The Lost Haida Manga: A Compendium

From celebrated Haida artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas comes a striking new collection tracing the origins and evolution of Haida Manga—a bold visual genre that blends North Pacific Indigenous iconography and framelines with the dynamic energy of graphic storytelling.

Inspired by the successful resistance to industrial logging in Haida Gwaii, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas conceived Haida Manga as a graphic and literary bridge: a way to connect diverse audiences to the lived experiences, values and sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples in an unconquered land.

This volume brings together a curated selection of black-and-white ink works—some previously published, others newly created—exploring how a sophisticated Indigenous visual tradition can function as sequential narrative art.

Provocative, experimental, accessible and deeply rooted in place, this is essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary Indigenous art, environmental justice and the power of visual storytelling.

“Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas has refracted the familiar comics form through a Haida aesthetic to produce something that is both uniquely his own and a testament to his cultural inheritance. Beautiful, bold, amusing, poignant—one of a kind and a breath of fresh air.”

“Demonstrating a staggering range of artistry and narrative invention, Yahgulanaas provides the reader with an experience unlike any other book…we witness the genesis of an art form as he transforms the comics grid into an ecosystem of framelines, birthing Haida manga as a new mode of storytelling.”

“Internationally recognized for his singular fusion of Haida visual tradition and comics form, Yahgulanaas stands with Art Spiegelman and Joe Sacco as a major voice of resistance to fascist state power in our time—and as an artist whose work insists on the environmental conscience of the human condition.”