Abstraction by Shintaro Kago
Hey guys, I’m back from my super-secret Coilhouse mission to Belgrade/Ljubljana. I can’t tell you what I did there; I’ll only mention that it has something vaguely to do with stags and light beer. You will love it!
My jet-lagged brains really got a good rattle when I read Abstraction by Shintaro Kago, sent to us by Lucylle. Not safe for work! Don’t click it, mom! Lucylle describes Abstraction as “a short story in manga style, featuring an extremely creative approach to panel division/story continuity.”
I didn’t think I’d like it at first – the first few panels seemed so flat, so sparse, so lifeless. I thought, “this is why I think most manga is so boring.” But before I could finish thinking that sentence, my eye scrolled down to the page and something happened. The panels got weirder and weirder, and began to take a shape of their own. I felt like I’d been sucked into some sort of bizarre, claustrophobic fishbowl of dysmorphia, sex, awkwardness and pain, and most unsettling thing I felt as I kept on reading this was horror at how many of the completely anatomically-impossible, disjointed panels gave me an “oh shit, been there” kind of feeling. Ah, young love.
December 7th, 2007 at 6:29 am
http://samehat.blogspot.com/search/label/shintaro%20kago
Someone’s blog with 3 additional Shintaro Kago mangas, all wildly experimental (and NSFW). Also it has pictures of a Shintaro Kago bullying kit.
December 7th, 2007 at 7:36 am
Wow, that is . . . mindbending!
December 7th, 2007 at 8:20 am
so what does jelen pivo have to with coilhouse? i’m so curious…
December 7th, 2007 at 9:13 am
oooh, nadya, yr gonna love “blame!” by tsutomo nihei…check it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blame!
-joshua…
December 7th, 2007 at 10:24 am
“My anus is bleeding!”
December 7th, 2007 at 11:20 am
It was only a matter of time until manga gave us an artist so talented that he couldn’t be ignored – yet all he wants to draw is exploding demon vaginas.
December 7th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Woah. That is some serious, mind blowing composition.
December 7th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
@ Karen: Jelen Pivo? Best guess ever! But that wasn’t it. :)
December 7th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Head. Hurty.
Definitely bookmarking this one.
December 7th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Hey did you like Ljubljana?
December 7th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
@ Sara: JA! Beautiful mountains and great architecture and nice people. We saw Tito’s old residence and we saw the library designed by Plečnik and everything was just totally amazing.
December 7th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Mwaha…that was hilarious. Gonna have to see more of his stuff. Psyched to see what your secret mission produced. Stags and light beer? Sounds like it was some kind of esoteric espionage mission.
December 8th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Yey! I’m glad to hear you liked it :D I hope people were nice to ;)
December 8th, 2007 at 12:06 am
Sara, SLOVENIANS ARE WEIRD!!
Just kidding – we love them, and their unusual parking habits. ;)
December 8th, 2007 at 3:16 am
And how did you like Belgrade…?
(i still can’t think of anything other than Jelen Pivo, except maybe a hunting party…?)
December 8th, 2007 at 5:03 am
This is so effin’ insane. I love it.
December 8th, 2007 at 5:43 am
Seriously, that’s brilliant stuff.
Love the head-taxi that’s pulling out of the panel construct.
My favorite manga has always been the darker, more surreal work.
Any fans of Hideshi Hino or Suehiro Marou out there?
December 8th, 2007 at 6:40 am
Paul, I love Hino’s Hell Baby! Don’t know Marou… will go look that up now.
December 8th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
I know we’re weird :D and moreover i know our parking habbits are unusual at their best :D just be grateful nobody got run over by some blind/drunk driver ;)
December 8th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
@ Rogan, Belgrade was incredible too. We visited Kalemegdan, ate some AMAZING food, and saw the bombed-out buildings in the center of town. The people were SO kind and friendly, and I really miss it right now.
@ Paul: I don’t know them! Googling.
December 11th, 2007 at 1:56 am
Ben Morris: thanks for the link! I don’t have an home based internet connection so I’ll have to wait all day for the rest of my coworkers to get their ass back home, but at least I know what I will be doing this evening :-)
August 20th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
For the most part, I agree with what you are stating here.
August 20th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Thank you, Blood in Stool. Well said. You are a very thoughtful spambot, and with a name like that, on a post like this, how could we NOT approve you? ;)