Toshinori Matsuda
Toshinori Matsuda began his writing career after his retirement from the advertising firm where he had worked until 2010. His main focus at present is the development of the "Mad Man" character concept in digital content, books, and illustrations.
A message from the author
"The structure of 4M is something
I've been mulling over since I first
had the idea in 1971 or '72. A blackly
humorous world conveyed in a few
illustrations: the form was in the air
back then, not least in the work of
industry leaders like Tomi Ungerer.
"Some 40 years after that, young
creators happened to run across my
illustrations. For them, the
old-fashioned, period style was fresh
and new. Before I know it, I'd put my
retirement on hold to work on a new project I hadn't foreseen in my
wildest dreams: expanding and, with the support of my readers,
reinventing the world of the Mad Man.
"I had always planned to set the Mad Man's story during the early
20th-century World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago, and what I
learned as I began my research again after 40 years convinced me that I
had the right idea. It was a fascinating era and one that encapsulated all
the peculiar drama of U.S. history.
"Dreams and nightmares, wealth and poverty, science and magic,
Victorian aesthetics and rivers of muck... the "Gilded Age" was a place of
danger as well as excitement. This is the peculiar corner of history into which the Mad Man was born. I hope you enjoy exploring it with me."
