EXCERPTS

NEW!
Download the "Four Immigrants Teachers's Guide" for Adobe Acrobat (40K). Due to the response from schools and teachers working in multicultural curricula or studying the history of US immigration, we've prepared a comprehensive guide for classroom use. Ready to print!

Praise for The Four Immigrants Manga:

"[Fred Schodt has] done a knockout job as a translator and historian of San Francisco's Asian American experience . . . Reading this book is a revelation . . ." -- Alvin Lu, in the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

"...this book does have historical significance and belongs in libraries specializing in comics, cartoons, and graphic novels, as well as those focusing on California history, immigrant studies, and the Japanese American experience." -- Library Journal

"A marvelous historical document and history, The Four Immigrants Manga offers astute commentaries on both the daily lives of workers and the momentous events that formed their contexts. This is a fascinating work -- funny, pointed, moving -- of extraordinary significance." --Gary Y. Okihiro, Professor of History and Director of the Asian American Studies Program, Cornell University.

"Kiyama's The Four Immigrants Manga is a treasure. Like the Yellow Kid and Jiggs & Maggie, it is a splendid and authentic example of the immigrant literature of the period. More candid and outspoken than any of its contemporaries, it is a classic that demonstrates the true literary role of the comics to reflect ordinary life. Moreover, it is fun to read. It belongs in every library." --Will Eisner, graphic novelist, creator of The Spirit

"A fascinating journey back in time. Henry Kiyama's comic novel reminds us of the humor and humanity of our ancestors, as well as the hardships they faced. As a documentary filmmaker, I was thrilled by its honesty." --Steven Okazaki, Academy Award-winning filmmaker

"Growing up in Seattle in the twenties I often heard my Issei father talk about his adventures and misadventures, amusing and tragic, as a young,naive and hopeful immigrant from Japan trying to make his way in the strangeand often hostile land called America.

"Henry Kiyama's cartoons brought my father's stories back to life for me. Foryounger Japanese Americans who never had the privilege of hearing first-hand the recollections of immigrant forebears, the reincarnations of Kiyama's work will offer a bittersweet look into the history of their people. The cartoon medium is particularly effective for providing information without being pedantic." -- Bill Hosokawa, former Editorial page Editor for the Denver Post, and regular contributor to the Pacific Citizen. The author of nine books, his forthcoming book, Out of the Frying Pan (Colorado University Press, Niwot, CO), will be published in Oct/Nov 1998.

"Frederik Schodt's discovery and translation is a major contribution to Asian American Studies, Japanese American history, California Studies and popular culture. The form is lively and upbeat. The use of humor to tell the story of the immigrants is a breakthrough and the use of visuals--be they called comics, cartoons or manga--is revolutionary way to tell this story. The preliminary comments as well as the afterwords and the footnotes are extremely valuable." -- Isao Fujimoto, Professor, UC Davis

"The Four Immigrants Manga is a story of hope ... Some of the [immigrants'] exploits are tragic, most are humorous but all share a masterful insight that all readers can relate to. This is an important--and highly enjoyable--book. Henry Kiyama is a wonderful storyteller." -- Stan Sakai, Author of Usagi Yojimbo

"Forty years before the birth of underground and alternative comix, Henry Kiyama was experimenting in comic strip form with comics as autobiography, comics as personal statement, comics as sociology, anthropology, and political science, not to mention comics as a comment on racial and class attitudes and antagonism. In a time when traditional comics didn't dare venture into this territory, Kiyama covers it as a matter of course, as if his strip is no more or less than his bemused comic diary. It is that, but it is more, much more." --Jules Feiffer, Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist

-- From a forthcoming review in Pacific Citizen and the Rocky Mountain Jiho by Gil Asakawa

Read the City Search Review here.