Steve Jobs biography to get 'Manga' treatment

According to "Kiss" magazine's official Twitter feed, the Japanese translation of Walter Isaacson's best-selling official biography is to be serialized in cartoon form, with the first chapters expected to be published in the May edition.

Taking on the task of creating a visual representation of Isaacson's story, which was based on more than 40 interviews with Jobs plus several hundred with family and friends, is Mari Yamazaki, a rising female ‘mangaka' (manga artist).

Yamazaki's most recent work, "Thermae Romae," was a comedy built around the high-concept idea of a Roman architect in the second century AD who, struggling for artistic inspiration, happens upon a passage under a spa that leads directly to a modern Japanese bath house.

A publication of comics aimed at young women, "Kiss" is an interesting destination for a manga re-telling of Jobs's story and will offer an equally interesting potential audience.

The news was first picked up in the English-speaking press by manga blog Sankaku Complex, although Yamazaki herself revealed details of the project during a talk show appearance on Japanese television eariler this week.