Press Release
Fantagraphics has announced that the second volume of Shimura Takako’s Wandering Son has arrived, and is shipping now for after-Christmas delivery.
Wandering Son Vol. 2
by Shimura Takako228-page black & white (with some color) 7″ x 9.5″ hardcover • $19.99
presented in traditional right-to-left format; original Japanese title: 放浪息子 (Hourou Musuko)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-456-6In the second volume of Shimura Takako’s superb coming-of-age story, our transgendered protagonists, Shuichi and Yoshino, have entered the sixth grade. Shuichi spends a precious gift of cash from his grandmother on a special present for himself, a purchase that triggers a chain of events in which his sister Maho learns his secret, and Shuichi inadvertently steals the heart of a boy Maho in interested in.
The “woman” who showed so much interest in Yoshino (when she was wear- ing a boy’s school uniform) in Volume One reappears with “her” boyfriend, and becomes a mentor and friend to the two children. And the kids go on a class trip that is a rite of passage Shuichi would rather pass up. Shuichi is called a “faggot” by another boy, and the dramatic nature in which Saori comes to Shuichi’s defense leads the two to discover a shared fondness for Anne of Green Gables. But despite his propensity to cry (a propensity noted repeatedly by his more outgoing sister), Shuichi finds strength and courage he didn’t know he had.
A sophisticated work translated with sensitivity by veteran translator and comics scholar Matt Thorn.
