Jose presents … Suehiro Maruo’s Bloody Prints *

* (restored)
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Bio

 

Suehiro Maruo (1956 – ) is a self-taught high school dropout and former shoplifter who began drawing comics at the age of eighteen. His first work, submitted to the weekly manga Shonen Jump, was promptly rejected. His dark style fantasy dreams didn’t fit in the commercialized, mass-market magazines. It took five more years before he started drawing comics again, this time for Ero-manga.

 

 

Besides trying to make a living out of his talents, it was also part of a quest for artistic freedom. Maruo draws nightmares. In the tradition of muzan-e (atrocity print) woodblock masters of the 19th century, he drew short stories of axe murders, abortion, rape and incest in as much graphic detail as the obscenity codes allowed.

 

 

Maruo’s nightmarish manga fall into the Japanese category of “erotic grotesque” (エログロ; “ero-guro”). The stories often take place in the early years of Showa Era Japan. Maruo also has a fascination with human oddities, deformities, birth defects, and “circus freaks.” Many such characters figure prominently in his stories and are sometimes the primary subjects of his illustrations. His most recent work is an adaption of the story “The Strange Tale of Panorama Island” by Edogawa Rampo.

 

 

Though relatively few of Maruo’s manga have been published outside of Japan, his work enjoys a cult following abroad. His book Shōjo Tsubaki (aka Mr. Arashi’s Amazing Freak Show) has been adapted into an animated film (Midori) by Hiroshi Harada with a soundtrack by J.A. Seazer, but it has received very little release. In Europe it was marketed under the name Midori, after the main character. It was recently released on DVD in France by Cinemalta (the DVD includes English subtitles). — text collaged from various sources

 

 

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Media

Trailer: Midori, La Ragazza delle Camelie – Suehiro Maruo

Suehiro Maruo – Le Lézard Noir

lumaca (suehiro maruo – kim jun-sun)

La chenille V.1 & 2.0 – Suehiro Maruo – Edogawa Ranpo

The Strange Tale of Panorama Island

Rencontre internationale : Suehiro Maruo / Atsushi Kaneko

 

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Links

 

Suehiro Maruo’s Official Website (Japanese)
Suehiro Maruo Fan Shrine
Mr. Arashi’s Amazing Freak Show
Ero-Garu: The Erotic Grotesque of Suehiro Maruo
the strange fruit of suehiro maruo
The books of Suehiro Maruo
Suehiro Maruo @ Delicious Ghost
Suehiro Maruo @ I Was Ben

 

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Interview

 

Hello Suehiro Maruo, can you introduce yourself?
Suehiro Maruo: Basically, I am presented as a mangaka and it makes me happy to be presented like this. At the same time, I have a career as an illustrator. Both are very precious to me but it is true that I prefer to be introduced as an author of manga.

 

 

How did you become a mangaka?
Suehiro Maruo: Before becoming one, I went through several trades. Each time, it did not work and I realized that I was not made for such and such a job. I got fired several times and, in the end, I realized that I had no choice but to work in the manga.

 

 

Why did you choose the ero-guro register ?
Suehiro Maruo: Regarding ero-guro , I didn’t have much choice. Basically, I was planning a career as a children’s manga writer, but I was forced to give up because the publishers didn’t accept me. I turned to the ero-guro genre almost out of spite but I was never forced. I had a personal interest in ero-guro . I especially like the nonsense and the absurdity, these are the things that I like about this genre. The fact that there is no question of justice, that it is big nonsense, that’s all that pleases me in ero-guro .

 

 

Where are you going to find all your ideas?
Suehiro Maruo:It’s something that comes to me in a very natural way, compared to my readings or the movies I watch. There is no special approach, it is very natural. I couldn’t do for example a series like Dragon Ball , I wouldn’t have the ideas for.

 

 

So, you will never do an ero-guro version of Dragon Ball ?
Suehiro Maruo: It could be possible, you never know! (laughs)

 

 

Are there artists who influence you on a daily basis?
Suehiro Maruo: For cinema, there are directors like David Lynch, Luis Bunuel, or Tod Browning. In painting, I would say artists like Max Ernst and Jean Baltus.

 

 

Your drawing is always very fine and emphasizes the contrasts of horror. Is this a specific approach?
Suehiro Maruo: Indeed, it is a bias on my part to express grotesque things. It’s best to do them with a thin line.

 

 

There is great symbolism in your work around pierced eyes. What do you want to express through this?
Suehiro Maruo: Actually, to tell you the truth, there is no meaning behind it all. The fact of repeating this process causes the reader to question and that’s what I’m looking for. There is nothing behind it but I always try to provoke the reader.

 

 

In your work, there are a lot of psychopaths, sexual deviations … Do you have limits?
Suehiro Maruo: Personally, I don’t set myself any particular limits. I always try to have the freedom to go how far I want to go. On the other hand, it is true that in what I express, the one who suffers the violence that I stage, depending on the nature of the one who suffers, it changes the meaning of what the reader will understand in relation to the story. For example, I will rarely put in scene a handicapped person who would be subjected to violence whereas on the other hand in a film of Bunuel, there is a group of children which attacks a blind man. These kinds of images have influenced me.

 

 

In Japan, there is real legislation around the representation of sex.How do you deal with this?
Suehiro Maruo: It is true that it is very different in Japan. It is forbidden to draw sexes, suddenly as long as we do not break this rule, we can go very far. By avoiding drawing the sex, I avoid falling under the censorship.

 

 

We have often read that in your youth, you lived in the street and that you were a kleptomaniac. Have these aspects of your life pushed you to denounce society through your works?
Suehiro Maruo: No, there is no will on my part to denounce the company. I was clearly in the wrong!

 

 

What do you think of the reception given to your work outside of Japan?
Suehiro Maruo:I receive letters from fans in Japan and this happens to me less from foreign readers. However, I received letters from Trevor Brown [a London artist] telling me that I appreciated my work. He has since come to Japan and lives there.

 

 

If you had the cosmic power to visit an author’s skull to understand his genius, who would you visit and do what?
Suehiro Maruo: I wouldn’t choose any author because it wouldn’t make too much sense. I consider having the physical energy for an author to be the most important. I might have Akira Toriyama’s ideas, but I wouldn’t be able to draw them.

 

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Two sample stories

 

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*

p.s. Hey. ** Misanthrope, Hi. Ah, so you’re into rough trade and Timothee Chalamet. You’re so magnanimous. Luckily for me, my mouth feels almost normal again today strangely. Need some codeine infused Dolipran? I’ll give you a good price. ** Ian, Hi, Ian. Yeah, turns out the genre of the police sketch allows artists a lot of range. My summer’s being alright. Super mild weather, which is heavenly. Ah, very nice about Nova Scotia! And the possibly fruitful aftereffects. Inordinate luck re: the jobs if that doesn’t need to go without saying. Thanks, it’s really nice to see you! ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. I remember that hoax. I think I intended to do a blog post about that at the time but something stopped me. Huh. ** Sypha, Dude, it’s crazy how humane the medical thing is over here. I think I’ve mentioned before that several times when I’ve had to see a doctor for various reasons, when it comes time to pay and I tell them I don’t have insurance, they just shrug and say the French equivalent of, Well, then don’t worry about it. ** Mike Morey, Hi, Mike! That was a million dollar question when I saw and grabbed that drawing to which I remain as clueless as you. I’m not surprised about the attractive prisoners, but then I’ve long since stopped being surprised that in my search for slaves for the monthly post a lot of the slaves who wants guys to destroy or snuff them are very attractive. Of course in that case, most or all of them are probably fake. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Thanks. I think I might be already post-pain on this only second recovery day, luckily and unexpectedly. Oh, yeah, I meant an intended triple album like, you know, your ‘Tales of the Topographic Ocean’ equivalent. But, you know, better. Didn’t know about that bi-monthly column and I will read it, thank you! ** Dominik, Hi, D-ster!!! Yeah, my mouth suddenly rebelled, but I guess it’s on its way to being tamed now. It strangely doesn’t hurt today. Well, only vaguely. The producer meeting happened (!), and it was good. Progress made, things are moving again and look pretty good. It’s really possible we’ll able to shoot the film in February like we want, but we’ll see. SCAB to my rescue! Yes! I’ll read, or, wait, watch that as soon as the ‘ink’ on this p.s. is ‘dry’. Everyone, It’s a happy day because Dominick’s legendary online mag SCAB has unleashed a goodie, and it’s a short video by the awesome writer and Amphetamine Sulphate author Josh Peterson. Go dive in without a second thought right here. Sweet! Poor Love! Love being rescued from his physical horribleness by a kindly plastic surgeon of international renown who promises to remake him into a gorgeous twink but is only capable of giving him Madonna’s face for which Love is begrudgingly grateful, G. ** T, Hi, T. I thought so too, no surprise, I guess. My root canal involved numbing my mouth and then drilling all kind of holes and little caves into one of my teeth and I guess into my gums where the tooth’s problematic root is and then putting some kind of cement-y material in the holes. It wasn’t a nightmare. It did hurt a wee bit too much. Your wished-for Thursday would be lovely, although I have to do two Zoom interviews today, and since my drug of choice is LSD, I might regret it all in the morning. I hope your Thursday magically brings Jean-Michel Basquiat back to life for 24 hours which he spends painting your day which you then sell at auction at Sotheby’s for, oh, $80M. ** Okay. Today I restore a quite old, formerly dead guest-post by a long lost d.l. named Jose who wanted you to know about the works of Suehiro Maruo, and, since that continues seem like a very good idea on his part, here you go. See you tomorrow.