Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Join us for a special conversation with Ito Junji and his first editor, Nakaguma Ichiro. The program offers insight into how editorial guidance and artistic vision come together to bring unforgettable narratives to life.
About the speakers
Ito Junji (b. 1963) is one of Japan’s most famous horror manga artists. Originally trained as a dental technician, he began publishing manga in the 1980s. His breakout work, "Uzumaki," originally published from 1998 to 1999, introduced readers worldwide to his unique style of cosmic horror, strange beauty, and psychological fear. Influenced by Japanese folklore, American writer H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937), and manga artist Umezu Kazuo (1936–2024), Ito creates drawings that are detailed and haunting, often showing ordinary life as it slowly takes a terrifying turn. His work shapes how horror is seen in manga, film, and popular culture, in Japan and internationally. Although the artist initially drew all his manga by hand, he has since decided to draw digitally.
Nakaguma Ichiro (b. 1963) started working for Shogakukan in the editorial department of "Big Comic Original" in 1988. He then went on to work at other young adult magazines such as "Big Comic Spirits," "Young Sunday," and "Big Comic." He was editor-in-chief of the manga magazine "Big Comic Original" from 2016 through 2020. He then served as editor-in-chief of "Big Comic" until 2022.
About the exhibition | Art of Manga
famsf.org/exhibitions/art-of-manga
Manga — Japanese comics and graphic novels — have become a global phenomenon. Featuring rarely presented original drawings by major artists, this exhibition showcases the world of manga from the 1970s to today. The exhibition explores manga as a powerful medium for visual storytelling, highlighting themes across genres, from friendship to sexuality to the human condition. Looking closely at each artist’s narrative worlds and creative processes, the exhibition also spotlights manga’s cultural impact today and possibilities for the future.
Join us for a special conversation with Ito Junji and his first editor, Nakaguma Ichiro. The program offers insight into how editorial guidance and artistic vision come together to bring unforgettable narratives to life.
About the speakers
Ito Junji (b. 1963) is one of Japan’s most famous horror manga artists. Originally trained as a dental technician, he began publishing manga in the 1980s. His breakout work, "Uzumaki," originally published from 1998 to 1999, introduced readers worldwide to his unique style of cosmic horror, strange beauty, and psychological fear. Influenced by Japanese folklore, American writer H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937), and manga artist Umezu Kazuo (1936–2024), Ito creates drawings that are detailed and haunting, often showing ordinary life as it slowly takes a terrifying turn. His work shapes how horror is seen in manga, film, and popular culture, in Japan and internationally. Although the artist initially drew all his manga by hand, he has since decided to draw digitally.
Nakaguma Ichiro (b. 1963) started working for Shogakukan in the editorial department of "Big Comic Original" in 1988. He then went on to work at other young adult magazines such as "Big Comic Spirits," "Young Sunday," and "Big Comic." He was editor-in-chief of the manga magazine "Big Comic Original" from 2016 through 2020. He then served as editor-in-chief of "Big Comic" until 2022.
About the exhibition | Art of Manga
famsf.org/exhibitions/art-of-manga
Manga — Japanese comics and graphic novels — have become a global phenomenon. Featuring rarely presented original drawings by major artists, this exhibition showcases the world of manga from the 1970s to today. The exhibition explores manga as a powerful medium for visual storytelling, highlighting themes across genres, from friendship to sexuality to the human condition. Looking closely at each artist’s narrative worlds and creative processes, the exhibition also spotlights manga’s cultural impact today and possibilities for the future.
![[Day 1] Bridges: Social Engagement in Artists’ Books/ 2021 Reva and David Logan Symposium](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rEsYg-nNJCo/mqdefault.jpg "[Day 1] Bridges: Social Engagement in Artists’ Books/ 2021 Reva and David Logan Symposium
As potent tools for understanding, books can bridge disparate cultures. This year’s Logan Symposium brings together six powerful and courageous voices, artists who have traveled the world, and traveled within themselves, to bring back visual and poetic testimony.
About the Speakers
Dana Gioia (Keynote): Creativity, Collaboration, & Community
Dana Gioia is a poet and critic with numerous awards to his credit and a long history of collaboration with letterpress printers and artists. His 1992 book Can Poetry Matter? was a finalist for the prestigious National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism. He is a former Poet Laureate of California and from 2003 to 2009 was chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. For nine years Gioia was the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at USC. He now divides his time between Los Angeles and Sonoma County, California. (danagioia.com)
Nigel Poor: Stories from San Quentin
Description
Nigel Poor, an artist, and photographer is a Professor of Photography at CSU Sacramento and is widely known as co-host and co-creator with Earlonne Woods of the celebrated podcast Ear Hustle. Her book The San Quentin Project (Aperture, 2021), based on classes she has taught at San Quentin on the theory and history of photography, documents the work of incarcerated students. Her fine art has been widely exhibited and collected. (nigelpoor.com)
Philip Zimmermann: Delirium
Philp Zimmermann founded his imprint, Spaceheater Editions, in 1979, and has since published several dozen editions of his mostly photo-based book works, with thirty-eight editions currently in print. A recent work, Delirium, a striking evocation of the contagions of 2020, both medical and political, was selected by the professional design association AIGA as one of the fifty best-designed books of the year. Recently retired as a professor of design at the University of Arizona, he lives in Tucson. (spaceheat.com)
Andre Bradley, Dark Archives, 1–41
Andre Bradley’s Dark Archives, 1–41, was shortlisted for the Photo-Text Book Award at Les Rencontres de la Photographie and the Paris Photo/Aperture Foundation First PhotoBook Award, both in 2016. His work is in public and private art collections and libraries including the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and Scripps Colleges Ella Strong Denison Library. Bradley holds MFA degrees from Ithaca College and the Rhode Island School of Design, where he received the T.C. Colley Award for Photographic Excellence. He lives and works in Philadelphia. (elanaschlenker.com/dark-archives/)")
