The Ecstasy of Death – Couverture – Shiro Kasama

Shiro Kasama (1937-) made his manga debut in 1958. He gained popularity in the 1960’s in adult magazines such as Manga Heaven, Goraku and Manga Action.
In the 1970’s he started illustrating S&M magazines whilst also publishing sensual graphic novels. He is, in modern times, known for depicting voluptuous women with a lot of sadness and for exploring the darkest sexual fantasies such as bondage and sadomasochism.

Throughout the years, he chose not to draw the stereotype or the most beautiful people but rather the outcasts or even some very ugly men.
In the late 60s to early 70s, years before his BDSM drawings, he published a large number of erotic and sci-fi stories in magazines such as Manga Goraku (Weekly & Bessatsu) that are considered amongst his very best work.
Characters such as ‘Lady Mako’ are definitely the finest of erotic manga to be found and have been reprinted several times.
Shiro Kasama is regarded as the Japanese Milo Manara due to his fluent lines and brushwork .
Many collections of his works have been published as one of the most representative mangaka of the erotic drama