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BREAKDOWNS - Judging Ito, or Further Down the Spiral

Manga, or Japanese comics, have continued to grow in popularity in North America, though there still appears to be a fairly narrow conception of what these books are. Just like the way American comics=superheroes for readers around the world, manga=martial arts or samurai epics/Pokemon-Dragonball Z anime-originated melodrama, or futuristic mecha. But since manga is so much more successful as an arm of publishing than comics are here, it stands to reason that there are many, many different kinds of it to choose from, from "niche programming" like she-male pornography to comics about fishermen (see BASS MASTER from ComicsOne, seriously). It's a gradual process, but publishers like Viz and ComicsOne are doing their best to introduce some of these interesting genres and subgenres to we Western readers. And it's logical that they would start with some of the very best works from the very best creators. And so we have some very fine Japanese horror comics, all from the fevered imagination of one creator, Junji Ito. Having seen no other examples of Japanese horror, I can only rely on the quality of Ito's work to name him one of the masters of the genre, but if there are better creators than him I've yet to see, what a wonderful world it would be.

"I don't care if she's undead, I still wanna go out with her."

"Unrequited zombie lover, huh."

TOMIE VOL. 1 by Junji Ito. Published by ComicsOne. $9.95 U.S.
A good many of us have been in relationships deep enough to be called love, and this person we love may have occasionally caused us to think, "I could kill her/him. That's usually just frustration, an exaggerated expression for a fleeting anger, and it usually means nothing. That is, unless you loved Tomie.

We meet her in the first story in this collection of six, the sweet Japanese teenager who was murdered and cut into pieces, many of them still missing. Poor Yamamoto; he loved her the most.

Well, in the good news/bad news department, Tomie comes back to class, but she's, you know, dead, and that changes things a bit. Still, for a dead girl, she's still a romantic type, throwing herself after a married teacher until he kinda sorta pushes her to her second death. In a wondrously loony plot twist that will become a staple of Ito's work, the rest of the class agrees that Yamamoto shouldn't ruin his life over a girl like Tomie, so they agree to cover for him, while the male students assist him in cutting her into dozens of pieces again, each to be buried in a different spot. It doesn't stop her, though. Tomie crops up in other schools in other towns, bending teenage boys to her will. Ito masterfully conjures dread and suspense from any situation; one of the better stories has a girl take Tomie's picture, which reveals a strange other head one can't see with the naked eye. This bizarre head eventually proves Tomie's undoing, though she'll rebuild herself. Though Ito has a true gift for depicting grisly depravity, he grounds it in realism, with believable, unique faces and body language. Tomie's just as creepy when she looks like any other uniformed Japanese schoolgirl than when she's sprouting hair from her second head or reforming her cells in a dank cave.

"I just...wanted to kill her, detective...Even just seeing her...
Made me want to chop her into pieces.
Am I the only one that gets these feelings?"

TOMIE VOL. 2 by Junji Ito. Published by ComicsOne. $9.95.
As in the first volume, we have here six or seven short stories involving the beautiful Tomie, a teenage girl who just has to have her way, even after you kill her. Story after story, she keeps coming back, bringing death, insanity and misery with her.

The stories in this volume are every bit as good as the first, as stories, but a small measure of intensity is lost. The reason for this may partially be because it's no longer new to me this time, but also because there is no continuity between stories. In the first volume, a lead character may survive an encounter with Tomie and show up again in the next story, helping to make the book a gorgeously depraved saga. However, in this volume, each story exists on its own, with a new cast of characters each time and new ways for Tomie to insinuate herself into their lives. Like I said, some intensity is therefore lost, but Ito's fertile imagination makes each story different.

He doesn't rely purely on gore for horrific effects, but rather on unsettling mood and strange mutations. Whereas the first volume was like one long horror movie (there are two Tomie films in existence but I've yet to see them), this second volume is more like a series of half-hour episodes, like Tales from the Crypt. Tomie grows herself from just a head in one story, and sets her paramour off to kill a competing Tomie (there can be only one at a time); a wig made from Tomie's hair implants itself in a girl's brain and takes her over. Through it all, Tomie is mainly a spoiled teen, hardly seeming to realize the damage she's done. The final story is a masterpiece: the shuddering grotesquerie of a typical Tomie tale turning a proper English type of murder plot inside out. Ito is fully in tune with his obsessions, yet able to marry them to clever, sometimes classically influenced, plots. Special credit should also go to the translator, as the teenage dialogue here feels natural and unforced.

"Old and new kimonos with volute patterns, conches, snail shells, ammonite fossils...
Wind-up springs, Scotch tape, mosquito repellent, incense, even twisting vines...
They're everywhere once you look for them!"

UZUMAKI VOL. 1 by Junji Ito. Published by Viz Comics. $14.95
Uzumaki means spiral. Nothing so sinister about a spiral, right? It's a shape occurring countless times in nature. But the shape is the focal point for Ito's greatest, most assured work, as he finds no end to ways to craft wholly new tales of horror involving the spiral in each.

The first tale is perhaps the best, and provides the cover image, which is hard to see here, but depicts a man swallowing himself to form the spiral. He's become the equivalent of a human cinnamon roll. Kirie is our heroine, and becomes the girlfriend to Shuichi, the tortured man's son, almost out of pity, as there doesn't seem to be much romantic attachment. It also seems like the wisest move, as he seems to be the only one to truly notice the evil spiral variations in the town. This is a common theme in Ito's work, having the teenagers the only ones really aware of the horrible changes, perhaps echoing the ones going on in their bodies, I don't know. Some support for this theory exists in one of the last stories here, which puts a literal, unending twist into ROMEO AND JULIET.

As the stories continue, Shuichi's mother becomes obsessed with all spiral forms occurring on or in the human body. Better keep those shears locked up if she finds out the ear canal is a spiral. In "The Scar," we see, like Tomie, a normal girl corrupted, turned into a faceless, unexplainable monster (see detail), a hunger that, like Shuichi's father, eventually feeds on itselfs to up the ante, making dark, spiraling clouds somehow an image of shudder-inducing evil, more terrible than before because now it's not just a nameless evil striking individuals but Nature itself, hiding in the ground, floating in the air, seeping into the water. His inking as compared to TOMIE has become increasingly detailed and impassioned, creating vivid depictions of ash and smoke and diabolically obscured faces, images he was not capable of producing with such skill before.

"His body's so rotten it's falling apart!"

UZUMAKI VOL. 2 by Junji Ito. Published by Viz Comics. $14.95
In this latest volume, the author continues to up the ante, with ever more strange, and sometimes, strained, attempts to fit spiral forms into aspects of evil and terror. A lighthouse's lamp is burned somehow to make a spiral pattern, which hypnotizes townspeople into being unable to break away from walking in circles. Kirie and Shuichi return, she having cut her hair short after an episode that would curl your-well, you get the idea. As in the first volume, a few handsomely colored, glossy pages, lead into the superlative black and white art. A full-length color project from Ito would be gorgeous, but perhaps gilding the lily.

"The Jack in the Box" is one of the grisliest stories I've ever read, and I think it's significant to point out that it's not unlike something Stephen King might do. That is, these are not uniquely Japanese tales, but scary stories which could take place anywhere, pretty much, with characters accessible to all because hey, this stuff would scare anybody, anywhere.

"Mosquitos," a perverse enough tale involving expectant, and thirsty, mothers, leads into "The Umbilical Cord," which is truly grotesque and yet somewhat beautiful. Unlike TOMIE, which featured a slight dip in quality-though still well worth getting-this second volume of UZUMAKI manages to gain in intensity over the first, as we find there is truly nothing sacred and nowhere safe for Kirie and Shuichi.

There are several more stories, and though Ito stretches credibility frequently (citizens tend to accept a lot, such as the schoolmate who turns into a spiral-shelled snail-isn't he cute, class?), his imagination, storytelling confidence, and increasingly fluid art, sweep the reader across these maws of logic to plateaus of pure entertainment.

And now, let me shake off some of that clammy sweat left from Master Ito, for a quick skip and frolic through some more mainstream fare I've read lately. Just some brief plugs for some of the notable stuff on the stands, one shots or first issues deserving a look.

THANOS: INFINITY ABYSS #1 (OF 6) by Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom. Marvel Comics. $2.99
If I hadn't just read an interview with both artists, I might've skipped this, because, like probably a lot of you, I figured STARLIN+COSMIC COMICS=OVER. In fact, Title Bout on our very own site made a joke about the second issue, out by the time you read this. And yet, it's quite a bit of fun. The art's a little stiff in spots, but Milgrom is (only) good with tight pencilers like Starlin, and I'd forgotten that Starlin almost always alleviates the heavy cosmic plot with quite a bit of humor, even some of the self-deprecating variety. Spider-Man, Adam Warlock, Captain Marvel and Doctor Strange team up to do...something. OK, I'm a little confused here, but it is fun, and Starlin busts his ass on the art.

SPIDER-MAN: GET KRAVEN #1 (OF 7) by Ron Zimmerman and John McCrea. Marvel Comics. $2.99
Yeah, it's a Marvel day, I guess. We'll get into other publishers next time.
Al Kraven is the ultra-rich son of dead Spidey super-villain Kraven the Hunter, but Al wants a different life for himself. He's got loads of money, but where's the challenge? So he and girlfriend Timber head to Hollywood-she to pursue acting, he to do whatever comes up. It's a light first issue, with some good one-liners between Spider-Man and Al and the obligatory fight between Al and second-stringers Cobra and Mr. Hyde, but the best part is the relationship between Al and Timby. It's tender, romantic, supportive-these are some good characters here, more interesting than a lot of superheroes with decades of continuity behind them. And Zimmerman's Hollywood background should provide great comedic fodder.

That's all for now.

Chris Allen

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