(W) Eric P. Nash, Frederik L. Schodt Before giant robots, space ships, and masked super heroes filled the pages of Japanese comic books - known as manga - such characters were regularly seen on the streets of Japan in kamishibai stories. With rare images reproduced for the first time from Japanese archives, including full-length kamishibai stories, Manga Kamishibai: The Art of Japanese Paper Theater tells the history of this fascinating and nearly vanished Japanese art form that paved the way for modern-day comic books, and is the missing link in the development of modern manga.