Ultra Heaven Volume 1

Ultra Heaven Volume 1

In the future, any mood you want is just a pump away. People flock to legal “pump bars,” where licensed medical professionals, known as bar doctors, prescribe their customers the perfect pharmaceutical blend. But when the standard dosage isn’t enough, our protagonist, Cub, turns to an unauthorized source. The results have to be seen to be believed. Rendered in a richly-detailed, clear-line style, this psychedelic sci-fi manga tears apart the basic fabric of reality. What is the truth and what is a dream? Born in Tokyo, Keiichi Koike won the prestigious Tezuka Award in 1976, when he was 16. His style, similar to Katsuhiro Otomo and Moebius, is marked by vivid representations of psychedelic experiences. Drugs are an important part of his inspiration: "Except peyote, I have tried almost everything: hashish, heroin, cocaine, acid, magic mushrooms... From a strictly graphical point of view, however, LSD is most important by far...