We certainly hope you read yesterday’s interview with Yoshihiro Tatsumi by Kai-Ming Cha in PW Comics Week. We found it pretty damned fascinating as a look at the history of the Japanese comics industry, which turns out to be pretty much like other creative industries around the world.

A lot more scholarship about “classic” manga is beginning to come out. We’ve even made a few little mentions of it here ourselves.

Apparently, there’s even more interest in manga nostalgia in Japan. ComiPress has another article talking a classic manga collector:

“Tank Tankrouâ€? by Sakamoto Gajou, “The Adventure on Marsâ€? by Ooki Noboru, â€? Space Strategy #1″ by Leiji Matsumoto… Nowadays publishers are beginning to reprint these classic series from the early days of manga, which are becoming popular among adult manga fans.

[snip]In the “preservation roomâ€? of Matsumoto’s house (located in Oizumi, Tokyo) sits a huge collection of manga that were published around the 1870’s to the 1950’s. Titles like “Korosuke the Bearâ€? by Sampei Yoshimoto that was published pre-WW2, “Fikuchanâ€? by Ruichi Yokoyama, and “Hokusai Mangaâ€? by Hokusai Katsusika (1760-1849), “Superman,â€? “Walt Disney Comics & Stories,â€? etc., Matsumoto smiled and said, “I don’t know how many books are here, I have never counted my collection.â€? His collection is on the scale of a small library.

Get a load of the old manga covers in the original Japanese story.