Helen McCarthy Traces Manga's Global Journey in New Book
The interview maps how a single historian's career arc mirrors the English-language publishing shift from near-total absence of manga scholarship to a market where a mass-audience 'bible' is viable.
Reporting from 2 sources: Anime By The Numbers, Japan Powered.
Historian Helen McCarthy published The Manga Bible in March, a new guide to the medium's history and worldwide spread. In an interview with Anime By The Numbers, she described the project as an accessible but authoritative history that starts with the reader's present-day experience of manga on screens before moving into historical and thematic chapters. McCarthy said the title was chosen for its punchy, memorable quality and because the original Bible's layered history of translation and cultural adaptation mirrors manga's own journey. The book examines how the medium is being reshaped by different cultures, citing India's cricket adaptation of Star of the Giants, Saudi Arabia's investment in a domestic manga economy, and the rise of Afrime as examples. McCarthy also reflected on her early career, noting that when she first encountered manga in 1981 almost nothing existed in English, which led her to write ANIME! A Beginners' Guide to Japanese Animation twelve years later. The Manga Bible follows her earlier works including The Anime Encyclopedia and A Brief History of Manga, published by Ilex Press before its sale to Octopus Books.
McCarthy told Anime By The Numbers that her first book, ANIME! A Beginners' Guide to Japanese Animation, took twelve years from idea to publication. "I decided I'd find out more and write a book about it," she said, but the process taught her to "start where your reader (or publisher) is, not where you want them to be." The Anime Encyclopedia, her later reference work co-authored with Jonathan Clements, went through multiple updated editions.
The Manga Bible was commissioned after the Ilex Press team, now part of Octopus Books, contacted a friend of McCarthy's looking for a writer. The book's structure opens with a chapter on the current market, fandom, and business, then moves into historical and thematic sections told through the stories of individual creators. McCarthy noted that the 2014 predecessor, A Brief History of Manga, was "the size of a very skinny sandwich" and packed with pictures, a format she described as easy to dip in and out of.
The interview also touched on her early research methods. When she first looked for English-language material in 1981, she found only "dismissive one-liners in histories of animation." She turned to magazine and newspaper coverage in French, Italian, and Spanish, plus fan connections through Star Trek fandom, to piece together information. The Anime By The Numbers piece was edited for length and clarity and published outside the outlet's usual paywall.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 2 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.
Sources
- Anime By The Numbers Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know About Manga
- Japan Powered My 35 Most Enjoyed Anime