
From the brilliant and twisted mind of manga artist Shintaro Kago, a new collection of short stories rife with skin-crawling suspense, visceral body horror, and pitch-dark humor.
In 2018, manga artist Shintaro Kago made his English debut with Dementia 21, a collection of absurdist manga short stories. Readers found themselves delighted and disgusted by his penchant for body horror, black comedy, and the surreal, paired with his emphatic, kinetic art style. Kago returns at the height of his powers with Brain Damage, where he dials the gore and absurdity to 11 and beyond.
Brain Damage collects four new short manga stories, a tantalizing blend of the hilarious and the macabre. In “Labyrinth Quartet,” four identical young women trapped in an eerie building must solve the mystery of why they’ve been gathered there, while being hunted by a knife-wielding stalker. In “Curse Room,” a plucky health aide is tasked with keeping zombies peaceful, lest they go on a brain-eating rampage. In “Family Portrait,” people throughout town are strangely disappearing without a trace, and the key to it all is a senile and perverted old man. Finally, in “Blood Harvest,” a series of gruesomely mangled bodies are found in pristine cars, and it appears something sinister lurks within these masses of glass and steel.
Brain Damage is available to preorder from Fantagraphics’ website here. (Available July 15th)
More Film Reviews
Bloody Sin (2011) Film Review – A Perfervid Love Letter to Exploitation
Bloody Sin is a 2011 English-language Italian extreme horror film, written and directed by Domiziano Cristopharo, with additional writing from Jay Disney and Filippo Santaniello. Being particularly well-known in the…
Dead Sushi (2012) Film Review – Sushi (S)Platter
Dead Sushi is a 2012 Japanese splatter horror comedy film, written and directed by Noboru Iguchi, with additional writing from Makiko Iguchi and Jun Tsugita. Known for his over-the-top implementation…
Revisiting ‘Kairo’ During a Global Pandemic in the Age of Social Media
“People don’t really connect, you know.” A sentiment that is often shared among film fans about some of the most eminent artists in the industry is that they were and/or…
Fall (2022) Film Review – It’s Lonely at the Top
Recently, the “adventure survival” thriller has seen a sizeable spike in popularity. Gone are the nastiness, the unbearable tension, the relentless bad luck and shaking-in-their-boots protagonists of survival classics like…
Detention (2011) Film Review – Never Going Back to My Old School
Imagine if, in the early 1980s, nascent film directors John Hughes and Wes Craven met up with venerable science fiction author Ray Bradbury at a Northern California artist’s retreat. There,…
The Uncle (2022) Film Review – The Best Family Traditions Are Forged Through Fear [Fantastic Fest]
Opening with an awkward family greeting before a Christmas Celebration, The Uncle is familiar to those who have pushed through awkward gatherings. However, the sinister undertone of the film is…

Hey there, I’m Jim and I’m located in London, UK. I am a Writer and Managing Director here at Grimoire of Horror. A lifelong love of horror and writing has led me down this rabbit hole, allowing me to meet many amazing people and experience some truly original artwork. I specialise in world cinema, manga/graphic novels, and video games but will sometime traverse into the unknown in search of adventure.