The Bones Spoke | Playboy Comics Crazy | Jiro Kuwata

Size : 25 x 34.5 cm 
Media : pencil & ink on paper
Very Good Condition

Jiro Kuwata is best known for his superhero and science-fiction manga, including 8 Man, Moonlight Mask and Ultraseven but he also explored a darker and more mysterious side of storytelling during the late 1960s.

The Bones Spoke (Hone wa Katatta, 骨は語った) is a 20-page mystery one-shot originally published on 30 October 1968 in Playboy COMICS Crazy, an experimental manga magazine published by Shueisha as a special edition of Weekly Playboy. The magazine brought together established Japanese artists and international comic creators, offering a more mature approach to manga than the traditional boys' magazines.

This original page beautifully illustrates Kuwata's talent for building suspense through composition and atmosphere.

A beautiful, mysterious woman appears in the jungle and lures one of the men away from his companions. When the others discover his disappearance, they begin searching the dense vegetation. Kuwata builds the suspense through elegant character designs, carefully composed panels and a striking use of black silhouettes, giving the sequence an almost cinematic quality.

The story was rediscovered and reprinted by Apple BOX Create in 1992, later appearing in Manga Shop's 2004 edition of King Robo. The story and original cover was also reproduced as part of the digital anthology Jiro Kuwata: Previously Uncollected Works.