Yoshihiro Tatsumi has been called "the grandfather of Japanese alternative comics" and has influenced generations of cartoonists around the world. Now the visionary creator of The Push Man and Good-Bye has turned his incisive, unflinching gaze upon himself. A Drifting Life is Tatsumi's most ambitious, personal, and heart-felt work: an autobiographical bildungsroman in comics form. Using his life-long obsession with comics as a framework, Tatsumi weaves a complex story that encompasses family dynamics, Japanese culture and history, first love, the intricacies of the manga industry, and most importantly, what it means to be an artist.