FANFARE

In 1989 Hideo Azuma ran away from his responsibilities of family and work and tried, unsuccessfully, to hang himself, then went homeless. This autobiographical account of his two disappearances, his slide into alcoholism and his eventual recovery, takes these painful experiences from the darkest reaches of his mind and treats them with an overriding sense of a cartoonist's humor.

Middle-aged Hiroshi Nakahara is on his way home from a business trip when he finds himself on the wrong train heading for his childhood hometown. His footsteps take him to his mother's grave and it's there that he is catapulted back into his life as an 8th grader - but with all his adult memories and knowledge intact. As he struggles to make sense of his predicament his adult memories of his childhood return but are somehow subtly changed. The questions start to form...

As Hiroshi Nakahara readjusts to high school life again, he is reminded that the fateful day his father disappeared for good is rapidly approaching. Surely this time, knowing it was going to happen, he would be able to prevent it...?

Up to now Kazuichi Hanawa expressed himself through works of fiction. The fantastic world of tales from the Middle Ages were his favorite setting. A twist of fate caused him to be locked away for three years in jail, which is a very real place. There too this genius conjured his amusement and loneliness through his works. And that is how this exceptional record of life in prison was achieved.

Lost in the Great North, two men are saved by the appearance of an old hunter who divulges a strange legend to them... Surrounded by wolves and fighting for their survival, two explorers head for Alaska to bury their companion... A marine biologist begins a quest to find the mythical graveyard of whales... Ice Wanderer is made of six shorts with as many stories of men confronted by savage nature which is sometimes cruel, sometimes forgiving, but always vast.

Seventeen authors (nine from France or French-speaking countries, eight from Japan) brought together in the same book, a succession of freely created short stories about the same universe: Japan. The result is often inspired and always surprising; Japan through new eyes.

Very clever, very subtle - even when her words are very direct, Kan Takahama tackles subjects as diverse as suicide pacts, mermaids, making an adult film and bar room chat with a robust yet delicate grace. Probably the most talented mangaka to have recently emerged from Japan, Kan Takahama's art and story telling will surprise when least expected...

Contains twelve short graphic stories into the "Hermit Kingdom," six by European creators and six by indigenous creators, including award winning Park Heung-yong and "Best Manga 2006" artist Vanyda.

When 15-year-old high school student Megumi fails to arrive home one evening from school her mother calls on her dead husband's best friend for help. Shiga abandons his refuge in the mountains and descends to the city to look for the girl. With the police investigation at a standstill, Shiga has to go it alone. But the metropolis can be a much more hostile and dangerous ground than the mountains.

On his third expedition in June 1924, Mallory and his climbing partner, Andrew Irvine, disappeared on the North-East ridge during their ascent, having been sighted only a few hundred metres from the summit. In 1993, in a small Nepalese store, Makoto Fukamachi, photographer for a Japanese expedition to conquer Mt Everest, stumbles across an old camera - a Vest Pocket Autographic Kodak Special. Could it be Mallory's camera? Did it hold the secret of whether Mallory and Irvine made it to the summit?

On his third expedition in June 1924, Mallory and his climbing partner, Andrew Irvine, disappeared on the North-East ridge during their ascent, having been sighted only a few hundred metres from the summit. In 1993, in a small Nepalese store, Makoto Fukamachi, photographer for a Japanese expedition to conquer Mt Everest, stumbles across an old camera - a Vest Pocket Autographic Kodak Special. Could it be Mallory's camera? Did it hold the secret of whether Mallory and Irvine made it to the summit?

The Meiji Era (1868-1912) was probably the most defining period in Japanese history. It was a time of massive change from the more traditional Takugawa era to a positioning of Japan in the modern world. Contemporary writer Soseki Natsume suffered due to all the social and cultural changes and expressed his feelings through his character Botchan in the vein of Mark Twain or Charles Dickens.