Garo (magazine)
June 1974 issue.
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| Categories | underground avant-garde manga |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Publisher | Katsuichi Nagai |
| First issue | July 1964 |
| Final issue | December 2002 |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Garo (ガロ?) was a monthly manga anthology magazine in Japan, founded in 1964 by Katsuichi Nagai. It specialized in alternative and avant-garde manga.
Katsuichi Nagai founded Garo in July 1964 with the help of Sanpei Shirato, naming it after one of Shirato's ninja characters. The first series published in Garo was Shirato's ninja drama Kamui, which with its themes of class struggle and anti-authoritarianism was a hit with college students. Garo attracted several influential gekiga artists such as Yoshihiro Tatsumi and Yoshiharu Tsuge, and discovered and promoted many new artists.
Garo's circulation at the peak of its popularity in 1971 was over eighty thousand. However, during the 1970s and 1980s its popularity declined. By the mid-80s its circulation was barely over twenty thousand, and its demise was rumored to be imminent. Nagai managed to keep it going independently until 1991, when it was bought out by a game software company. Although a new, young president was installed and advertisements for computer games (based on stories featured in Garo) started to run in the magazine, Nagai was kept on board as chairman until his death in 1996.
After being bought out, there were allegations of the anthology taking a more commercial path. Eventually authors who were regular to Garo went their own ways and founded other anthologies like Ax. Garo is no longer being published.
For much of its existence, Garo was the premiere showcase for "art" manga in Japan. It was popular enough during its heyday to inspire several imitators, including COM, founded by manga legend Osamu Tezuka, and Comic Baku.
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