Krent Able Entretien de Rat Devil

Having coined the “horror manga” term, Umezu Kazuo experienced his first success with Hebi Shôjo (“The snake-girl”) in 1966, the first book from a bibliography specialized in the nightmarish. Incidentally, Hyôryû Kyôshitsu (The drifting classroom) won the annual award from Shôgakkan in 1975, and was even adapted as a television series in 2001, under the […]

To appropriately celebrate Umezu Kazuo fifty years of career, Shôgakkan undertook in 2005 the great project of a complete collection of his works, gathered under the title “Umezz Perfection !”. Hailed as the “ultimate version of horror as viewed by Umezu, the creator of Japanese Horror”, the collection is currently composed of thirteen volumes : Hebi-Onna, Negai, […]

Some manga are like American blockbusters : conforming themselves to the genre standards, they quietly unfold following a well-travelled road, already trodden a thousand times, where a few detours might bring some surprises, until the arrival to the unavoidable as well as foreseeable conclusion — incidentally, this is the very principle on which Wes Craven has […]

They are among us. David Vincent had his invaders, Izumi Shin’ichi has his parasites (the “Kiseijû” of the title). Both know what the world isn’t aware of — “they” are among us. Coming from space, hidden behind the faces of people like you and me, but different. Monstruous. Yet, working within a compiration which objectives […]

One year after the publication of Japan (subtitled “Japan as viewed by 17 creators”), Casterman keeps the same formula to propose Corée (or “Korea as viewed by 12 creators”) — using an almost identical design, from the authors mentioned in arc of circle to the illustrated duo “child + animal” as cover. The interior sees […]

With the Journal d’un album, it had become obvious that the two-headed beast with four hands of the “Dupuy-Berberian” duet was in fact the confrontation of two individualities, of two styles that had been seen so far only in a combined form. In those solo pages, the reader could see two different sensibilities emerge, with […]

Tooku e ikitai can be summed up in few words : Monty Python, the Japanese way. Tori Miki’s series consists of nonsense-based gags playing out in an unchanging grid of 9 silent panels. Usually, the author starts off from a wacky idea, but then follows it with a logic based on common sense — flirting with […]

The first attempt by Mizuno Junko to adapt classical tales, Cinderalla-chan is a strange and exotic trip in her very personal universe. If the global structure of the tale is respected, there is also a healthy dose of re-creation, leaving room for the recurring themes of the author. Under the ultra-cute, brightly colored art, Mizuno […]