WHAT IS HIBARI SHOBO?

Hibari Shobo is a Japanese publishing company known for publishing many strange manga in the late 1950's and 1980's. Company president Yuji Ando is not excelled as a businessman, but also as a great editor who discovered a lot of new talent. He was the first person to introduce Goseki Kojima, known for "Lone Wolf and Cub", to the world as a manga artist. He even supported Kojima's early work by taking the role of Producer.

From November 1958 to 1967, Hibari Shobo published Japan's first horror comic anthology series "Kaidan" (Ghost Stories), with 101 main books and 4 extras. At the same time, they also published 84 books and 1 extra, of the legendary horror series "All Kaidan". Along with these, the long-established publisher also released the bizarre manga series "Bessatsu Kaidan" (15 books), "Manga Thriller" (4 books), "Kaiki Jidai" (6 books) and "Yurei" (8 books).

As well as publishing these series, Hibari Shobo also published many single books. Many of the authors went on to leave their names in Japanese manga history, such as Goseki Kojima, Sanpei Shirato, Kazuo Umezu and Shinichi (Shinsaku) Koga. Others have made their names as mysterious authors with their own cult followings such as Miki Ibara, Shinji Hama and Shinji Ikegawa.

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More than 150 of the single volume books published in the 1970s are known as "Kurowaku" (Black Frame) among Japanese vintage comic collectors, with their different versions causing various fights.

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Among them are a very popular version known as "Irowaku" (Colored Frame). This is a special version that exists on only a few titles, and were created to help the survival of the company during an economic crisis from 1975 to 1976.

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In the latter half of the 1970s a new label, "Hibari Hit Comics", was established based around the work of Hideshi Hino, Norikazu Kawashima, Miyuki Saga, Koji Sugito and Yukiko Mori. Including work where the titles had changed but content had stayed the same, the label managed to publish over 500 titles. It even offered new authors the chance to create long running work of close to 200 pages.

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The final mysterious manga title was "Chuugakusei Satsujin Jiken" (The Case of the Junior High School Killer).

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Following the end of their mysterious manga publications, the publisher focused its attention on educational bargain books aimed at children. The company closed its doors in November 2004.

Even these educational books include work by some of the company's early artists such as Shinji Hama and Madoka Oishi artists who had deep connections to the company and were cherished by president Ando.