Shigeru Mizuki--Japan's grand master of yokai comics--adapts one of the most important works of supernatural literature into comic book form. The cultural equivalent of the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, Tono Monogatari is a defining text of Japanese folklore and one of the country's most important works of literature. This graphic novel was created during the later stage of Mizuki's career, after he had retired from the daily grind of commercial comics to create personal, lasting works of art. Originally written in 1910 by folklorists and field researchers Kunio Yanagita and Kizen Sasaki, Tono Monogatari celebrates and archives legends from the Tono region. These stories were recorded as Japan's rapid modernization led to the disappearance of traditional culture. This adaptation mingles the original text with autobiography: Mizuki attempts to retrace Yanagita and Sasaki's path, but finds his old body is not quite up to the challenge of following in their footsteps. As Mizuki wanders through Tono he retells some of the most famous legends, manifesting a host of monsters, dragons, and foxes. In the finale, Mizuki meets Yanagita himself and they sit down to discuss their works. (Source: Drawn & Quarterly)

The visual essay manga will be based on Mizuki's own life. In the series, Mizuki will tell of his peaceful childhood, his experience in World War II, his poor life afterwards​, and his foray into kamishibai picture stories. (Source: Anime News Network)

When the Showa Era began, Mizuki himself was just a few years old, so his earliest memories coincide with the earliest events of the Era. With his trusty narrator Rat Man, Mizuki brings history into the realm of the personal, making it palatable, and indeed compelling, for young audiences as well as more mature readers. As he describes the militarization that leads up to World War II, Mizuki’s stance toward war is thoughtful and often downright critical – his portrayal of the Nanjing Massacre clearly paints the incident (a disputed topic within Japan) as an atrocity. Mizuki’s Showa is a beautifully told history that tracks how technological developments and the country’s shifting economic stability had a role in shaping Japan’s foreign policy in the early twentieth century. (Source: Drawn & Quarterly)

Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths is his first book to be translated into English and is a semiautobiographical account of the desperate final weeks of a Japanese infantry unit at the end of World War II. The soldiers are told that they must go into battle and die for the honor of their country, with certain execution facing them if they return alive. Mizuki was a soldier himself (he was severely injured and lost an arm) and uses his experiences to convey the devastating consequences and moral depravity of the war. (Source: Drawn & Quarterly) *Note: Won Best U.S. Edition of International Material at the Eisner Awards in 2012.*

Autobiographical tale in which Mizuki narrates the memories of his childhood in the decade of 1930, in Sakaiminato, a small coastal town at the southwest Japan. With nostalgia and tenderness, the mangaka narrates his first years of life within a modest family, the fights with his friends,the school and his first loves. The title character of the book, NonNonBa, is an old mystical and superstitious woman by which Shigeru discovers the world of yokai, supernatural beings and grotesque bestiary of medieval Japanese. Won Best Album at the 2007 Angoulême International Comics Festival.

Seventy years after his death, Adolf Hitler remains a mystery. Historians, military tacticians, and psychologists have tried in vain to unravel his complex motivations for leading Germany into the Holocaust and World War II. With Shigeru Mizuki's Hitler, the manga-ka (Kitaro, NonNonba, Showa: A History of Japan) delves deep into the history books to create an absorbing and eloquent portrait of Hitler's life. Beginning with Hitler's time in Austria as a starving art student and ending with a Germany in ruins, Shigeru Mizuki's Hitler retraces the path Hitler took in life, coolly examining his charismatic appeal and his calculated political maneuvering. The Munich Beer Putsch, Hitler's ascent to chancellor, the sudden death of his half-niece Geli, the Battle of Stalingrad, his relationship with Eva Braun, and his eventual demise: all are given equal attention in this thorough and compelling biography. In Mizuki's signature style, which populates incredibly realistic backgrounds with cartoony people, Japan's most famous living cartoonist has created an overview of Hitler's life that is as fascinating as it is informative. (Source: Drawn & Quarterly)

Youkai are specters who have lived in the human world since the dawn of time. They often rest peacefully in their dwelling places, until humans rouse them by inconsiderate actions. Kitaro is a young youkai boy who wants to help humans and youkai live in harmony, and he fights to protect humans from the enraged youkai who lash out at them.

Kitaro is a yokai boy born in a cemetery, and aside from his mostly-decayed father, the last living member of the Ghost tribe. He is missing his left eye, but his hair usually covers the empty socket. He fights for peace between humans and yokai, which generally involves protecting the former from the wiles of the latter. Written between 1959-1964, this manga is the original Kitaro story which a few years later, would become the template for the more well-known and popular manga/anime; "Gegege no Kitaro"

A timid young boy named Tadashi moves to a small town after the divorce of his parents. At a local festival, he is picked to be that year's "Kirin Rider," a protector of all things good. He soon discovers that his new title is quite literal, as a nefarious spirit named Kato appears. Originally a human who became a demon from the strength of his hatred for humans, Kato desires vengeance against their actions on the Youkai. To carry out his revenge, Kato allies himself with a Youkai named Hanako while he summons a fiery spirit called Yomotsumono, composed of the resentment of the many things which mankind has discarded. By capturing other Yokai and burning them in the flames of Yomotsumono, he is able conjure up a manifestion of Yomotsumono known as "Nanjara-Monjara", a fearsome Yokai covered in tentacles that can fly. Tadashi is mankind's last hope as he begins his quest to claim the "Holy sword" from it's protector, the Great Tengu before joining forces with all the Yokai that reside along the Mizuki Road to defeat the evil Kato once and for all. Though 220 pages in length, Yokai Daisenso reads like an epic One Shot in as much as there are no chapters. It reads straight through from start to finish without any intervals.

A collection of 13 One Shots that were drawn between 1966-1972 and were published by various periodicals before being collected into one volume and published by "Horror Comics" in 1994. This collection was republished by Kadokawa books in 2007 making this rare collection of One Shots available to the general once again. The titles of each One Shot including their dates of publication are as follows: 1) Shuudensha no Onna (終電車の女) (01-03-1970) 2) Neko-Mata (猫又) (03-13-1966) 3) Hakamori Mushi (墓守虫) (07-08-1966) 4) Chitaro Kidan (血太郎奇談) (07-01-1972) 5) Daijinbutsu (大人物) (08-08-1968) 6) Ichiban-byo (一番病) (10-25-1969) 7) Atsui hi (暑い日) (04-29-1966) 8) Reigata Shujutsu (霊形手術) (04-04-1970) 9) Kogarashi (木枯らし) (02-08-1966) 10) Tengoku (天国) (10-25-1970) 11) Henraherhera (ヘンラへラへラ) (08-15-1971) 12) Kokekakiikii (コケカキイキイ) (08-01-1970) 13) Saisho no Kome (最初の米) (11-05-1967)

Written and published shortly after his 85th birthday, Mizuki Shigeru finally lets the outside world in as he shares his entire life story in the form of this wonderful manga autobiography. The book is split into 4 parts with each arc focusing on each part of his life. Part 1 deals with his childhood and his upbringing in the coastal town of Sakaiminato in Tottori prefecture. Part 2 deals with his sudden conscription at the age of 20 into the Japanese Army to assist in the imperial war effort in Asia. His enlistment sees Mizuki get assigned to the eastern Papa New Guinean village of Rabaul. Part 3 details Mizuki's return to his homeland (minus his left arm which he lost in an explosion) where he is betrothed to a local Japanese girl, and desperately tries to eke out a living by drawing and selling comic books. Part 4, the final arc, shows a current day Mizuki and how his series of comics (notably Gegege no Kitaro) become hugely successful and enable him and his family to leave in comfort. The final part also deals with Mizuki becoming a father and subsequent grandfather. The final arc actually finishes at present day (at the time of publication, that is) with even a mention of the vandalization incident that took place around the same time along the Mizuki Shigeru road where a bronze statue of Gegege no Kitaro was stolen and other of statues were vandalized.

1. Youkai Suisha 2. Guuzen no Shinpi 3. Jigoku no Mizu 4. Ninja wa Ichido Shoubu suru 5. Youkai Yashiki 6. Kabokujin no Nazo