Gōjin Ishihara is a Showa-period Japanese artist who did ghastly illustrations of yokai in Illustrated Book of Japanese Monsters (1972) with a mastery of Indian ink for comic-esque vibrancy in absolutely mesmerizing scenes of chaos. Additionally, the artist offered his talent within many other educational books on monsters, and later produced weird fiction with strong eroticism incorporating strange icons from the likes of Charles Manson to Aleister Crowley.
Appropriate for his intricately dazzling style captivating attention easily, he would regularly complete the flamboyant covers of pulp magazine such as Kasutori Zasshi and even provided realistic illustrations in the magazine Shūkan Sankei of Yagyū Jūbē, with occasionally controversial scenes, as a romanticized samurai of Japan’s history. Furthermore, he completed cover art for novels such as those of horror author Edogawa Ranpō However this proved controversial as he work was known contain spoilers within his elaborate artwork.
Ishihara formed an outlandish legacy of surreal juxtaposes of figures with eroticism, vivid violence meshed with folklore, in addition to contributing extensively to gay magazines with the alias of ‘Hayashi Gekkō’ in magazines such as QJ and Sekimatsu Club.
Undoubtedly, Ishihra was an exciting figure with a varied, colorful legacy, albeit controversial to a degree. With so much more to discover, the reader would be served to check out the plethora of his work on their own, but you can check out a slideshow below for a small sample.
More Manga Reviews:
The Illustrated Guide to Monster Girls: Vol. 1 Manga Review – Kawaii Horror
The Illustrated Guide to Monster Girls is a 4-volume, light-hearted horror/slice-of-life manga, written and illustrated by Suzu Akeko. A prolific manga creator, she has previously written and illustrated Nightmare Eater,…
Vitiators (2022) Comic Review: One Hell of a Manga
Trigger warnings for virtually everything, from child ab*se to r*pe, torture, animal ab*se, mutilation, and repeated mentions of c*ck vore. Yes, c*ck vore. And probably whatever you’re thinking, that too….
Geungsi Vol. 2: Brotherhood Manga Review – Singaporean Vampire Hunters
Geungsi is an action thriller graphic novel series, written and illustrated by Singaporean artist Sean Lam. The story currently consists of two main volumes (check out our review of Volume…
Narutaru (1998) Manga Review: The Kids Are Not Alright
When you think about Pokemon and Digimon, there are probably 2 things that come to your mind: the power of friendship and absolutely cute magical critters. It does not matter…
The Summer Hikaru Died Volume 2 Manga Review
The Summer Hikaru Died is an ongoing horror manga (currently at 4 volumes), written and illustrated by Mokumokuren. This is the second volume of the manga to be released in…
Geungsi Kawaii (2023) Manga Review – Kawaii Desu Ne
Geungsi Kawaii is an action thriller manga, Written and illustrated by Singaporean artist Sean Lam, with additional writing from Junzi. The manga is part of Sean’s Geungsi series, working as…