Usamaru Furuya's Palepoli: A Yonkoma Manga Masterpiece Finally in Italian

Coconino Press has released an Italian edition of Palepoli, a collection of yonkoma (four-panel) manga by Usamaru Furuya (born 1968 in Tokyo). Edited by Paolo La Marca and Livio Tallini, the 168-page volume (€15, ISBN 9788876184123) brings together micro-comics originally published in the legendary Japanese magazine Garo, where Furuya began his career before moving to commercial weeklies like Young Sunday. The book is described as a surreal, transgressive work that parodies popular manga such as Doraemon, Sazae-san, Dokonjō Gaeru, and Ashita no Jō (Rocky Joe). Furuya, who studied oil painting at Tokyo University of the Arts and was involved in dance and underground subcultures under Saburo Teshigawara, views the four-panel format as artistic minimalism. Editor Chikao Shiratori, who followed Furuya's work on Garo in 1994 and later curated the American edition of Palepoli, saw the collection as a safeguard against the constraints of mainstream publishing. The review by Mario A. Rumor highlights Furuya's use of postmodern parody and dissection of visual perception.