Suehiro Maruo - DDT

I don't see any better way to start this new year. I like how the number looks, 2010. It's so; orderly and sequenced.

There are two versions of this book. One came out in 1983 and the other one in 1999. Seems like that this scan is the 1983 version according to the ISBN numbering. But who cares anyway?

This was Suehiros third book and I can't really say this is one of my favorites from him. I don't know, everything just seems kinda out of place here. It starts off with some surreal poetry accompanying with all kinds of imagery but that's pretty much just the warm up. All other stories (if I remember right) are all very much non-surreal so to speak. Most of them are very sexual in nature, full of perverts and prostitution. So yeah, this one could be even called hentai manga. There's one interesting sort of autobiographical story of young Suehrio in school. That one was hilarious for some reason.

By this time Suehrio already established his signature art so it's not that sloppy as is it was in his previous work. While it is his thing it's not that quite psychedelic as it is in his more newer works. You won't see dozens of eyes drawn to indicate movement or those long strolling screams and creepy looks. Despite that the art is quite good and I don't really think anyone else draws like this in the manga world. And as usual his fetish for Germany in its 20s is still very present and his love for old horror movies as well. I can't really recommend this if you are new to Suehrio but if you are already familiar with his work you know what to expect; more or less.

Pierce my eyes.