Suehiro Maruo

Suehiro Maruo (1956-) is a Japanese manga artist, illustrator, and painter, notorious for the extreme violence and eroguro illustrations. Though most prominently known for his work as a manga artist, Maruo has also produced illustrations for concert posters, CD covers (e.g. japanese punk rockers Balsac's, album covers), magazines, novels, and various other media. Some of his characters have been made into figures as well. Though relatively few of Maruo's manga have been published outside of Japan, his work enjoys a cult following abroad. Many of Maruo's illustrations depict graphic sex and violence and are therefore referred to as contemporary muzan-e (a subset of Japanese ukiyo-e depicting violence or other atrocities.) Maruo himself featured in a 1988 book on the subject with fellow artist Kazuichi Hanawa entitled Bloody Ukiyo-e, presenting their own contemporary works alongside the traditional prints of Yoshitoshi and Yoshiku. Maruo's nightmarish manga fall into the Japanese category of "erotic grotesque". The stories often take place in the early years of Showa Era Japan. Maruo also has a fascination with human oddities, deformities, birth defects, and "circus freaks." Many such characters figure prominently in his stories and are sometimes the primary subjects of his illustrations.

used as album cover for Balsac's Dark-ism (2005)