Talk of horror manga will inevitably lead to at least one mention of Junji Ito, Japan’s master of horror thanks to books like Uzumaki, Gyo, and Tomie. Like Stephen King in America, Ito is synonymous with the genre, and he acts as its representative in his part of the world whether he likes it or not. The first thing that comes up when you google horror manga is a comics page or book by him. But Ito does not exist outside the history of horror. There was already a strong and fascinatingly bizarre tradition of it impacting the field long before him, and it featured some of the most uniquely terrifying and unsettlingly smart manga around.
Smudge, an imprint from graphic novel publisher Living the Line, is interested in bringing some of these old horror masterpieces back to print so English-speaking readers can appreciate the works that would go on to influence the greats. To make this endeavor even more special, each book includes an historical essay charting the creators’ trajectories and the manga that came out of them. It’s delightfully educational and it helps to make readers hungry for all the other weird stuff they’ve never seen before in English.
What’s interesting about Smudge’s selection is they “cult favorite” status. These were books that rewarded those who waded deeper into the dark waters of the genre in Japan, outside the mainstream in some cases. They’re like old horror paperbacks that would go on to become classics much later in time after being rediscovered. Their impact on future creators would then become more apparent, turning these hidden gems into must-reads years after publication.
If there’s something that fans absolutely love getting more insight on are those obscure or lesser known titles authors and artists recommend in talks and media events. You might feel a sense of connection to a creator that loves The Exorcist just as much as you do, but you’ll always wonder what other dark delicacies they keep hidden away for themselves lest someone ask them to share? Those are the stories you want to know about because they might expose you to concepts and ideas you didn’t even know had been explored in movies, prose, or manga before.
Like horror fans all over, giving out these lesser-known recommendations brings a special kind of joy. Pointing someone in the direction of new fearscapes sparks a bit of pride within us. It just feels good to offer up a new nightmare to an eager fan. In bringing these forgotten horror manga offerings to English readers, Smudge is doing the dark lord’s work, and they should be overcome with pride because of it.
Here are three of the books that they’ve made available and why you should seek them out. In case you’re left with a hunger for more, Smudge has also announced the publication of Bonten Taro’s Face Meat, a collection of tales that feature face-stealing psychos, cuckold caterpillars, and a hangover in Hell.
- Her Frankenstein by Norikazu Kawashima (1986)
Tetsuo is a fragile and lonely kid. He was bullied both by kids from his neighborhood and his mom and dad. His worth as a boy is questioned constantly by his dad and it seems like safety and nurture are but theories yet to be proven by the troubled child. And then he meets a young ailing girl with a mind for mischief that welcomes him in. Before long, Tetsuo becomes attached to the girl, putting on a Frankenstein’s Monster mask whenever he goes out with her so he can be ordered around to torment other kids in anonymity. Eventually, tragedy strikes, and now an adult Tetsuo must confront the sins of his past, despite them being authored by the ailing girl.
As far as psycho/horror dramas are concerned, Her Frankenstein is by far one of the most disturbing. Norikazu Kawashima succeeds in creating a dangerous sense of co-dependency between the two kids that carries a sense of violence that’s as frightening as it is sad. These are two emotionally fractured kids that want to repay the world in kind for the difficulties they’ve been forced to live through. Tetsuo’s willingness to don the Frankenstein mask captures these ideas well, paving the way for questions on how human monsters are made and how fair it truly is to label them as such in the face of the treatment they receive. Her Frankenstein is the first book to be released under Smudge, and it did an amazing job of presenting the imprint’s vision to the world.
- UFO Mushroom Invasion by Shirakawa Marina (1976)
It’s not common to find a story that’s as invested in educating you about something as it is in scaring you with it. This is precisely what Shirakawa Marina does with UFO Mushroom Invasion, hailed as a cult classic that catapulted spore horror into the mainstream. An UFO crash lands deep into the Japanese mountains. Strange creatures emerge, and with them a new type of contagion in the form of a spore that has the capacity to bring about its own version of the apocalypse.
Marina’s approach is a peculiar one. The contagion manifests in a manner not unlike that of a mushroom. Because of this, a lot of the dialogue that takes places between the scientists, the big government heads, and the civilians close to the crash site often carry an educational tone first. In attempting to explain the spores, Marina digs deep into his vast knowledge of Japanese folklore and natural phenomena to create sections in the story that explain the several functions mushroom have and how they’ve been the subject of superstitious thought in old Japan. This is all mixed in with a kind of body horror that will later become commonplace in manga. It comes coupled with fears of the atom bomb and the painful mutations and disfigurations it wrought after they were dropped back in 1945. UFO Mushroom Invasion is unique in its form, and it deserves to be read so readers can appreciate just how influential it has been in the realm of body horror.
- Mansect by Shinishi Koga (1975)
Insects are especially potent storytelling metaphors. They stand to represent the natural inclination of humanity towards ugliness and uncleanliness, if used right. Shinishi Koga certainly explores this with his body horror manga Mansect, but then he adds more twisted dimensions to the insect metaphor in the process. This book kicks things off with a story about a man that collects insects. He’s obsessed with them, and he sees them as organisms worthy of special admiration, even adoration. His neighbors have ostracized him, speculating on whether his collection is a reflection of how badly he’s dealing with the passing of a family member. One day he gets cut and a strange kind of cotton starts seeping from the wound. Slowly, he becomes a humanoid insect, that’s also wraith-like, whose presence can monstrously alter the biological composition of the village he lives in.
Mansect uses that opening story as the foundation for the stories that take place after. The consequences of the transformation there go on to set up creatively terrifying situations that just build on the insect as a storytelling mechanism. Trauma, grief, loss, and loneliness are added to the mix here, and they let their presence be known. In one story, a girl befriends a large insect who likes to play hide and seek with her. Her family eventually then find out the insect is sucking her blood in measured doses. In another story, a boy picks up a severed hand and starts aging unnaturally fast. These are just some of the tales that branch out from the first story. They remind of body horror classics like The Brood (1979) and The Fly remake (1986). Coincidentally, both movies were directed by master of body horror David Cronenberg, which suggests a narrative kinship between these works that begs to be studied further. Mansect’s short stories share a profound sense of tragedy and sadness, and they ask readers to consider how judgmental neighbors make monsters out of people that don’t entirely conform to arbitrary social standards. It’s a hard read that gets its points across with a subtle confrontational tone that is unafraid to call out humanity for its cruelty.
Source link
