The twisted genius behind Dementia 21 returns with a new round of black comedy manga. Brain Damage collects four new short manga stories, a tantalizing blend of the hilarious and the macabre. In Labyrinth Quartet, four identical young women trapped in an eerie building must solve the mystery of why they’ve been gathered there — while being hunted by a knife-wielding stalker. In Curse Room, a plucky health aide is tasked with keeping zombies peaceful, lest they go on a brain-eating rampage. In Family Portrait, people throughout town are strangely disappearing without a trace, and the key to it all is a senile and perverted old man. Finally, in Blood Harvest, a series of gruesomely mangled bodies are found in pristine cars — and it appears something sinister lurks within these masses of glass and steel.
Shintaro Kago has developed quite the cult following in Japan for his work in garo manga. The comics he produces are unapologetically twisted and not afraid to make his readers uncomfortable with their trademark black humour and shocking imagery. Dementia 21 was the first of his works to be translated to English and introduced him to a whole new audience. This latest translation will give fans the chance to see him push the boundaries even further.
Whilst Dementia 21 was mainly pushing for absurdity, Brain Damage takes this absurdity and pushes it more heavily into the horror genre – particularly when it comes to exposing the ugly side of humanity. Labyrinth Quartet in many ways is a classic slasher with some of the most violent content of the book in some truly grisly scenes and a shocking twist on why the killer has trapped four identical women. Curse Room ups the ante with a truly unsettling take on zombies and Kago bringing a somewhat stylistic flair to zombie violence on both sides of the equation whilst posing an amusing scenario of a zombie retaining their memories and emotions. Blood Harvest also gets in on the action with a genuinely inticing mystery of why mangled and disfigured bodies that look like they are in wreck are turning up in undamaged cars.
It is Kago’s art that hold the collection together though. His style brings to mind other great horror manga artists such as Shuzo Oshimi and Junji Ito, but – in many ways – he is willing to push the boundaries even further than his contemporaries when it comes to depicting horror. It is a fine line between creating something shocking and keeping it narratively cohesive, yet Kago manages to achieve that balance.
This is not a collection for the faint of heart, but manga fans who aren’t afraid of limits being pushed when it comes to horror need to give Kago’s latest work a read.
Brain Damage is out now from Fantagraphics (9798875000935, h/b, £27.99)
Or support your local bookstore.
Want regular updates and weekly reviews on the latest in graphic novels and manga? Follow us on Twitter @turnaroundcomix.
