MANGA MONSTER SPOTLIGHT!

(My apologies for the lack of updates, i've been working on a number of commisions lately.)

I thought i'd do something a little different this week, and start a mini-series of "Feature Creature" entries focusing on an interesting villain, creature or monster from the best of horror manga. This is an area that is ripe with under-appreciated stories and characters. Every once in a while i'll focus on a new manga monster to break up the numerous movie monsters and poster designs. I hope it brings some cool work to the attention it deserves.

This week's entry, and the first Manga Monster entry, is the character Cat-Eyed Boy from the manga series of the same name by Kazuo Umezu. The Cat-Eyed Boy series of books concerns various traditional Japanese demons and monsters, and their unfortunate victims. Cat-Eyed Boy is the son of a cat demon who happens to look too much like a human boy, thus disgracing himself from the world of demons. He wanders the world of mankind, hiding from humans, and living sporadically in peoples' attics.

He brings misfortune and disaster with him wherever he stays, and usually helps out if he can to stop whatever monster happens to be making trouble. He can see in the dark, talk to cats, and is well informed about the world of spirits and demons. He has all the agility of a cat, and his shadow sometimes tries to kill him. He also solves an alarming number of problems by pissing on people.

While not as good as some of the other series by Kazuo Umezu, ("The Drifting Classroom" is a masterpiece.) it's still a wonderful series filled with crazy monsters, definitely holding it's own against other creature protagonists such as Hellboy. Highly recommended!

Check out the beautiful editions released by Viz for Western distribution here!

(Thanks to Kazuo Umezu!)