The term master of horror is often attributed to American author Stephen King without any argument. Turn your eyes to Japan, however, and you’ll discover a writer and artist capable of injecting a far more potent amount of fear into his readers’ veins. Junji Ito is a mangaka who understands phobias, existential anxieties, and the terror of the unknown better than any other horror writer on Earth. Combining a deft artist’s eye with a boundless and terrifying imagination, Junji Ito stands head and shoulders above every other horror writer around.

Born in 1963 in Gifu prefecture, Junji Ito is Japan’s most successful and lauded horror writer. What makes Ito unique in the horror world is that he isn’t a novelist or a short story writer in the traditional sense; he’s a mangaka. His horror stories, both short and long, are all written and drawn with a surreal, off-kilter, otherworldly eeriness.

Ito’s debut story, written when he was only 24 years old, was Tomie, a series of stories about a young woman who defies death and ageing. Over and again, Tomie drives the men who fall for her into madness. Despite its success, Tomie did not project him into the world of famous writers and artists immediately, as Ito worked for several years as a dental technician. Eventually, though, Ito left his almost comically bland career (especially considering how he is known today) behind and Tomie proved to be the beginning of a phenomenal career as Junji Ito steadily made a greater and greater name for himself as the king of terror, not only in Japan but across the world.