Follow the odyssey of graffiti art from its rise in 1960s New York City through to the explosion of tags and ‘bombed’ subway trains of the 1970s, to the rise of hip hop and street culture and its dissemination across the globe, from the streets of Paris to the skyscrapers of Sao Paulo, from illegality to museums and galleries, and from dark train terminals to brightly lit millionaire homes.

Bomb It! begins with the rise of rap, break-dancing and hip-hop culture in the 1980s. The story follows the Style Wars period, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s rise and fall, the romance between Margaret Kilgallen and Barry McGee, Kilgallen’s untimely death, and the commercial 1990s, with Futura and other graffiti artists working for record and fashion labels. At the turn of the millennium graffiti culture spread all over the world, from Space Invader and Blek le Rat on the streets of Paris to Os Gemeos painting skyscrapers in Sao Paulo.

The book ends with the ‘art turn’, where artists became separated by ‘those who stayed and those who went’ – those who stayed true to street culture and those who integrated into the commercial art world.

Following How to Draw a Graphic Novel, Balthazar Pagani returns, joined by manga expert Asuka Ozumi, to demystify the process of creating manga, from the creative spark that inspires a story, to what it’s like to work in a professional manga studio.

Featuring the work of Italian manga illustrator Silvia Vanni, and told from the point of view of two young manga fans, How to be a Manga Artist delivers a blend of professional advice and practical tips to guide aspiring creators, including how to construct a compelling narrative, develop characters your readers will fall in love with, and the basics of printing, digital file set-up, and self-promotion.

How to be a Manga Artist also includes a specially commissioned chapter by renowned Japanese illustrator Fumio Obata – who encourages readers to look beyond the aesthetics of manga and to put themselves into the story to develop a style that is entirely original and true to them – as well as biographies of famous manga artists, definitions of key Japanese terms, and a list of must-read cult classics.