I’ve seen a lot of fascinatingly bizarre crossovers in my day (I’m a Sonic fan, I rest my case), but nothing could’ve prepared me for seeing Boomhauer from King of the Hill muttering about how a hole was his dang hole because he was now in a Junji Ito story. Fandom is such a horrifyingly wonderful thing.
The crossover we’ve all been waiting for
First reported by Andy Davis over at Screen Rant, the crossover art that combines King of the Hill with Junji Ito’s The Enigma of Amigara Fault comes from Woodrow White, a visual development artist for Seth Rogan’s upcoming TMNT movie. The story of The Enigma of Amigara Fault centers on the discovery of human-shaped holes along the surface of a rock that’s been exposed after an earthquake. In typical Junji Ito fashion, things take a strange turn when people start to claim that they saw a hole that looked just like a silhouette of themselves when the story of the earthquake aired on the news. They are compelled to find their hole and walk into it, leading to some very morbid imagery where the person’s body becomes twisted beyond recognition, but somehow they’re still alive.
You may have seen the “this is my hole” part being meme’d, which downplays how disturbing the end result is (as to be expected with a good meme). White, on the other hand, is, um, kind enough to show the gruesome ending of the story in another tweet. Poor, poor Boomhauer.
But dangit, that’s not the only Junji Ito story that White has done this with, after all, no Junji Ito crossover would be complete without Uzumaki, the story of a town that’s cursed by spirals. This is one of those stories where you read the synopsis and go, “cursed by spirals, really?” Then you read the manga and go, “Oh holy shit.”
Is it weird that I can hear these panels in the character’s voices? That’s weird, right? Here’s another one that captures the “perfect likeness” of Luanne.
For this piece, White is referencing Tomie, Junji Ito’s debut work which will be a part of an upcoming anime anthology being released by Netflix.
How did this get made?
Like all truly beautiful “WTF” moments on the Internet, this whole thing started with a joke tweet White had made back in April.
“Junji Ito’s The Enigma of Arlen Fault,” is how the tweet starts, followed by Hank Hill talking to Peggy. “I don’t know how to explain this, Peggy, but this whole was made for me.” Cue twangy, country guitar sound, followed by the sound of Hank Hill opening a can of beer. Hilariously, White’s pinned tweet currently reveals how these panels get made. “For those curious: I created these parodies in Photoshop on my lunch breaks, using Junji Ito’s illustrations and screengrabs from KOTH, with some minor drawing here and there from me,” says White. “There’s no larger manga planned, sorry!”
What a way to spend a lunch break, I’ll tell you what.
(Featured image: Junji Ito/20th Television/edit by Briana Lawrence)
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