A Drunken Dream and Other Stories

Fantagraphics Books first volume of manga is a collection of short stories byone of Japan s most influential and critically lauded comics innovators. Moto Hagio has been reinventing sh jo manga (Japanese comics marketed at10-18 year-old girls) since 1969. Unconstrained by boundaries of genre, she hassculpted a career characterized by intellectual curiosity, psychological authenticity, and an aesthetic sense that has often been at odds with a sh jo manga mainstream littered with Sailor Moon knockoffs and sub-Harlequin-romance cliches.Now, for the first time in English, we offer a Hagio primer, a selection of shortstories spanning four decades of groundbreaking work 1971-2007 by an artist who is working at the peak of hercreative powers. In Autumn Journey (1971), a boy s pilgrimage to the home of his favorite author has more meaning than either the author or his daughter can imagine. In Marie, Ten Years Later (1977), two estranged friends learntoo late how their actions had destroyed the balance of a perfect triad of intimacy. In A Drunken Dream (1980), twoscientists one a hermaphrodite, the other a tribal priest meet on a space station orbiting Io; but they have met beforeand are destined to meet again. In Iguana Girl (1991), a girl who appears to her mother and herself to be a hideousanthropoid iguana struggles to overcome her mother s rejection and find happiness ... but her mother has a secret. Learn for yourself why the creator of There Were Eleven! (adapted into an anime) and A, A has influenced the careersof countless other creators, both within and outside the manga industry, and continues to garner international criticalpraise and appeal to readers across ages and generations.