HUMAN CLOCK TP (07 Oct Release)

“Papa¸ mama¸ please don’t be surprised. A year ago¸ my organs were replaced with gears and springs…” Tadashi is the lone son of a watchmaker.Clocksare his only friends. Ever since a nightmarish bicycle accident¸ he fears going to school. So¸ his parents hire him a special tutor—not a man¸ but a mustachioed pocket watch. He¸ too¸ fails to improve Tadashi’s grades¸ though he gifts him a magical wristwatch capable of transporting its wearer to a frighteningly surreal land ofclockpeople. As the automatons begin to turn on their makers¸ Tadashi decides that it’s best to abandon his uneasyhumanityand bestow his soul to the ticktocks. Originally published in 1962¸ Tokunami Seiichiro’sHUMANCLOCKhas no peer or parallel in manga history. Years before it was acceptable to be abstract and oneiric in Japanese comics¸ years before it was common to cartoon in an artistic manner that privileged form over function¸ Tokunami was expressionistically slashing through panels in a Kafka-esque fever dream of jagged and melting imagery. Including an equally weird second story¸ THE CAT’S MOURNING CLOTHES¸ and an essay by subculturalist Udagawa Takeo¸HUMANCLOCKis the ninth volume of SMUDGE¸ a line of vintage horror¸ occult¸ and dark fantasy manga curated and translated by award-winning historian Ryan Holmberg and published by Living the Line