science books about the history and dangers of nuclear power. He also drew frequent humor strips on related topics, as well as moving stories about the “nuclear gypsies” who maintained Japan’s nuclear plants under oppressive work conditions. This talk will survey Katsumata’s work on the subject of nuclear power, the largest, most diverse, and most trenchant such oeuvre in Japanese visual art prior to the 2011 meltdowns in Fukushima.Bio: Ryan Holmberg is a Visiting Lecturer and Postdoctoral Fellow in the Art, Art History, and Visual Studies program at Duke University. As a freelance art historian and critic, he is a frequent contributor to The Comics Journal, Artforum International, and Art in America. As an editor and translator of manga, he has worked with Breakdown Press, Drawn & Quarterly, Retrofit Comics, PictureBox Inc, and New York Review Comics. His edition of Tezuka Osamu’s The Mysterious Underground Men (PictureBox) won the 2014 Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material: Asia. He is also the author of Garo Manga: The First Decade, 1964–1973 (Center for Book Arts, 2010). He is currently working on a book tentatively titled Nuclear Literati, which looks at pro- and anti-nuclear visual culture in Japan between the 1960s and the 1990s. Free and open to the public This event is made possible in part by OSU Libraries and by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center. Will Eisner Room, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum (1813 N High St) East Asian Studies Center easc@osu.edu America/New_York public

OSU Libraries and the East Asian Studies Center present:

Ryan Holmberg
Visiting Lecturer
Duke University

"Fukushima Devil Fish: Katsumata Susumu’s Anti-Nuclear Manga"

Flyer: PDF icon Ryan Holmberg Flyer.pdf

Abstract: One of the regulars of the legendary alternative manga monthly Garo in the magazine’s heyday of the late 60s and early 70s, Katsumata Susumu (1943-2007) has the curious distinction of having risen within the world of political cartooning and literary comics while studying toward a graduate degree in nuclear physics in Tokyo. While best known for his stories about life and myth in the Japanese countryside, Katsumata also drew frequently about political and social issues since the mid 60s, including numerous satirical strips about nuclear arms and the influence of big science within Japanese universities. After the anti-nuclear power movement gelled in Japan in the late 70s, Katsumata began illustrating critical science books about the history and dangers of nuclear power. He also drew frequent humor strips on related topics, as well as moving stories about the “nuclear gypsies” who maintained Japan’s nuclear plants under oppressive work conditions. This talk will survey Katsumata’s work on the subject of nuclear power, the largest, most diverse, and most trenchant such oeuvre in Japanese visual art prior to the 2011 meltdowns in Fukushima.

Bio: Ryan Holmberg is a Visiting Lecturer and Postdoctoral Fellow in the Art, Art History, and Visual Studies program at Duke University. As a freelance art historian and critic, he is a frequent contributor to The Comics Journal, Artforum International, and Art in America. As an editor and translator of manga, he has worked with Breakdown Press, Drawn & Quarterly, Retrofit Comics, PictureBox Inc, and New York Review Comics. His edition of Tezuka Osamu’s The Mysterious Underground Men (PictureBox) won the 2014 Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material: Asia. He is also the author of Garo Manga: The First Decade, 1964–1973 (Center for Book Arts, 2010). He is currently working on a book tentatively titled Nuclear Literati, which looks at pro- and anti-nuclear visual culture in Japan between the 1960s and the 1990s.

Free and open to the public

This event is made possible in part by OSU Libraries and by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center.