The Delicious Hell of Jun Hayami

Extraordinary imagery from Jun Hayami's BLOODSTAINED ANGELS (2011), available in the US from akatako.net

Perhaps better than any other Japanese artist, Hayami captures intense, cruel, vile, sociopathic sexuality that also has its opposite, an opposite rarely allowed by mainstream media.

The artistry is absolute, consistent, and troubling in the very best way.

Definitely not for all tastes, each work is a voyage into illustrated hell.

Thankfully, the only real hurt is to the trees from which the paper comes.

The Saddest Labyrinth of Grim Life

 

Jun Hayami's  Beauty Labyrinth of Razors has been somewhat of an untouchable, Holy Grail publication for me. It is said that Creation Books released a version of it limited to 69 copies, but I've been unable to acquire it because I refuse to pay the current eBay asking price of $400. My primary objection to handing over four hundred bucks is a story that the work is partially censored for "highly objectionable content". Creation Books has been sheepish about all aspects of the book's release, so the truth of their edition remains elusive.

 

Fortunately, thanks to the amazing akatako.net, I've finally acquired the original, totally uncut Japanese edition of the book.

Expecting unbridled extremity, I was a little disappointed in the content, but now that I've perused it several times, looking for clues to its infamy, I can confidently say that it is one of the saddest, darkest, most wretched tomes of true horror I've seen in many a blue moon.

 

It is a collection of close to a dozen tales of heinous behavior directed mostly towards women. Men are depicted as lecherous, foul beasts, and Hayami's world view is bleak and anxiety-ridden. Although the women suffer terribly, the men often end up as crushed, gaping shells of viscera.

Some of the art is detailed and some of it is spare and simple. Various pieces feel like they've been hijacked from Panorama of Hell, Hideshi Hino's earth-shattering last word on grim.

If you've already exposed yourself -- God help you! -- to Japan's Guro genre, some of the content of Razors will not be unfamiliar. Although artists such as Waita Uziga, Horihone Saizou, Kaneyama Shim, and Shintaro Kago have produced equally graphic, incendiary content, few of their works have bled from the soul as furiously as this one (with the exception of the same artist's Maggot Hole, An Ugly Daughter Like Me, and Hentai Shounen.

 

Sometimes we don't understand why we take the journey, but we are mindful of the need to at least consider what represents a destination.

Not a manga or even Japanese, Joseph Scott Morgan's Blood Beneath My Feet is a fine companion piece to Razors. 

Exploring mortality from a coroner's cold perspective, it finds literary salvation in steaming human fluids and splattered DNA.

Morgan writes with the direct poetry of Jim Thompson and the candor of Selby Jr. and Bukowski.

Saeki Toshio's ONIKAGE

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know I love the mind-bending work of Saeki Toshio.

In the most peculiar and surprising ways, he sings my song.

Clearly, he sings the songs of others, too, because he is somewhat of a cult phenomenon.

His latest collection of previously unseen work, Onikage, has been published by San Francisco-based Last Gasp. It is a stunner. Also stunning is the size (it's huge) and the low price.

I'm not home much lately, but when I am, I eat my my morning oatmeal with blueberries and bee pollen crystals while leafing through these enchanting works of a deeply fertile imagination.

This image above, which echoes Todd Browning's Freaks, is one of my favorites for what it suggests and what it celebrates.

These scans are merely sections of larger pieces. Due to this book's size, it is impossible to fully scan the pages with a standard scanner. I only include these here to give you a taste of the magic to be discovered when you purchase a copy of this sensational book.

There is a rare interview with the artist and several overlays which illustrate his unique working methods.

"In the modern world, where one rarely stops to think about the truth behind the moment, you might enjoy it if you take a peep at my mysterious and strange illusions. To those who frown at them, I want to place the drawings right in front of your face and ask if you really disapprove. I'm always thinking how wonderful it would be to give shape to psychological pictures which everyone hides and holds deep within them."

Saeki Toshio
March, 2009

The Mighty Maruo Returns

Fans of Suehiro Maruo and Edogawa Ranpo have reason to rejoice this quarter with the publication of Ranpo Panorama.

This is a stunning, glossy Japanese gift in which Suehiro interprets the works of Japanese literary giant Edogawa Ranpo.

Variations on twenty-six English characters can not adequately describe the magic, wonder, and romantic sensuality to be found within these pages.

The artist has excelled himself in this work, and it is easily his best since the publication of his groundbreaking 'Maruograph' volumes.

The book is available through US stores such as Kinokuniya for the paltry price of US$33, or through Amazon.co.jp

Like artists such as Toshio Saeki and Hideshi Hino, Maruo finds fresh flesh beneath the fascia that somehow holds us together. His art is a lifelong poem to passionate invention unhindered by fear and social pressure.

A massive bonus in this volume is the inclusion, care of Beam Comics, of Suehiro Maruo's unofficial sequel to Mr. Arshi's Amazing Freak Show.

Also based on a Ranpo story, "The Midget is Dancing" is a delightfully grotesque, beautiful, and subversive tale in which a midget finds true love after an act of dismemberment.

Do not hesitate to add this titanic volume to your literary ossuary of perversion.

From Enterbrain and Beam Comics (c) 2010

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Scans above are not accurate representations of the actual art appearing in this book. Due to the difficulty of scanning bound pages, the scans are compromises intended to give you a taste only of the beauty to be found within Ranpo Panorama.