Manga Biography of Steve Jobs Launches Today [Preview]

The official manga adaptation of Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography by Mari Yamazaki is now available in the May 2013 issue of the girls' comic anthology Kiss.

Sam Byford for The Verge notes that "the first thing you'll notice in these opening pages is that Yamazaki has pulled off the artwork beautifully; far from the spiky-haired caricatures that may come to mind when you think of manga, Jobs has been brought to life in a semi-realistic monochrome style that is never off-putting, but stays true to the Japanese manga tradition."

The first volume starts off with Jobs trying to convince Isaacson to write his biography then jumps to his childhood, similar to the book. Once he reaches college, Jobs is portrayed as a character any teenage girl would love.


Yamazaki plays on Jobs' rebellious side, including an incident where he accidentally leaves a gigantic bag of marijuana in his car at the age of 15. Jobs' father Paul discovers it, but the argument isn't resolved on page — in the next panel, we see Jobs laying down and smoking in a field, thinking to himself "I'm special, so I'm a free person." In a country where drug use is still genuinely counter-culture in most circles, it seems the archetype of the misunderstood genius works just as well.

You can check out a preview of the first chapter below...

Read More