No Indian media informed me that Yoshihiro Tatsumi died on March 7 2015. He created a dark, noirish style of Japanese manga he
called gekiga, meaning “dramatic pictures".
Apparently the term gekiga (劇画)- dramatic pictures- was coined by Mr. Tatsumi because he did not like the term manga (漫画), whimsical pictures.
Even in Marathi (मराठी) there is no agreement on what cartoons should be called: हास्यचित्रे का व्यंगचित्रे? And there are Americans who started calling erstwhile comic books as graphic novels.
I feel very shy including Marathi in this discussion because Marathi does not hold a candle to the vast graphic literature that exists in Japanese and English.
I remember, on my first visit to Japan in the 1990's, I was overwhelmed by the huge stacks of manga books in even the smallest of the kiosks in and around Tokyo. I bought one adult manga book. I was not sure if Indian customs would allow it. They never bothered with my baggage.
The title page of “Unpaid.”
Artist: Yoshihiro Tatsumi (辰巳 ヨシヒロ)
courtesy: The Paris Review
Imagine if we had the tradition of gekiga/manga in India, what possibilities would have opened up to describe the life in Mumbai?
One the greatest chroniclers of Mumbai, Bhau Padhye (भाऊ पाध्ये) would be a gekiga artist! Or was he already a manga artist?
One the greatest chroniclers of Mumbai, Bhau Padhye (भाऊ पाध्ये) would be a gekiga artist! Or was he already a manga artist?
Artist: Vasant Sarwate (वसंत सरवटे)
In this caricature, Sarwate seems to have drawn Bhau as 'whimsical picture' 漫画!