<<•>> edited, designed and with an introduction by Adrian Tomine <<•>> Yet another beautifully produced booik from the fine folks at Drawn & Quarterly, The Push Man is a 208 page hardcover collection of 16 short stories by the "grandfather of Japanese alternative comics."  Creating challenging comics for adults that he dubbed gekiga (to differentiate them from manga, which he viewed as relatively unsophisticated) since the late 1950s, Tatsumi was years ahead of his contemporaries ("decades ahead," according to acclaimed designer, Chip Kidd), not only in Japan but pretty much the world over.  Here are some hard to ignore accolades:  "From the moment I read Tatsumi's stories, he shot to the top of my short list of favorite cartoonists for adults.  His direct storytelling style is bracing and raised the bar pretty high for those of us trying to entertain intelligent grown-ups." -- Gilbert Hernandez;  "Tatsumi's comics are clean and straightforward without pretentious tricks.  Storytelling at its best." -- Jaime Hernandez  While Tatsumi's work has appeared once before in America, in Catalan Communication's1987 Good-Bye and other stories, this was an unofficial edition that suffered in translation (it was translated from Japanese into Spanish, and then from Spanish into English; 'nuff said), entirely lacked Tatsumi's involvement, and is long out of print, making The Push Man the definitve North American edition of Tatsumi's work, and a must have for anyone on the lookout for great comics.