Junji Ito

Junji Ito was born on July 31, 1963, in Japan, and is widely regarded as a master of horror manga. He first gained attention with *Tomie*, a series about an immortal girl whose beauty drives her admirers to madness, which he began while working as a dental technician. His breakout work, *Uzumaki*, unfolds over three volumes as a town becomes cursed by spirals, while *Gyo* tells a two-volume story of fish controlled by a bacteria called "the death stench." Ito also wrote *Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon & Mu*, a self-parody of life with his wife and two cats, and collected many short stories in *The Junji Ito Horror Comic Collection*.

His distinctive style—meticulously detailed, grotesque, and psychologically unsettling—has earned him a devoted following. Ito often writes, inks, and colors his own work, and has collaborated with adaptations of classic tales like *Frankenstein*. His manga has been adapted into films, including the *Tomie* series, and anime anthologies such as *Junji Ito Collection* and *Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre*. Active from 1994 to 2025, Ito remains a defining figure in horror comics, with his influence recognized through numerous awards and a lasting legacy in the genre.