Customer Reviews

Secret Comics Japan: Underground Comics Now

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A collection of tales ranging from the almost dream-like Swing Shell (a story of a young girl coping with incest) to the bizarre Puntures (a strange look into the copings of modern society). Not every story in this collection, will appeal to everyone and it's definitely not for the kiddies. They will at least challenge any preconcieve notion as to what manga is about and change our views about another culture and perhaps ourselves. I highly recommend this book if only for the story Swing Shell due to its artwork and the way it deals with a very serious topic.

The fact that it has the world's only english-language printing of a SHINTARO mother#*&%ing KAGO story makes this book an automatic must buy.

Oh, and don't buy it for the ridiculous used prices here. If you do a good amount of googling, you can still find it for sale at other places. I got my copy for around 20 bucks at some random UK book store. You can still find it for a good price, you just need to scour the internets.

(I also thought the Junko Mizuno story was quite good and it made me buy more of her books. We need more weird, avant-gardeish manga like this in the US. As opposed to all the idiotic shounen draaaaagfests and mansexyaoifangirl stuff)

This is yet another wonderful collection of strange Japanese Comics. In the same vein as anthologies SAKE JOCK and COMICS UNDERGROUND JAPAN, SECRET COMICS JAPAN is a hearty helping of strange, weird, beautiful and questionable comics.
If you're tired of the pretentious AMerican underground comis that Fantagraphics is publishing, then check out this collection of Japanese gems and take in a refreshing breath of creative air. - JOHN