Maruo graduated from junior high school in March 1972 but dropped out of senior high school. At the age of 15, he moved to Tokyo and began working for a bookbinder. At 17, he made his first manga submission to Weekly Shōnen Jump, but it was considered by the editors to be too graphic for the magazine's format and was subsequently rejected. Maruo temporarily removed himself from manga until November 1980 when he made his official debut as a manga artist in Ribon no Kishi (リボンの騎士) at the age of 24. It was at this stage that the young artist was finally able to pursue his artistic vision without such stringent restrictions over his work's visual content. Two years later, his first stand-alone anthology, Barairo no Kaibutsu (薔薇色の怪物; Rose Colored Monster) was published.
Maruo was a frequent contributor to the underground manga magazine Garo (ガロ).
Like many manga artists, Maruo sometimes makes cameo appearances in his own stories. When photographed, he seldom appears without his trademark sunglasses.
Although Maruo is primarily recognized for his work as a manga artist, he has also created illustrations for concert posters, CD jackets, magazines, novels, and other media. Additionally, some of his characters have been turned into figures.
Though relatively few of Maruo's manga have been published outside Japan, his work enjoys an international cult following.
His book Shōjo Tsubaki (aka Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show) was adapted into an animated film (Midori) by Hiroshi Harada with a soundtrack by J.A. Seazer. The film premiered in 1992 at a Shinto shrine in a replica of the "Red Cat" theater where the film takes place.[1] The film became known for its elaborate gimmick screenings which included having the audience traverse through a labyrinth with freak show theming to enter the theater, live performers and live effects during key moments of the film.[2] Harada did not allow the film to be released on home media for years, though he eventually allowed a company called Ciné Malta to release the film on DVD in France in 2006 under the name Midori. The film received a resurgence in interest on the Internet during the 2010s due to a false urban legend that the film was banned everywhere.
Style
Maruo's nightmarish manga fall into the Japanese category of "erotic grotesque" (エログロ; "ero-guro"). The stories often take place in the early years of Showa EraJapan. Maruo also has a fascination with human oddities, deformities, birth defects, and "circus freaks". Many such characters figure prominently in his stories and are sometimes the primary subjects of his illustrations. Maruo also adapted to manga stories by Edogawa Ranpo, such as "The Strange Tale of Panorama Island" and "The Caterpillar". An English translation of The Strange Tale of Panorama Island work was published by Last Gasp in July 2013.[1]
The illustrations throughout several of his works show grotesquely dark imagery, strange sexual acts / rituals, as well as sexual-violence towards minors. It is referred to as contemporary "bloody prints" muzan-e (a subset of Japanese ukiyo-e depicting violence or other atrocities.) Maruo himself featured in a 1988 book on the subject with fellow artist Kazuichi Hanawa entitled Bloody Ukiyo-e (江戸昭和競作無惨絵英名二十八衆句), presenting their own contemporary works alongside the traditional prints of Yoshitoshi and Yoshiiku.
John Zorn's Naked City
Composer John Zorn used Suehiro illustrations for the liner art of his band Naked City's albums. Zorn has contributed the foreword to Suehiro's latest collection of works (published in 2005).
