OK, this is the one you've been waiting for!  Eleven years in the making, a whopping 840 pages in length, A Drifting Life is the graphic memoir of one of the all-time manga greats.  Over the last several years, Drawn and Quarterly has been assiduously releasing Tatsumi's classic gekiga, in which he pioneered a street savvy, morally ambiguous form of comics that thrived on grittier material and was more ambivalent about the post-war boom in Japan.  A Drifting Life chronicles the years 1945 through 1960, during which the author -- who was born in 1935 -- came of age, discovered his artistic talent and entered the competitive (and combative) world of manga.  Personally compelling, narratively engaging, artistically challenging, A Drifiting Life also provides an informative look at the manga industry during the critical post-WWII years.  Not to be missed.  Be sure to take a look at this PDF preview.