The second in what is, for us, a monumental series of translations of ero guro master Suehiro Maruo, published by Bubbles. Maruo’s work has had an undeniably large impact on transgressive art in the English-speaking world, despite physical translations of his shorter, more extreme work remaining exceedingly difficult to obtain.
This influence is due in part to Creation Books’ collection Ultra-Gash Inferno. The notorious, culture-defining publisher released what is now a very scarce collection—one of somewhat subpar print and translation quality—that included several of these stories, helping bring Maruo into the canon of English-speaking fans of extreme art and placing him alongside figures such as Peter Sotos and Pierre Guyotat.
Because of that edition’s scarcity, many people’s encounters with Maruo have been limited entirely to scans of Ultra-Gash Inferno or scanlations of Japanese editions of his work. We are therefore thrilled that Bubbles has brought these stories, including work originally published in the monumental Garo, to English-speaking audiences in high-quality editions featuring beautiful two-color black-and-red printing, sewn binding, welcome new translations by the talented Ryan Holmberg, and additional lettering by our friend Noel Friebert.
from the publisher:
Woe betide anyone who opens these pages, slathered as they are in blood and love. Beware the wicked seductions of their author, who differentiates not between ecstasy and pain. Welcome to a world where history is flesh and mystery memory, where voyeurs shriek, ghosts swoon, and imps reign. Welcome to LUNATIC LOVER’S, a collection of six manga originally published between 1988 and 1992, by the unrivaled master of the erotic grotesque in Japanese art and comics, MARUO SUEHIRO.
Maruo Suehiro (b. 1956) is globally recognized as the master of the erotic grotesque in Japanese art and comics. Since his debut in 1980, his exquisite and often shocking imagery has titillated readers of alternative, pornographic, and young adult manga. His other books in English include Mr. Arashi’s Amazing Freak Show (1993), Ultra-Gash Inferno (2001), The Strange Tale of Panorama Island (2013), and Beautiful Monster (2025).
