Fantagraphics will publish Brain Damage, a new collection of short stories by horror manga-ka Shintaro Kago, the creator of Dementia 21. Like his earlier book, Brain Damage is a collection of standalone stories that mix body horror, dark humor, and societal critiques in a crisply drawn style. The four stories in this book are

• “Labyrinth Quartet”: Four identical young women must work together to figure out why they are trapped in a mysterious building while eluding a stalker who is pursuing them with a knife.
• “Curse Room”: A health worker has to keep a roomful of zombies quiet so they don’t go on a rampage.
• “Family Portrait”: A series of mysterious disappearances seems to be linked to an old man with unusual tastes.
• “Blood Harvest”: Mangled corpses in spotless cars point to something evil lying within the chrome and glass.

The 200-page hardcover manga, with a 7” x 10” trim size, will go on sale on July 15, 2025, with an MSRP of $29.99.

Kago's work has a similar vibe to Junji Ito and Suehiro Maruo (see "The Strange Tale of Panorama Island"). One of the trends outlined at ComicsPRO by Circana Senior Executive Director Kristen McLean is the popularity of the horror category, with sales of horror manga and graphic novels up 20% from 2023 to 2024 and 50% from 2019 to 2024 (see “ComicsPRO: Fastest-Growing Series and Other Trends”).