Abandon the Old in Tokyo

Picked this up in London at Forbidden Planet. It's been a long wait.

I got the Pushman years ago in Thailand and loved it. My good friend turned me onto Tatsumi and I couldn't get enough of his 60's/70's output. I kept passing the book around to friends telling them they HAD to read it.

I kept trying my local comic book stores and none of them would carry any of the subsequent collections of his work. The only thing I'd see would be his life story (part one is 800 pages), and that wasn't the gnarly, nasty, fucked up kinda story I was looking for (which is what I got with the Pushman collection).

Fast forward to two weeks ago and we're in London. I found the second and third collections of his macabre 70's work. First one on deck was Abandon the Old in Toyko.

I don't think I'll ever be able to read any of his stories, regardless of how good they are, and have the same connection as I did to the Pushman. The virginal experience with Tatsumi can't be replicated. Before you read your first story you don't know what you're getting into. Then when you do...you get hooked! Always chasing that first high...

Anyway, Abandon the Old in Tokyo is great. Another collection of his work that focuses on exposing the ugly underbelly of Japanese society. Tatsumi talks about things that I'm sure no peer would broach if their lives depended on it. As his career advanced he seemed to inch slightly more towards bringing in politics. I think we see that even more so with the third book, Good-Bye.

This is 70's sex, scandal, self-depravity, introspection, exposition, and all around societal fucked-up-ed-ness.

A true classic. Essential.