Breakdown Press are very excited to announce that we’ll be working with manga expert and academic Ryan Holmberg on a series of translations of classic and avant garde Japanese comics.

The first in the series is Flowering Harbour by the great Seiichi Hayashi. One of Hayashi’s early contributions to the alternative manga magazine Garo, Flowering Harbour is a love story filtered through the aesthetics of enka music, known informally as “Japanese blues”. Our edition is the first time the comic has been translated into English and includes a new introduction by Hayashi.

We’ll be launching the book at the Japan Foundation on July 1st, where Holmberg will be interviewing Hayashi about his life and work, then we’ll be celebrating the release with a listening party at Gosh! London on July 2nd, again with Hayashi and Holmberg in attendance. The book will then be available at our online store and all good comic book shops shortly after!