If you recognize the name
Hayao Miyazaki, it's most likely due to
his anime films. But along with his involvement in animation, Miyazaki has produced
some manga and illustrated story books. Part of the reason his work in still images is less known is lack of translation and distribution. That's where
the fans come in, digging up and translating many Miyazaki works, back to
his first published manga, which was a serious serialized work, in 1969-1970.
Predating his first solo manga,
Sabaku no tami (People of the Desert), there was a 1969
Puss in Boots manga, tying into the
Puss in Boots movie (
Japanese trailer with English subs;
Japanese movie with Lithuanian (?) overdubbing), on which Miyazaki worked as a key animator. In 1972, there was a similar
serialized manga of a movie for
Dōbutsu Takarajima (Animal Treasure Island;
Japanese trailer #1,
#2,
Swedish dub with moments of English).
Shuna no tabi (
The Journey of Shuna) is a short watercolor manga that was released in 1983, something of a proto-Nausicaä.
Miyazaki released a book of image boards in 1983, including images of movies he had only dreamed of making. One of those stories was titled
Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke).
The story is vaguely along the lines of Beauty and the Beast, and includes imagery that would appear in future Miyazaki movies, including
Spirited Away. The story line is a huge change from
the movie as released.
That same year, Miyazaki released a short illustrated story,
Imouto he (
For My Sister). I'll leave the 17 page story to stand on its own.
From 1982 to 1994, Miyazaki published his serialized epic
Kaze no tani no Naushika (
Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind).
The first two volumes were used as the grounds for the movie, but the story continued on for another 5 volumes of manga.
In 1989 or 1990,
Hikōtei Jidai (The Age of the Flying Boat) was published in Japan, showing a story that would evolve into the 1992 film
Porco Rosso. In 1993, a US magazine focused on anime and manga
published an English translation, 13 years in advance of the US release of Porco Rosso on DVD.
Zassō Nōto (
Daydream data notes) is a series of sporadically released graphic essays on Miyazaki's manga stories, mecha ideas, or movie ideas about tanks, planes, or battleships from the era before World War II. The essays were serialized from 1984 through 1990, and compiled into one volume in 1997. Some of the stories were broken out into their own publications, including
Hansu no kikan (
The Return of Hans), in 1994.
Kūchū de o-Shokuji (Dining in the Air) is an illustrated history of in-flight food, published in 1994 in a Japan Airlines in-flight magazine. The manga is available in English in
Starting Point: 1979-1996, a collection of Miyazaki's writings and interviews.
Doromamire no tora (Tigers Covered with Mud) was a six-volume serialized manga, published from 1998 to 1999. A fan translator describes it as "
one of the very best comics in the world involving pigs and tanks."
In 2006,
Miyazaki provided a new cover illustration and a 23 page manga, titled A Trip to Tynemouth, for a Japanese re-issue of
British World War II ghost stories.
Most recently was the 2009 manga
Kaze Tachinu, featuring more love for old aircraft.
posted by fuzzypantalones at 12:31 PM on October 4, 2011