A review by jekutree
The Push Man and Other Stories by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
5.0
Brilliant.
Tatsumi goes against all manga conventions with this one. Manga has always been smaller in size than western comics and this of course leads to smaller panel counts. When a page is smaller, you can’t really fit as much onto the page. Until Tatsumi. Throughout, Tatsumi frequently employs pages with over 10 panels with incredible results. He typically uses a 4 row panel structure which is abnormal even for western comics.
Use of the medium aside, these stories all feel similar and tackle similar themes but if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Tatsumi paints the lives of several blue collar workers who often don’t have much to say. They’re all repressed and all have little to no control of what happens around them. I’d compare Tatsumi’s Japan to the gritty 70’s New York portrayed in the films of that decade. And that’s a funny comparison too since these stories come from 1969.
Tatsumi goes against all manga conventions with this one. Manga has always been smaller in size than western comics and this of course leads to smaller panel counts. When a page is smaller, you can’t really fit as much onto the page. Until Tatsumi. Throughout, Tatsumi frequently employs pages with over 10 panels with incredible results. He typically uses a 4 row panel structure which is abnormal even for western comics.
Use of the medium aside, these stories all feel similar and tackle similar themes but if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Tatsumi paints the lives of several blue collar workers who often don’t have much to say. They’re all repressed and all have little to no control of what happens around them. I’d compare Tatsumi’s Japan to the gritty 70’s New York portrayed in the films of that decade. And that’s a funny comparison too since these stories come from 1969.