Manga artist Shin'ichi Abe passed away on September 4, 2026, after a battle with cancer of the salivary glands. His son, Kôsei Abe, shared the news on his Twitter/X account, confirming that the wake and funeral were held in private within the family. Abe was born on April 7, 1950, in Tagawa, Japan, and became a prominent figure in the alternative manga magazine Garo during the 1970s and 1980s. His early work, Un gentil garçon, published in May 1970, marked his debut, but it was Miyoko, humeur d'Asagaya, released the following year, that brought him critical acclaim. In this piece, Miyoko, who would later become his wife, emerged as a central and recurring character in his body of work. Abe was part of the Garo Sanbagarasu, or Garo Trio, alongside artists Oji Suzuki and Masuzô Furukawa. This group represented a new wave of manga creators disillusioned with the political and social upheavals of the late 1960s, seeking to express their own identities and perspectives. This movement gave rise to watakushi-manga, or "self" manga, a genre that emphasized personal and introspective storytelling, which helped establish Garo as an avant-garde publication. However, in the 1980s, Abe faced significant personal struggles, developing schizophrenia and retreating from public life, eventually falling into alcoholism. In the 2000s, Abe returned to the manga scene with the magazine AX, a successor to Garo. His later works were published by this outlet, and his work began to gain attention in France. In 2006, Editions Picquier released Paradis, and other titles such as Une bien triste famille and Les Amours de Taneko followed from Editions du Seuil. A collection of his early stories, Un gentil garçon, was published by Editions Cornélius in 2006 and nominated for the Heritage Prize at the Angoulême Festival in 2008. Abe's presence in the French market diminished after that, until his return in February 2026 with Miyoko, humeur d'Asagaya, published by Cambourakis, which reprinted parts of his earlier work and remains his only available publication in France today.