Artist Inspo #7 - by E. Sjule
Happy Hooplaween my favorite little goobs!
I’m going all in on the spooky theme for this October’s “Artist Inspo” post.
Today we are featuring…
Japan’s modern legend and master of the horror manga.
You may be familiar with some of Junji’s more famous illustrations, such as this image of a girl with a spiral in her skull:
or this meme-ified panel from Junji Ito's horror manga The Enigma of Amigara Fault.
From knowyourmeme.com
The plot follows an earthquake that reveals several human-shaped holes on the side of a fault. As people travel to see the spectacle, they realize that the holes were specifically made for individual people. They then become hypnotized into going through their holes, emerging months later on the other side of the mountain, hideously deformed.
Adult Swim/Toonami even created an anime based on Junji’s work “Uzumaki” that’s been in-process for the past 4 years.
It’s currently slated to be released sometime in late 2023 (in time for Halloween?!):
Junji was born in a town called Sakashita, located in Ena District, Gifu Prefecture, Japan in 1963.
His older sister’s used to read manga by Kazuo Umezu, who is considered the "god of horror manga", which later influenced Junji himself.
Despite drawing manga since he was four years old, Junji originally studied to become a dental technician.
In an attempt to stay connected with his artistic side Junji would study his fellow student’s medical illustrations to learn how to draw muscles and even learned how to whittle pencils like dentures.
As previously mentioned Junji was influenced early on by the art and stories of Kazuo Umezu, but was also very impacted by an anti-war sentiment instilled in him by his parent’s tragic war stories of WWII.
Junji was also a fan of H.P. Lovecraft and many consider Junji’s obsession with spirals to have derived from Lovecraft’s similar obsession.
From Sean Moreland’s Essay…
THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL: THOUGHTS ON LOVECRAFTIAN SPIRALITY AND ITO’S UZUMAKI
In Lovecraft’s writings, spirals initially figure visible cosmic order and scientific discovery, as suggested by his excited responses to early photographic images of the spiral nebula.
In Lovecraft’s writings as of 1918, however, beginning with “The Poe-et’s Nightmare,” spirals increasingly come to figure disorder and chaos, an association intensified by Lovecraft’s gradual acceptance of the cosmic consequences of the second law of thermodynamics, contemporaneously with what he called the “maelstrom” of the First World War’s chaotic violence.
Shocking that so much horror inspiration comes from the trauma and senseless violence of war.
(sarcasm translation: not shocking and worth reflection).
The collection above, “Smashed”, I will admit are the only comics I own / have read of Junji’s works.
I bought it when I was on my honeymoon in Japan back in 2017.
The second I opened the book and flipped through the pages I was like:
“This shit is fucked up. Where’s the cash register?”
I must impart to all:
If you have any inclination toward manga/comics/horror the works of Junji Ito are an absolute must-read.
Are you a fan of the horror genre or is it just too much?
Had you previously been familiar with Junji Ito and his work?
Do you read manga or watch anime?
Listening to:
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