FANTASTIC INTERVIEW WITH JUNJI ITO

My new friend Bharath Murthy emailed me this morning to inform me he's posted a 20 minute video interview with Junji Ito on his site! As mentioned in an earlier post, Bharath and his partner Alka Singh are documentarians (and comics nerds!) living in Tamil Nadu, and run the indian comics and film site, NUMBER21PIX.



CLICK TO WATCH:





This interview was filmed in September 2007, in the top-floor studio of Junji Ito's home in Gifu Prefecture. Like me, Bharath holds Ito-san as one of his all-time favorite mangaka, and took the time to visit him and conduct this interview while filming for he & Alka's forthcoming manga documentary.







Highlights from this fantastic and casual look into Junji Ito's life & work include:

• Ito-san showing off his original script outlines and rough panel layouts, with descriptions of his process when creating manga.



• A long discussion of the influence of urban legends on Ito's manga, how he got the idea and visual inspiration for Tomie, and how he became a manga artist.



• A tour of Junji Ito's studio and art desk, process using mirrors and photo-references in his work, and much more!

After watching the video, please head over to NUMBER21PIX, and say thanks to Bharath for sharing this interview with us!