COMICS JOURNAL #269

This issue is devoted to exploring and explaining the "Girls don't like comics" phenomenon. Includes an interview with pioneering shoujo cartoonist Moto Hagio, often called "the Osamu Tezuka of women's manga," who is renowned both for her psychologically challenging stories and as the originator of the "shonen-ai" (boy love) subgenre. Also, journalist Kai-Ming Cha traces the rise of shoujo as a market force in Asia and the United States; cartoonist Lea Hernandez explains how shoujo shaped her view of comics as an art form; and cartoonist and historian Trina Robbins examines all-ages manga for girls.