Tatsumi wins two top Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards for 'A Drifting Life'

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Tatsumi wins two top Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards for 'A Drifting Life'
By The Editor
August 9, 2010 - 03:15

Will Eisner comic

Manga artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi has won two top prizes at the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards for his "A Drifting Life." The comic book was awarded Best U.S. Edition of International Material--Asia and the Best Reality-Based Work prizes.

This year's winners were announced in late July at the 2010 Comic-Con International held in San Diego.

The Asia category replaces a category that until last year was exclusively devoted to Japan. Five of the six manga pieces nominated this year were from Japan.

However, Tatsumi was picked from among other U.S. artists in the Reality-Based Work category, showing how highly respected Tatsumi and his work are in the United States.

The 75-year-old artist, who lives in Japan, was unable to attend the award ceremony. His trophies were accepted by a representative from Canadian publisher Drawn & Quarterly amid a warm shower of applause.

"A Drifting Life" is Tatsumi's autobiographical manga. He is one of the prominent manga artists who helped create Japan's early gekiga ("dramatic pictures") comics that eventually led to the development of modern Japanese manga.

Tatsumi vividly portrays the birth of gekiga comics in the postwar period based on his own experiences in the manga community.

He has also been critically acclaimed in Japan, winning many awards including the Manga Grand Prix of the 13th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2009.

Highly praised in Europe and the United States, Tatsumi is considered one of Japan's representative manga artists. The two Eisner awards can be seen as a fitting recognition for his long career as a creative artist.

The Eisner Awards select and reward each year's best comics. Winners are announced at the annual Comic-Con, the best-known comics awards event in the United States.

To date, very few Japanese pieces, including Katsuhiro Otomo's "Akira," have won a prestigious award outside of the International category.

This year, Naoki Urasawa was nominated in the Best Writer/Artist category. His "20th Century Boys" and another title were also nominated in several categories, including the Best Continuing Series. But they did not win.