Tuesday, August 25, 2009

OTHER HORROR FINDS FROM CAFE MIKA SALE

Well, damn. Based on the feedback to the last post, I think another CYBER BLUE post is in order. There are many, many more goodies to share if you'd like to see them.

Meanwhile, I forgot to post these two photos from manga hunting at the Cafe Mika going-out-of-business sale:


First up: AT THE MERCY OF DARKNESS (yami no mani mani)by Shungicu Uchida, aka Shigeko Uchida-- prolific and multifaceted performer/artist/cartoonist.


Also: ZASHIKI ONNA by Minetaro Mochizuki (Dragon Head, Maiwai). This is a one-shot horror manga about a creepy stalker woman; My buddy Haruna pointed out the title is a nod to the yokai folk spirit 座敷童 (zashiki warashi). I really love the way they did the type treatment on the kanji on the cover.

Any fans of these two books? Okay, real posts with actual substance coming very soon. I'm getting stressed about Issue 2 of Electric Ant and having trouble thinking straight right now!

17 comments:

Joseph Luster said...

Is there anything better than horror manga covers? I mean, I'm sure there is, but I don't know about it. Cyber Blue doesn't count, of course that's better.

SHEA said...

The "Lovely Horror Comic" sticker is great. Mostly just because they chose the word "lovely".

Azraelito said...

Huge fan of Minetaro Mochizuki! Glenat in spain has published dragon head, maiwai and la mujer de la habitación oscura, that is the one shot that is in the photograph.

I have la mujer de la habitación oscura, it is really creep, it has some pages in colour that are very nice, perhaps it has a very strange ending, but during all the reading you always pay atention to all the artwork because is terrific.

It was my first book of minetaro, then I read Dragon head that is incredible and has a terrific ending and now I am buying Maiwai, that is very cool. It has finished in the eleven volume. I think it is Minetaro in his best time, it is far superior than dragon head and la mujer de la habitació oscura the art.

The first thing you post, I haven seen that kind of book and author in a book of japan horror manga were they told you that it was great. I want to know more about that author. I think, one day I talk with you about this book that hast a strange cover of hideshi hino and you know which book I was talking about!!

As always my english sucks!!

Keep up the good work!!

NO Miyaya Kazuhiko in the cafe? .D

saludos and also to evan

Ryan S said...

@Joseph: I definitely agree! I got a Japanese book from Last Gasp a while back that was entirely 70s and 80s horror manga covers. So tantalizing :) This one is similar to what Octopus Girl parodies well-- that open faced shocked face. I feel like Uchida is taking the piss a little too :)

@SHEA: So lovely!

@Azraelito: You Spanish speakers are so lucky... I remember seeing Maiwai 1 in Spanish from Glenat and thinking that they were way cooler than us for embracing folks like Mochizuki and Atsushi Kaneko and Maruo sooner and more strongly than the English language pubs have :)

Thanks for the information about this title! It looked pretty creepy when I was flipping through, I wonder if we'll get more Mochizuki in English. Maybe someday Maiwai?

Thanks as always!!

Sophia Foster-Dimino said...

I love all variations on the iconic screaming horror face! + the Zashiki Onna cover is SO CREEPY. Will we see any selections from inside either of these? :]

+ more Cyber Blue would be appreciated! And good luck on the EAZ, don't be stressed!

Anonymous said...

Zashiki Onna was scanlated a while back. It's great stuff.

Ryan S said...

@sheisept: No previews unfortunately, I actually didn't pick up either book! They were cheap, but my bag/wrist were already almost at their limit with CYBER BLUE and all 10 volumes of the japanese edition of Dragon Head. Kicking myself now

@anonymous: Thanks for the info, I still never think to search for scans first. Found it in 2 clicks, for anyone interested in going that route!

captainonishima said...

Zashiki Onna was published few years ago here in France, under title "la dame de la chambre close" (women from the closed room).

It was nice if I remember well, think I still got it somewhere in my pile of manga mess XD

Evil_Maniak said...

English version of "Zashiki Onna" can be found here:
http://www.manga-sketchbook.org/projects.php

And there is even Polish version, which can be found here:
http://evil.manga.pl/?page_id=156

Cheers from Poland :D

v1cious said...

Zashiki Onna is a MUST READ. it's widely regarded as one of the best horror mangas ever made.

Ryan S said...

Thanks guys! I'm already on Zashiki Onna scans, since I was an idiot and didn't buy it when I had the chance. (I know, I know). Thanks for all the recs and info, I am always down for more rad comix reading!

ryan

ent said...

Zashiki Onna is AWESOME!!!

Adam said...

I've been collecting books by Uchida (and there sure are a lot of them) but I haven't come across At the Mercy of Darkness. But it looks like its contents, although not the nifty cover, are included in my edition of At the Mercy of the Waves, which readers of SAME HAT! might also be interested in.

Ryan S said...

@Adam: Ah, wish you coulda been there-- they had about 10 different used copies of various Uchida titles!

Adam said...

I wish I could have been there too, and not just for Uchida.

I did a search for Shungicu Uchida on Amazon.co.jp (for some reason it never occurred to me to do this until now) and discovered she'd published several other books of horror manga, including the promisingly titled Vampire Girl vs. Girl Frankenstein [Kyuuketsu shoujo tai shoujo furanken], a film adaptation of which was released earlier this year. Alas, the manga is out of print and there's no cover image or description available.

Ryan S said...

@Adam: Aw crap, well... they actually had a used copy of Vampire Girl vs. Girl Frankenstein there too! :(

I didn't know what it was, but I remember the weird title and type-treatment. I wish I had snapped them up, I coulda sent them to you! I should be a little more impulsive next time.

I really don't know a lot about her, so I've been digging around today. She seems fascinating but was sorta off my radar (except for her name). More info would be excellent (or if you have a lot on her, a guest post in the near future?)

Adam said...

The trouble is that while I own a lot of Uchida's manga (though by no means a complete collection), I've only read a few of them. But here's what I've been able to gather.

Uchida's best-known manga is probably Minami's Girlfriend [Minami kun no Koibito], which is about a high schooler whose girlfriend has inexplicably shrunk to six inches high, and was made into a live-action drama three times. However, it's atypical of Uchida's work (what I've seen of it), which generally eschews fantasy and deals with older protagonists.

Aside from that, the manga for which she's best-known are probably her autobiographical ones, most prominently the We are Reproducing series, which chronicles the pregnancies, births, and childhoods of her four children with a mix of 4-koma and story manga. (Although she claims that the early books in the series, at least, are fiction.) The first of these, We are Reproducing Yellow [Watashitachi wa Hanshoku Shite Iru Ieroo], might be a good place to start exploring Uchida's work.* A few years ago Uchida got in a nasty fight with her in-laws, and apparently aired her side of it repeatedly in her autobiographical manga; this was not popular with her readers, as can be seen from her amazon.co.jp customer ratings.

A lot of her other manga are about twenty- and thirtysomethings in love and/or lust. These can get quite sexually explicit at times. One of the more explicit ones, Close Your Eyes and Hold Me [Me o Tojite Idaite], was recently made into a film. At the far end, there are outright sex manga such as Fundamental [Fandamentaru] and His Butterknife [Kare no Bataanaifu], though I've only come across a few of these. And some of her manga don't fit into any of these categories, e.g. her horror manga. Note that if you're looking for her manga in a Japanese bookstore, they may be filed in the fiction or literature section instead of the manga section (which has the advantage that they won't be shrink-wrapped).

She's also a novelist: her best-known novel is Fatherfucker [Fazaafakkaa], based on her own sexual abuse. She's written books of essays, as well.

Sorry this is so superficial. I've been meaning to write more about her on my blog, but never got around to it.

*This was originally titled simply We are Reproducing; the "yellow" was added later to bring it in line with its sequels.