MONSTERMENBUREIKOLULLABY

根本敬

At long last， this underground Japanese classic has been translated into English. A seminal work of manga from the mid-1980s， Monster Men Bureiko Lullaby is a Candide-esque tale--if you can picture Candide as a mutated sperm brought to life by radioactivity. Unremittingly explicit， this is the comics equivalent of Henry Miller at his best: direct， honest and insightful while simultaneously beautiful and grotesque. Tokyo-based Takashi Nemoto， who was born in 1958， has been called the R. Crumb of Japan: Nemoto and Crumb share a similar， surreal drawing style and pessimistic， satirical stance， for which both have faced their share of negative criticism. Due to his unapologetically squalid subject matter， Nemoto has long been a controversial figure in Japan--clashing violently with mainstream Japanese morals--and is just now receiving some critical success there. Reviewers are finally looking past his gross-out humor to find far-flung influences and connections like Mark Twain， Otto Dix and Andre Masson.