Comics Underground -- Japan: A Manga Anthology

by Kevin Quigley (Editor)

Comics Underground Japan presents the wild, subversive world of Japan’s most accomplished underground comics artists. Some of the dozen artists included in this anthology will be familiar to followers of manga; others make their American debut in these pages. The richly imaginative stories in this volume show a great range of graphic style, from painstakingly detailed craftsmanship to exuberant, maniacal renderings. At the heart of each work in this anthology is a unique personal vision and a fierce artistic compulsion–these manga artists are the misfits of the art form, and they are its visionaries.

Included stories are:
1. "Hell's Angel" by Yoshikaze Ebisu
2. "It's All Right if Yiu Don't Understand" by Yoshikaze Ebisu
3. "Steel Pipe Melancholia" by Masakazu Toma
4. "Future Sperm Brazil" by Takashi Nemoto
5. "A Love Like Lemons" by Carol Shimoda
6. "Selfish Carol's Summer Vacation" by Carol Shimoda
7. "Mercy Flesh (Jiniku)" by Kazuichi Hanawa
8. "Don Quixote #1 & #2" by Yasuji Tanioka
9. "Planet of the Jap" by Suehiro Maruo
10. "Mary’s Asshole" by Hanako Yamada
11. "Volvox" by Pan Migawa
12. "Bigger and Better" by Muddy Wehara
13. "Laughing Ball" by Hideshi Hino
14. "Cat Noodle Soup" by Hajime Yamano & Nekojiro

Genres: Manga, Comics, Japan, Graphic Novels, Short Stories, Anthologies, Comix

220 pages, Paperback

First published April 25, 1996

Reviews

[Rand]

This book is totally badass.

As the cover suggests, some of these comix are rather subversive but none are moreso than Maruo Suehiro's Planet of the Jap, a nationalist rewriting of WWII.

And then there's Hanako Yamada Mary's Asshole. But they're all weird and wonderful in their own unique way. Ebisu Yoshikazu did a cute story involving salarymen spanking each other.
Many of the artists here in this book are very difficult to find anywhere else (like Muddy Uehara).

A few other excerpts are viewable on this site, which includes ordering information.

This insightful review from Anime News Network reveals that half of the female contributors to this volume committed suicide.

Note that the Japanese right-to-left convention of pagination is retained in this English translation.

[Kim]

This may be the best alternative manga anthology in English. But it is so sad to see even this good collection that is not afraid to criticize the religion, fascism, militarism, & revisionist history of Japan is indifferent to misogyny. I had expected that but still it's so sad and upsetting.

[Internet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely the best of these underground manga anthologies. Leagues ahead of Secret Comics Japan and Ax: Volume 1.

[Inn Auni · Rating 3 out of 5]

The comic consisted of 14 stories. I like Laughing Ball the most. Okay, it's the only one I like. The rest was either baffling or plain weird. It's not a bad thing. But, I don't get the message. The art style varies as it was each story were by different creator. There's one that could be say as a propaganda.

[Shed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ahhh japan toilet humor haha

[Lindu Pindu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not being a fan of mainstream manga- I don't see Naruto as art- this nifty compilation of lesser known works spanning different eras introduced me to a world of possibilities. I felt like these Japanese artists each exposed something very intimate about themselves. Most pieces are for adults only- either because of their intent, or because they're explicit.

Either way, the heart of their hardcore-ness lies not the depiction of gratuitous sex or violence, rather in their honesty in exposing the ills of society- from the war-time national ethos of giving your life for the emperor and being thankful that you're allowed to do so, to petty everyday thoughts that make us retreat inside our heads, building a barrier between ourselves and those around us. No wonder some of these mangaka are underground even in their home country.

I like precisely this willingness to expose fears, and thrust them in a reader's unprepared face.

[S. Zahler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Few comic anthologies that I've read contain as many memorable stories as does Comics Underground Japan, which I wish was the first in an ongoing series rather than a single volume. Genres, art styles, and tones vary significantly throughout this book, but the quality of the pieces was better and far more consistent than I had expected.

Yoshikazu Ebisu's short surreal tale "It's All Right If You Don't Understand" matches the better ones found in his collection "The Pits of Hell," and "Steel Pipe Melancholia" visits a similarly off-kilter dystopia, this story by Masakazu Toma, a creator I didn't know before reading this collection. Muddy Wehara's "Bigger and Better" is a well-rendered, double-splash-page experience of critters, executives, and entrails.

Highlights come from three familiar names and a married couple who are new to me. I've read a bunch of Hideshi Hino's manga (and enjoyed his Guinea Pig movie entitled, "Mermaid in a Manhole"), and the fantastical circus story by him in this volume entitled "Laughing Ball" ranks at the very top of his translated works--it's a surprising and emotionally rich horror fable. The technically brilliant Suehiro Maruo provides "Planet of the Jap," an odious and expertly rendered anti-Gaijin alternate history that reads more vengeful than ironic and makes an impact through his crystalline rendering, meticulous gore, and nihilistic cruelty. A cartoonish counterpoint to this caustic experience that is no less memorable can be found in "Cat Noodle Soup," a moving tale about a feline traveler made by Nekojiru and her husband Hajime Yamano.

My top favorite of the four stand-out works is the excerpt taken from "Future Sperm Brazil," which was drawn by the heta-uma* master Takashi Nemoto. (*A style of crude manga art that can be translated as "bad but good" or "unskilled good.") This story details the mostly aquatic exploits of Sadakichi Suzuki, who believes that the Axis and Allied powers are still embroiled in World War II. This is an insane survival tale with an appropriately frenetic, demented presentation that has the energy and roughness of Gary Panter (who is quoted on the back of the book) as well as two of my favorite contemporary cartoonists, Pat Aulisio and Lale Westvind. "Future Sperm Brazil" is another showcase for Takashi Nemoto's bizarre, hideous, and funny storytelling madness, conveyed vividly with his unique eye-searing style, which I first encountered in "Monster Men Bereiko Lullaby," a collection of his work that bursts every extant taboo and creates a dozen new ones before you reach the end. Obviously, I relish this unhinged mangaka's unique style and hideous awesomeness.

I enjoyed all but a couple of short stories in Comics Underground Japan, which was adroitly curated by Kevin Quigley. It's great that Osamu Tezuka, Junji Ito, Hiroya Oku, Yuichi Yokoyama, Yoshinori Tatsumi, Shintaro Kago, and Takao Saito have had a number of their compelling works released in English, and I hope to soon see more translated pieces by some of these lesser-known outliers, especially the demented heta-uma master Takashi Nemoto.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolutely fantastic collection of work from mangaka who have very limited bibliography of English translated works. This book collects short comics from renowned mangaka/gekiga artists like Yoshikazu Ebisu, Kazuichi Hanawa, Hideshi Hino, Suehiro Maruo, Pan Migiwa, Takashi Nemoto, Carol Shimda, Yasuji Tanioka, Masakazu Toma, Mudd Wehara, Hanako Yamada and Nekojiru & Hajime Yamano. The stories vary stylistically, but also ranged from being esoteric, gruesome, surreal and charming. Each work is highly subversive, and while not every story fully resonated with me, I appreciated how vibrant each cartoonist's styles were.

The most memorable story for me was easily "Planet of the Jap" by Suehiro Maruo, who tells an ultranationalistic version of WWII where the Japanese successfully take over the world. Maruo's unrelenting use of violence to glorify the conquering Japanese army is deeply unsettling, but that is what he does best and he does it with ease here.

The other stories that stood out to me were "Mary's Asshole" by Hanako Yamada, "Hell's Angel" by Yoshikazu Ebisu and "Cat Noodle Soup" by Nekojiru and Hajime Yamano. They were all quite funny while still highly surreal, and rather quaintly done overall.

The back includes a bunch of biographies of each creator represented in this collection, and acts as great supplementary reading for each individual comic. Overall, this is an absolutely great addition to any gekiga collection due to the fantastic variety contained here. Easily one of my favorite anthologies I've read in some time.

[East-Daikon]

The cover was super off-putting to me but I only came for chapter 10 by 山田花子 so yeah ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Not sure how long this was written before she killed herself but she didn’t seem particularly depressed, more misanthropic and negative about society. (She seems like square peg in round hole, in these case it is probably best to die, society won't change...)

Her chapter is nine different short stories, mostly about this twenty-something office girl's colleagues and her uncensored thoughts about them. For some reason the second last one with an office guy with an unrequited crush on her cracked me up. The insults are so uniquely Japanese and she hated him so bad! Ha!

My favourite story though was the last one about the pillow that she irrationally loved and couldn't bear to let go of. It was weird and uncharacteristically sweet. And very relatable. I feel like it’s quite telling that the one thing she loved was an inanimate object. This is part 1 and 2 of the story (read it right to left):





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[Sam Russo · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are a few standout chapters, including Suehiro Mauro's notorious "Planet of the Jap". Otherwise, this mostly forgettable period piece is mostly of interest to completists, and the most devoted of manga fans.

[Kitty · Rating 3 out of 5]

So weird. Too disturbing for many. Unfortunately misogynistic. But pretty incredible! Sort of like a Japanese version of Zap Comix.

[Tim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jesus christ, what the fuck was that

[Talie · Rating 4 out of 5]

in japon they called it "heta uma", "it's good when it's bad".

[Nuno · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm used to alternative comics and usually I'm pretty tolerant to experimental or absurd stories, which are some of my favorite genres. But this compilation is simply stupid, some stories are too juvenile, others are slices of life viewed in a weird way but lacking any sort of dept. Maybe the meaning got lost with the translation. I hope so, because except for a couple stories (Takashi Nemoto being one of them), the only redeeming thing about the book, are the drawings which are great.

[Astrid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cat soup!!!!! best story ever

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I dunno. This is why I'm ambivalent about "le artiste" manga. It seems like "underground" or "independent" or "artistic" manga, comics, movies, or anything can go really well or really badly. It can be genuinely unique, creative, thought provoking, or it can just be shit thrown at a wall. This is fairly evenly divided between the two. It has garbage in it which is badly drawn or just doesn't make any sense ("Ask me what it means! ask me what it means! You need to have an iq of at least 180 to understand my comic!"). These "rough" comics seem to generally in the trend of American "indie" comics, either by way of influence or convergence. Like the type of thing you'd see in Kramer's Ergot, only not quite as good. How "experimental". But it also has a number of true gems, which are quite unusual and not the type of thing you'd easily find online. Not surprisingly, the best one in here was by Maruo Suehiro and was about Japanese nationalism. And some of the more Kramer's Ergot type of stuff actually worked as well, if you are willing to entertain such things. But that was actually relatively tame and conventional relative both to the rest of the comic, and the rest of Maruo's work. This publishing house (Blast Books) has a weird trend. They tend to just publish comics or artists which are related to good manga or artists, but which aren't actually that good themselves. This follows in that trend.