year of the yōkai
The third installment of my Year of the Yokai series, the Otoroshi! I couldn’t find out much about this guy, except that he’s a creepy, hairy guy who hangs out on top of gates and doorways. I dug his enormous, shaggy hair, so I imagined him as a sulking emo kid.
O-Yuki or Yuki-onna, a beautiful, dark spirit who preys upon men on a cold winter’s night.
So, while working on Manta-Man, I’ve gone off on a tangentially related line of research into Japanese folklore. More specifically, the wonderfully weird world of the Yōkai, supernatural creatures of the shapeshifting, ghostly variety. Some of these beings may eventually show up in my comics, but I wanted an excuse to draw all my favorites, and thus began the Year of the Yōkai–every week I’ll post a new illustration with an accompanying description. Keep in mind that I don’t claim to be any sort of expert, and I won’t be aspiring to 100% authenticity and historical accuracy. In any case, I hope to have fun experimenting with different styles, different creatures, and sharing it all.
And yes, I must abashedly present the first week’s installment, that of the Noppera-bō, a faceless figure who shows up periodically in horror stories. They might be of either gender, but I ended up drawing a curvy girl, because that’s how I do. As far as I can tell, the Noppera-bō shows up just to freak people out–and maybe, in this case, to turn ‘em on?