Shigeru Mizuki--Japan's grand master of yokai comics--adapts one of the most important works of supernatural literature into comic book form. The cultural equivalent of the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, Tono Monogatari is a defining text of Japanese folklore and one of the country's most important works of literature. This graphic novel was created during the later stage of Mizuki's career, after he had retired from the daily grind of commercial comics to create personal, lasting works of art. Originally written in 1910 by folklorists and field researchers Kunio Yanagita and Kizen Sasaki, Tono Monogatari celebrates and archives legends from the Tono region. These stories were recorded as Japan's rapid modernization led to the disappearance of traditional culture. This adaptation mingles the original text with autobiography: Mizuki attempts to retrace Yanagita and Sasaki's path, but finds his old body is not quite up to the challenge of following in their footsteps. As Mizuki wanders through Tono he retells some of the most famous legends, manifesting a host of monsters, dragons, and foxes. In the finale, Mizuki meets Yanagita himself and they sit down to discuss their works. (Source: Drawn & Quarterly)

A romantic thriller exploring the dark corners of human desire and isolation with quiet eeriness. Is a fresh start truly possible? Or will society’s strictures and your own impulses keep re-creating the same messed-up relationships in every narrow room you enter? Choi Seongmin’s Narrow Rooms follows a young woman who leaves her rural hometown to study in Seoul and seek self-improvement. But once there, she quickly becomes the target of unwanted attention from her teacher, and the whispers of other students only deepen her alienation. Living in a cramped, poorly soundproofed room, the suffocating atmosphere begins to further distort her boundaries and perceptions. Longing for escape, she fixates on a handsome new neighbor, her fascination spiraling into obsession: She secretly rummages through his mailbox, collects his discarded cigarette butts and teabags, and hoards his trash. But when she discovers something unsavory about the object of her desire, will she be forced to confront the morals of her own behavior? (Source: Drawn & Quarterly)

Good-Bye is the third in a series of collected short stories from Drawn & Quarterly by the legendary Japanese cartoonist Yoshihiro Tatsumi, whose previous work has been selected for several annual “top 10” lists, including those compiled by Amazon and Time.com. Drawn in 1971 and 1972, these stories expand the prolific artist’s vocabulary for characters contextualized by themes of depravity and disorientation in twentieth-century Japan. Some of the tales focus on the devastation the country felt directly as a result of World War II: a prostitute loses all hope when American GIs go home to their wives; a man devotes twenty years of his life to preserving the memory of those killed at Hiroshima, only to discover a horrible misconception at the heart of his tribute. Yet, while American influence does play a role in the disturbing and bizarre stories contained within this volume, it is hardly the overriding theme. A philanthropic foot fetishist, a rash-ridden retiree, and a lonely public onanist are but a few of the characters etching out darkly nuanced lives in the midst of isolated despair and fleeting pleasure. *Hell (地獄, Jigoku) "Just a Man" (男 一発, Otoko Ippatsu) "Sky Burial" (鳥葬, Chōsō) "Rash" "Woman in the Mirror" (鏡の中の女, Kagami no Naka no Onna) "Night Falls Again" (夜がまたくる, Yoru ga Mata Kuru) "Life is So Sad" "Click Click Click" (コツコツコツ, Kotsu Kotsu Kotsu) "Good-bye" (グッドバイ, Guddobai)

Yuna never wanted to adopt a dog. But with her partner in mourning–and in desperate need of a boost in morale–she gives in to his humble request. And in the grand tradition of reluctant pet owners, she and their puppy soon become inseparable. The young couple even goes so far as to relocate from Seoul to soothe their new canine pal’s anxiety. After all, there’s nothing like a move to the country to set yourself right. Right? The idyll of a quiet life soon gives way to a surprising degree of antagonism, including clashes with long-time local residents of a different generation. The culture shock is palpable for all three urban transplants as the isolation of their new environs starts to sink in. They eventually adopt another dog, and still another–all while reckoning with the ups and downs of middle-age and childlessness in an unforgivingly traditional milieu. (Source: Drawn & Quarterly)

Seiichi Hayashi produced Red Colored Elegy between 1970 and 1971, in the aftermath of a politically turbulent and culturally vibrant decade that promised but failed to deliver new possibilities. With a combination of sparse line work and visual codes borrowed from animation and film, the quiet melancholy lives of a young couple struggling to make ends meet are beautifully captured in this poetic masterpiece. Uninvolved with the political movements of the time, Ichiro and Sachiko hope for something better, but they're no revolutionaries; their spare time is spent drinking, smoking, daydreaming, and sleeping--together and at times with others. While Ichiro attempts to make a living from his comics, Sachiko's parents are eager to arrange a marriage for her, but Ichiro doesn't seem interested. Both in their relationship and at work, Ichiro and Sachiko are unable to say the things they need to say, and like any couple, at times say things to each other that they do not mean, ultimately communicating as much with their body language and what remains unsaid as with words. Red Colored Elegy is informed as much by underground Japanese comics of the time as it is by the French Nouvelle Vague, and its cultural referents range from James Dean to Ken Takakura. Its influence in Japan was so large that Morio Agata, a prominent Japanese folk musician and singer songwriter, debuted with a love song written and named after it. "I wanted to live like Sachiko and Ichiro; to have aspirations even while living stoically and humbly." --Morio Agata (Source: Drawn and Quaterly)

A collection of short stories: 1. **Nejishiki** (ねじ式, Screw-Style, The Stopcock), Monthly Manga Garo 1968-06 2. **Numa** (沼, The Swamp), Monthly Manga Garo 1966-02 3. **Chico** (チーコ, Chirpy), Monthly Manga Garo 1966-03 4. **Hatsu Take-gari** (初茸がり, Mushroom Hunting), Monthly Manga Garo 1966-04 5. **Sanshouuo** (山椒魚, The Salamander), Monthly Manga Garo 1967-05 6. **Touge no Inu** (峠の犬, The Dog from Prayer Pass), Monthly Manga Garo 1967-08 7. **Uwasa no Bushi** (噂の武士, The Phony Warrior), Monthly Manga Garo 1965-08 8. **Ondol Koya** (オンドル小屋, The Ondol Shack), Monthly Manga Garo 1968-04 9. **Gensenkan Shujin** (ゲンセンカン主人, Master of the Gensenkan Inn), Monthly Manga Garo 1968-07 10. **Chouhachi no Yado** (長八の宿, Chohachi Inn), Monthly Manga Garo 1968-01 11. **Ooba Denki Mekki Kougyou-sho** (大場電気鍍金工業所, Oba's Electroplate Factory), Bessatsu Manga Story 1973-04

In Fallen Words, Yoshihiro Tatsumi takes up the oral tradition of rakugo and breathes new life into it by shifting the format from spoken word to manga. Each of the eight stories in the collection is lifted from the Edo-era Japanese storytelling form. As Tatsumi notes in the afterword, the world of rakugo, filled with mystery, emotion, revenge, hope, and, of course, love, overlaps perfectly with the world of Gekiga that he has spent the better part of his life developing. These slice-of-life stories resonate with modern readers thanks to their comedic elements and familiarity with human idiosyncrasies. In one, a father finds his son too bookish and arranges for two workers to take the young man to a brothel on the pretext of visiting a new shrine. In another particularly beloved rakugo tale, a married man falls in love with a prostitute. When his wife finds out, she is enraged and sets a curse on the other woman. The prostitute responds by cursing the wife, and the two escalate in a spiral of voodoo doll cursing. Soon both are dead, but even death can’t extinguish their jealousy. Tatsumi’s love of wordplay shines through in the telling of these whimsical stories, and yet he still offers timeless insight into human nature. (Source: Drawn and Quarterly)

Kitaro is a yokai boy born in a cemetery, and aside from his mostly-decayed father, the last living member of the Ghost tribe. He is missing his left eye, but his hair usually covers the empty socket. He fights for peace between humans and yokai, which generally involves protecting the former from the wiles of the latter. Written between 1959-1964, this manga is the original Kitaro story which a few years later, would become the template for the more well-known and popular manga/anime; "Gegege no Kitaro"

A collection of short stories drawn with great delicacy and told with subtle nuance by legendary Japanese artist Susumu Katsumata. The setting is the pre-modern Japanese countryside of the author's youth, a slightly magical world where ancestral traditions hold sway over a people in the full vigor of life, struggling to survive the harsh seasons and the difficult life of manual laborers and farmers. While the world they inhabit has faded into memory and myth, the universal fundamental emotions of the human heart prevail at the center of these tender stories. (Source: Drawn & Quarterly)

In this collection of hauntingly elliptical short stories, Oji Suzuki explores memory, relationships, and loss with a loose narrative style, filling each tale with a sense of unfulfilled longing. He plumbs the dissolute depths of human psychology, literally bathing his characters in expansive shadows that paradoxically reveal as much as they obscure.

1. **Akai Hana** (紅い花, Red Flowers), Monthly Manga Garo 1967-10 2. **Ri-san Ikka** (李さん一家, The Lee Family), Monthly Manga Garo 1967-06 3. **Tsuya** (通夜, The Wake), Monthly Manga Garo 1967-03 4. **Umibe no Jokei** (海辺の叙景, Scenes from the Seaside), Monthly Manga Garo 1967-09 5. **Nishibeta Mura Jiken** (西部田村事件, The Incident at Nishibeta Village), Monthly Manga Garo 1967-12 6. **Futamata Keikoku** (二岐溪谷, Futamata Gorge), Monthly Manga Garo 1968-02 7. **Honyara Hora no Ben-san** (ほんやら洞のべんさん, Mister Ben of the Honyara Cave), Monthly Manga Garo 1968-06 8. **Jonin** (女忍, The Ninjess), Ryuuko 1961-02, redrawn and -published in Monthly Manga Garo 1966-12 9. **Furuhon to Shoujo** (古本と少女, The Secondhand Book), Meiro2 1960-02, redrawn and -published in Monthly Manga Garo 1966-09 10. **Mokkiriya no Shoujo** (もっきり屋の少女), Monthly Manga Garo 1968-08 11. **Yanagiya Shujin** (やなぎ屋主人), Monthly Manga Garo 1970-02 & 1970-03 12. **Shomin Onyado** (庶民御宿), Manga Sunday 1975-04 13. **Kinjo no Keshiki** (近所の景色), Custom Comics 1981-10 *Note: Chapter 11 was originally published in two parts, the chapter count reflects that.*

Collects three manga by Sakabashira: 1. **Aka Tights Otoko** ( 赤タイツ男) 2. **Hako no Otoko** (箱の男) 3. **Chiteijin Emmanuel** (地底人エマニエル)