Legendary Horror Mangaka Junji Ito Nominated for Prestigious Eisner Hall of Fame

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Legendary horror manga artist Junji Ito has been nominated for the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame this year. He is among 18 nominees, and voters will select the six new inductees. Apart from Ito, Shigeru Mizuki, a renowned manga creator who passed away, has already been selected for induction.

In 2023, Ito received the Inkpot Award from Comic-Con International, but he’s no stranger to recognition as his work has previously been nominated for Eisner Awards. His manga, “Black Paradox”, was even honored with a nomination in the category of “Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia” during the same year.

Beyond his acclaimed work in manga, Junji Ito is also generating buzz in the film and television industry. Companies like Through the Lens Entertainment and Fangoria Studios are currently adapting two of his works, ‘The Enigma of the Haunted House’ and ‘Bloodthirsty Darkness’, into movies.

In January 2024, Ito’s new anime titled “Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre” was released globally on Netflix. This adaptation features 20 of his chilling stories. Earlier in September 2023, a mini-series based on his popular manga “Uzumaki” premiered on Toonami.

Ito’s creations have sparked numerous anime remakes, such as the “Junji Ito Collection” series that debuted in 2018. This show drew from collections like “Itō Junji Kessaku-shū” and “Fragments of Horror”, and offered an English dub provided by Funimation.

Other notable Japanese manga artists who have been inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame are Osamu Tezuka (2002), Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima (2004), Katsuhiro Otomo (2012), Rumiko Takahashi (2018), Moto Hagio (2022), and Keiji Nakazawa (2024). In 2019, Akira Toriyama and Naoki Urasawa were nominated but did not make it to the final list.

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2025-03-01 18:14