The Man Without Talent

<b>A Japanese manga legend's autobiographical graphic novel about a struggling artist and the first full-length work by the great Yoshiharu Tsuge available in the English language.</b><br><br>Yoshiharu Tsuge is one of comics' most celebrated and influential artists but his work has been almost entirely unavailable to English-speaking audiences. <i>The Man Without Talent</i> his first book ever to be translated into English is an unforgiving self-portrait of frustration. Swearing off cartooning as a profession Tsuge takes on a series of unconventional jobs -- used camera salesman ferryman and stone collector -- hoping to find success among the hucksters speculators and deadbeats he does business with.<br><br>Instead he fails again and again unable to provide for his family earning only their contempt and his own. The result is a dryly funny look at the pitfalls of the creative life and an off-kilter portrait of modern Japan. Accompanied by an essay from translator Ryan Holmberg that discusses Tsuge's importance in comics and Japanese literature <i>The Man Without Talent</i> is one of the great works of comics literature.