Shigeru Mizuki's Hitler

by Shigeru Mizuki, Zack Davisson (Translator)

Overview

A master cartoonist and veteran tells the life story of the man who started the Second World War

Seventy years after his death, Adolf Hitler remains a mystery. Historians, military tacticians, and psychologists have tried in vain to unravel his complex motivations for leading Germany into the Holocaust and World War II. With Shigeru Mizuki's Hitler, the manga-ka (Kitaro, NonNonba, Showa: A History of Japan) delves deep into the history books to create an absorbing and eloquent portrait of Hitler's life.

Beginning with Hitler's time in Austria as a starving art student and ending with a Germany in ruins, Shigeru Mizuki's Hitler retraces the path Hitler took in life, coolly examining his charismatic appeal and his calculated political maneuvering. The Munich Beer Putsch, Hitler's ascent to chancellor, the sudden death of his half-niece Geli, the Battle of Stalingrad, his relationship with Eva Braun, and his eventual demise: all are given equal attention in this thorough and compelling biography.

In Mizuki's signature style, which populates incredibly realistic backgrounds with cartoony people, Japan's most famous living cartoonist has created an overview of Hitler's life that is as fascinating as it is informative.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770462106
Publisher:	Drawn & Quarterly
Publication date:	11/17/2015
Pages:	296
Sales rank:	1,105,670
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Shigeru Mizuki (1922–2015) was one of Japan’s most respected artists. A creative prodigy, he lost an arm in World War II. After the war, Mizuki became one of the founders of Japan’s latest craze—manga. He invented the yokai genre with GeGeGe no Kitaro, his most famous character, who has been adapted for the screen several times, as anime, live action, and video games. In fact, a new anime series has been made every decade since 1968, capturing the imaginations of generations of Japanese children. A researcher of yokai and a real-life ghost hunter, Mizuki traveled to over sixty countries to engage in fieldwork based on spirit folklore. In his hometown of Sakaiminato, one can find Shigeru Mizuki Road, a street decorated with bronze statues of his Kitaro characters.

Editorial Reviews

★ 11/09/2015
A fresh take on one of the most notorious villains in history is not easy task, but with this terrifying book, esteemed manga artist Mizuki (GeGeGe No Kitaro; Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths)—who lost an arm as a soldier during WW II—gives readers a tight narrative that shows how a man of humble beginnings can rise to power, wage war and genocide, and come within a hair’s breadth of conquering the world. From Hitler’s failure to pass exams for art school, to his beer-hall radicalizing, the book carefully sets the backdrop for his inevitable rise. Mizuki’s canvas is a provocative one, juxtaposing medium-panel shots of Hitler’s day-to-day interactions with his inner circle and large establishing shots that oscillate between depictions of Hitler’s glory and Germany’s bombardment and ruin. He deftly balances dialogue and narration, never using a heavy hand or complicating the reader’s movement through the text. Impossible to put down, this is a candidate for the year’s best graphic novel. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

Showa is literature, illustrated or not, at its finest: a story that sweeps you off your feet only to find, when you return to Earth, that nothing looks quite the same.” —Los Angeles Times on "Showa: A History of Japan"

From the Publisher

01/01/2016
The late Japanese superstar Mizuki (Showa), a World War II veteran who passed away November 30, is known for historical manga as well as stories about yokai—supernatural monsters. In 1971, he combined both interests to take artistic aim at the real-life Führer. Adolf Hitler emerges first as a failed art student and vagrant, despite grandiose fantasies. Numerous twists of circumstance later, the monster-in-training adopts visionary if deranged theories that appeal to his depression-beset countryfolk and develops into a persuasive orator. And with help from similarly minded men, he manages to ruin his country and much of the world. As in Showa, the art blends cartoony humans with photo-derived realistic settings, injecting sly humor at the ironies of history. Character cameos, maps, and copious notes provide help. VERDICT Mizuki shows Hitler as much a miserable human as he was monstrous, even as the narrative raises as many questions as it answers, despite its meatiness. A good jumping-off work for the history curious, teen and up. This translation is based on a 2011 French version, which may or may not reflect original nuances.—MC

Library Journal