Famed manga-ka Yoshihiro Tatsumi has passed away, his North American publisher Drawn & Quarterly announced.  Tatsumi originated the gekiga (literally "dramatic pictures") style of manga in the late 1950s.  His work was realistic and "adult" in the very best sense of the word, and his gekiga style even managed to influence Osamu Tezuka, the "god of manga," whose later work such as Phoenix and Adolf displayed gekiga tendencies.

Tatsumi’s most famous work is his 855-page autobiography, A Drifting Life, which Drawn & Quarterly published in North America (see "'Yoshihiro Tatsumi Autobiography'"), and which won an Eisner in 2010 (see "2010 Eisner Awards").  D&Q also published Black Blizzard, Tatsumi’s first gekiga work (see "Tatsumi's 'Black Blizzard'"), and a series of story collections beginning in 2005 (see "Drawn & Quarterly Announces First Manga").