The humorous yet pathetic tale of a father who had failed to commit suicide, and is left with a scarred face. Derorinman ('derorin' from 'derelict' ) hangs around the children of the town, tries (and fails) to get the affections of women, and has frequent confrontations with Orokamen, a masked man who's always ready to call Derorinman a fool ("orokamono" ).

An early work of Weekly Shonen Jump.

Note: A remake of Derorinman ran in Weekly Shonen Magazine shortly after the Shonen Jump one ended. Among other differences, the ending is altered and the cast is now older. In the 70's, this distinction was made by having the Jump Derorinman be known as 'Ganso (Original) Derorinman' when under Asahi Sonorama's Sun Comics imprint.

There was also a brief novelization that ran in Kadokawa's Variety magazine. This is collected in the Tokuma bunko.

All editions of Derorinman exclude its infamous final arc, the Black Ship Arc. The arc was not collected until Fukkan.com released it as its own volume in 2017. The Black Ship Arc features parallels with the United Red Army and the New Left movement. It is also where The Moon (from the titular work) also originates from. Fukkan's edition also contains "Derorinman Heisei Version", a 3-chapter short serial done in Comic Legend Magazine in 2001.