The translator without talent
Though with only two dozen manga translations, 80 essays, 55 reviews, one exhibition pamphlet, and zero solo-authored books under his belt, Ryan Holmberg PhD is widely regarded as the biggest fish in the puddle-sized sea of alternative manga in the Anglosphere. Fresh off a major professional setback and a steamy summer of near-murderous romance, in the fall of 2017 Dr. Holmberg departed for a two-year stint as a Visiting Professor at the prestigious University of Tokyo, where he would commence to document his research finds, translation troubles, and escapades with aging manga artists in a series of detailed Instagram posts @mangaberg. Since returning to the United States in the fall of 2019, Dr. Holmberg has continued to undermine his academic career as a so-called comics scholar by investing way more than time and sharing way more about his personal life than he should on this Instagram account. Collecting nearly 400 pages worth of Instagram posts of cutting-edge research, rarely-seen manga images, and behind-the-scenes looks at the nitty-gritty of manga research and translation - as well as a never before published manifesto of Dr. Mangaberg's thoughts and theoretical musings about comics translation - The Translator Without Talent is a tell-all slog through two-plus years of activity of your favorite nose-in-the-mud manga scholar. Hopping across the work of some of the best and weirdest alt-manga and gekiga artists in the world, this genre-defying volume is perfect for anyone who is obsessed with obscure, amazing, and all-too-frequently retrograde manga, but does not have the patience to scroll through an Instagram account for free. Comics studies has never seen anything like The Translator Without Talent ... and it may never again. Published by the comics and manga fanzine Bubbles in its first foray away from the xerox machine.
