Junji Ito is the guest of honor manga at Japan Expo 24th Impact. Tomia, Uzumaki and many other dark stories are waiting for you with this horror mangaka…
Junji Itô is a Japanese mangaka born on July 31, 1963 in Gifu Prefecture, Japan. From childhood, he walked in the footsteps of his older sister and began drawing. Among his inspirations are his older sister, but also Kazuo Umezu, a mangadic specializing in horror and a pioneer of the genre.
Junji Itô officially began his career in 1987, while working as a dentist. His first manga, Tomié, was published in Monthly Halloween, a horror magazine. He won a special mention for the Kazuo Umezu Prize.
In 1990, he decided to leave the medical field to immerse himself in the manga world. The success of Tomié having opened the doors of Big Comic Spirits, in 1998 he began the pre-publication of Uzumaki, released in France as Spirale which marked a turning point in the author’s career. He consolidated his place as a master of horror and mangake a year later with Gyo.
Years later, Junji Ito continues to shake us with his works that are at stake in our most absurd fears. The mangaka draws his inspiration from the graphic style of Kazuo Umezu but also from the unspeakable horror of H.P. Lovecraft, to create timeless works that remain in the minds of readers. His stories have been adapted to the cinema or, more recently, in an anime released on Netflix titled Maniac by Junji Ita: Anthologie Macabre.
Japan Expo is honored to count this great horror mangaka as a guest of manga at Japan Expo 24th Impact.