SUPER LINK EXPLOSION!

+ JASON SHIGA - Our buddy, and an accomplished, amazing comic book creator. Shiga does a variety of different types of comics, but will first rock your socks with his non-linear mindbender books. Hard to describe in words, these comics (include 'Meanwhile') are a semi-choose your own adventure that range from a you-are-the-hunted thriller to a recursive, Primer-meets-Wrinkle in Time science mystery. We definitely encourage you to buy books from him-- not sure which ones he has available right this instant, but we bought Meanwhile at Alternative Press Expo this spring and are still reading and re-reading it.

Upon a little further internet digging I see, HOLY CRAP, he won an Eisner and was written up in Time magazine!!

+ MONSTER BRAINS - We found out about this blog through a thread on tcj.com's message board. The posts span from Lovecraftian horror tropes to Tadami Yamada's surrealist graphics to Ray Harryhausen paintings to Ludovic Debeurme's comics. There's literally hours and hours of good stuff in the links and galleries here. WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND - ENJOY!!



+ FROZEN IN HELL by Derek Yu - Comics are just one of the awesome projects that our buddy Derek works on, and he keeps amazing us with each new thing he tries his hand at. (For his latest, please check out the first description and screenshots for his gorgeous new game, Aquaria). We could type pages and pages about this dude, but for today, check out his irregularly posted gag comic strip "Frozen in Hell". There's about a dozen and read like the weird stepchild of Perry Bible Fellowship and Heartbroken Angels. SWEET!

+ THE STIFF by Jason Thompson - The Stiff is a long running webcomic written and illustrated by our other friend Jason. It'd be unfair to try to give a glib description of the epic, serialized story that he's telling, but in this interview, he explains it as "a cross between 'Video Girl Ai' and Charles Burns' 'Black Hole"... mixed with influences from Shojo manga and HP Lovecraft!

Jason has been a longtime editor for Viz (he was the editor behind Same Hat fan staples like Uzumaki and Gyo) and his current projects include editing editing Umezu's The Drifting Classroom and working on an ambitious manga book. We'll be posting lots on this book once it hits shelves). The Stiff is on hiatus while Jason works on his book, and now is a great time to get caught up on this hilarious and satisfying comic :)

Blind Beast vs. Killer Dwarf

More friends doing awesome stuff

We wanted to let everyone know that the DVD for Teruo Ishii's final film [Blind Beast vs. Killer Dwarf] was recently released by Panik House. Ishii himself deserves an entire post himself, but the late director also did the infamous, Rampo-inspired "Horror of Malformed Men". The film features Shinya Tsukamoto as famous detective Kogoro Akechi and Shion Sono, director of Suicide Circle, and is loosely based on an Edogawa Rampo novel. Regulars to the site are already thinking-- 'Fuck! I have to get my hands on this'... BUT THERE'S MORE! The DVD also features a cover and tons of menu and packaging art by our good friend Gea!



Read a review and DVD details. The DVD includes (in addition to the film and other extras):

"Geaphiles" - A gallery of conceptual art illustrations by New York underground artist Gea!"

She says:

Even if you are not into boobs, gore and dwarfs (then I think you must be insane) you should still go out and buy this for the extras (there's mini gallery in the dvd with the artwork I did exclusively for this feature), a sticker (which also has my art on it), and the Special Numbered Insert Card featuring the personal stamp of Little Frankie aka The Killer Dwarf, now deceased (with my drawing of Lil' Frankie on it ).

You can also check out the trailer on their site.

Congratulations to Gea on this ridiculously cool project!!

BIRTH

Hey kids, Evan here. I just finished the rather huge art project I've been working on for the past 2 weeks... a triptych of illustrated-photography with the theme of "Birth". I'd post them directly here, but they are very much not safe for work (nudity and blood), so click one of the previews below or here to see the pictures.



I put a total of over 3 days worth of prop-building, shooting, clean-up, Wacom tablet drawing, and lots of editing into these, so I very much hope you enjoy them. The idea behind these works had been in my mind for a few months now, so it was very satisfying to make them into a reality. Extra thanks to Dona for modelling!

For Ben! (Midori clip from YouTube)

We found this clip online, via our friends at El Blog Rarito... A trailer for the anime adaptation of Suehiro Maruo's MIDORI AKA Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show!



UPDATE: Evan downloaded a torrent of the anime last night! We'll post more details once it's been... digested! According to wikipedia, J.A. Seazer did the soundtrack to this?

UPDATE 2: For those interested in the torrent: follow the El Blog Rarito link, then click "Elink" - just below the YouTube clip to get it.

UPDATE 3: From Rarito, here are some samples of the soundtrack to check out.

Can we say enough good things about Yoshihiro Tatsumi?

Evan got to meet Yoshihiro Tatsumi at San Diego Comic-Con!! SO JEALOUS! He was able to attend a program with Tatsumi, interviewed onstage by Adrian Tomine.



Evan says they discussed Tatsumi's career in manga (including his relationship with Tezuka), and tons of other amazing stuff about manga and Japanese post-war industialization in the early '70s. Here are some nice shots from the panel:

Adrian Tomine, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, and their interpreter

Blue-collar everyman Tatsumi with the panel interpreter

Evan got a copy of The Push Man autographed by Tatsumi, and landed me the newest book, 'Abandon The Old in Tokyo,' at the booth... AUTOGRAPHED! (best present ever?). I had read an advanced preview of this at Book Expo America in May (THANKS PEGGY at Drawn & Quarterly!) but seeing the finished hardcover book, with Tatsumi's signature made me SO HAPPY. It's really, really incredible stuff and we both highly recommend you check it out:

Can't wait for the next Tatsumi volumes in this ongoing series!

UPDATE: Check out the great details and pics from D&Q's blog!

Tatsumi with Drawn & Quarterly lanterns

Tatsumi signing at Comic-Con

Tomine & Tatsumi

WE LOVE THE FANS!

"A lot of perverts and assorted social deviants come to our site."
- Evan

Ryan here. Evan is heading down to San Diego today (lucky!) with our buddies Derek, Anthony and Jen for some HOT COMIC-CON ACTION. He's on a mission to meet these two dudes (we'll post the pics):


...along with just hanging out and enjoying the spectacle [fanboy on fangirl, fanboy on fanboy]! We are working on new stuff, and should have some strips up in the next week or so. In the meantime, we wanted to share some of the keywords people are using to get to this site.

In addition to expected terms, like "yoshida sensha, shintaro kago, octopus girl, junji ito, suehiro maruo scans, kazuo umezus(?), koji aihara, same hat", we saw a certain...er, PATTERN with these keywords. Here are some we noticed over the past 6 months:

check out my butt
scissor erotic
rusty scissors
we the fans scanlations
death note manga
samehat.blogspot incest
left handed scissor jokes
pornstar in hostel
hellen swimsuit
evan show artbook
woman nursing a chimp
reon leon kadena
erotic scanlation
scissors hand movie
(horror movie) idol hand
panty drawings
hostel blowtorch to the eye
derek hung comics
dolls ball jointed erotic
drifting classroom scanlations
saaya irie nudity
saaya irie's email
saaya big milk
erotic scanlation
vacuum horror
reon kadena official
how to do horror make up
farting grandpa
insane scanlations
Shintaro Kago brains
octopus up girl ass clip

New content coming soon!! Seriously!

KAZUO UMEZU T-SHIRTS!

If you bought me these, I'd love you forever!
These can be found on and around Umezz's official site. SO TIGHT!

---

Umezz 50th Anniversary shirt


Check out this Nekome Kozo shirt (also, check out Umezu himself in the shirt!)


Orochi shirt (click for other colors!)


OMG! Amazing shirt!


DANG! Another amazing shirt!

manga PLUS horror MULTIPLIED BY youtube = AWESOME!

These are just the tip of the iceburg. My favorite internet invention of the past year, YouTUBE, has about a zillion and one awesome J-Horror clips for consumption. Check out these things I found over the past week!! Please leave URLs for other clips/trailers/CMs related to Same Hat in the comments, and I'll add them to this post!

Hilarious CM for an energy drink starring... Kaz Umezu! The horror-manga moments are great!


Umezzma: Sony Mobile add-ons for your Japanese phone starring Umezu! Nice props :)


Trailer for the Umezu Horror Theater series of films.


Umezu Horror Theater: The Wish trailer


Umezu Horror Theater: The Present trailer


Umezu Horror Theater: Snake Girl trailer


Umezu Horror Theater: House of Bugs trailer


The original opening for Umezu-adapted Nekome Kozo anime.
They are releasing a new movie adaptation soon...


New, scarier and longer Left Hand of God, Right Hand of the Devil trailer


Strange-ass narrated Junji Ito comic, animated panel by panel. For the story "Fashion Model"-- Like a manga audiobook...


Part 1 of 7 of a 1-hour Junji Ito live-action adaptation of his comic "Long Dream". Apparently, the subtitles were done by Alexis Grass, of http://junjiito.trilete.net/. Read a review of the movie at Snowblood Apple!

Also, check out parts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7!

Japanese Uzumaki trailer


Death Note trailer (My latest guily pleasue... in movie form!!)


EDIT: thanks to Ben!
Jun Togawa & Seijin Suzuki booty CM: