English-language scholarly writing on Japanese comics is not something that just started last year – or five years ago – or ten. Fred Schodt’s Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga, the first book on the topic from a U.S. publisher, appeared in 1996 – and more than a decade earlier, he had already written Manga! Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics for Kodansha International. For that matter, already in the late 1970’s, The Journal of Popular Culture had published a paper about “Salaryman comics in Japan“, and the journal Youth & Society featured an article entitled Contemporary Japanese youth: Mass media communication that opened with the statement that “[C]omic books are both endemic and ubiquitous to contemporary Japanese society”.
It is also not an understatement to say that in the last several years years, English-language scholarly writing on Japanese comics has been booming. In 2022, Comics and the Origins of Manga: A Revisionist History became the first book on Japanese comics to receive the Best Academic/Scholarly Work Eisner Award. This was followed by the publication of a comprehensive – and much-needed Manga: A Critical Guide – in my review, I called it a “the go-to book for anyone interested in the medium”. Then, last year, Cambridge University Press felt that it was time to add a Companion to Manga and Anime to the series of volumes of what it calls “authoritative guides, written by leading experts, offering lively, accessible introductions to major writers, artists, philosophers, topics, and periods”. For that matter, later this year, two more major academic publishers are each bringing out a monograph – Yale University Press, with Manga: A New History of Japanese Comics, by Comics and the Origins of Manga author Eike Exner, and the University of California Press, with Manga’s First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905–1989, by historian and manga scholar Andrea Horbinski.
And beyond those, there is one more to look forward to. Mechademia: Second Arc, the premier scholarly journal with a focus on “studying objects and practices that have developed around media forms associated with Japan”, is now accepting submissions for a Graphic Narratives issue – scheduled for a Summer 2027 publication. Submissions for the issue are accepted through July 1. Its main goal will be to expand the range of scholarship of graphic narratives from Japan – as well as from other Asian countries/areas/regions – to emphasize attention to form and style, as well as “purpose”, rather than content alone.
By analyzing the structural elements of manga, such as its storytelling techniques and visual language, we can better understand manga’s capacities as a medium, and what distinguishes it from other forms of narrative media.
Some potential topics/approaches to consider can include:
- Analysis of formal approaches or hyōgenron in the fields of Comics Studies or manga kenkyū
- Yonkoma or comic strips
- Visual or narrative features and/or historical development of manga genres such as shōnen, seinen, shōjo, josei, gekiga, gakushū, essay, etc.
- Use of manga format for public messaging or academic writing
- Visual or historical analysis of kashihon manga
- Picture books, emonogatari, or illustration and manga
- Formal analysis of individual mangaka/artist’s work
- Visual and/or narrative features of digital comics
- Formal analysis of the vertical scroll in digital manga
- Narratology or art history and manga
- Pedagogical approaches to teaching visual analysis of manga
It is important to note that this list is not exhaustive, and other topics, approaches, subjects and methodologies are also welcome.
The guest editor for the issue will be Prof. Deborah Shamoon (National University of Singapore). Dr. Shamoon has been researching, writing, and teaching about manga for over 20 years. Just some examples of her work include the articles Office sluts and rebel flowers: The pleasures of Japanese pornographic comics for women (Porn Studies, 2004) and Revolutionary romance: The Rose of Versailles and the transformation of shojo manga (Mechademia, 2007), and the chapters The beautiful men of the Inner Chamber: Gender-bending, boys’ love, and other shojo manga tropes in Ooku (in Introducing Japanese Popular Culture, 2018, updated, for the 2nd Edition, 2023) and Manga genres: Demographics and themes (in The Cambridge Companion to Manga and Anime, 2024). Prof. Shamoon also co-edited the Association of Asian Studies handbook Teaching Japanese Popular Culture, and is the author of the monograph Passionate Friendship: The Aesthetics of Girls’ Culture in Japan (University of Hawai’i Press, 2012).
Submissions for the volume are expected to be between 5000 and 7000 words and can be sent to submissions@mechademia.net. The full CFP, with additional details and instructions, is available on the Mechademia website.
Mechademia is available online in JSTOR (delayed 3 years) and in Project Muse. Starting with the Summer 2025 issue, and going forward, the current year’s content will be accessible to all readers through Project Muse Subscribe to Open.