Dorohedoro, Vol.1 (2002) by Q. Hayashida

“There’s some nutjob sorcerer out there turning people into bugs. I just saw a couple of victims. Crude stuff. This guy’s a total amateur.”

Publisher’s Synopsis

“In a city so dismal it’s known only as “the Hole,” a clan of Sorcerers have been plucking people off the streets to use as guinea pigs for atrocious “experiments” in the black arts. In a dark alley, Nikaido found Caiman, a man with a reptile head and a bad case of amnesia. To undo the spell, they’re hunting and killing the Sorcerers in the Hole, hoping that eventually they’ll kill the right one. But when En, the head Sorcerer, gets word of a lizard-man slaughtering his people, he sends a crew of “cleaners” into the Hole, igniting a war between two worlds.”

-VIZ Media

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My Thoughts

I discovered this manga after watching the anime series released in 2020. That series caught my eye with its colourful, almost psychedelic style, and the weird and cool character designs. It stood out from a lot of the popular anime streaming at the time. Halfway through watching the anime, I ordered an English copy of the first volume of the Dorohedoro manga. There are 23 volumes in total.

Saga of the Swamp Thing, Vol.1: (1983) by Alan Moore, Stephen R. Bissette & John Totleben

Volume 1 collects issues #20-27 of the series.

I missed this when it was being published monthly back in the early 1980s. At that time I was reading UK comics like The Beano and The Dandy. Or borrowing my brother’s copies of Batman or the Marvel Star Wars comic. I would’ve been too young to appreciate it, anyway. My brother gave me the Volume 1 collected edition for one of my birthdays. I remember getting lost in the storytelling and loving the horror aspect of the book. Also the stunning artwork by Bissette and Totleben.

I’ve since re-read it a few times and always got something out of it. It is a must-read for any fan of great comic book stories. Intelligent, compelling, frightening and addictive.