Flipped!: David Welsh On Junko Mizuno And Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu



By David P. Welsh

I wonder if editors and publishers of mainstream manga just weep when they think about Junko Mizuno. If she would only draw something simple or tell a straightforward story and use her prodigious skill to create something just plain cute, just imagine the money that could be made. But as weird and expansive as Japan's consumer culture can be, do a profitable number of people really want a cell-phone charm of a lovesick space ovary?

Of course, it's not as if Mizuno hasn't enjoyed success on her own terms. Her illustrations have been exhibited in art galleries around the world. She's created designs for merchandise ranging from figurines to t-shirts to stationery. She's been a guest at the Angoulême International Comics Festival and been published by Marvel Comics (in the first issue of Strange Tales). She's been profiled in periodicals like Juxtapoz, which succinctly described her aesthetic as "part Strawberry Shortcake, part Nightmare on Elm Street."



Mizuno seems to be a creator who's managed to craft a career without compromise. If she's potentially vexing to the part of the comics industry that wants to move product in predictable ways, she's got to be an inspiration to the creator contingent. Look how weird she gets to be, and look how successful she is because of it.

Her latest work to be translated into English is the first of three volumes of Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu, published by Last Gasp. As is generally the case with her comics, describing the plot sounds like retelling a dream spawned by spicy food and too much liquor. It stars the aforementioned space ovary, Pelu, who travels to Earth to find true love, or at least a woman to bear his child. Aside from an endearingly grotesque origin story, though, Pelu is less a protagonist than a master of ceremonies. What Pelu wants is immaterial to the women he pursues; some of them seem barely cognizant of his existence.

So what's the theme here? That's entirely up to the reader. As Mizuno said in an interview with Deb Aoki at About.Com, "I never try to send messages to people through my comics. I just want people to take it, however they want." Given that liberty, I would describe Pelu's quest as just a framing device that allows Mizuno to examine the resourcefulness and resilience of women, even kind of awful women. It also allows her to play with different tropes of different styles of manga storytelling.

"The Naked Enka Singer" is like giddy gekiga, a cotton-candy revision of a story that Yoshihiro Tatsumi might have told. It's about a shopgirl and her construction-worker boyfriend who are struggling to build her a career as a folk singer. They're doomed strivers in the classic Tatsumi fashion, but they're revealed through Mizuno's sparkly, subversive lens. "We're into kinky stuff a bit," she blushingly confesses to Pelu.

Mizuno hews close to shôjo in two of the stories here. In "The Sassy Girl and the Bad Boy," Mizuno introduces us to a ruthless, sailor-suited schoolgirl desperate for attention. Pelu is just one of the found objects she uses in her pursuit of the juvenile delinquent of her dreams. Mizuno happily plays the clich é-riddled scenario for gross-out farce than social commentary. "The Mysterious High School" has a little bit more satirical intent, juxtaposing a perfect, privileged princess with a poor, plain classmate. Mizuno takes the perils of socioeconomic envy to trippy extremes, and it's a treat.

She also dabbles in Daisuke Igarashi's brand of environmental fable with "Beach Maidens." Pelu and his scruffy, homeless pal meet a beautiful woman who dives for mollusks in the sewers. I'd actually love to see a straightforward version of this tale of sisterhood and treachery, but I'm perfectly content with Mizuno's wigged-out shorthand take.



I offer these summaries in hopes of illustrating how versatile Mizuno is, no matter how distinctive her style is. The creepy-cute thing isn't a shtick; it's a vehicle to tell stories, and Mizuno is a scrupulous storyteller. For all of the absurd digressions she layers on her plots, they do legitimately function as plots, and they're informed by genuine feeling. You could just gawp at her illustrations and get your money's worth out of Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu, or any of Mizuno's works, but there's passion on the pages beyond craft and imagination. Her work is creepy, cute, and (I suspect) completely sincere.

"I just try to enjoy making what I enjoy," Mizuno said in her interview with Aoki. There's an undeniable level of corporate influence in a lot of the comics from Japan that are translated. There are demographic expectations, particular styles and niches that magazines try to embody, and a profound concern with audience reaction. That Mizuno seems to have exempted herself from that system (which I hasten to add still generates lots of terrific comics) is another reason to embrace her striking, subversive work, above and beyond how very good it is.

*****

* Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu, written and illustrated by Junko Mizuno, produced by jaPRESS, published by Last Gasp, 168 pages, ISBN: 978-0-86719-700-6, July 2009, $17.95.

*****

* all art from Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu, selected by David P. Welsh

*****

David P. Welsh has loved comics since his parents first used Archie and Casper to sedate him during long trips in the family station wagon.

He's worked as a reporter and editor for daily and weekly newspapers, and later sold out for the glamorous world of public relations. Prior to relocating to The Comics Reporter, he wrote his Flipped column for Comic World News for just over three years. He's written articles on comics for print outlets and a variety of other web sites.

He lives in West Virginia, which he says has gotten a lot easier since the Starbucks and Barnes & Noble opened up.

You may e-mail David with questions or commentary You can write to this site about David's columns

Please bookmark his site, Precocious Curmudgeon.

*****



*****
*****
 
posted 11:00 am PST | Permalink
 

---

 
Daily Blog Archives
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
 
Full Archives