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Book Cover for: Jaj: A Haida Manga, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas

Jaj: A Haida Manga

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas

With gorgeous imagery, visual artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas brings to life the tumultuous history of first contact between Europeans and Indigenous peoples and the early colonization by the Europeans of the northern West Coast.

Yahgulanaas uses a blend of traditional and modern art, eschewing the traditional boxes of comic books for the flowing shapes of North Pacific iconography. The panels are filled with colourful and expressive watercolour paintings. The panels of each page, if removed and assembled into one whole image, form a large image reminiscent of a woven robe.

The story follows several historical figures, including Johan Adrian Jacobsen (JAJ), who comes to the Haida village of Masset to collect specimens for a German museum, through a time span that includes first contact, the devastation of the smallpox epidemic, and the mass resettlement of disenfranchised peoples, both Indigenous and European.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Douglas & McIntyre
  • Publish Date: Sep 26th, 2023
  • Pages: 132
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 10.10in - 8.00in - 0.80in - 1.37lb
  • EAN: 9781771623537
  • Categories: LiteraryIndigenous - GeneralIndigenous

About the Author

Yahgulanaas, Michael Nicoll: - Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is an internationally renowned artist and award-winning author. His previous Haida Manga include Red (2009) and Carpe Fin (2019). He is from the North Pacific archipelago of Haida Gwaii and now lives on an island in the Salish sea with his family.

More books by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas

Book Cover for: Red: A Haida Manga, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
Book Cover for: The Little Hummingbird, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
Book Cover for: Flight of the Hummingbird: A Parable for the Environment, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
Book Cover for: War of the Blink, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
Book Cover for: A Tale of Two Shamans: A Haida Manga, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas

Praise for this book

"This book is a necessary tale told by the perfect voice at the right time. It also uses graphic imagery in a way I've not seen before, and it feels ground-breaking." --Douglas Coupland


"Utterly remarkable is the confluence of history, family
ancestry, fine art, inventive bookmaking--all available to witness here in
Yahgulanaas's unforgettable gift of Haida Manga." --Shelf Awareness


"This experimental art object delivers a moving
message." --Publishers Weekly


"a masterpiece of cultural mash-up and historic grief...In his
magisterial version of the genre, a unique blend of Haida and Japanese Manga imagery is put to work conveying historic truth and profound, nuanced human tragedy in a visually powerful form." --Vancouver Sun

"Yahgulanaas has a way with a story. His work leaps off the page, smacks you in the face, and then explodes linear narratives like an atomic bomb." --The Tyee


"Tradition and innovation combine in Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas's Haida manga." --Quill & Quire


"A tale of history and humanization unfold in colorful 'Haida Manga'" --The Globe and Mail