Talk to My Back

The story is about a housewife, Yamakawa Chiharu, who experiences domestic relationship problems. Holmberg stated that Chiharu's "relationship to herself" in regards to self-actualization are the "true heart" of the comic. She lives in a danchi similar to one that Yamada lived in. Yamada lived in the Takashimadaira Danchi in Itabashi, Tokyo, and Talk to My Back uses that danchi as its setting. Chiharu's spouse engages in extramarital affairs and perceives Chiharu primarily as, in Holmberg's words, "caretaker of his children and domestic servant"; according to Holmberg, he is "not the worst man[...]in fact kind and responsible by period standards".

The original Japanese title is a coinage created by poet Yūko Kawano. Yamada had shortly beforehand started the process of separating from her then-husband as Talk to My Back was about to serialize. The image used as the cover for book releases had Seiichi Hayashi do the Japanese calligraphy and Shinbō Minami do the design work. Noriko Tetsuka fixed design issues and supervised the production process.

The February and March 1981 episode of Garo was the first issue which serialized Talk to My Back. Serialization stopped in September 1982, then began again in December of that month. The final chapter was published in October 1984. The first Japanese book collection, published by Seirindō, was in two volumes, with the first volume release in August 1982. According to Tetsuka, that first volume sold over 10,000 copies. There were three subsequent single-volume releases in Japan. Shogakukan re-released the series under the Shogakukan Creative label.