A seminal work of manga from the mid-1980s, Monster Men Bureiko Lullaby is a Candide-esque tale--if you can picture Candide as a mutated sperm brought to life by radioactivity. Unremittingly explicit, this is the comics equivalent of Henry Miller at his best: direct, honest and insightful while simultaneously beautiful and grotesque. Tokyo-based Takashi Nemoto, who was born in 1958, has been called the R. Crumb of Japan: Nemoto and Crumb share a similar, surreal drawing style and pessimistic, satirical stance, for which both have faced their share of negative criticism.

Due to his unapologetically squalid subject matter, Nemoto has long been a controversial figure in Japan - clashing violently with mainstream Japanese morals - and is just now receiving some critical success there. Reviewers are finally looking past his gross-out humor to find far-flung influences and connections like Mark Twain, Otto Dix and Andre Masson.