Anyone who has visited a bookstore has seen him on the shelf. That little penguin on the spine of that classic work you had to buy for class. That to me has been what Penguin Books has always symbolized but they might just be changing their look.
This month Penguin Books will be releasing what I believe to be their first graphic novel offering to the masses. The 14th Dalai Lama is a Manga Biography by Tetsu Saiwai who is well-known in his native Japan for producing over twenty years worth of educational manga and considering he is best known for topics such as environmentalism and human rights this new book is somewhat of a departure for him.
As anyone who knows me is aware I am not a big fan of manga. Having been raised on a steady reading diet of Jack Kirby, John Buscema, and other American artists the seemingly simplistic art of manga has always been a barrier that has been hard for me to breach. After having read this book, however, I can start to understand how in the hands of the right person that simplistic look can be a powerful tool for the artist.
For those readers who enjoy manga I will say that after looking over several other imported manga titles this art is a cut above the rest. The faces are more expressive and if I hid the words I could still understand the basic idea of what was happening in each panel. I will add that where other manga seems to be about the conciseness and economy of lines and backgrounds Saiwai fills each panel with details and shading which was absolutely essential in helping me to get a feel for the world of the Tibet of 60 plus years ago.
Everyone has seen a picture of him, usually standing next to a head of state or a famous actor. The question is though how many people have ever looked beyond those pictures of this man with a shaved head and glasses and tried to understand who he is and what made Tenzin Gyatso the world figure he is today?
While I must admit that I might not be the best person in the world to judge a manga book I have read enough biographies to fill several bookshelves and that is how I decided going in to judge this work. A biography always has two purposes: it must both inform the reader while simultaneously entertaining them. It would seem to border on the impossible to tell a dramatic story that doesn’t rely in some small part on a fictionalization of the conversations that were had and at least some speculation on the motivations of those involved in the absence of transcripts.
Tetsu Saiwai does a masterful job of taking the Dalai Lama’s life and converting it to the graphic novel format. My problems with this book are at the entertainment end of the spectrum. Saiwai carefully step-by-step covers the Dalai Lama’s life but he doesn’t go far enough. I kept wanting him to push the story further and surround the bones of this man’s life with some meat. I wanted more drama, more conflict, and more understanding of why things were done and why people acted the way they did.
Imagine that you are two years old and one day a group of men arrive and decide you are the reincarnation of their spiritual leader. They take you away and then six years later your closest friend, advisor and tutor resigns his post only to return years later with guns and men to regain his political power. Imagine then that your friend fails and is lead away to prison. Sounds like it has the makings of a good story doesn’t it?
Unfortunately, this is but the first of many squandered chances Saiwei has to really make this book great. I wanted to know how the Dalai Lama felt. I wanted to see the people suffering. I wanted a struggle between student and master. I wanted to know that the guilty were punished. Sadly, Saiwei only sets aside a handful of pages and tells the story in a very sterile way totally stripped of all emotion.
If you love manga I can say that there is enough here to make this book worth a trip to the bookstore. However, I do wish I could sit down with Tetsu Saiwei, look him in the eye and 
This cover is from another printing.tell him that what he has is a good beginning and that he should go back and double his page count, add in some human emotion and drama and to try to expand beyond his comfort level doing informational work. Let me feel what it was like to be betrayed by your tutor, to face down the leader of Communist China and to flee from Tibet as the massive Red Army destroys your country knowing you will probably never return. Let me in on what kinds of conversations were probably had. I wanted to be right beside the Dalai Lama as he wonders as a young man if he chose correctly in a non-violent solution for his country, but instead I was kept at arms length.