This book features a collection of recent exhibition and professional works by Katsuya Terada, a celebrated illustrator and manga artist with a 42-year career. It showcases the forefront of a master who has continued—and will continue—to draw.

It also includes commentary on the art materials Terada uses in his daily work. While skillfully utilizing traditional tools like pencils and ballpoint pens, as well as the iPad, he actively incorporates new gadgets, constantly delivering fresh surprises and inspiration. This volume captures the current essence of Terada's artwork. His insights on art supplies are a must-read for anyone with even a slight interest in drawing.

THIS AND THAT has art by Katsuya Terada. It is translated by Ryan Holmberg. Published by PIE International (May, 2026).

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Even if Katsuya Terada's art isn't you preferred aesthetic, it's hard to deny that This and That is a fascinating book. Terada's an artist who switches tools with great frequency – this book alone contains digital works, pencil on cardboard, marker on canvas, and various other combinations of materials. There are full-color pieces, black-and-whites, monochromatics, and twenty pages printed on metallic silver paper. Terada's comments are translated into English (not always the case with this publisher), and even better, there's an included sticker sheet. This is, to put it mildly, a neat book.

Terada's artstyle isn't going to be for everyone, though, even more so than many other artists. The primary facial expression he draws is the sneer, and he also has a fondness for Cerberus-style creatures with multiple heads, often of different animals. (Usually cats and dogs surrounding a human head, but not always.) There's an incredible level of detail to even the simplest pieces, and many of the images feature women or young people wearing elaborate headpieces of the sort guaranteed to give you head and neck aches, but also to dominate any cosplay event you chose if you could recreate them.

Most of the intricate costumes are made up of everyday bits and pieces – tea kettles, coils of wire, tubes, and helmets. They're drawn in such a way that these disparate elements combine to look futuristic, like someone rummaged through an old dump and made art out of what was thrown away. Many of these hats sit on the heads of topless women, and it's interesting to note that it looks like Terada draws his figures naked and then puts clothes on them – in some of the sketches (or sketchier pictures), you can see the remnants of body lines underneath the clothing.

Looking through This and That is like reading someone's dreams. Or possibly their nightmares, as a sequence about Gary the Cat, a cyclopean feline, or some of the kaiju pictures can be pretty disturbing in their own special way. If you don't like art to be clean and pretty, this is an artbook you'll want to check out. It shows the grittier side of illustration and just how appealing it can be.