Tezuka rules!
Friday, June 8th, 2007The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco just opened a big retrospective on the work of Tezuka, father of anime and manga, words which refer respectively to the Tezuka-inspired animation film and graphic books now so fabulously popular. Opening day at the museum last weekend, the show was packed with twenty-somethings and parents tagging along with their 10-year-olds. Nicole Harvey (who buys children’s books for the musuem shop, among her many other duties) and her colleagues at the museum have been working overtime to get the adventurous show and related activities up and running. There’s a Manga Lounge set up with a typical manga-fan kid’s bedroom and lots of manga-related products. The bookshop has a great collection of manga and books about anime and manga, including Gilles Poitras’ deconstructions of the magic for those of us who are a little more dependent on the written word. Gene Yang, author of the highly regarded American Born Chinese, is among the area artists who will demonstrate their comic art skills at weekly events through the summer.
If you’re the parent of a comic-lover and live nearby or if you plan to visit the Bay Area this summer with kids, the Tezuka show is a chance for you to learn something and earn some undying gratitude from the children as well. And if you can’t be here in person, the show’s website has links to everything from a Tezuka bio to essays on manga. Check out the blog, too! Help yourself to a virtual visit to a magical world.
