The Lives of Eccentrics

The Lives of Eccentrics (変人偏屈列伝) is a series of short stories written by Hirohiko Araki and illustrated by him and his assistant, Hirohisa Onikubo, released between 1989 and 2003. A hardcover volume compiling all the stories was released by Shueisha in 2004, and was converted into a paperback in 2012.

The manga explores the lives of several famous eccentrics and bizarre real-life people. Each chapter features a different historical figure.

Characters

 * Ty Cobb (タイ・カッブ): An American Major League baseball player renowned for his great skill at the sport, his irritable character, and his unbridled arrogance.
 * Yoshio Kou (康 芳夫): A Chinese-Japanese producer and showman who, desiring to show Japan the weirdest things imaginable, attempted in 1976 to air an alleged human-chimpanzee hybrid named Oliver having sex with a human woman on live television.
 * , a.k.a. Typhoid Mary (腸チフスのメアリー): An Irish-American woman identified as the first asymptomatic carrier of the pathogen, who spread the disease in New York in the early 20th century by working as a cook.
 * , owner of the Winchesutā Misuterī Hausu (ウィンチェスター・ミステリー・ハウス): An American woman who inherited her father-in-law's vast fortune from Civil War rifle manufacturing. Believing the ghosts of the soldiers killed by these rifles sought revenge on her, she began continuously constructing a mansion in San Jose, California, filling it with confusing rooms and passageways to ward off the vengeful spirits.
 * The Koriyā-Kyōdai (コリヤー兄弟): Two American brothers who were known for their hoarding habits and obsession with privacy. As they saw their house in Harlem as a target for thieves, the brothers set up numerous traps in the house to protect their belongings.
 * Nikola Tesla (ニコラ・テスラ): An eccentric Serbian-American scientist and engineer known for his rivalry with Thomas Edison, particularly over his own invention of alternating current electricity.

Chapters
While the base composition is provided by Hirohiko Araki, he only drew the chapters Typhoid Mary and Winchester Mystery House. The other chapters were drawn by Hirohisa Onikubo, with Nobuyuki Fujii assisting him on Nikola Tesla.

Trivia

 * Each chapter is based on the story of a real person. While the true story of each character is respected, Araki takes some liberties in order to incorporate his narrative style.