Wednesday, August 19, 2009

CHAPTER 3 OF SUEHIRO MARUO'S IMOMUSHI

Another month, another creepy and disturbingly good chapter of Suehiro Maruo's fantastic Imomushi was released. Chapter 3 debuted in the August issue of COMIC BEAM, which came out in July and arrived at my local Kinokuniya last week.



Check out my first post for details on the plot of Edogawa Rampo's short story, The Caterpillar.

I heard from Moni again, it turns out that Chapter 4 is the final installment of Imomushi. It came out last week in Japan, and that issue of COMIC BEAM features a commemorative Maruo clear file insert thingy. Four chapters doesn't add up to a full-length book, so I wonder what Maruo has up his sleeve next. Perhaps another Rampo adaptation to publish together in a Panorama Island-length book from EnterBrain? Here's hoping!

ENJOY THESE PAGES/PANELS FROM CHAPTER 3:

Like in Panorama Island, the new chapter of Imomushi starts with parallels to Taisho spectacle and technologies to make its points. Here, Tokiko visits a fair featuring peephole painted scenes.


The peephole scenes depict events from famous stories and dramatized news accounts.


Subtle and disturbing scene of Tokiko encountering a used condom on her walk back to her home (and her disfigured husband Lt. Sunaga).


Trouble brewing on the home front. Maruo employs an interesting mix of formal panel layouts on some pages and broken, jagged flow on others.


DOSUN! The sound of a limbless man falling over and flopping angrily?


Many opportunities are taken to depict 1920s storefronts and urban life.


Don't try to look away from Sunaga's disfigurement.


Did I mention this comic is way more NSFW than Panorama Island? SEMI-METAPHORIC SEX FANTASY TIME.


DEVIL'S IN THE DETAILS


DEVIL'S IN THE DETAILS (part two)

I heard from my friend Moni that the September issue features the fourth and final chapter of Imomushi. This issue came out a few days ago in Japan, I should have it in my hands the second week of September :) It doesn't seem long enough to make up a book... I wonder what Maruo is planning for his next manga?

10 comments:

Monika Uchiyama said...

on the artist comment page at the very back of the book, maruo says his next comic will also be ranpo! hooray!

Ryan S said...

@Moni: Oh brilliant! I wonder which story he will choose :)

Ho-Ling said...

With similar dreams-into-reality themes like the previous stories, both The Human Chair or The Blind Beast should be pretty high up the list, I hope (though the latter is quite long).

Really enjoyed Maruo's Panoramatou Kidan, which I at first bought because it was an Edogawa work, but I was really impressed by Maruo's adaption of it, so I'm really looking forward to a volume release of Imomushi and whatever is coming.

Ryan S said...

@Ho-Ling: Good call, both of those would be excellent to see adapted by Suehiro Maruo. I wonder which he will end up doing.

I love your blog, btw. Totally excellent read :)

RSS said...

beautiful! anywhere I can buy his work other than eBay? it's all so expensive...

RSS said...

email follow up comments? I've missed this feature..

Ryan S said...

@RSS: It should let you click to get a notice when folks post subsequent comments.

What kind of stuff are you looking for? --his comics, in english/japanese, or goods? There's not really a great way yo get them direct from here, though tacoCHE in Nakano Broadway in Tokyo has tons of his stuff.

His website is selling original drawings and pieces, but no overseas sales :(

RSS said...

Damn, that sucks. I'm mostly looking for manga. There are a few on eBay that're going for like $40 a piece. I'm hesitant to pay that for something I mostly won't be able to read.

And all of his English comics are out of print and expensive too. Guess I'm going to be spending a lot no matter where I go.

I could only dream of buying his art.

Ryan S said...

Yeah, it's kinda a bummer when it comes to Maruology for us English speakers.

That said, it's not unheard of to find used copies of Ultra Gash Inferno and Mr. Arashi-- though online they are pretty expensive. I got lucky at used book stores and stuff.

The good (great?) news you may know already is that Last Gasp will be publishing The Strange Tale of Panorama Island in Spring/Summer 2010-- a new 300 page book by Maruo. Evan and I are currently working on the adaptation. Lots of photos of the Japanese edition are here:
http://dustyrecollections.blogspot.com/2009/06/suehiro-maruo-strange-tale-of-panorama.html

If you need to go that route, there are also may scanlations of his early works online at deadfrog etc. Those are cool to be able to read, but as always, a poor substitute for a legit and licensed hard copy.

Happy hunting, and hope you'll support Panorama when it comes out next year :)

RSS said...

Yea, that IS great news. And I'll definitely be on the pre-order as soon as available. And those pics are an excruciating tease. Dude never ceases to amaze w/ images alone. Maybe i'll pull my shit together and learn to read kanji, if only to grovel at Lord Maruo's bloody feet.

The cheapest I've found Ultra Gash is like 60$ USD - same for Arashi. And yea, all online. I live in the southern US where there are NO indie bookstores so I won't be as lucky. And I've read plenty of scanlations (gurofan has (had?) a lot) but we both know that ain't th same.

Anyways thanks for your time & info.