Man Gataro—or Gataro Man, or Manga Taro, or Man-Gataro or, you know what, there’s not enough information about the guy online for me to fuss over which way I’m going to present his name—is one of my favorite mangaka… and I can’t understand a word of his comics!
A while back, one Wes Blacula shot me some Man Gataro tankobon from his trip to Japan. Specifically, a volume each of Jigoku Koshien (which I’m sure some of you have seen Yudai Yamaguchi’s adaptation of, Battlefield Baseball) and Chinyuki, which is his Journey to the West/Dragon Ball spoof.
I’d kill for some of this in English, but despite that barrier, I’ve flipped through them and “read” them on a fairly regular basis, partly because I love his art, but also because it’s so well done that I still laugh out loud at a lot of the stories. That’s pretty much the definition of a good comicker in my book.
The art itself looks kind of like it comes from a really disciplined artist that sometimes just goes completely nuts on his page. I could see someone giving his comics a quick glance and passing them by, thinking them amateurish, while they’re anything but. He’ll scribble faces recklessly on one page, and then follow those up with something shockingly realistic to further the gag.
So, for your enjoyment, I scanned a few sample pages from Jigoku Koshien volume 2 that I find particularly awesome. You don’t really need a setup, and I can’t say I have a very good one for you even if you do! Pardon the quality of the scans, I wasn’t about to cut this book up just to post it on this blog:
I know I don’t need to tell 90% of you this, but the pages read from right to left. Also, click to enlarge!
subhumanzoids 
that is super amazing. it's like al jaffee has a bastard son in japan. or should I say a bastard blecch in ja-blecch!
thejosephlusterreport.blogspot.com is very informative. The article is very professionally written. I enjoy reading thejosephlusterreport.blogspot.com every day.cash loan cash advance
Well well well!I can totally understand your enthusiasm: I myself brought an Man-Gataro miniseries back from Japan, and I read all six volumes with pleasure without understanding a word.It’s called Chinyuki, and it seems there’s a movie too: http://www.mangatarou-flash.com/chinyuki/index.html#1kanGotta get this one! The manga is genius!! 1111!!!Anyway, I did not find much information about the artist, there are interviews to be googled, and also a film adaptation of Jigoku Kōshien -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlefield_Baseball
What a crazy comic! Thanks for following my blog!
Haha, I know, right? I need to find some more of his comics to pop on here, they’re wild.
Gataro Sensei seems to be known for his unique blend of gross-comedy.
Think shocking comedy like the film Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie (one of my favorite comedy films).
His stuff is extremely vulgar, lots of violence, gore, nudity, puking, and explosive diarrhea!
His work is definitely an acquired taste, and to the Japanese public he seems to be in the category of either you love him or hate him.
He has a cult following over there and has released a ton of manga titles, I think 2 have become movies and 1 has become a TV show.
The super stylized “dirty looking” art reminds me of the great R Crumb.
Along with his art, his stories to me are genius and I put it in the category of Andy Kauffman, and Alejandro Jodorowski’s Holy Mountain where you can expect thinking out of the box.
It took me a while to truly appreciate his mangas but now they have become my top favorites of all time.
I somehow totally missed this comment. Agreed on Gataro being an acquired taste, and I’m definitely in the category that loves his stuff!