The Lives of Eccentrics
Template:Book The Lives of Eccentrics (変人偏屈列伝, Henjin Henkutsu Retsuden) 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 story and concludes within the same chapter. The only exception is Ty Cobb's Story with two chapters.
Characters
- Ty Cobb (タイ・カッブ, Tai Kabbu): An American Major League Baseball player renowned for his great skill at the sport and his irascible character.
- Yoshio Kou (康 芳夫, Kō Yoshio): A Chinese-Japanese producer and showman who wanted to show Japan the weirdest things imaginable, such as his 1976 venture to get an alleged human-chimpanzee hybrid named Oliver to have sex with a woman on television.
- Mary Mallon, a.k.a. Typhoid Mary (腸チフスのメアリー, Chō-Chifusu no Mearī): An Irish-American woman identified as the first asymptomatic carrier of the Typhoid fever pathogen who spread the disease in New York in the early 20th century by working as a cook.
- Sarah Winchester, owner of the Winchester Mystery House (ウィンチェスター・ミステリー・ハウス, Winchesutā Misuterī Hausu): An American woman who inherited her father-in-law's vast fortune made from manufacturing a repeating rifle used in the American Civil War. She believed the ghosts of the soldiers killed by these rifles sought to kill her, and thus continuously had her mansion built in San Jose, California, with so many confusing rooms and passageways such that the vengeful spirits that haunted her would be kept at bay.
- The Collyer Brothers (コリヤー兄弟, Koriyā-Kyōdai): Two American brothers who were known for their hoarding habits, and whose house in Harlem was a target for thieves so they set up many traps in the house to catch them.
- Nikola Tesla (ニコラ・テスラ, Nikora Tesura): An eccentric Serbian-American scientist and engineer known for his rivalry with Thomas Edison, particularly over his own invention of the alternating current.
Chapters
While the base composition is provided by Araki, the only stories drawn by him are Typhoid Mary and Sarah Winchester. The rest are drawn by Hirohisa Onikubo.
- History's Greatest Hitting Machine! Ty Cobb (Part 1) (史上最高！強打製造機『タイ・カッブ』（前編）, Shijō Saikō! Kyōda Seizōki “Tai Kabbu” (Zenpen)): Originally published in Allman No. 10, 2001
- History's Greatest Hitting Machine! Ty Cobb (Part 2) (史上最高！強打製造機『タイ・カッブ』（後編）, Shijō Saikō! Kyōda Seizōki “Tai Kabbu” (Kōhen)): Originally published in Allman No. 11, 2001
- Showman of the Century Who Launched Oliver: Yoshio Kou (オリバー君を仕掛けた世紀の興行師『康 芳夫』, Oribā-kun o Shikaketa Seiki no Kōgyōshi “Kō Yoshio”): Originally published in Ultra Jump March 2003 issue
- The Real Ultimate Choice: Typhoid Mary (実在した究極の選択『腸チフスのメアリー』, Jitsuzai-shita Kyūkyoku no Sentaku “Chō-Chifusu no Mearī”): Originally published in Ultra Jump September 2003 issue
- The Mysterious Mansion the Widow Continued to Build: Winchester Mystery House (未亡人が増築しつづけた謎の館 『ウィンチェスター・ミステリー・ハウス』, Mibōjin ga Zōchiku-shitsuzuketa Nazo no Yakata “Winchesutā Misuterī Hausu”): Originally published in Ultra Jump August 2003 issue
- The Brothers Nobody Knew: Collyer Brothers (誰も知らない兄弟『コリヤー兄弟』, Dare mo Shiranai Kyōdai “Koriyā-Kyōdai”): Originally published in Allman No.2, 2002
- The Genius Who Made Edison Cower: Nikola Tesla (エジソンを震えあがらせた大天才『ニコラ・テスラ』, Ejison o Furueagaraseta Daitensai “Nikora Tesura”): Originally published in Super Jump June 1989 (assisted by Fuji Nobuyuki)
Gallery
Bunko Version - Cover 2
Original Hard Cover Version
Trivia
- All the stories are based on real life people. While the story of each character is respected, Araki takes liberties necessary to impregnate his narrative style.
