Big Comic

Quality 0.50 · 1 view · Updated 2 months ago

Japanese manga magazine

title: "Big Comic" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1968-establishments-in-japan", "semimonthly-manga-magazines-published-in-japan", "magazines-established-in-1968", "seinen-manga-magazines", "shogakukan-magazines"] description: "Japanese manga magazine" topic_path: "geography/japan" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Comic" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Japanese manga magazine ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox Magazine"]

FieldValue
titleBig Comic
logoBig Comic logo.png
image_fileBig Comics cover 2008-04-25.jpg
image_captionCover of April 25, 2008 issue
editorMasaichirō Kurashina
editor_titleEditor in Chief
frequencySemimonthly on the 10th and 25th
circulation302,333
(July–September, 2016)
categorySeinen manga
companyShogakukan
firstdate18 February 1968
countryJapan
languageJapanese
website
::

| title = Big Comic | logo = Big Comic logo.png | image_file = Big Comics cover 2008-04-25.jpg | image_size = | image_caption = Cover of April 25, 2008 issue | editor = Masaichirō Kurashina | editor_title = Editor in Chief | staff_writer = | frequency = Semimonthly on the 10th and 25th | circulation = 302,333 (July–September, 2016) | category = Seinen manga | company = Shogakukan | publisher = | firstdate = 18 February 1968 | country = Japan | language = Japanese | website = | issn =

Big Comic is a semimonthly seinen 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 seinen manga during the late 1960s and 1970s. The magazine brought together diverse artistic currents: it featured contributors from the gekiga 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" (chūkan shōsetsu), 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.

  • Golgo 13 by Takao Saito
  • Hinemosu no Tari Nikki (ひねもすのたり日記) by Tetsuya Chiba (since 2015)
  • Deep3 written by Mitsuhiro Mizuno and illustrated by Ryosuke Tobimatsu
  • Ōgon no Rafu: Sōta no Stance by Tsuyoshi Nakaima
  • S - Saigo no Keikan by Yoichi Komori and Yutaka Toudo
  • Shin C-Kyu Salaryman Koza by Keisuke Yamashina
  • Sōmubu Sōmuka Yamaguchi Roppeita, written by Norio Hayashi and illustrated by Ken'ichirō Takai
  • Sekuhara-kachō no Tsubuyaki by Tōru Nakajima
  • Gallery Fake by Fujihiko Hosono (continued from Big Comic Spirits)

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

References

  1. Jason Thompson. (2007). "Manga: The Complete Guide". Del Rey Books.
  2. link. [[Shogakukan]]
  3. Frederik L. Schodt. (1996). "Dreamland Japan: writings on modern manga". Stone Bridge Press.
  4. [http://www.j-magazine.or.jp/data_001/index.html Japan Magazine Publishers Association ''Magazine Data 2008''] {{webarchive. link. (2012-03-15 ,)
  5. [http://www.j-magazine.or.jp/magadata/index.php?module=list&action=list&cat1cd=1&cat3cd=15&period_cd=29 Japan Magazine Publishers Association ''Magazine Data June 2015'']. Retrieved Oct. 28, 2015.
  6. (April 19, 2012). "Big Comic Cover Artist Shūichi Higurashi Passes Away". Anime News Network.
  7. Fusanosuke, Natsume. (August 12, 2021). "Time to Re-Evaluate Taniguchi Jiro's Pace in Manga". [[The Comics Journal]].

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

1968-establishments-in-japansemimonthly-manga-magazines-published-in-japanmagazines-established-in-1968seinen-manga-magazinesshogakukan-magazines