Manga Doodle

Shakespeare, Bible Are Turning Japanese

A growing craze in Britain for manga, a Japanese style of comic packed with big-eyed, wild-haired characters, has inspired publishers to produce manga versions of William Shakespeare plays and even a manga bible. British artists are also trying their hand at recreating Japan's traditional brand of comic art, while demand for English-language copies of Japanese manga stories like `Fruits Basket’ and `Astro Boy’ is rocketing. The interest in manga - already popular in the United States, France and Germany - is encouraging more people to learn about Japan. The word manga, which literally means `whimsical picture’, is often linked back to 19th-century Japanese woodblock artist Katsushika Hokusai, who used it to describe his work.