Big Comic

Big Comic (ビッグコミック, Biggu Komikku) is a semimonthly seinen manga magazine published since 18 February 1968 by Shogakukan in Japan. It was originally launched as a monthly magazine, but switched to twice monthly on the 10th and 25th beginning in April 1968. It is paired with sister magazine Big Comic Original, going on sale in the weeks Big Comic Original does not. Circulation in 2008 was reported at slightly over a half-million copies. but by mid-2015 had declined to 315,000, as part of an industry-wide trend in manga magazine sales. The magazine has published works by a number of well-known manga artists, including Osamu Tezuka, Shotaro Ishinomori, Sanpei Shirato, Takao Saito, Fujiko Fujio A, Fujiko F. Fujio, and Tetsuya Chiba. Big Comic also serializes Saito's Golgo 13, which is the oldest manga series still in publication. The front cover of the magazine featured a caricature of a famous individual by manga illustrator Shūichi Higurashi for more than forty years. Higurashi's drawings were featured on the cover of Big Comic from 1970 until 2011. Higurashi retired in the autumn of 2011 due to failing health. ()