Though barely known at all here on the western front, "Tomie" - the creation of incredibly gifted horror mangaka Junji Ito - has become a horror franchise in Japan, spawning numerous chilling, mind-numbingly disturbing films. Junji's other most famous work is Uzumaki, or "Spirals" (also an amazing, David Lynch/Cronenberg-esque film).

It's a shame more work like Ito's doesn't make it to the western shores - though, we should almost hope it doesn't, because look what they've done to The Ring, Ju-On (the Grudge) and now Dark Water. They American-ize it and take away all the atmospheric terror that Japanese horror cinema so excels at...

Anyhow, this is a collage to the character of "Tomie". I apologize to those who may have read it that her beauty mark is on the wrong side. I forgot that the American version is flipped (because, of course, otherwise it would confuse us silly Americans that the pages are all running backwards...). Anyhow, this is far from finished. I just thought I'd post what I have done of it anyhow, because I know I like to see other people's sketches and compare them to the finished product to see what kinds of methods they use while finishing a piece.

So, yeah.....the imagery will be known to those who have read the "Tomie" collection, but to those who haven't:

Top left, moving clockwise: The face that sprouted from the neck of Tomie's headless body, Tomie with gore on her face after cannibalizing a victim, Tomie being pulled out of a lake like a fish by her teeth, and of course, pretty Tomie - before she goes batshit insane on yo azz. And there's also a buncha eyes just floatin' around. It's going to be mainly black (her hair) weaving the pictures together, and the eyes just appearing between the faces, and....yeah. Not really much more to explain.

I'm gonna shut up now.