Manga artist Shintaro Kago subverts the form in his provocative, occasionally grotesque narratives. In one tale, in particular, the typical panels become three-dimension vessels, from which his characters break out and manipulate. “Abstraction” shows off both Kago’s knack for the unsettling and the satirical.
In an interview with Vice, the artist’s referring to himself as a kisou mangaka (or “bizarre manga artist”) came up. Here’s what he said about the moniker: “I just started using it one day, maybe because nobody else was using it! Lately I’m beginning to wonder whether I should change my title from merely ‘cartoonist’ to ‘cartoonist-plus-something-else.’ People only see you within the confines of what it means to be a cartoonist when you call yourself that, so if you start doing something else they’re like, ‘But you’re a cartoonist, why are you doing that?’ So I might need to modify my title a bit.”
See more “panels” from “Abstraction” below.
