THE PITS OF HELL by Ebisu Yoshikazu [2020]

Breakdown Press, London, 2020 | Softcover, 224pp | 15 × 21 cm | Second Edition

A cult collection of Japanese underground comics, The Pits Of Hell is Ebisu Yoshikazu at full detonation - manic, abrasive and bleakly hilarious. First appearing in the alt-manga magazine Garo, these stories (1969–1981) push everyday frustrations into grotesque extremes: a teacher brutalised by his students erupts in spectacular rage; salarymen buckle under the sadism of office life; bodies twist, sweat and scream “FUCK YOU!” with the cathartic force of a punk anthem.

Ebisu’s “heta-uma” style - deliberately ugly, raw and improvisational - channels Tokyo’s counterculture of the era: anarchic, grimy and too honest to be comfortable. Yet beneath the violence and absurdity there’s always a vein of humour, a sense of the ridiculousness of the systems grinding people down.

This edition collects eight of Ebisu’s classic stories, with a foreword by Minami Shinbo and an essay by Ryan Holmberg that situates Ebisu within the radical lineage of Garo, Japanese punk aesthetics and the new wave of anti-authoritarian comics.

A landmark in the history of underground manga - jagged, surreal and strangely human.

Excellent - mint - condtion: Unread copy, internally pristine. Price printed insde the front cover has been neatly blacked out. Otherwsie as new.