suehiro maruo: love and hate txo!?
I have the slight suspicion that people who say there�s sex and violence in Manga comics haven�t seen any of Suehiro Maruo�s carefully illustrated artwork. Once they have seen some of his work, well, then they certainly won�t be mistaken in reaffirming what they thought before. Apart from the aforementioned characteristics, this Japanese artist�s comics are stuffed full of well-narrated stories and exquisitely composed drawings that provoke powerful sentiments and reflect harrowing experiences.
Suehiro Maruo�s stories drag us into the dark surrealist gloom of dreams. Those in the know say that Suehiro follows the style used by 19th century Japanese xylographers. As a teenager he was expelled from many schools and he spent a time roughing it on the streets, keeping hunger from the door by pick-pocketing and shoplifting, and this clearly comes across in his work. He recreates the darker sides of life, very present in his work, with startling credibility. These marginalized scenarios are the perfect place for the characters in Suehiro�s stories.
When he was eighteen he showed up at the Shanen Jump Manga magazine�s offices. He hadn�t a hope. There was no way they were going to publish the type of dark stories he was doing. It seems they were too dark, too violent and too strange. Finally, after about five years, he found a home at a sadomasochist Manga comic. How strange! But that still wasn�t the right place for him because his drawings and stories can�t be refined to erotic-manga alone. His way of building a narrative and telling a story, the way he composes a page and they way he eases the eye into the story have gained him a name as a special artist and storyteller. Quality special.
He uses realistic drawings to expertly convey the most harrowing moments of a story, but he never hesitates in mixing reality and dream worlds, where neither the characters in the story or the reader really knows what�s what or what�s going on. This, however, is not the Matrix. Everybody�s beautiful in the Matrix whereas here the main characters are ugly and mutilated, and the beautiful are just like in real life: few and far between. It doesn�t matter anyway. What�s important here is the personality and insides of the characters in the stories. When I say the insides I�m not referring to their blood and guts... but if I were, I still wouldn�t be far wrong.
All the same, Suehiro doesn�t use blood and wild crazy sex to shock or turn on his readers. You�ve got other Manga comics for that type of stuff. Suehiro stands out for his attention to details and that is what creates the tension inherent in his work that wouldn�t exist otherwise. His ability to clearly reflect sex, violence, love and romance in his work is his true talent, and one that changes the whole meaning of anything he draws.
All of this has awarded Suehiro vanguard status amongst comic book artists and he has already taken the jump from erotic-manga limitations and has started to sell. And sell well at that. If you are a fan of good stories and artwork, there�s something here for you to read.
The Glenat publishing company have published three Suehiro comics in Spanish:
La sonrisa del vampiro:
This one will make you love a bunch of merciless bloodsuckers living in post-nuclear war Japan. The Japanese don�t separate everything into absolutely good or absolutely evil like we do here in the west and Suehiro is a perfect example of this.
Lunatic Lovers:
A collection of short stories. It�s plain to see here that Suehiro�s stories are surrealist, the unmistakable influence of �cadavre exquis� is present. If you have a weak stomach, leave this one till last. But as happens in almost all Suehiro�s comics, one character or another will end stealing your heart away.
Midori, La ni�a de las Camelias:
One of Suehiro�s best comics so far. A beautifully charming story based on deep sentiment. On her fathers death, Midori is taken in by a freak and monster circus where she falls in love with a newly-arrived magician.
Suehiro Maruo�s stories drag us into the dark surrealist gloom of dreams. Those in the know say that Suehiro follows the style used by 19th century Japanese xylographers. As a teenager he was expelled from many schools and he spent a time roughing it on the streets, keeping hunger from the door by pick-pocketing and shoplifting, and this clearly comes across in his work. He recreates the darker sides of life, very present in his work, with startling credibility. These marginalized scenarios are the perfect place for the characters in Suehiro�s stories.
When he was eighteen he showed up at the Shanen Jump Manga magazine�s offices. He hadn�t a hope. There was no way they were going to publish the type of dark stories he was doing. It seems they were too dark, too violent and too strange. Finally, after about five years, he found a home at a sadomasochist Manga comic. How strange! But that still wasn�t the right place for him because his drawings and stories can�t be refined to erotic-manga alone. His way of building a narrative and telling a story, the way he composes a page and they way he eases the eye into the story have gained him a name as a special artist and storyteller. Quality special.
He uses realistic drawings to expertly convey the most harrowing moments of a story, but he never hesitates in mixing reality and dream worlds, where neither the characters in the story or the reader really knows what�s what or what�s going on. This, however, is not the Matrix. Everybody�s beautiful in the Matrix whereas here the main characters are ugly and mutilated, and the beautiful are just like in real life: few and far between. It doesn�t matter anyway. What�s important here is the personality and insides of the characters in the stories. When I say the insides I�m not referring to their blood and guts... but if I were, I still wouldn�t be far wrong.
All the same, Suehiro doesn�t use blood and wild crazy sex to shock or turn on his readers. You�ve got other Manga comics for that type of stuff. Suehiro stands out for his attention to details and that is what creates the tension inherent in his work that wouldn�t exist otherwise. His ability to clearly reflect sex, violence, love and romance in his work is his true talent, and one that changes the whole meaning of anything he draws.
All of this has awarded Suehiro vanguard status amongst comic book artists and he has already taken the jump from erotic-manga limitations and has started to sell. And sell well at that. If you are a fan of good stories and artwork, there�s something here for you to read.
The Glenat publishing company have published three Suehiro comics in Spanish:
La sonrisa del vampiro:
This one will make you love a bunch of merciless bloodsuckers living in post-nuclear war Japan. The Japanese don�t separate everything into absolutely good or absolutely evil like we do here in the west and Suehiro is a perfect example of this.
Lunatic Lovers:
A collection of short stories. It�s plain to see here that Suehiro�s stories are surrealist, the unmistakable influence of �cadavre exquis� is present. If you have a weak stomach, leave this one till last. But as happens in almost all Suehiro�s comics, one character or another will end stealing your heart away.
Midori, La ni�a de las Camelias:
One of Suehiro�s best comics so far. A beautifully charming story based on deep sentiment. On her fathers death, Midori is taken in by a freak and monster circus where she falls in love with a newly-arrived magician.
