2011 Eisner Award Nominee: Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia

About.com 2011 Readers' Choice Awards Winner, Best New One-Shot Manga

One of Booklist's Top 10 Adult Graphic Novels for 2010

Named to numerous "Best of 2010" lists including Entertainment Weekly's 10 Best Graphic Novels and Comics of 2010, Publishers Weekly's Fifth Annual Critics Poll; Publishers Weekly's Critic's Picks: Manga in 2010, About.com: Manga (named the Best New Manga of 2010), The Manga Critic (named the Best Manga of 2010), New York Magazine's Top Ten Comics of 2010, NPR's Most Memorable Comics & Graphic Novels of 2010 and many more.

Forty years ago, the legendary manga artist Moto Hagio reinvented the shōjo (girls' comics) genre with an ongoing series of whip-smart, psychologically complex, and tenderly poetic stories. Here, now, in English for the very first time, as the debut release in Fantagraphics Books' ambitious manga line of graphic novels, are ten of the very best of these tales.

The work in A Drunken Dream and Other Stories spans Hagio's entire career, from 1970's "Bianca" to 2007's "The Willow Tree," and includes the mind-bending, full-color title story; the famously heartbreaking "Iguana Girl"; and the haunting "The Child Who Comes Home" — as well as "Autumn Journey," "Girl on Porch With Puppy," the eerie conjoined-twins shocker "Hanshin: Half-God," "Angel Mimic," and one of the saddest of all romance stories, "Marié, Ten Years Later."

A Drunken Dream and Other Stories is supplemented with a feature-length interview with Hagio, where she discusses her art, her career, and her life with the same combination of wit, candor and warmth that radiates from every panel of her comics.

Download an EXCLUSIVE excerpt with "Bianca," the first story, in its entirety (1.8 MB PDF), plus a 31-page PDF preview (4.8 MB) with pages from each story.

Video & Photo Slideshow Preview (view in new window):

"Once the folks at Fantagraphics decided to dip their toes in the manga pool, they didn’t mess around, choosing to launch their new manga line with this collection of short stories from one of the most influential creators of manga for women. Not a retrospective of a waning master, the book instead showcases a career four decades in the making that remains vibrant and relevant today. Hagio’s stories are infused with dark emotions — longing, jealousy, remorse — that are instantly identifiable and, hence, often uncomfortable to confront." – Eva Volin, Booklist (Starred Review)

"Moto Hagio is a genius and leader in the style of shojo manga (comics for women readers). [...] The stories aren't about make-up and kitties, though. They're actually deep, complicated, and often deal with family relationships. At times, the works can be a bit abstract, as well, using allegories and plenty of symbolism. In the end, Moto's work has no need to be categorized as any different from any other realistic manga. Bound in hardcover format with gold foil, this amazing collection deserves a place in any serious manga reader's collection." – Eric Nakamura, Giant Robot

"The stories here are plucked from [Hagio's] sea of accomplishments, span four decades, and feature such common themes as friendship, siblings, death, the woods, the future, and love. Most come across as either quite poignant, deliciously odd, or frickin' creepy." – Whitney Dwire, Bust

"Hagio Moto remains one of the most criminally undertranslated mangaka to have barely made an impression on the English-language manga market. It is criminal because of the profundity of her impact on the art form in Japan as it hit a crucial development phase in the 1970s. A Drunken Dream and Other Stories is... a down payment on the exploration of that legacy as it collects a number of short pieces that hint at the span and depth of her work..." – Rob Vollmarr, World Literature Today

You may also be interested in:

The Comics Journal #269 $9.95 Add to Cart

Temperance [with FREE Signed Bookplate] $22.99 Add to Cart

Artichoke Tales [with FREE Signed Bookplate] $22.99 Add to Cart

Wandering Son Vol. 3 [Pre-Order] $19.99 Add to Cart