Contact
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CV
PDF Version
Teaching
Senior Lecturer, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
History of Manga (Undergrad Lecture)
Alt-Manga: Experimental and Literary Comics in Japan (Undergrad Seminar)
2021-22
Visiting Lecturer. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
History of Japanese Art (Undergrad Lecture)
Spring 2020
Visiting Associate Professor. University of Tokyo
US Military Bases and Japanese Culture (Grad Seminar, In Japanese)
Short-Form Art Writing: Media, Society, Politics (Undergrad/Grad Seminar)
Nuclear Imaginary in Transnational Perspective (Graduate Seminar, In Japanese)
Comics Journalism: Reportage, Documentary, Realism (Undergrad/Grad Seminar)
2017-19
Visiting Lecturer. Duke University
Contemporary Japanese Visual Culture (Undergraduate Lecture)
The Art of Unconventional Comics (Undergraduate Seminar and Studio)
2016-17
Instructor. Art English Training, Yokohama
English-language history and theory program for young Japanese artists.
Organized in conjunction with the Yokohama Triennial
Fall 2011
Mellon Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow. University of Southern California
Contemporary Art: 1940-Present (Undergraduate Lecture)
Comics and Graphic Novels (Undergraduate Seminar)
2009-10
Adjunct Assistant Professor. Pace University
Asian Art (Undergrad Lecture)
Spring 2009
Adjunct Assistant Professor. College of Staten Island, CUNY
Introduction to Visual Art (Undergrad Lecture)
2008-09
Visiting Assistant Professor. University of Chicago
Survey of Japanese Art (Undergraduate Lecture)
Word & Image in Japanese Art (Undergraduate Seminar)
Japanese Art since 1945 (Undergraduate & Graduate Seminar)
Japanese Art of the 1960s (Graduate Seminar)
2007-08
Education
Yale University
Ph.D. History of Art
Dissertation: “Paper Megaphone: Garo Manga, 1964-71”
Advisor: Mimi Yiengpruksawan
2007
M.A. History of Art
2001
Whitney Museum of American Art
Independent Study Program, Critical Studies Fellow
2003-04
Boston University
B.A. summa cum laude, Art History
Senior Thesis: “Dragon Knows Dragon: Japanese Avant-garde Calligraphy”
1998
Prizes, grants, fellowships
Hakuho Foundation Japanese Research Fellowship
Waseda University, Department of Literature
2015-16
Will Eisner Comic Industry Award
Best U.S. Edition of International Material: Asia
Tezuka Osamu, The Mysterious Underground Men (2014)
2014
Research Fellowship (6 months)
Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Culture
Spring 2014
Twentieth-Century Japan Research Award, University of Maryland
Research grant for Gordon W. Prange Collection
2012
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
Social Science Research Council, Postdoctoral Fellowship Gakushūin University, Tokyo, Postdoctoral Fellow
2010-12
Daiwa Prize, British Association for Japanese Studies
Awarded to best junior scholar essay in Japan Forum
2010
Mellon Postdoctoral Teaching Fellowship, USC Dept of Art Historys
Awarded to best junior scholar essay in Japan Forum
2009-10
Chino Kaori Memorial Essay Prize
Awarded to best graduate student essay in Japanese art history
2007
Frances Blanshard Prize for a distinguished dissertation
2007
Prize Fellowship, Yale University Council on East Asian Studies
2003-06
Yale University Fellowship
1999-2003
Richard Light Fellowship
Summer 2000 & 2002
Richard J. Franke Fellowship
1999-2001
Books
No Nukes for Dinner: How One Japanese Cartoonist and his Country Learned to Distrust the Atom.
Almost finished manuscript: History of nuclear power issues, related protest movements, and the appearance of both in manga, around the cartoonist Katsumata Susumu and his anti-nuclear cartoons (65,000 words).
Gekiga: Essays on Japanese Comics
(Satori Ediciones, 2021). Spanish collection of seven of my essays on the history of the comics form known as gekiga, originally published in English at The Comics Journal and other venues. Translated by Jesus Jativa Fernandez.
The Translator without Talent
(Richmond: Bubbles Zine Publications, 2020). 400-page collection of image-rich posts detailing my research finds, translation issues, and reportage on such issues as the cultural politics of nuclear power, social discrimination in Japanese society and art, and sexuality and misogyny within Japanese comics. Selected from my Instagram account @mangaberg. Also includes an extensive essay about my experiences and philosophy as a translator of manga.
Garo Manga: The First Decade, 1964-1973
(Center for Book Arts, 2007). Exhibition catalogue accompanying an exhibition of the same name at the Center for Book Arts in New York City (12,000 words).
Essays:
What was Alternative Manga? ongoing serial for The Comics Journal online. 2500-7000 words.
“Confederates Against Comics: BLM and the Battle for Graham, NC” (September 2020).
“More Corona Cartoons, Japan” (July 2020).
“Corona Cartoons, Japan” (July 2020).
“The Weight of Postwar Life: Tsuge Tadao vs. Takano Shinzo, 1969” (May 2018).
“Eye Buds: Yokoyama Yūichi and Audiovisual Abstraction, Part 2” (September 2017).
“Eye Drum: Yokoyama Yūichi and Audiovisual Abstraction in Comics” (August 2017).
“Nuclear Literati: Nakashima Kiyoshi’s Furusato Goes to Hell” (May 2016).
“Pro-Nuclear Manga: The Seventies and Eighties” (February 2016).
“Singing Our Own Song: Hayashi Seiichi vs. Sasaki Maki, 1969” (January 2016).
“A Vogue for I Don’t Get It: Hayashi Seiichi vs. Sasaki Maki” (December 2015).
“Blood Plants: Mizuki Shigeru, Kitaro, and the Japanese Blood Industry” (May 2015).
“Tatsumi Yoshihiro, 1935-2015” (March 2015).
“The Fukui Ei’ichi Incident and the Prehistory of Komaga-Gekiga” (January 2015).
“Proto-Gekiga: Matsumoto Masahiko’s Komaga” (October 2014).
“Manga vs. Art History: Hayashi Seiichi at SISJAC” (August 2014).
“Enka Gekiga: Hayashi Seiichi’s Pop Music Manga” (June 2014).
“The Mysterious Clover: Matsumoto Katsuji and Douglas Fairbanks” (May 2014).
“Matsumoto Katsuji and the American Roots of Kawaii” (April 2014).
“Shinohara Ushio’s Action Cartooning” (February 2014).
“Seduction of the Innocent, Hiroshima 1950: Occupation and Comics” (January 2014).
“The Name Garo: Shirato Sanpei and the Indo-Manga Connection” (October 2013).
“Filipino Komiks and Japanese Sex Tourism” (March 2013).
“Tezuka Osamu Outwits the Phantom Blot: New Treasure Island” (February 2013).
“Manga Finds Pirate Gold: The Case of New Treasure Island” (October 2012).
“The Aomushi Showa Manga Library” (August 2012).
“Tezuka Osamu and American Comics” (July 2012).
“Sugiura Shigeru’s Sense of Humor” (June 2012).
“Tezuka Osamu & the Rectification of Mickey” (May 2012).
“Guns & Butter: Manga and Too Much Western Influence” (March 2012).
“Introduction to Akahon Manga” (January 2012).
“Emonogatari in the Age of Comics, 1948-1957” (November 2011).
“Manga 3.11: The Tsunami and the Japanese Publishing Industry” (September 2011).
“Tatsumi Yoshihiro’s ‘Black Rainbow’” (July 2011).
“Saitō Takao and the Gekiga Factory” (May 2011).
“An Introduction to Gekiga, A.D. 6970” (March 2011).
“Charting the Beginnings: What was Alternative Manga?” (March 2011).
Comics in India. occasional series stored under “What was Alternative Manga?” at The Comics Journal online.
“Dharavi Comics Epidemic: An Interview with Chaitanya Modak” (March 2015).
“Bengal’s Drighangchoo: An Interview with Deeptanil Ray” (December 2013).
“Poor Little Rich Boys: The Art of the Mumbai Circulating Library” (November 2013).
“Inverted Calm: An Interview with Vishwajyoti Ghosh” (October 2013).
“Indie India: An Interview with Kailash Iyer” (September 2013).
“Leaping Windows Comics Café and the Indo-Manga Connection” (August 2013).
“Comix India and the Indo-Manga Connection” (April 2013).
“The Women of Alternative Manga: The Case of Garo.” Empowered: How Women Revolutionized Manga, ed. Stephen Salel (Honolulu Museum of Art, 2022).
“Anti-Manga: Sasaki Maki, Ishiko Junzō, and Avant-Garde Comics.” October (forthcoming).
“Manga and the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.” Vamos Nippon! exh. pamphlet (Belfast: Naughton Gallery, 2021).
“A New Kind of Literature: The Awakening of Yoshiharu Tsuge, 1967-68.” Yoshiharu Tsuge, Red Flowers (Drawn & Quarterly, 2021). Co-authored with Asakawa Mitsuhiro.
“So Let the Nightmare for Japan Begin: Fukushima, the Islamic State, and Imai Arata’s Para-Comics Journalism.” Imai Arata, F (Glacier Bay Books, 2021).
“The Face Eater, and Other Japanese I Have Learned from Kondoh Akino” (Japanese). Eureka (March 2021). English version in Bubbles no. 11 (Summer 2021).
“Tezuka Osamu’s Ten Cents.” Bubbles no. 9 (February 2021).
“The Durham Protest Murals: Black Lives Matter, Cartoons, and Anime.” Bubbles no. 8 (November 2020).
“Rearmed and Dismembered: The Samurai in Postwar Visual Culture.” Samurai Transformed: Warrior, Culture, Class, Commodity, exh. cat. (Art Gallery of South Australia, 2020).
“The Life and Art of Kuniko Tsurita.” Kuniko Tsurita, The Sky is Blue with a Single Cloud, trans. Ryan Holmberg (Drawn & Quarterly, 2020). Co-authored with Asakawa Mitsuhiro.
“Where is Yoshiharu Tsuge?” Yoshiharu Tsuge, The Man Without Talent, trans. Ryan Holmberg (New York Review Comics, 2020). German translation in Der Nutzlose Mann (Reprodukt, 2020).
“Damn All Gamblers to the Pits of Hell.” Ebisu Yoshikazu, The Pits of Hell, trans. Ryan Holmberg (London: Breakdown Press, 2019).
“Hirata Hiroshi and the Buraku Question: Understanding Bloody Stumps Samurai.” Hirata Hiroshi, Bloody Stumps Samurai, trans. Ryan Holmberg (Washington, DC: Retrofit / Big Planet Comics, 2019).
“Garo Magazine and Alternative Manga.” Manga, exh. cat., ed. Nicole Rousmaniere and Matsuba Ryoko (The British Museum, 2019).
“Matsumoto Katsuji: Modern Tomboys and Early Shōjo Manga.” Women’s Manga in Asia and Beyond, eds. Fusami Ogi, Rebecca Suter, et. al. (Palgrave MacMillan, 2019).
“Fukushima Devil Fish: A Nuclear Pastoral.” New York Review Daily online (August 2018).
“Baron Yoshimoto’s Comics Gekiga.” Baron Yoshimoto, The Troublemakers, ed. and trans. Ryan Holmberg (Washington, DC: Retrofit / Big Planet Comics, 2018).
“The Vagabond Zone: Ruins, Vets, and Punks.” Tadao Tsuge, Slum Wolf, ed. and trans. Ryan Holmberg (New York Review Comics, 2018).
“Seiichi Hayashi’s Nouvelle Vague.” Seiichi Hayashi, Red Colored Elegy, trans. Taro Nettleton, paperback edition (Drawn & Quarterly, 2018).
“Shambhavi Kaul’s Haunted Nursery.” X-TRA: Contemporary Art Quarterly 20:1 (Fall 2017). Reprinted in pamphlet for Hijacked (Rubinstein Arts Center, Duke University, 2018).
“Anti-Manga: Sasaki Maki, Ishiko Junzō, and the Image.” Anti-Museum: An Anthology, eds. Mathieu Copeland and Balthazar Lovay (Fribourg Fri Art Kunsthalle & Koenig Books, 2017). Reprint in Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society (2019).
“Hayashi Seiichi’s Pop.” Hayashi Seiichi, Red Red Rock and Other Stories, 1967-1970, ed. and trans. Ryan Holmberg, (Breakdown Press, 2016).
“Atomic Modernism: Indian Abstraction at TIFR, Mumbai.” Art in America (March 2016).
“When Manga was Pop.” Art in America (January 2016).
“Nuclear Gypsies: Art, Manga, and Nuclear Plant Labor.” Art in America (December 2015).
“After Aparanta: Goan Art and Landscape in the Age of Development.” The Caravan (June 2015).
“Portrait of the Artist as a Working Man.” Tadao Tsuge, Trash Market, ed. and trans. Ryan Holmberg (Drawn & Quarterly, 2015). Italian translation in Trash Market (Oblomov Books, 2017).
“Haraguchi Noriyuki’s Model Parts.” Haraguchi Noriyuki: Yokosuka, 1963-1972 (New York: Fergus McCaffrey Fine Art, 2015).
“Odes and Inquisitions: Sino-Indian Connections in Recent Indian Art.” Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art 14:1 (January/February 2015).
“Heirs of Gottfredson: Osamu Tezuka.” Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse, vol. 5: Outwits the Phantom Blot (Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2014). Japanese translation in Biranji no. 34 (September 2014).
“The Eye and the Storm: Speed Lines and Gekiga FX.” International Journal of Comic Art (Fall 2013). French translation in La Crypte Tonique, no. 9 (Summer 2013). German translation in Text+Kritik (Fall 2017). English reprint in Vérité: Comix India vol. 1 (2018).
“Osamu Tezuka and the First Story Manga.” Osamu Tezuka, The Mysterious Underground Men, ed. and trans. Ryan Holmberg (New York: PictureBox, 2013). Japanese translation in Biranji (forthcoming 2019).
“Momoko and Manga: Seiichi Hayashi’s Maternal Roots.” Seiichi Hayashi, Gold Pollen and Other Stories, ed. and trans. Ryan Holmberg (New York: PictureBox, 2013).
“Shigeru Sugiura and His Mohicans.” Shigeru Sugiura, The Last of the Mohicans, ed. and trans. Ryan Holmberg (New York: PictureBox, 2013).
“Manga Shōnen: Katō Ken’ichi and the Manga Boys.” Mechademia, vol. 8 (2013).
“The Name Garo.” Secret Prison, no. 7 (September 2012).
Garo Manga: The First Decade, 1964-1973. exh. cat. New York: The Center for Book Arts, 2010.
“The Manga of Garo, 1964-1973.” Orientations 41:4 (May 2010).
“The Snake and the Duck: Huang Yong Ping.” Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art 8:5 (September/October 2009).
“Hear No, Speak No: Sasaki Maki Manga and Nansensu, circa 1970.” Japan Forum (British Association for Japanese Studies) 21:1 (March 2009).
“The Pseudography of Hidai Nankoku.” Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2008).
“I draw with two hands: two-handed drawing and the typedrawing machine.” (article manuscript).
“For your words, I shall rip out your tongue: Shirato Sanpei and the Talking Head of Manga.” International Journal of Comic Art 8:1 (Spring/Summer 2006).
“1950 nendai, sho to chūshō kaiga no sōgo eikyō no umu o megutte: Furanzu Kurain o chushin toshite [On the mutual influences between 1950s calligraphy and abstract painting: The case of Franz Kline].” Sho no bi (Summer 1999).
Translations
The following volumes of translated manga range in length from 30 to 300 pages. Most of them contain a historical essay by me (listed above in the essays section) and/or important biographical and critical essays translated from Japanese. I served not only as translator and essayist for most of the volumes, but also as editor and agent.
Tsuge Yoshiharu, Red Flowers: The Collected Mature Tsuge, vol. 2 (Drawn & Quarterly, 2021).
Imai Arata, F (Glacier Bay Books, 2021).
Yokoyama Yūichi, Baby Boom (Breakdown Press, 2021).
Tsurita Kuniko, The Sky Is Blue with a Single Cloud (Drawn & Quarterly, 2020).
Excerpted online at Paris Review, reviewed by the Atlantic, Hyperallergic, etc.
Tsuge Yoshiharu, The Swamp: The Collected Mature Tsuge, vol. 1 (Drawn & Quarterly, 2020).
Excerpted online at Paris Review
Tsuge Yoshiharu, The Man Without Talent (New York Review Comics, 2019).
Nominated for Best Manga, Harvey Awards, 2020
Tsurita Kuniko, Flight (Drawn & Quarterly, 2019).
Hirata Hiroshi, Bloody Stumps Samurai (Retrofit / Big Planet Comics, 2019).
Ebisu Yoshikazu, Teachers Cast Into the Pits of Hell (Breakdown Press, 2019).
Abe Shin’ichi, That Miyoko Asagaya Feeling (Black Hook Press, 2019).
Nominated for Eisner Award, Best Archival/Collection/Project, 2020
Yokoyama Yūichi, Outdoors (Breakdown Press, 2018).
Tsuge Tadao, Slum Wolf (New York Review Comics, 2018).
Excerpted online at Granta, Paris Review, CrimeReads, and New York Review Daily
Baron Yoshimoto, The Troublemakers (Retrofit / Big Planet Comics, 2018).
Katsumata Susumu, Fukushima Devil Fish (Breakdown Press, 2018).
Tsuge Tadao, Sabu the Bruiser (Black Hook Press, 2017).
Yokoyama Yūichi, Iceland (Retrofit / Big Planet Comics, 2017).
Hayashi Seiichi, Red Red Rock and other stories, 1967-1970 (Breakdown Press, 2016).
Tsuge Tadao, Trash Market (Drawn & Quarterly, 2015)
Sasaki Maki, Ding Dong Circus and other stories, 1967-1974 (Breakdown Press, 2015).
Matsumoto Masahiko, The Man Next Door (Breakdown Press, 2015).
Hayashi Seiichi, Flowering Harbour (Breakdown Press, 2015).
Kondoh Akino, Nothing Whatsoever All Out in the Open (Retrofit / Big Planet Comics, 2014).
Hayashi Seiichi, Gold Pollen and Other Stories (PictureBox Inc., 2013).
Tezuka Osamu, The Mysterious Underground Men (PictureBox, Inc., 2013).
Recipient of 2014 Eisner Award, Best U.S. Edition of International Material: Asia
Sugiura Shigeru, The Last of the Mohicans (PictureBox, Inc., 2013).
Yokoyama Yūichi, World Map Room (PictureBox, Inc., 2013).
Yokoyama Yūichi, Color Engineering (PictureBox, Inc. & Nanzuka Underground, 2011).
Non-manga translations (does not include critical and autobiographical essays in above books)
No Nukes Asia Forum, No Nukes Asia: People Against Nuclear Power, with Ann-Elise Lewallen (Yoda Press, 2019).
Essays in Yokoo Tadanori, Pop It All (Towada Art Center, 2017).
Kanazawa Kodama, “Our Time, in Line: the Art of Yokoyama Yūichi.” (Kawasaki City Museum, 2012).
Tsurumi Shunsuke, “The Idea of Liminal Art.” From Postwar to Postmodern, Art in Japan, 1945-1989: Primary Documents (MoMA, 2012).
Tanaka Masao, “Beggar Photography.” (same as above).
Domon Ken, Kimura Ihee, et. al., “Art and Photography.” (same as above).
Reviews and other occasional writings
(*1500 words; **2500 words plus)
“Nara Yoshitomo” at Taka Ishii, Tokyo. Afterimage (November 2018).
“Sachiko Kazama” at Maruki Museum, Saitama. Artforum (September 2018).
“Tsubasa Kato” at Mujin-to Production, Tokyo. Artforum (April 2018).
“Moon & Jeon” at Scai the Bathhouse, Tokyo. Artforum (February 2018).
“Iwasaki Takahiro” at Urano, Tokyo. Artforum (January 2018).
**“Fukushima From Within” on Kazuto Tatsuta’s Ichi-F. NYR Daily (August 2017).
“Nina Chanel Abney” at Nasher Museum, Durham. Art in America (May 2017).
“Leo Twiggs” at Mint Museum, Charlotte. Art in America (March 2017).
“Takamatsu Jirō” at Fergus McCaffrey Gallery, NYC. Art in America (March 2017).
“Aida Makoto” at Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo. Art in America (October 2016).
“Yamaguchi Keisuke” at Toyota Municipal Museum of Art. Art in America (June/July 2016).
*“In the Aftermath: Rias Ark Museum, Seo Natsumi, Tanaka Koki.” Art in America (May 2016).
“Sorayama Hajime” at Nanzuka Underground, Tokyo. Art in America (April 2016).
“Kawaguchi Kazuyuki: Okinawa Phantasmagoria” at Photographers’ Gallery, Tokyo. Art in America (February 2016).
“Don’t Follow the Wind: Non-Visitor Center” at Watarium, Tokyo. Art in America (Jan 2016).
“Rupali Patil” at Clark House Initiative, Mumbai. Artforum (April 2015).
“Kochi-Mizuris Biennale” in India. Art in America (March 2015).
“Shambhavi Singh” at Talwar Gallery, Delhi. Artforum (March 2015).
*“Chewing Gum and Chocolate” on the photography of Tōmatsu Shōmei. Art in America (February 2015).
“Shambhavi Kaul” at Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai. Artforum (February 2015).
“Gagan Singh” at Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai, Artforum (January 2015).
“Desire Machine Collective” at Project 88, Mumbai. Artforum (December 2014).
“Amol K Patil” at Clark House Initiative, Mumbai. Art in America (March 2014).
“Roshan Chhabria” at Gallery Maskara, Mumbai. Artforum (February 2014).
“Asim Waqif” at Nature Morte, Delhi. Artforum (January 2014).
“Madhuban Mitra & Manas Bhattacharya” at Mumbai Art Room. Artforum (December 2013).
“Border Floss” at the Guild Gallery, Mumbai. Artforum (November 2013).
“Vasudha Thozhur & Himmat” at Project 88 and Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai. Art in America (November 2013).
“Ali Kazim” at Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai. Art in America (May 2013).
“Kiran Subbaiah” at Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai. Art in America (March 2013).
**“A Chinese Life” on the graphic novel by Li Kunwu, Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art (January/February 2013). Chinese translation published in the same magazine in Fall 2013.
“Ushio Shinohara” at SUNY New Paltz. Artforum (December 2012).
“Abstract Comics” on the anthology by Andrei Molotiu. Hooded Utilitarian online (August 2012).
“A Drifting Life” on the graphic novel by Tatsumi Yoshihiro. Mechademia online (December 2011).
**“Black Blizzard” on the graphic novel by Tatsumi Yoshihiro. The Comics Journal, no. 301 (2011).
** “Know Your Enemy: Linda Hoaglund’s ANPO Documentary.” Art in America (January 2011).
“The Comics of Attraction” on Yokoyama Yūichi’s graphic novel Baby Boom. Comics Comics, online (July 2010).
**“The Third Mind” at the Guggenheim Museum, New York. Impressions 31 (2010).
*“Yang Fudong” at Asia Society in New York. Art in America (September 2009). Letter exchange (December 2009).
“Toshio Shibata” at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. Afterimage (May-June 2009).
“Miyako Ishiuchi” at the Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo. Art in America (May 2009).
**“Tetsumi Kudo” at the Walker Art Center. Art in America (March 2009).
“A Drawing Romance: Red Colored Elegy” on the graphic novel by Hayashi Seiichi. Art on Paper (November/December 2008).
“Miao Xiaochun” at Walsh Gallery, Chicago. Art in America (May 2008).
“Takashi Murakami” at Gagosian Gallery. Art in America (November 2007).
“H in the inking” exhibition catalogue entry on the work of Hiroki Ōtsuka. Eric C. Shiner and Reiko Tomii, Making a Home: Japanese Contemporary Artists in New York. New York: Japan Society, 2007.
“Makoto Aida” at Andrew Roth, New York. Art in America (January 2007).
“Portraits of Outrage” at CUNY Graduate Center. Afterimage 33:5 (March-April 2006).
“KK” at Kirin Plaza, Osaka. Zing Magazine 20 (Winter 2005).
*“Little Boy” at the Japan Society, New York. Artforum International (September 2005).
“Routes of Influence” at Art Projects International, New York. Third Text 64 (September 2003).
“Multitude” at Artists Space, New York. Zing Magazine 18 (Summer 2003).
“History Lessons” at White Box, New York. Zing Magazine 17 (Winter 2002).
Other writings and artistic projects
“The Nuclear South” visual essay and collaboration with Shambhavi Kaul around the former Manhattan Project site at Oak Ridge, TN (2016-ongoing).
“Adversary: A Misleading Introduction” semi-fictional introduction to Indian artist Sahej Rahal’s work. Online at the website of Chatterjee & Lal Gallery, Mumbai (January 2016).
“Sugiura Shigeru’s Nonsense” visual essay on the early work of Sugiura Shigeru. Sankakuboshi, no. 1 (Summer 2012). Reprinted at The Comics Journal online (June 2012).
“The Asakusa Eardrum” images and text for an art historical counterfactual. Dis Magazine (January 2012).
Biographies for 33 manga artists. Ax: Alternative Manga, eds. Sean Michael Wilson and Mitsuhiro Asakawa (Top Shelf Productions, 2010). French edition, Ax: Anthologie, vol. 1 (Le Lézard Noir, 2011).
“The First Person” experimental prose poetry on war and violence. Rethinking Marxism 21:1 (January 2009).
“The Imperial Typepicter” drawings and text for an art historical counterfactual archive. Skipping the Page. Exhibition catalog. New York: The Center for Book Arts, 2008. Rpt. in Dot Dot Dot 19 (Spring 2010); Dis Magazine online (February 2014).
“Circus Bare Maximus” a ribald prose fiction supplement to Rey Akdogan’s Kurdistan Speedway project. FeedBack 4: Ideas that Inform, Construct and Concern the Production of Exhibitions and Events. OpenMute, 2007.
The same story the crow told me, it’s the only one he knows. Text for a comics collaboration with Michael Baers. Sapporo: S-Air, 2007.
“Paper Language” an experimental prose piece on the relationship between speech and writing. Dot Dot Dot 12 (Summer 2006).
Lectures, conferences, workshops
“Garo and the Sixties.”
Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art. February 2019. (In Japanese)
“Gekiga and Comics: Public Discussion with Baron Yoshimoto.”
Comic Art Tokyo. November 2018. (In Japanese)
“Gekiga à la Mode: Baron Yoshimoto, Comics, and Japanese Men’s Fashion.”
SPX Small Press Expo. Bethesda, MD. September 2018.
University of Tokyo. January 2018. (In Japanese)
“Butter-Stinking Manga: The American Influence on Early Japanese Comics.”
Honolulu Museum of Art. November 2017.
Viborg Animation Festival, Denmark. September 2017.
“Fukushima Devil Fish: The Antinuclear Manga of Katsumata Susumu.”
Temple University Japan, Tokyo. October 2018.
Sophia University, Tokyo. December 2017.
University of Hawaii at Manoa. November 2017.
Japan Society, London. September 2017.
Sainsbury Institute for Study of Japanese Arts and Culture, Norwich. September 2017.
SPX Small Press Expo. Bethesda, MD. September 2017.
Baruch College, New York. April 2017.
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. Ohio State University. March 2017.
Duke University. November 2016.
“Atomu’s Jungle: Post-Nuclear Power Manga of the 1970s.”
The Nuclear Imaginary in Transnational Perspective. Duke University. February 2017.
“Manga East and West: Public Discussion with Hayashi Seiichi.”
Comic Art Tokyo. July 2016. (In Japanese)
“Typographic Voice Acting: Thoughts on Translating Manga.”
Manga/Comics and Translation Symposium. Baruch College, New York. April 2017.
Japan Society for Studies in Cartoons and Comics, Tokyo. July 2016. (In Japanese)
“Manga Before Fukushima: Atoms for Peace and its Fallout.”
Project 88, Mumbai. March 2015.
“Sex Tourism, Filipina Brides, and Japanese Comics.”
15th Int’l Conference on Japanese Studies & 6th Women’s Manga Conference
Ateneo de Manila University, Manila. January 2015.
“Hayashi Seiichi: Avant-Garde Manga and the Tokyo Counterculture.”
A series of three public discussions between the artist and myself, sponsored by the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Culture, held at the Japan Foundation (London), Gosh Comics (London), and SISJAC (Norwich). July 2014.
“Garo and the Birth of Alternative Manga.”
Honolulu Museum of Art. November 2017.
Delhi Anime Convention. October 2014.
SOAS, London. February 2014.
Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Culture, Norwich. February 2014.
“A Crash History of Manga: Before Tezuka”
Delhi Anime Convention. September 2013.
“Tezuka Osamu & Disney Comics: The Case of New Treasure Island.”
SPX Small Press Expo. Bethesda, MD. September 2012.
Gakushūin University. Tokyo. July 2012. (In Japanese)
“Manga Since 3.11.”
Delhi Anime Convention. September 2013.
Sophia University. Tokyo. May 2012.
“Manga and American Comics: A Response to Oguma Eiji.”
International Convention of Media Arts, Culture Ministry. Tokyo. March 2012.
“Manga 3.11: Food Contamination and Food Tourism after Fukushima.”
Sophia University. Tokyo. January 2012.
“From Garo to Ax: The Tradition of Alternative Manga.”
Yodakin Bookstore. New Delhi. September 2010.
The Alternative Manga Revolution. San Diego Comi-Con. July 2010.
“Deep Road to the Narrow South: The Erotopia of Tsuge Yoshiharu Manga, 1966-70”
Say No to Say Yes: Art and Culture in 1960s Japan. University of Michigan. April 2010.
“Wordless Comics”
Visual Studies Colloquium. University of Southern California. November 2009.
“Big Book: The Total Manga of Yokoyama Yuichi”
International Comic Art Forum. Art Institute of Chicago. October 2009.
“The Ninja Martial Arts: from Shirato Sanpei to Ōshima Nagisa”
UChi-Con Anime Convention. University of Chicago. February 2008.
“Nansensu: The practice of a word, circa 1970 Japan”
The Second PoNJA-Genkon Symposium. UCLA. April 2007.
“Japan, a country with guns: Manga and Armament in the 1960s”
International Comic Art Fair. Washington DC. October 2006.
“I draw with two hands: two-handed drawing and the typedrawing machine”
Lecture at the Scorched Earth exhibition space. New York. April 2006.
“Silence is the blood whose flesh is singing: Tsuge Yoshiharu Manga”
Museum of Cartoon and Comic Art. New York. October 2005.
International Comic Art Fair. Washington DC. October 2005.
“For your words I shall rip out your tongue: Shirato Sanpei Manga”
Claims to Authority: Workshop on Modern and Contemporary Art in East Asia. Institute of Fine Arts. New York. May 2005.
Japanese Art since 1945: The First PoNJA-GenKon Symposium. Yale University. April 2005.
“The Paper People Eater: Reproduction and Manga”
Reproduction in Japan. Yale University. October 2004.
“I Speak Publish: Two Sasaki Maki Manga”
International Comic Art Fair. Washington DC. September 2004.
Critical Studies Symposium. Whitney Museum of American Art. May 2004.
“The Vietnam Debate: Sasaki Maki Manga”
New England Regional Conference of the Association of Asian Studies. Harvard University. November 2003.
“Fukuhara Shinzō and the Nature of Photography”
Annual Graduate Student Conference on East Asia. Columbia University. February 2003.
New England Regional Conference of the Association of Asian Studies. Colby College. November 2002.
“Line, Action, and Avant-garde Calligraphy”
Annual Symposium, University Art Association of Canada. Winnipeg. November 2000.
“1950 nendai, sho to chusho kaiga no sogo eikyo no umu o megutte: Furanzu Kurain o chushin toshite [On the mutual influences between 1950s calligraphy and abstract painting: The case of Franz Kline]”
Presented in Japanese at the tenth anniversary symposium of Sho no bi. Nishinomiya, Japan. November 1998. (In Japanese)
Other
Women in Japanese Manga
Exhibition at Honolulu Museum of Art, curated by Stephen Salel. I am serving as special advisor for this exhibition, helping to facilitate meetings with artists and translations to be timed with the exhibition. I will be delivering talks and conducting public interviews with artists around the time of the exhibition’s opening. TBA 2021.
Vérité: Comix India
Annual comics anthology mixing Indian and Japanese content, edited by artist Bharath Murthy in Mumbai. I serve as editorial advisor, co-funder, essayist, and sometimes translator. 2018-present.
Disasters of Peace: Social Content in the Work of Tsuge Tadao and Katsumata Susumu Exhibition at Honolulu Museum of Art, curated by Stephen Salel. I served as special advisor on this exhibition, which was inspired by my research and translations. During the exhibition’s opening week, I delivered a series of talks related to the exhibition and the history of manga. December 2017-April 2018.
The Nuclear South
Collaboration with visual artist Shambhavi Kaul, exploring nuclear histories and ecologies in the American South, primarily around Manhattan Project site Oak Ridge (Tennessee) and the former nuclear weapons plant at the Savannah River Site (South Carolina). 2016-Ongoing.
The Nuclear Imaginary in Transnational Perspective
Symposium Organizer (with Jieun Cho)
Duke University. February 2017.
Published Interviews
“Hayashi Seiichi at SISJAC.” The Comics Journal online (August 2014).
“Bengal’s Drighangchoo: Deeptanil Ray.” The Comics Journal online (December 2013).
“Inverted Calm: Vishwajyoti Ghosh.” The Comics Journal online (October 2013).
“Indie India: Kailash Iyer.” The Comics Journal online (September 2013).
“Leaping Windows Comics Café.” The Comics Journal online (August 2013).
“Comix India: Bharath Murthy.” The Comics Journal online (April 2013).
“Let we go: Hiroki Ōtsuka.” International Journal of Comic Art 10:1 (Spring/Summer 2008).
Garo Manga: The First Decade, 1964-1973
Exhibition curator and catalogue author.
The Center for Book Arts, New York. April-June, 2010.
Japanese Art since 1945: The First PoNJA-GenKon Symposium
Symposium Organizer (with Miwako Tezuka and Reiko Tomii).
Yale University. April 22-23, 2005.
Paper abstracts and related documents: Review of Japanese Culture and Society, vol. 17 (December 2005).
See Hear: A Symposium on Sound, Art, and Modernity
Symposium Organizer (with Jess Atwood-Gibson).
Yale University. April 8-12, 2003.
Languages
Japanese
Fluency in speaking and reading: born in Japan, 13 years residence, 2 years teaching experience.
Functional-fluency in writing.
Mandarin Chinese
One-year study at Yale University
Intermediate Mandarin at Princeton in Beijing. Richard Light Fellow. Summer 2000.
Advanced Mandarin at CET Nanjing. Richard Light Fellow. Summer 2002.