I got a head's up on this from another message board I belong to and thought I'd pass it on here.
The Smithsonian Channel is running a documentary entitled Portrait of Artistic Genius: Katsushika Hokusai
Hokusai, (1760-1849) was a painter and printmaker of the Edo period and is regarded as one of Japan's leading artists. Probably his most well-known work is his print "The Great Wave off Kanagawa", part of his "Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji" series. One of his published works was entitled "The Hokusai Manga" ("Hokusai sketches"), a collection of sketches on a variety of subjects.
Hokusai did not draw sequential manga as we know it today, but his illustrations and his drawing style made him an important influence on Japanese art, including manga.