Discover the masterpieces of horror master Junji Ito

Are you addicted to the next recently translated horror manga? How about meeting their father? Indeed, the second volume of Junji Ito's Masterpieces is an ideal gateway to approach a fundamental author of horror in manga.

Honor to the master

For four volumes, the publishing house Mangetsu has decided to highlight one of the masters of manga, the writer and cartoonist Junji Ito. They put the package for this with prestigious editions. Each volume is set in a cardboard cover with a flap and has beautiful lighting effects. The translation has been completely redone. As with 404 comics, Mangetsu describes the paper chosen for the book and cover. The requirement even goes so far as to translate working notes and then rewrite them by hand. This edition also includes a very comprehensive critical device. In a preface, Maghla expresses his joy as a fan of being able to read these news. At the end of each story, Junji Ito's comments enrich the reading by showing his influences and working in collaboration with the editor. If the first short story is reminiscent of the American writer Edgar Alan Poe when madness seizes a murderer, we note by the commentary that the author is inspired by a Japanese tale about demons with long necks. At the end of the volume, a valuable analysis by Morolian, a French-speaking specialist in Junji Ito, shows the link between the different works of the master of the fantastic. It gives keys to interpretations such as the link with puberty by the erection of a neck.

Dark writing

As the title indicates, this volume is the second in a compilation of the best short stories published by Junji Ito in Asahi Shinbun  magazine: "The Hallucinated Necks", "The Sadist", "The Funeral City", "Howling Pipes", "The Whisperer", "The Slug Woman", "Carnal Horror", "The Rumours", "Sweet Farewell" and "Soichi The Possessed". These masterpieces are therefore a perfect read to peck from time to time the acid candy of these horror news. Throughout the pages, the reader observes the abnormal mutations of bodies but, more than these deformed creatures, the most frightening is the monster nestled in the heart of the human soul. Indeed, each chapter reveals a new bad feeling of a character initially well behaved. By small touches, we watch helplessly as a model girl becomes a sadist. The main characters experience strong jealousy, intense shame or have a requirement pushed to the point of obsession. Not all are innocent because, in the first novel, a killer high school student is anxious. The presence of death is constant… including by grave markers in the middle of the road or in a room.

Dread in one box

Junji Ito demonstrates a real mastery of the structure of the novel. Each story begins with an innocuous detail – a mother obsessed with cleanliness – or surprising – a talkative high school student who can no longer speak. We are seized but then there is a progression in evil. The tension rises until the final twist on the last page or box. He alternates moods with a new poetics on the link between earth, death and human beings. Junji Ito's drawing style is very different from the current production. Its layout seems wise and it is very accurate in the realism of bodies and faces around decorations always very detailed. All this classicism is a voluntary choice to make the appearance of the supernatural even more terrifying. The simple line shows by the black around the eyes that evil is coming. The research can be seen in the sketches at the end of each short story. At Junji Ito, horror is born in one box: a teenager holds a shovel but the monologue explains that he killed his best friend last night. It's already scary but we fall into an increasingly dark abyss: he killed him for his large size, then his excavated corpse has a neck much too long. If, like any compilation, not all stories are equal, each story of these masterpieces of Junji Ito will mark you. You will sometimes be moved but most often frightened to the point of checking that the front door is closed. Horror stories are also very fashionable in comics as you can see with the chronicles of The Plot or Shanghai Red.