Creating grotesque manga feels like going full circle for Junji Ito as his favorite stories from childhood sparked his passion for horror!
HANGING BALLOONS – JUNJI ITO
When it comes to horror manga, Junji Ito is an incomparable mastermind. Ito has continuously defined what horror can be with his grotesque works such as Uzumaki, Tomie, The Enigma of Amigara Fault and many more; leaving readers horrified and disturbed by the eerie images and bizarre stories. But many may not know that the terror Ito instills in his readers stems from his own deepest fears.
Although he had a huge fascination with horror since childhood, he decided to explore this genre as a mangaka after experiencing the pure horror of reading and watching horror stories himself. The fears he felt in childhood as a horror lover himself, later manifested in his work; creating a completely different genre associated with his own name.
In 2019, during the 30th anniversary of his first published collection of illustrations in one volume called Igyō Sekai, Junji Ito and his editor-in-chief, Makiko Hara, sat down for an interview with Grape Japan. In this interview, Ito talked about his long journey as a horror mangaka.
