Face Meat

"From influential Japanese cartoonist and pioneering tattoo artist Bonten comes a collection of unsettling short stories bursting with visceral horror and mind-bending surrealism. In the late 1960s, while peers such as Shigeru Mizuki and Kazuo Umezz were revolutionizing horror comics in respectable mainstream manga magazines, Bonten’s work was relegated to appearing in the pages of disreputable underground men’s magazines. Free from the need to appeal to mainstream sensibilities, Bonten blended elements of body horror, supernatural terror, and psychological thrillers, imbuing his tales of serial killers, demonic entities, ghostly apparitions, and literal descents to hell with existential dread and a raw, feverish energy. Bonten’s remarkable illustration makes use of bold, inky linework and exaggerated body language and facial expressions to evoke a nightmarish atmosphere and to depict characters who appear contorted by obsession, desire, rage, or to the whims of an oppressively violent world. Translator Holmberg and historian Hiroshi Kunisawa provide essays offering valuable context on Bonten’s influence on Japanese culture, as well as the evolution of Japanese horror comics.VERDICT Not for the faint of heart, though readers interested in vintage horror or eager to visit the outer limits of macabre will surely find this an essential collection." - Library Journal