GENGOROH TAGAME’S MY BROTHER’S HUSBAND TO BE PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH BY PANTHEON/KNOPF IN SUMMER 2017
9/16/2016 (New York)—Pantheon (Knopf/Penguin Random House) announces plans to publish the English edition of internationally acclaimed gay erotica artist and icon Gengoroh Tagame’s first general audience comic book series, My Brother’s Husband, in a two-volume omnibus edition.
My Brother’s Husband is the hit Japanese manga series, awarded by the country’s own Media Arts Council for Excellence in Manga, celebrating an unapologetic approach to queer social themes and issues. In a heteronormative mainstream comics culture that has never seen an explicitly gay main character in a popular series, My Brother’s Husband has been a watershed publishing event: not only is this the first openly out gay artist to be commended by a government council, Tagame’s bestselling work has now been featured on the front cover of the popular young adult magazine in which it serializes…twice.
The series “My Brother’s Husband” debuted in Gekkan Action Zasshi (Monthly Action Magazine) in November of 2014 in Japan to monumental critical acclaim and commercial success. Currently approaching its 16th installment, the monthly series has been one of publisher Futabasha’s bestselling series. The first collected book of the series (Chapters 1-7) is in at least its fifth printing and has since launch, been translated into Korean and French. Unlike the original or current foreign editions, the English edition will be formatted as a two volume omnibus.
My Brother’s Husband is a family drama that begins with the auspicious arrival of Mike, a Canadian who has come to pay respects to the family of his recently deceased Japanese husband Ryoji, whose only remaining immediate family member is Yaichi—an identical twin brother. As Mike gets accustomed to Japanese morays and the surprising idiosyncrasies of living with Yaichi and his daughter Kana, the sleepy Japanese suburb also learns the true meaning of family.
“I think ‘My Brother’s Husband’ will be one of the most important works of manga to be published in the last ten years—it opens the door on what it means to be LGBT in Japan today, the considerable challenges that community still faces, and how it relates to the strides of acceptance that have been made in the West. Gengoroh Tagame has achieved something extraordinary here, in his beautifully-drawn story of not only a very modern family, but an international one too.” —Designer/Editor Chip Kidd
Gengoroh TAGAME
Born in 1964. Upon graduating Tama Art University, he took jobs as an Art Director, debuting as a gay erotic artist in 1986 with manga, illustratraions and prose fiction for a variety of magazines. He has been a full-time gay erotic artist since 1994. As a gay mangaka he has published over a dozen graphic novels and been translated into French, Spanish, German, Italian, and finally in English, with the 2013 publication of The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame, edited by Anne Ishii, Graham Kolbeins and Chip Kidd. His artwork has been exhibited in solo exhibitions around the world, including Paris, Berlin, Los Angeles and New York. Tagame’s work can be found in comic bookstores and online at massive-goods.com where he is also represented by Anne Ishii.
MASSIVE GOODS designs, produces and curates queer and feminist comics and art created by artists in Japan.
My Brother’s Husband: Volume 1 (of 2) will be released Summer 2017, produced in conjunction with MASSIVE GOODS.
Translator: Anne Ishii
Designer: Chip Kidd
Production: John Kuramoto
Originally published in Japanese by: Futabasha, 2014-2015
