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Living The Line Launches Marina Shirakawa's UFO Mushroom Invasion Manga in English

Publisher Living the Line's Smudge horror imprint confirmed with ANN on Sunday that it will publish Marina Shirakawa's UFO Mushroom Invasion (Shinryaku Enban Kinokonga) manga in English for the first time. Ryan Holmberg is translating the manga.

Living the Line plans to release the manga on July 30, although the company added it might push back the release date to August.

Shirakawa originally launched the horror manga in 1976 under Akebono Publishing.

Smudge describes the manga:

Deep in the mountains of Japan, a flying saucer smashes into the earth. Fearful of the strange and hyper-intelligent beings they find inside, the government hides from the public all news of the alien craft. But it's not the aliens themselves that they should be afraid of-the real danger is the parasitic spores they brought with them! Will earth survive the UFO MUSHROOM INVASION?! Originally published in 1976, Shirakawa Marina's UFO MUSHROOM INVASION is unanimously considered a masterpiece of Japanese sci-fi horror. Pulling on his deep knowledge of Japanese ghost stories and folklore, Shirakawa serves up one of Japanese comics' cult classics and an unforgettably creepy entry in the canon of spore-horror. UFO MUSHROOM INVASION is the second volume of SMUDGE, a line of classic pulp, horror, and dark fantasy manga, curated and translated into English by award-winning historian Ryan Holmberg.

Living the Line told ANN about the release:

Shirakawa is a remarkable author whose classic art and unique perspective make his rediscovery inevitable. We couldn't be more pleased to be bringing him to English language audiences.

Although this is only our second book in the Smudge line ... UFO Mushroom Invasion makes it clear that we are taking our mission statement seriously, to bring previously-unknown genre classics to the English language market, key books and authors that have been virtually unknown outside of enthusiastic collectors mostly within Japan.

Living the Line describes Smudge as "a line of classic pulp, horror, and dark fantasy manga, curated and translated into English by award-winning historian Ryan Holmberg." Her Frankenstein will be the first title under the imprint launching in spring 2024.

Source: Email correspondence