The King of Macabre Japanese Art: SUEHIRO MARUO

SUEHIRO MARUO is a Japanese manga artist, painter, and illustrator. At 17, he made his first manga submission for Shonen Jump but was rejected by the editors because it was considered too graphic for the weekly magazine's mass market. At the age of 24 in November of 1980, he made his official debut as a manga artist in Ribon No Kishi. It was then that this young artist was able to pursue his artistic vision without restrictions over the content of his work. Two years later, his stand-alone anthology Bairaro no Kaibutsu (Rose Colored Monster) was published.

Much of Maruo's nightmarish illustrations depict graphic sex and violence. The manga falls under the Japanese category of "erotic grotesque" (ero-guro). The stories often take place in post-WW2 Japan. As one can see in Maruo's art, he has a fascination with  human oddities, deformities, birth defects, and circus sideshow "geeks". However, Maruo is not just another "sex and violence" artist - he is also one of the greatest retro artists working in the field today. His drawings are elegant and he uses innovative page designs. Today, his art and stories go beyond the readers of ero-manga.


Though most of his prominent works remain unpublished outside of Japan, his work does have a cult following. As of now, his work has only been published in the U.S., Italy, Brazil, Spain, Russia, France, and Germany).

Even though he is most known as a manga artist, he has also produced illustrations for CD jackets (Naked City), concert posters, magazines, novels, and other types of media. Some of the characters featured in his work have also been turned into figures. His most famous works are 'The Planet of the Jap' and 'Mr. Arachi's Amazing Freak Show'.

*I will only post his "milder" work here...