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The Complete Mature Works Of Yoshiharu Tsuge #5
He Rolled Me Up Like a Grilled Squid
A manga icon’s most perplexing, transgressive, and astounding work of horrorand surrealism
By the mid-1970s, Tsuge Yoshiharu was a man changed by circumstance—something hiswork from 1975 to 1981 boldly reveals. After settling into married life with fellow artistFujiwara Maki (author of Eisner-winning My Picture Diary), Tsuge would return to thenarrative formulas that he knew tall tales exchanged between fellow travelers,macabre parables tinged with magical realism, and the enduring comedy of the domesticeveryday in a Japan rebuilding itself in the decades following the Second World War.
And yet the confusion and mental illness simmering beneath the surface of his moresurreal works come to a rolling boil, reaching an unsettling and horrific crescendo in aseries of nightmarish delusions. He Rolled Me Up Like A Grilled Squid captures a midcareerauthor taking stock of his anxieties and suspicions while connecting the dotsbetween his seemingly monotonous present and his complicated past. Confrontationsbetween both periods in his life are explored through the lens of his deteriorating mentalstate, expressed directly through experiments with different visual styles collected in thisvolume.
Translated by prolific art and comics historian Ryan Holmberg, He Rolled Me Up Like AGrilled Squid is a veteranstoryteller’s most compelling observations about people at their most human.
By the mid-1970s, Tsuge Yoshiharu was a man changed by circumstance—something hiswork from 1975 to 1981 boldly reveals. After settling into married life with fellow artistFujiwara Maki (author of Eisner-winning My Picture Diary), Tsuge would return to thenarrative formulas that he knew tall tales exchanged between fellow travelers,macabre parables tinged with magical realism, and the enduring comedy of the domesticeveryday in a Japan rebuilding itself in the decades following the Second World War.
And yet the confusion and mental illness simmering beneath the surface of his moresurreal works come to a rolling boil, reaching an unsettling and horrific crescendo in aseries of nightmarish delusions. He Rolled Me Up Like A Grilled Squid captures a midcareerauthor taking stock of his anxieties and suspicions while connecting the dotsbetween his seemingly monotonous present and his complicated past. Confrontationsbetween both periods in his life are explored through the lens of his deteriorating mentalstate, expressed directly through experiments with different visual styles collected in thisvolume.
Translated by prolific art and comics historian Ryan Holmberg, He Rolled Me Up Like AGrilled Squid is a veteranstoryteller’s most compelling observations about people at their most human.
300 pages, Hardcover
Published March 31, 2026
About the author
Yoshiharu Tsuge
56 books125 followersInfluenced by the adventure comics of Osamu Tezuka and the gritty mystery manga of Yoshihiro Tatsumi and Masahiko Matsumoto, Yoshiharu Tsuge began making his own comics in the mid-1950s. He was also briefly recruited to assist Shigeru Mizuki during his explosion of popularity in the 1960s. In 1968, Tsuge published the groundbreaking, surrealistic story "Nejishiki" in the legendary alternative manga magazine Garo. This story established Tsuge as not only an influential manga-ka but also a major figure within Japan's counter-culture and art world at large. He is considered the originator and greatest practitioner of the semi-autobiographical "I-novel" genre of making comics. In 2005, Tsuge was nominated for the Best Album Award at Angoulême International, and in 2017 a survey of his work, A World Of Dreams And Travel, won the Japan Cartoonists Association Grand Award.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 15, 2026
I've come to accept that there's probably no other work in Tsuge's oeuvre that compares with "Nejishiki". So I wasn't disappointed by the promise of " the most surreal and transgressive stories of Tsuge's career". The weirder pieces here ("Seized by the Night", "The Swelling Outside", "He Rolled Me Up like a Grilled Squid", "Yoshibo's Crime", "Hands in the Window") have many strange and awkward stretches and are all enjoyable, though none come close to the sustained single-minded delirium of "Nejishiki".
"Hands in the Window" in particular has a kind of attractive discomfort that sometimes veers into absurdity. And while "Fishing in Aizu" is largely a classic Tsuge travelog, it's charming and sometimes very funny.
"Hands in the Window" in particular has a kind of attractive discomfort that sometimes veers into absurdity. And while "Fishing in Aizu" is largely a classic Tsuge travelog, it's charming and sometimes very funny.
April 25, 2026
Not as enjoyable as his other works. Not a fan of the purposefully amateurish drawing. The influence of European art and references in some of the stories was interesting.
April 6, 2026
4.5
Another incredible collection with an impressively detailed essay from Holmberg that contextualizes the relevant period of the author's life and makes connections that are invaluable for people interested in the manga of that era.
There were a few stories that I didn't care too much for -- surprisingly, the title story was one of them (the title stories of the previous four volumes have been some of my favorites). "Life on Cape Komatsu" and "Part-Time Job" were the two others in this collection that didn't do much for me. And although I liked parts of "Seized by the Night," some of it was also rough to work through.
But the remaining eight stories are all strong works, some of them among Tsuge's best. "Yoshibo's Crime," the only one I had read previously, is a bizarre nightmare journey similar to the more famous "Nejishiki." And both "The Swelling Outside" and "Hands in the Window," both also based on Tsuge's actual dreams, according to Holmberg's essay, are essential glimpses into the artist's unconscious.
If you're more into his travel narratives, "Plebeian Inn" and "Fishing in Aizu" are both fun entries in that genre. And the slice of life stories "A Boring Room," "Fish Stone," and "The Day's Amusement" are whimsical, funny sketches of a man's efforts to avoid work and his frustrations at failed schemes.
My three favorites are: "A Boring Room," "Hands in the Window," and "The Day's Amusement."
Just seven more months until volume 6!
Another incredible collection with an impressively detailed essay from Holmberg that contextualizes the relevant period of the author's life and makes connections that are invaluable for people interested in the manga of that era.
There were a few stories that I didn't care too much for -- surprisingly, the title story was one of them (the title stories of the previous four volumes have been some of my favorites). "Life on Cape Komatsu" and "Part-Time Job" were the two others in this collection that didn't do much for me. And although I liked parts of "Seized by the Night," some of it was also rough to work through.
But the remaining eight stories are all strong works, some of them among Tsuge's best. "Yoshibo's Crime," the only one I had read previously, is a bizarre nightmare journey similar to the more famous "Nejishiki." And both "The Swelling Outside" and "Hands in the Window," both also based on Tsuge's actual dreams, according to Holmberg's essay, are essential glimpses into the artist's unconscious.
If you're more into his travel narratives, "Plebeian Inn" and "Fishing in Aizu" are both fun entries in that genre. And the slice of life stories "A Boring Room," "Fish Stone," and "The Day's Amusement" are whimsical, funny sketches of a man's efforts to avoid work and his frustrations at failed schemes.
My three favorites are: "A Boring Room," "Hands in the Window," and "The Day's Amusement."
Just seven more months until volume 6!
April 20, 2026
A couple of stories in here are terribly rough to read in 2026, but the rest of the book is a great exploration of fantastical (a mix of dreams and nightmares) and semi-biographical stories. Ryan Holmberg also does a great job of contextualizing the authors works to his personal life and showing the readers the big-picture behind the book.
Note: I read this book first instead of any of the others and I suspect it’s his darkest material! Will revisit this review after reading the first couple of volumes.
Note: I read this book first instead of any of the others and I suspect it’s his darkest material! Will revisit this review after reading the first couple of volumes.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews