>>42565
I think he's good at drawing disturbing things. But the problem is that in his short stories it doesn't have enough time to develop and set the mood. It's all over in a flash so the strange things that happen move into the comical territory instead of horror.
Take for instance that Children of the Earth you just posted. You get one page of setting up the story, one page of the beginning of the reveal. Then the long body reveal which seems like absurdist humor rather than horror.
The Window Next Door, is a bit better in that the buildup is longer but after all the spooky stuff with the monstrous woman trying to get in. The reveal is that the window is closer. It's like a punchline and made me laugh rather than be scared just from how absurd it is.
I think that Junji Ito is a good artist and he can draw very disturbing things and can think of disturbing concepts. But I find that his longer stories that don't try to have a big payoff in the end work a lot better than the "bam! spooky thing" Stories. And the best ones are where he lets his artwork do most of the heavy lifting
Like in the Long Dream, that picture is really fucking disturbing and it isn't the end of the story and it isn't sprung on you, it's more built up to.
Or like Uzumaki where the disturbing things have a long buildup and it almost delves into Lovecraftian type cosmic horror combined with Junji Ito's great body horror, both of those are really good. But it seems too often he falls into the trap of Shyamalan trying to make a twist right at the end. Which usually turns into something comical.
At least in my opinion, I can see how the artwork could carry the "twist" for other people but just in my mind it crosses over into absurdist