Humans grow and age. They change. But always we are the same person, the same creature. Not so with insects, whose powers of metamorphosis alter not only their shape and size, but also their very beings. And now, because of one young man's unhealthy obsession with bugs, humans also find themselves transformed into disgusting, decrepit, bloodsucking insect monsters!
 

Published in 1975, Koga Shinichi's MANSECT is a shonen horror classic by one of the undisputed masters of the genre. Swarming with mesmerizingly gnarly imagery and freakish bio-evolutionary speculation, Koga here demonstrates why his name is uttered with the same quivering reverence as horror manga legends Mizuki Shigeru, Umezz Kazuo, and Ito Junji. MANSECT is the third volume of SMUDGE, a line of vintage horror, occult, and dark fantasy manga, curated and translated by award-winning historian Ryan Holmberg.

KOGA SHINICHI (1936-2018) was one of the leading authors of horror manga in the 20th century. After debuting in Black Cat in 1957, he became a regular in rental kashihon periodicals, most notably the foundational horror anthology Kaidan from Hibari Shobō. In 1964, he began drawing horror stories for the shōjo magazine Weekly Margaret, standing with Umezz Kazuo as one of the pioneers of shōjo horror manga. Between 1975 and 1979, he created what became his most popular title, Eko Eko Azarak, for Weekly Shōnen Champion. Starring an evil high school girl who wields black magic, the series ignited an obsession with the occult and satanic in manga, and has been adapted into movies and television shows multiple times. Mansect, originally serialized in Monthly Shōnen Champion in 1975 under the title Yōchū, is regarded by fans and critics as one of his most grotesque and fantastical works.