Masakazu Toma

Masakazu Toma remembers seeing his first issue of Garo in the seventh grade. It was a special edition devoted to legendary master of the grotesque, Shigeru Mizuki. Toma's encounters with Garo following that experience were rare and unexpected, but Mizuki's unique flavor stayed with him. The influence is clearly evident in Toma's own eerily atmospheric work. Toma debuted in Garo's October 1982 issue with a story called "Gu no Koccho" ("The Height of Stupidity"). He went on to publish eleven manga stories in Garo during the 1980's. In 1987 Toma abandoned comics to, as he put it, "retire to the home of my soul." He returned in 1991 to publish four more pieces (one of which is "Steel Pipe Melancholia", featured in Comics Underground Japan), and then once again dropped out of sight. He has not been heard from since. As of 1993, he was reported to be living somewhere in Osaka, but efforts to contact him have so far been unsuccessful.