Boat Life Vol. 1 (Paperback)

Paperback. After thirty years as a mainstay in the alt-manga periodicals Garo, Yagyo, and Comic Baku, cult comics artist Tsuge Tadao gets philosophical with Boat Life.Serialised between 1996 and 2000, Boat Life stars novelist Tsuda Kenta, a lightly veiled stand-in for the artist, Tsuge Tadao, himself, as he pursues a life of reprieve and reverie on a small, makeshift house boat on a river outside of Tokyo. Based loosely on the artists own daily life, this charming story follows the hapless protagonist on a series of magical absurdist quests, featuring a panoply of personable characters, including a drunkard fisherman, a pervy monk, a talking corpse, a senile hermit, and a half-supportive, half-doubtful wife and adult son. Most of the scenes take place on the Tonegawa River in Chiba, a favourite fishing spot of Tsuges. Others occur at the artists home or at Joker, a jeans and apparel shop the Tsuges opened in 1977. While fans of Trash Market and Slum Wolf will enjoy this late-career elaboration of apres-guerre themes Tsuge has been exploring since his debut in the legendary alt-manga magazine Garo in the late 60s, fans of his brother Tsuge Yoshiharus The Man Without Talent will appreciate the more relaxed and optimistic take on middle-aged reclusion and the grind of work and family. After thirty years as a mainstay in the alt-manga periodicals Garo, Yagyo, and Comic Baku, cult comics artist Tsuge Tadao gets philosophical with Boat Life. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.…