Japan's output of manga is massive, accounting for a staggering forty percent of everything published each year in the country.Outside Japan, there has been a global boom in sales, with the manga aesthetic spreading from comics into all areas of Western youth culture through film, computer games, advertising, and design.

Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics presents an accessible, entertaining, and highly-illustrated introduction to the development and diversity of Japanese comics from 1945 to the present. Featuring striking graphics and extracts from a wide range of manga, the book covers such themes as the specific attributes of manga in contrast to American and European comics; the life and career of Osamu Tezuka, creator of Astro Boy and originator of story manga; boys' comics from the 1960s to the present; the genres and genders of girls' and women's comics; the darker, more realistic themes of gekiga -- violent samurai, disturbing horror and apocalyptic science fiction; issues of censorship and protest; and manga's role as a major Japanese export and global influence.

保羅·格拉維特（Paul Gravett）是一位自由記者、策展人、演講者和電颱主持人，30 多年來緻力於漫畫的齣版和推廣。他策劃瞭許多漫畫藝術展，比如在昂古萊姆的法國國傢漫畫中心舉辦的“英國漫畫史”展覽，以及每年在倫敦當代藝術學院舉行的漫畫節等。他為眾多知名報刊撰寫漫畫稿件，如：《衛報》《藍圖雜誌》《漫畫期刊》《國際漫畫》《惶惑》等。