A.,

There’s a bizarre story behind these pages.

Two years ago the artist, one Naoko Hirano, pitched a terribly compelling manga series. She included pints of half a chapter, and the publisher was so intrigued that they immediately made an offer. They never heard back.

She was reported missing the next day. Police found nothing. She’s now presumed dead.

Here’s the thing. In her house were discovered the roughs for the entire first arc of the series. They’ve been held by the police as evidence, but we finally got ahold of them. A lot of the art is barely sketched, but the story’s just as solid as promised.

We’ve done minimal retouching for the sake of legibility, but other than that, this mysterious artist’s work is left to stand on its own.

Let me know what you think!

–I.