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Wikipedia / Big Comic

is a semimonthly jaseinen manga magazine published since 18 February 1968 by Shogakukan in Japan.

Publication history

It was originally launched as a monthly magazine, but switched to twice monthly on the 10th and 25th beginning in April 1968. It is paired with sister magazine Big Comic Original, going on sale in the weeks Big Comic Original does not. Circulation in 2008 was reported at slightly over a half-million copies. but by mid-2015 had declined to 315,000, as part of an industry-wide trend in manga magazine sales.

The magazine has published works by a number of well-known manga artists, including Osamu Tezuka, Shotaro Ishinomori, Sanpei Shirato, Takao Saito, Fujiko Fujio A, Fujiko F. Fujio, and Tetsuya Chiba. Big Comic also serializes Saito's Golgo 13, which is the oldest manga series still in publication.

The front cover of the magazine featured a caricature of a famous individual by manga illustrator Shūichi Higurashi for more than forty years. Higurashi's drawings were featured on the cover of Big Comic from 1970 until 2011. Higurashi retired in the autumn of 2011 due to failing health.

Legacy

Big Comic played a pivotal role in the maturation of postwar manga, particularly in the emergence of manga during the late 1960s and 1970s. The magazine brought together diverse artistic currents: it featured contributors from the tradition, such as Sanpei Shirato and Shigeru Mizuki, as well as artists associated with story manga, including Osamu Tezuka and the Fujiko team. Under the editorial direction of Konishi Yōnosuke, Big Comic embraced the concept of the "quasi-novel" (), aiming to bridge mass media and serious literature. This editorial vision helped elevate manga as a serious art form and positioned Big Comic as a cornerstone of literary and artistic manga. While some critics of the time resisted what they saw as the commercialization of manga by major publishers, Big Comic nonetheless became a platform for more mature, diverse, and experimental storytelling, influencing generations of artists and readers.

List of works

Currently serialized

These series appear according to a regular schedule in the magazine.

Irregularly serialized

These series are currently serialized, but have no specific schedule for when each chapter appears in the magazine.

  • Uchū Kazoku Nobeyama by Jirō Okazaki

Formerly serialized

References