 l
 MENTIONS
REVIEWS
TALKS......
ORDERING
OTHER BOOKS |
(For Fred's FULL BIBLIOGRAPHY, click here).
FRED'S BOOKS IN THE NEWS (Click HERE For ASTRO BOY ESSAYS ):
 06/25/2010. Cynthia Grossen, in her article titled "Reading Japan" in the Wall Street Journal, says "Manga, long-form narratives in comic form, are wildly popular in Japan, and reading them, wrote Frederik L. Schodt in 'Dreamland Japan,' 'is like peering into the unvarnished, unretouched reality of the Japanese mind.'"
06/16/2010. Deb Aoki, manga artist and critic/commentator posts on Twitter: "@debaoki: my pick for #booksthatchangedmyworld? hands down its manga manga! by @fschodt --it opened my eyes to a whole new world of comix. "
03/04/2009. Review by R. DelParto on Amazon describes Native American in the Land of the Shogun as "...a good example to how those who read and write about history tend to overlook particular individuals who may not have been leaders or dignitaries....Native American in the Land of the Shogun is a daring narrative that challenges history and shapes how it is told. "
11/2008. Issue No. 293 of The Comics Journal has a lovely review of The Astro Boy Essays by Rob Vollmar, in which he says, "....Schodt creates a compelling
narrative about an artist and his most famous character that will serve
as an invaluable reference to comics and manga scholars for decades to
come."
07/24/2008 Good books have long lives! "Tomodachi" reviews Dreamland Japan on his blog titled Consuming Japan. "I honestly can't recommend this book enough.... [T]his is as close
to perfection as you're likely to find."
07/15/2008 Kransom reviews both Manga! Manga! and Dreamland Japan on his blog, Welcome Datacomp. He descibes Manga! Manga! as a "concise but focused set of essays that would be a good introduction
to the subject," and "a fairly engrossing read, [that] actually
has a fair bit of authority behind bits of it...." Of Dreamland Japan, he writes, " I love it so much that I will not write a single bad
word about it."
07/01/2008 In an article titled "*Essential Books About Manga Recommended,"on her Comics Worth Reading site, Johanna Draper Carlson reviews both Manga! Manga! and Dreamland Japan. Of the twenty-five-year-old Manga! Manga!, she says,"It’s an astounding overview, introducing manga and Japanese
culture to Americans with extensive detail and plenty of illustrations
and sidebar notes. .... A foundational must-read."
04/25/2008 With the headline, "Meet the Man Who Predicted Japan's Humanoid Robot Craze," Lisa Katayama features Inside the Robot Kingdom in her very cool bi-weekly column, Mangobot ( about Asian futurism, on the IO9 site). Calling the book a "classic,"
she quotes from Chris Baker, senior editor of Wired magazine, who says, "The only problem with the book is that it was released ten years ahead of its time."
11/15/2007 The Library Journal reviews Astro Boy Essays and says "This engaging book will be of wide interest to fans and pop-culture students; recommended for all collections."
11/2007 MANGA! MANGA! makes a guest appearance in Wired magazine's November, 2007 issue, in the very fun "How Manga Conquered the U.S., a Graphic Guide to Japan's Coolest
Export" by Jason Thompson, with original art by Atsuhisa Okura. View and download the whole work HERE!
06/2006 Review by Trevor Carolan of NATIVE AMERICAN IN THE LAND OF THE SHOGUN in June 2006 issue (No. 63) of Kyoto Journal. Carolan describes the book as "brilliant, absorbing" and rendered
with "the accuracy of a trained academic and the excitement of a skillful
novelist."
06/2006 Interview/review article by Meg Nakano, titled "From Manga to Ranald
MacDonald: The Inquiring Mind of Frederik L. Schodt," in June, 2006
(Vol. 30, No. 351) issue of Eye-Ai magazine. Of my work, she writes "....fresh insights, deep
factual research, written in an easy-to-read style. We can experience new and hidden worlds that are broader than our own, and look forward to books
that are pleasantly unexpected. It doesn't get much better than that."
06/2006 Review by Hillel Wright of NATIVE AMERICAN IN THE LAND OF THE SHOGUN in June 2, 2006 issue (No. 636) of Metropolis magazine. After cautioning readers that this is "not a book about
hamburgers, but rather about a fascinating 19th-century adventurer,"
Hillel gives a synopsis of the book and MacDonald's life.
05/2006 Review by Kit Oldham featured in May 19, 2006 issue of HistoryLink.Org ("The On-line Encyclopedia of Washington State History"). "This engrossing biography gathers extensive documentation of MacDonald's life and provides comprehensive and fascinating background context, from Hudson's Bay Company activities along the Columbia to the American whaling fleet and of course the history and culture of nineteenth-century Japan."
12/2005 Rave review of DREAMLAND JAPAN in JOG'S blog, which describes the book as "required reading, one of the core texts on manga in English" and being way ahead of its time--"If this book was too esoteric for 1996, it is absolutely ready for today."
10/2005 Excerpt/article from NATIVE AMERICAN IN THE LAND OF THE SHOGUN published in FALL 2005 edition of Columbia: The Magazine of Northwest History, pp. 24-32.
09/2005 MANGA! MANGA! THE WORLD OF JAPANESE COMICS is mentioned in Kirkus Reviews Graphic Novel & Comics Spotlight (2005), and its publication is included in a timeline of "Must-Know
Dates in Graphic History" (p. 10)
08/2005 AMERICA
AND THE FOUR JAPANS was reviewed by the Midwest Book Review in August, 2005, and described as " A 'must-read' introduction especially for international businesspeople and anyone whose career or personal interest lies in coming fully to grips with the dynamics of U.S.-Japanese economic, political and cultural interaction." Not bad for an eleven year old book!
01/2005 NATIVE AMERICAN IN THE LAND OF THE SHOGUN was named one of the outstanding academic titles of 2004 byChoice Magazine (affiliated with the American Library Association). It was described as
"A remarkable tour de force, so rich as to defy easy categorization. E
Read the press release HERE, or purchase a copy by calling Stone Bridge Press at 1-800-947-7271, or
by clicking on AMAZON or Barnes and Noble
* Also, the complete text to EDDIE W. SCHODT's classic LEAVES FROM A FARM BOY'S DIARY,is now online (illustrations by yours truly). Eddie lived a long, good,
and productive life, through different and tumultuous eras, from December
12, 1914 to May 26, 2008. May He Rest In Peace. |
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TRANSLATIONS OF:
* BOOKS
* MANGA
FEATURED
TRANSLATIONS:
Hayao Miyazaki's no-holds-barred collection of autobiographical essays.font>
Yoshiyuki Tomino's
SF trilogy, long out
of print in English,
now available in a single volume!
Henry Kiyama's
1931 classic,
now in English.
Was it America's
first graphic novel?
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 -by me of BOOKS and MANGA, etc.,
Plus an interactive translator cartoon. Click here for full bibliography.
07/22/2010: Michael Strickland (SFMike) provides a rave review to The Four Immigrants Manga in his blog, "Civic Center: San Francisco as seen through the Civic Center neighborhood: its politics, arts and characters."
07/02/2010: In a post titled "The Best Manga You're Not Reading," Kate Dacey, of the blog, "Manga Critic: Reviews for the Discerning Manga Fan" lists both The Four Immigrants Manga and Phoenix.
06/20/2010: Holden V. Crick, in his blog "Hungry Robot," reviews The Four Immigrants Manga, and says, "The Four Immigrants Manga is recommended for those interested in comics history, history in general, and just exploring older works. I've yet to find anything else quite like it."
02/12/2010: On-line vendors of Yoshiyuki Tomino's Mobile Suit Gundam novel (the Stone Bridge Press version, in English translation, now temporarily out of print), start asking between $999.00 and $1999 for used copies.
08/04/2009: Viz Media publishes Hayao Miyazaki's Starting Point: 1979-1996 , translated by Beth Cary and Frederik L. Schodt. Hard cover, 1.8 pounds, and 500 (count 'em!) pages.
05/05/2009: The blog, In Throbbing Technology--KURUTTA, has a post by Zytroop, who miraculously managed to get hold of a copy of Osamu Tezuka's 1953 manga version of Crime and Punishment, translated by Yours Truly back in 1990. It is reviewed here.
04/00/2009: Original, "Japanese" version of Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama's 1931 Manga Yonin Shosei (『漫画四人書生』) republished by Tokyo's Bunsei Shoin. Edited by Eizaburo Okuizumi, with copious maps, notes, and
articles by Eizaburo Okuizumi, Kosei Ono, and Yours Truly. For information
on English translation of same book, as published by Stone Bridge Press, click here. Tokyo publisher Hon no Tomo had been scheduled to republish the original Japanese edition (with foreword
and notes by Yours Truly) in September 2005, but due to a sudden and tragic illness of the company president, plans had to be shelved. With help of Eizaburo Okuizumi and Yoshishige Onuma (Bunsei Shoin editor), the long-forgotten Japanese original is now finally available.
03/17/2009: The English version of Naoki Urasawa's fabulous Pluto manga series--published by Viz Media and translated by the veteran combo
of Yours Truly and Jared Cook--is now shipping. It is a creative re-interpretation
of a single episode of Osamu Tezuka's Tetsuwan Atomu ("Astro Boy") series, originally titled "The World's Greatest Robot." The
first volume of the eight volume series was published in February, 2009.
Last volume to appear in March, 2010.
09/10/2008: In the blog, Gundamn! @ MAHQ
, Soul Bro Ryu reviews Mobile Suit Gundam: Awakening, Escalation, Confrontation. "Even if you just like science fiction and are not too big on anime
or Gundam in general, you'll still love this book," he writes, quoting
his friend Paul as saying, "should have been on the New York Bestseller
list since it's release date."
07/17/2008: The website of Fashionista Piranha reviews The Four Immigrants Manga and calls it "e; a must-read for fans of manga (Japanese comics) for it is an excellent early example of a Japanese artist taking an art style popular at the time (American newspaper comic strips) and adapting it to tell his own, uniquely Japanese-American stories."e;
12/04/2007: Lisa Katayama's always fun site, TokyoMango, says of The Four Immigrants Manga, "Anyone interested in manga, Japanese humor, Asian-American history,or immigration should pick up a copy..."
07/2007. To celebrate its second birthday, Viz Media's popular Shojo Beat mag includes an excerpt from Osamu Tezuka's ground-breaking 1954 girl's
manga--Princess Knight (『リボンの騎士、in its July edition. Translation by Yours Truly and Jared Cook.
For a nice review, see MangaLife.com.
* Viz has now published ALL of Osamu Tezuka's classic manga series,THE PHOENIX. Definitely check out Karma, my fave! The first five volumes were originally translated by yours truly,
along with Jared Cook and Shinji Sakamoto, as the pioneering manga translation
group, Dadakai, in 1977-8, and finally published in San Francisco by Viz
between 2002-2004. In September, 2005, Viz officially decided to publish
the remaining seven volumes in the series, again translated by yours truly
and Jared Cook. In March, 2008, the final volume, Phoenix: Early Works (Vol. 12) was published, meaning that THIRTY YEARS after we started this
translation project, it is now finally complete. For a wonderful review
of Karma (Vol. 4), see Andrew Arnold's piece in Time.com. Also check out Rob Vollmar's reviews of Phoenix, Vols 1, 2, 3, 4.
* Dark Horse Comics has released the paperback version of Masamune Shirow's
long awaited Ghost in the Shell 1.5: Human-Error Processor !
* Osamu Tezuka's entire ASTRO BOY series of graphic novels (23 vols.) now published by Dark Horse Comics.
* Translation (with Toren Smith) of Shirow Masamune's long-awaited MAN-MACHINE INTERFACE (Ghost in the Shell 2) finally published in paperback by Dark Horse Comics. See review on page 8 of 2005 Kirkus Reviews Graphic Novel & Comics Spotlight
* Stone Bridge Press has republished my translation of Yoshiyuki Tomino's Mobile Suit GUNDAM trilogy of novels. This is a re-edited, single volume edition, with illustrations and a
spiffy metallic-looking cover. The August, 2005 edition of Kansai Time Out calls it a "superb translation, the perfect companion to the Gundam
exhibition now on at Suntory Museum." (alas, the exhibit's over, and I missed it...). Author Patrick Drazen has written an intelligent and thorough review
of the Mobile Suit Gundam novels, titled "The Shock of the New Type," in the Vol. 1, 2006 issue of Mechademia, a new and exciting journal which covers the "Emerging Worlds of Anime and Manga."
* Dark Horse Comics has released Two Faces of Tomorrow as a giant-brick graphic novel. This is a visualization of James P. Hogan's
science fiction novel of the same name, rendered in realistic format by
SF manga master Yukinobu Hoshino, translated by Yours Truly and Toren Smith,
lettering by Tomoko Saito. I recommend reading Bill Joy's April 2000 article, "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us" in Wired magazine along with this manga. At a price of $19.95 for 576
(!) pages,it's a true bargain.
* Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama's FOUR IMMIGRANTS MANGA republished!
Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama's FOUR IMMIGRANTS MANGA selected as finalist in
Pen West USA translation award for year 2000. Also, comics critic Andrew
D. Arnold gives the book a rave review in his February 19, 2005 column
at TIME.COM.
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 and assorted news.
* BIBLIOGRAPHY of my writings (A work in progress, hopefully for a long time...).
* UPCOMING TALKS:
September 30, 2010 (19:00-20:00): "Creation of a manga-comic hybrid"-- keynote address at "Intercultural Crossovers, Transcultural Flows: Manga/Comics" conference at Japanisches Kulturinstitut, in Cologne, Germany.
* PAST TALKS.
July 4, 2010. Article written for MTV-Iggy on "How I Learned to Love Otaku, at Otakon."
December 4, 2009. Fred wins another award--The "Special" category of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Third International Manga Award. 日本語では「第三回国際漫画賞」の特別賞です。詳しくはこちらです。
October 27, 2009. Anime News Network (the "Internet's most trusted anime news source") features an interview of Fred, done by Evan Miller at Otakon, in Baltimore, Maryland, in July.
October 13, 2009. Robert Ring runs a long, raw interview, titled "Insights from the Author of 'The Astro Boy Essays'" about Astro Boy, Tezuka, robots, and more, on the Sci-Fi Block site.
July 1, 2009. Report on a Ventana Wilderness Trip.
June 5, 2009. Ben Hamamoto writes up Fred in an extensive article in the Nichibei Times.
April 28, 2009. Fred wins a medal! Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette... 日本語では「旭日小綬章」というものです。詳しくはこちらです。
Conferment ceremony took place on June 26, 2009. Draft of Fred's remark's here.
* Read a fun and shockingly thorough interview with Yours Truly by the very
talented Ryan Sands in his fab new zine, Electric Ant. More than you'd ever want to know!
* An artifact from my past--> A college paper.
* Report on the Asahi's Osamu Tezuka Award for 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000. In 2000, even yours truly wins an award...
Donald L. Philippi Memorial Space
* Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern
Manga now available in Japanese and Korean
* Read poetry while reading comics! Master poet Bruce Berney's ode to Henry
Kiyama, Kiyama no Manga now on-line!
* The Masamune Shirow Interview
*MUSIC: (1) Just Friends News (2) A Sachiko Space
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of various and sundry things. 