I got into Junji Ito while trying to find comic book stories outside The Hero’s Journey archetype. This was the same time I came across this YouTube video critique of his work. My interest grew from watching panel-to-panel videos of his most popular stories to buying every book I came across at the nearest Books-a-Million.

My strongest attraction to Junji Ito’s work is the mood—the dread felt from the hopeless protagonist and the unescapable nightmares of the world Ito created. The uncomfortable feeling while reading them, and after I was done. They had definite ends but without full understandings or explanations.

It was an immediate hook!

This is the first time I tried to make a self-portrait of myself inspired by Junji Ito’s work. Scanning this somehow cropped the edges. But most of the drawing is there. As much as I draw myself, it can still take me several tries to get my face shape right. I sure weight fluctuation is the problem

This illustration is based on the short story, Painter, a part of his collection of stories under Tomie. The Tomie series is not my favorite, but it’s his most known work. Painter tells a story of a famous painter, Mitsuo Mori, and his encounter with Tomie.

This next illustration is based on Ito’s short story, The Scar. It’s within the collection of stories in his book, Uzumaki.

Choosing the right posture took time. I was going for the exact pose of the original image. I ended up disliking how close the shot was to the face. I redrew the camera angle further to show shoulders, but accidently warped the illustration. Unintendedly slanted. I’m sure it was from bad sitting posture.

I sat on this illustration for several weeks months until I got the courage to simply finish. I draw less details than intended on this drawing since I wanted the busy spiral background.

I love what I came up with, yet it wasn’t as well received online as the first.

The similarities in both stories are of madness that comes with an unhealthy obsession. Azami becomes hellbent on making Shuichi fall for her the same way every other man in her life has. And the obsession sucks the life out of her as much as the scar on her face does visually. All it took for Mitsuo obsession to crack was doubt of his talent from a random woman with mesmerizing beauty. Even when he changed his entire style and muse to capture her beauty on canvas, it didn’t please Tomie. Not receiving her approval drove Mitsuo to so much anger he killed and mutilated her. But her death didn’t sober him. He hallucinated Tomie’s body parts re-growing to more versions of herself. He drove himself to a slow death watching them.

PLEASE DON’T READ JUNJI ITO STORIES IF THAT DESCRIPTION BOTHERS YOU! Believe me when I say the stories are more disturbing when you read it in comic book form. It gets worse most of the time.

Obsessions can go too far. The length we’ll go to obtain that desire determines the rationale of the obsession. Are we disregarding morality and livelihood to obtain it? Are we willing to do the work necessary to get it? And what level of satisfaction are you expecting when pursing it? Obsession can all start with good intentions, but not all are good.

I’m trying to obsess over my art. A little. There are stories I want to create and share. I want to use social media to archive my efforts and to grow a fanbase who would appreciate it. But I have limits. And I have backup plans in case things go south. Yet I’m willing to give it my best efforts. I can’t afford sleepless nights, but I can commit all my available time during lunch hours and outside work. I can disregard socializing for a few years until the habit is ingrained into a consistent routine.