Manga

Images of a city smoldering and a river clogged with pale, radioactive cadavers never left Keiji Nakazawa's mind. The Japanese manga, or comic-book, artist used those images and other memories of surviving the atomic bombing of Hiroshima to create "Barefoot Gen," a gruesome yet hope-driven comic about a boy who, like Nakazawa, survived the Aug. 6, 1945, attack. Nakazawa was a first-grader standing outside his school when the United States dropped the bomb that killed more than 100,000 people, including his father, brother and a sister.

The Angry Buddhist A Novel Seth Greenland Europa Editions: 400 pp., $16 paper Seth Greenland's "The Angry Buddhist" begins with two sexy American women getting matching tattoos in Puerto Vallarta - and then it swiftly jumps forward into the madcap final week of a congressional race out in the desert around Palm Springs. The incumbent, a wily and infinitely pragmatic political sleazebag named Randall Duke, finds himself facing a new kind of problem, namely, an opponent who might actually defeat him. Her name is Mary Swain, and here she is, observed at a rally by the angry Buddhist of the title, one of Randall's brothers, the busted cop called Jimmy Ray Duke: "She glides to the microphone and Jimmy notes the burnished skin, the blinding smile, the five hundred dollars' worth of blond highlights, fitted red blouse set off against the matching white linen skin and jacket that wraps her like cellophane.

The only foreign director to win the Academy Award for best animated feature, Hayao Miyazaki, 68, is the most admired and influential filmmaker working in animation today. His latest film, "Ponyo," opened earlier this month in America in 927 theaters -- a record for a Japanese animated feature. ("Ponyo" was the No. 1 box office hit in Japan in 2008, earning more than 14.9 billion yen -- more than $155 million -- to become the eighth-highest-grossing film in Japanese history.) Miyazaki's work has attracted praise not only from critics, including The Times' Kenneth Turan, but from the artists leading the renaissance in animation: John Lasseter and the other Pixar directors, four-time Oscar winner Nick Park of "Wallace & Gromit" fame, and Frédéric Back, the Oscar-winning creator of "The Man Who Planted Trees."

Think of Japanese movies, and two things readily come to mind: samurai and anime. But organizers of the L.A. EigaFest - a showcase of contemporary cinema from the Land of the Rising Sun - aim to show Angelenos that the nation's filmmakers are up to much more than that. The festival, now in its second year, runs Friday through Sunday at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood and features films on such topics as an unraveling supermodel, a time-traveling Roman architect and a single mother raising two werewolf children.

FOR the uninitiated, navigating San Diego's Comic-Con International can be a daunting experience. The convention has more than 300 panels, seminars and previews. With 100,000 people attending over four days, just getting to the Convention Center poses a challenge. The parking structure typically fills up hours before the doors open, and the lots within walking distance have been known to double or triple their rates up to about $25 a day.

Restaurant DESIGN is as much a part of dining out in L.A. as the food. And the attention to detail doesn't stop with coordinating porcelain and flat wear, chairs and wall color, vases and design objects. Servers' uniforms have become an extension of a restaurant's identity, a way to heighten brand awareness and make the experience and environment as memorable as possible.

Michael Cera is in. Now what about the rock 'n' roll? Inspired equally by music and video games, Bryan Lee O'Malley's "Scott Pilgrim" series is a "High Fidelity" for those weaned equally on Nintendo and record stores. The six-part comic series -- Vols. 1 to 4 are out now, and O'Malley hopes to have Vol. 5 in stores by the end of 2008 -- is being turned into a film by Universal Pictures, with shooting pegged to begin this year.

Using Walter Isaacson's best-selling biography as a frame, award-winning author Mari Yamazaki has created a manga version of the life of Apple founder Steve Jobs. It's being serialized in the Japanese comic magazine Kiss, alongside tales of teen love. So it's not surprising, then, that Jobs is portrayed as " a cute, doe-eyed kid who worries about whether his adoptive parents love him," writes Sam Byford at the Verge. In the first installment, he also grows into a rebellious teenager; the Verge has a shot of the frame in which Jobs reclines on the grass, smoking a joint.

In America, comic books have often presented a conservative political message. From the combat missions of World War II GIs to the vigilantism of "The Dark Knight," even anti-heroes have generally fought to preserve the established order. There have been exceptions, of course, but American readers will be surprised to find a powerful denunciation of the war in Iraq in the comedy-adventure manga series "Gimmick!" with its story by Youzaburou Kanari and art by Kuroko Yabuguchi.