The Man Without Talent

*Note: Published in Weekly Manga Sunday (October 1975).*

*Note: Published in Big Gold No. 4 (5th November 1979).*

*Note: Published in Custom Comic No. 11 (January 1981).*

An unsuccessful manga artist with only 300 yen to his name goes on a stroll, there he finds three men playing a game of chance and decides to join in. *Note: Published in COMIC Baku No. 1 (June 1984).*

*Note: Published in COMIC Baku No. 3 (December 1984).*

*Note: Published in COMIC Baku No. 4 (March 1985).*

The Man Without Talent 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, stone collector—hoping to find success among the hucksters, speculators, and deadbeats he does business with. 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. (Source: New York Review Books)