Week of 10/13/2025
This week, Sadie gets real in her letter column, and Tammy dies (again) on The Shapes. Meanwhile, I announce my October market lineup and, on Sammy the Critic, review some horror manga.
The Shapes
Responsibility
Rest in Pieces
News
Events Announcements
With Halloween only two weeks away, I still have a myriad of vending events planned.
Groovehive Market
La Femme Institute is hosting Couture and & Cauldrons from 6-10 PM, featuring a fashion show, auction, raffle, and dance party.
1150 Co Rd 1, Palm Harbor, FL 34683, cover $30
Blush’s Halloween Bash
If you prefer taking it easy on Sunday morning, then Blush Tea + Coffee St. Pete has you covered with their market from 10AM-2PM.
1150 Co Rd 1, Palm Harbor, FL 34683
Dharma Art Market
Dharma Kava Lounge is back with a Halloween market with costumes, fire spinning, and a charity raffle from 7-11PM.
13328 66th St N, Largo, FL 33773
Ybor City Art Walk and Coffin Collective Market
Next Saturday is a Tampa Bay double feature starting with Ybor City Art Walk from 2-6PM at Reservior Bar and other participating bars in the area before I hop off to Skatepark of Tampa from 6-11PM for Coffin Collective Market.
Reservoir Bar
1518 E 7th Ave, Tampa, FL 33605
Skatepark of Tampa
4215 E Columbus Dr, Tampa, FL 33605, cover $15-20
Boo Bash!
Last but not least, it’s Boo Bash! with Daydream Shop and Sugar Cream Clay from noon to 5. It’ll be in the same corridor as Halloween on Central, so come out in your finest costumes!
2935 Central Ave, St. Petersburg, FL 33713
Sammy the Critic
My Gorilla Family Review (NSFW)
Content Warning: Incest, child sacrifice, dead babies, and general body horror
Living the Line’s Smudge imprint is out again with another geika horror release, this time collecting the working short stories of Iijima Ichiro, originally published in Black Punch Magazines from 1970-71. These manga are bizarre in the ways you are and aren’t imagining,
Spider Horror – Rika is an arachnophobe whose fear is so extreme that she’ll flick on a lighter at the sight of a spider, which is exactly what she does on a walk with her boyfriend Susumu. As fate has it, her phobia isn’t entirely unfounded, for arachnids not only have a thirst for insect blood but also revenge.
Right off the bat, I’ll say that Ichiro’s works share much in common with his contemporaries, such as Koga Shinichi and Bonten Taro, in terms of surreal subject matter. However, his doll-like, uncanny valley approach to his character designs set him apart. Where elements like same-face syndrome would normally be a drawback, they enhance the creepiness factor here. And when you combine that with erotic undertones, you have one hell of an artistic specimen.
Without spoiling anything, he opening story embodies all these strengths with an all-consuming twist *wink wink*.
Woman Planet – A nod to Forbidden Planet, we follow a space crew of men who find themselves on a planet entirely populated with beautiful women who want them, the apex of the male gaze fantasy, or so it seems. Alas, as sci-fi cautionary tales like Westworld have warned us, be careful what you fantasize.
As we’ll see throughout, Ichiro is quite fond of schlocky premises, but it’s the escalation and twists that elevate them beyond generic pulp fiction.
The End of Earth – A strange phallic-looking creature appears on Earth that resembles a crossbreed between a fish and a furry mammal. It seems harmless, that is, until it begins self-replicating and eating people. Due to its elasticity, it’s almost invincible, with the only known solution involving a major sacrifice, both literally and figuratively.
I love how the conflict just ends with another conflict, posing a morality/ethics question for the reader to ponder.
My Gorilla Family – Now for the eponymous attraction: inter-species arranged marriage!
To save the company she works for from going bankrupt, Fusako agrees to marry into the family of a potential investor, who just so happens to be made up of gorillas since, in this society, gorillas are highly evolved individuals whose intellect even surpasses humans. Fusako is weirded out by the whole arrangement and the sapience of gorillas in general, which would suggest she’s from a different universe.
Hilariously enough, this plot thread is never addressed again as we see her gradually get used to her gorilla husband, Zonny Afrin. The biggest twist in the comic is how it never escalates to something more sinister or lurid, remaining bizarrely wholesome throughout. Considering the depths of depravity the subsequent stories delve into, it’s sweet to have something light-hearted to calm down the readers for a little bit.
I Dream of Satan – Kazue is a miserable young woman who has never known a moment of happiness in her life, a perfect target for Satan’s dealings when she finds a box on the street occupied by him. Given the opportunity to make a wish, Kazue asks not only to be reborn into wealth but “as a spoiled rich girl.” Where the “be careful of what you wish for” refrain reverberates moralistically in most cautionary tales, Ichiro allows the reader to contemplate the subsequent consequences that ensue after planting the seeds of salacious implications on-page.
A Frosty Broad – We’re all familiar with frostbite but bet you never heard of a frost-fuck, our main character’s curse, whose extremely low body temperature is fatal to anyone who penetrates inside her. Death by sex is a recurring theme throughout this collection, usually at the expense of the male character. Whether this was intended to be feminist or a byproduct of the author’s possible anxiety toward women is beyond my sphere of knowledge (my bet’s on the former). Perhaps the essay in the afterword adds more context to that question (my ARC copy doesn’t contain the essay). On the flip side, no context makes the interpretation game more fun, considering that in this story, the woman also dies.
Freak Species – Four youngsters stay at a scenic dormitory house hosted by a seemingly hospitable old man. One by one, they disappear after being attacked by clams. The comic contains one of my favorite horror tropes: danger in the mundane.
A Strange Disease – What’s a man to do after waking up to a lilliputian size? Panic about the imminent house dangers ahead, of course, from rodents to insects. This was the most predictable entry in the book but still enjoyable nevertheless.
A Unique Palate – A chief who prepares peculiar meals for extra terrestrials is asked to do the unthinkable: feed his son to them. Told you Ichiro wasn’t fooling around! Despite the provocative subject matter, the gruesomeness depicted doesn’t feel cheap since it’s used mindfully where it would make the biggest impact.
Solitary Confinement – Loving wife, personal chauffeur, and chefs, sounds like the luxury life, doesn’t it? Except that every one of them are robots created to distract from Earth’s planetary invasion. And it’s only a matter of time before the fantasy shatters and one cracks.
Birth of the Plant People – A series of baby corpses are sighted in a scenic area. This is as close you’ll get to a straightforward Junji Ito-esque tale. Uncanny happenings, mysterious reveals, and all the works are present.
Returning Spirits – When the soul leaves its host, the body becomes uninhibited to manifest its most heinous innermost desires, as we witness with Mr. Akagi, whose soul is in for a gutting awakening when it returns to his body (pun fully intended). The question of what constitutes a soul and its nature has burdened humanity since the dawn of time, and you’re not getting any answers here. But what you will get is another creative take on the soul concept.
How to Hide a Corpse – Jimmy Crack Corn and I don’t know, but you’ll learn a thing or two about what to do after unwitting murdering your spouse in a fit of classic infidelity rage.
Homo Sexualis – Reverse male chauvinism in a matriarchal society isn’t the most original premise to end the book on, but the freakiest lengths it takes with the concept is what makes it an absolute killer read. Tentacle fans will dig this!
Comics Ranked:
Homo Sexualis
I Dream of Satan
Returning Spirits
Solitary Confinement
Woman Planet
My Gorilla Family
Birth of the Plant People
The End of the Earth
Spider Horror
A Unique Palate
A Frosty Broad
Freak Species
How to Hide a Corpse
A Strange Disease
Overall, My Gorilla Family is a consistently strong introduction to Iijima Ichiro’s work and the best release from Smudge yet. While the two bottom-ranked stories were relatively weak, they were still objectively good and average at worst. I would recommend this to horror fans looking for surreal, taboo-pushing material.
You can buy the book on the publisher Living the Line’s online store.
Thank you, Living the Line Books, for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Good luck on the vending Samuel, no worst regards over here.