Yoshihiro Tatsumi is widely credited with starting the gekiga style of alternative comics in Japan in 1957. His work has been translated into many languages, and widely published by Canadian publisher Drawn and Quarterly. Tatsumi received the Japan Cartoonists Association Award in 1972. In 2009, he was awarded the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for his autobiography, A Drifting Life. The same work garnered him multiple Eisner awards (Best Reality-Based Work and Best U.S. Edition of International Material–Asia) in 2010 and the regards sur le monde award in Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2012. A full-length animated feature on the life and short stories of Yoshihiro Tatsumi was released in 2011. The film, Tatsumi, directed by Eric Khoo, was presented at the Cannes Film Festival.
