Heaven's Door: Extra Works

by Keiichi Koike, Ajani Oloye (Translation), Colin Turner (Editor)

A sci-fi manga collection of psychedelic short stories by Keiichi Koike. A drug in paper form! This is his first full-length book published in English.

Contains these
KNOCKIN' ON HEAVEN'S DOOR
3,000 Leagues in Search of Mother
Lazarus Franco's 4 A.M.
The Ronin and the Sea
Looper
Kenbo's Diary
Sponge Generation
Airway
Stereo Scope
Horizon
Landed

Genres: Manga, Comics, Graphic Novels

200 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2020

About the author

Keiichi Koike (in Japanese, 小池 桂一) is a Japanese manga artist.

Born in Tokyo in 1960, Koike won the prestigious Tezuka Award in 1976, when he was 16.

His style, similar to Katsuhiro Otomo and Moebius, is marked by vivid representations of psychedelic experiences.

Drugs are an important part of his inspiration: "Except peyotl, I have tried almost everything: hashish, heroin, cocain, acid, magic mushrooms... From a strictly graphical point of view, however, LSD is most important by far..." He is best known as the author of manga Heaven's Door and Ultra Heaven.

His work was first presented to English audiences in 2016.

Reviews

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars--This is truly some of the most stunning artwork I've seen in the comics form. As this is a collection of works, some of the comics are dated, and some better than others. When the artist can restrain himself from veering into gross-for-grossness'-sake territory, he can create some absolutely amazing work.

[xenia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the most accurate and detailed representations of tripping on DMT, acid, or salvia I've seen. It's fun, if exhausting. Characters constantly break out of their own narrative framings, reaching what appear to be the final grounds of their ontologies, only for that to retract into another narrative frame. It's pomo heaven, but having had various psychedelic experiences, it's also the phenomenological experience of psychedelics and dissociatives. Space morphs, time disjuncts, the self ruptures.

On one of my worst trips I literally forgot I'd taken drugs. My thoughts became incoherent. I forgot where I was. My senses were so overloaded I couldn't speak or see. I thought I was at a party, and that my drink had been laced. I could hear this strange sped-up sound, like someone was fast-forwarding a music track on tape. There were little pops all around me. I thought it was my mind, breaking like camera flash bulbs on concrete. Weeks later I realised what I'd heard was the foam on my lips. Pop, pop, pop. Sensation interpreted as ontology.

Maybe that's Heaven's Door. All the times we think we've died or lost our minds, only to resurface, look at our reflection and laugh, while fully knowing that sobriety may simply be another trick of an endless psychedelic dream. A butterfly dreaming they're a trans kid dreaming they're sober reviewing a manga on goodreads.

[drown_like_its_1999 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A gorgeously drawn short story manga collection consisting of high concept sci-fi vignettes, farcical strips, and trippy fantasies. The best narrative of the bunch ("Arrival") was about a man straddling life and death after a plane crash, having a conversation with his brain tissue donor in limbo as doctors try to save his life in the real world. I also quite enjoyed "3000 Leagues in Search of Mother" about two androids that share a dream in which they become friends before waking up and their owners giving them a factory reset after considering their behavior 'faulty'.

While I found some of these pieces quite a lot more compelling than others, this was largely a great time with art that was consistently excellent. Both the pencilling and panelling are truly exceptional, with the visual structure often being wildly experimental for a manga from the 80s. While I preferred the more high concept dramatic narratives, the more cartoonish strips were pretty enjoyable too. That being said, the more abstract stories felt shallow and the strip not written by Koike in "Stereo Scope" was just forgettable but well depicted gags.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this may have been a little too weird for me. I'm not 100% sure I really "got" any of the stories. It will require some thinking.

[Victor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Widely varying in content & somewhat in quality as well, but the best of it is definitely impressive, if somewhat derivative.

[Michael Harring · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s hard to rate collections like this. The art, imagination and creativity are just astounding, and if that’s what you’re looking for (maybe you just need some artistic inspiration?) this is a five star easy recommend. As far as story compilations go, it suffers from the same issues you see in many of the Heavy Metal illustrated shorts. Despite jaw dropping imagery, the stories aren’t particularly memorable and are sometimes a labor to get through.

[Sezer Turgay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Katsuhiro Otomo'nun asistanı Keiichi Koike'nin kısa hikayelerinden oluşan bir derleme.Hayalle gerçeğin iç içe girdiği hikayelerden oluşuyor genelde bazıları muhteşem bazıları zaman kaybı ama Keiichi abinin hiç işi yoktu elimde hazır kitapları yavaş yavaş çevriliyorken İngilizceye bir şans vermek istedim.Çizimleri muhteşem Otomo'dan aşağı kalır bir yanı yok hatta bazı konularda ötesine bile geçmiş.

[Rick Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Otomo/Moebius influences are apparent immediately, though Koike distinguishes his own work in a unique way. The psychedelic compositions and panel layouts are a sight to behold. The stories themselves are a bit of an afterthought, but perhaps they were esoteric beyond my own reach. It's a pretty book to look at for sure though.

[pato]

inconsistent, by plane was probably the highlight some were just eye candy or felt aimless but thats how short story collections go. hard to compare to other mangakas - he's in a league of his own. also just got this physically woot

[Kyle Yadlosky · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first comic I've read in a while that could only be a comic. Super dense psychedelic imagery positioned in some jaw-dropping layouts. Even when I had no idea what was going on, I was happy to be looking at it.

[Diego Munoz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this one. Trippy stories, great art work. Some stories better than others, particularly the more "normal" ones, but clearly Koike has an amazing and creative brain. Reminded me of Akira at time. Thumbs up!

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heaven’s Door is a collection of psychedelic manga short stories. The art is stellar, 10/10. However, some of the stories are so absolutely trippy and mind bending, it’s hard to make heads or tails of them.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Favorite stories were 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother, Looper, and Sponge Generation. All of the art was incredible. I could look at some of these pages for hours.

[Liz Thoth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful artwork by Koike. Anyone who has had an NDE or strong ‘journeying’ event, will gravitate the most to this book.

[Alex Fyffe · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[spoon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Look I just didn't like it and that's that.

[Taylor Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was weird and cool but none of the stories really blew me away

[Landon Schmidt-Warnecke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Score: 69
Art: 18/20
Story: 10/20
Characters: 12/20
World-building: 15/20
Writing: 14/20