Drawing conclusions from the year’s best graphic novels

From a 92-year-old’s account of serving for Japan in WW2 to a gruelling depiction of cancer and the success of a Corkman, comics are thriving, says Don O’Mahony

Showa 1944-1953: A History of Japan — Shigeru Mizuki (Drawn & Quarterly)

Comic book talent flowered in Japan in the aftermath of World War II. The major cartoonists who had witnessed the horrors of war addressed it in their work.