Uzumaki: Spiral Into Horror

Writer and artist: Junji Ito
Publisher: Viz Comics

What's it about?
From the Viz website:
Kurozou-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed.  According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but by a pattern: uzumaki, the spiral: the hypnotic secret shape of the world.  It manifests itself in everything from seashells and whirlpools in water, to the spiral marks on people's bodies; the insane obsession of Shuichi's father, and the voice from the cochlea in our inner ear.  As the madness spreads, the inhabitants of  Kurozu-cho are pulled ever deeper into a whirlpool from which there is no return!

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Writer: William Shakespeare

Adapted by Richard Appignanesi

Art: Kate Brown

Publisher: Self Made Hero

What’s it about? 

This is an adaptation of a William Shakespeare play.  To my mind, it’s the most magical and comedic one.

Theseus and Hippolyta are due to be married in Athens, Greece.  Theseus' servant Egeus has a daughter named Hermia.  Hermia and Lysander are in love and wish to marry, however Egeus has decided that Demetrius is an appropriate husband.  Helena loves Demetrius but, as he wants Hermia, he is not interested in Helena.

In honour of Theseus and Hippolyta’s wedding a group of inept craftsmen decide to put on a play about star-crossed lovers, Pyramus and Thisbe.  It’s a tragedy where the lovers kill themselves, so not entirely fit for a wedding – I did say they were inept!

In the forests of Athens the fairy court is in session.  Oberon, King of the fairies, and Titania, fairy Queen, are embroiled in an argument.  Oberon wants a human boy that Titania has adopted, but Titania won’t give him up.  Oberon plots revenge, and here is where the plots converge...

Oberon gets his servant Puck to enchant Titania so she falls in love with the first hideous thing she sees.  Hermia and Lysander have run away to get married and are pursued by Demetrius, who is in turn pursued by Helena.  Oberon witnesses this and instructs Puck to enchant Demetrius to fall in love with Helena, except Puck gets it wrong and enchants Lysander instead.  The enchantment of Titania is successful, as Puck gives one of the craftsmen, Bottom, a donkey’s head, and Titania falls for him.

This takes up the first half of the play.  The second half concerns the humans and fairies trying to sort out the mess Puck has caused. 

Comics for teens

I am often asked for recommendations for comics for children and teenagers.  I am asked so often, I thought I'd do a couple of posts rounding up all the books I usually point people towards.  So, this post will focus on comics on children, (say up to about age 11 or 12) and a second post will focus on comics for teenagers (aged 12 or 13 and upwards).

Comics for kids

I am often asked for recommendations for comics for children and teenagers.  I am asked so often, I thought I'd do a couple of posts rounding up all the books I usually point people towards.  So, this post will focus on comics on children, (say up to about age 11 or 12) and a second post will focus on comics for teenagers (aged 12 or 13 and upwards).

Claymore vol. 1: The Silver Eyed Slayer

Writer and Artist: Norihiro Yagi
Publisher: Shonen Jump Advanced

What's it about?
In a pre-industrial world in which monsters called yoma infiltrate human settlements in order to hunt and feed on human viscera, female warriors known as Claymores (after the huge swords they carry) are employed to hunt and kill the yoma. Half yoma themselves, these warriors have the strength and speed needed to fight yoma, and the ability to sense them out when they're hiding among humans. The warriors' inhumanity, clear in their lack of pigmentation in hair and skin and their shining silver eyes, makes it hard for humans to trust them, and leaves them outcasts in the society they work to protect.

Read right to left!

If it sounds familiar to you, you probably already know whether or not this series is for you.

Clare is a warrior that the Organization sends to a village for a routine yoma hunt, where she meets Raki, the young boy whose parents were the first victims. His gratitude to her when she saves him, combined with the village's distrust when they realise how close he was to the yoma, causes him to follow her out of the village and into her dangerous world, where a hesitant friendship develops between a boy who has lost everything and a girl who has shut herself off from the world.

Characters of Colour in superhero comics - the men (part five)

This is the more independent edition, where we look at a few of the male characters of colour who sit outside of the mainstream superhero comics published by Marvel and DC.

Characters of Colour in non superhero Comics

Just to take a break from the superhero aspect of all these posts, today we will focus on the non superpowered denizens of the comics medium.


You can read our other posts in the series as follows:
women (part one), women (part two), men (part one),  men (part two), men (part three), the X (wo)men, men (part four), men part five and finally women (part three) and a Spider-man.

LGBT History Month presents Antique Bakery

Writer and artists: Fumi Yoshinaga
Publisher: Digitla Manga

What's it about?
An old antique shop reopens as a bakery.  A surprising selection of characters staff the shop, some unlikely coincidences take place and some delicious cakes and pastries get baked.

Sexy Voice And Robo

written and draw by Iou Kuroda
Publisher: Viz Media

What's It About?
Nico Hayashi is girl with a part-time job: she works for a phone dating scam, acting innocent and enticing on the phone to keep men talking long enough to run up huge bills. She wants to be a spy when she grows up (or maybe a fortune teller) and she uses her after-school job to hone her skills in reading people's character from what they say and how they say it. One day she's plying her trade in a corner booth of a local diner when the old man sitting behind her asks her for a consultation on a phone message that has been brought to his attention, a recording of a kidnapper's demands.

Thus Nico begins a new career as a detective consulting on cases for the old man. Aided by her sidekick (and former scam victim) Iichiro Sudo she is about to embark on an intense education in the dark side of human nature.

Valentine's review - Blue Monday: The Kids Are Alright

written and drawn by
Chynna Clugston-Major
gray tone colouring by
Guy Major and Staissi Brandt
Publisher: Oni Press

What's It About?
Blue Monday is an American high school comedy without the rose-tinted glasses. Its the early 1990s and Blue L. Finnegan lives in a world of teacher crushes, pig-headed boys, annoying girlfriends and nothing to do of an evening, the typical teenage experience. Suddenly, excitement enters her life when her idol Adam Ant announces a gig in her area. The gig sells out instantly but with single-minded determination Blue decides she is attending and that she'll get tickets somehow. Antics ensue.

The Kids Are Alright collects the first Blue Monday series as well as an extensive collection of additional short comics.

Iono-Sama Fanatics

Writer and Artist: Miyabi Fujieda

Publisher: Independent

What's it about?

This is a Yuri title.  Yuri means girls love and is the name given to manga about female couples.  Yuri can be explicitly about sex, or can be more about the relationship side of things.  Some of it can be a coming out narrative, some of it can just be two women getting it on.  The male equivalent is called Yaoi.

Iono is the princess of an unspecified small nation.  She travels to Japan to find black haired women willing to become her sobames – companions (she’s very specific about the black hair).  ‘Sama’ is an honorific given to someone of a higher status than you and ‘fanatics’ refers to the sobames Iono has engaged in her service, all of whom, naturally, call their boss Iono-Sama.

The book opens with Iono on the streets of Japan hitting on random women requesting that they be her sobame.  Her method of picking up women is to stand in the middle of the street and yell ‘who wants to apply to be my sobame?’.  She's not wonderfully successful at this.  Eventually she finds a woman named Eto Hachibe.  Iono falls for Eto and when she invites her into her household she won't take no for an answer.  The rest of the book follows Eto's new life in the royal household as she tries to find a job for herself whilst managing Iono's insatiable desire for more sobames.

It's a comedy, it's a romance and it's all about women!

Museum of Terror: Tomie Vol 1

Writer and artist: Junji Ito
Publisher: Dark Horse

What's it about?
We meet Tomie as a beautiful teenage schoolgirl, she has a boyfriend and many other admirers.   She is brutally murdered, cut up, and her body parts redistribute around the town.

Then Tomie returns.  Like she'd never been away.  Driven to a frenzy, her killer attacks again.  Then more Tomies show up.  You see, every time she is killed, she is cut up and her pieces scattered.  Each piece regenerates into a fresh Tomie.  She provokes bloodlust in others, she teases and aggravates those she meets until all around her are haunted and driven mad.  You cannot get away from her.

The Drifting Classroom

Writer and Artist: Kazuo Umezu
Publisher: Viz Media

What's it about?
This is a superbly spooky horror tale.  Leading the cast is Sho, an 11 or 12 year old boy who attends Yamato primary school.  One day the school disappears and is replaced by a gaping rock and sand filled hole.  From the perspective of those inside the school there is a different scenario - to the students and teachers it seems that the outside world has disappeared.

Cut off from everywhere the children and adults soon panic.  Phone lines are down, radio stations don't work and no one can understand what has happened.  Some scream, some cry, some fight.  All are despairing.

Empowered volume 1

Writer and artist:  Adam Warren
Publisher: Dark Horse

Note: This review doesn't contain any sexually explicit pictures, but be aware that the book contains graphic sex and is not suitable for children.

What's it about?
Poor Empowered.  She gets her powers from a more-than-skin-tight supersuit with a nasty tendency to malfunction at the slightest tear.  She hasn't been able to eat anything sugary since she got it, lest the people surrounding her realise she's got chubby.  The Superhomies mock her and her fighting skills leave her anything but empowered.

She's lonely and full of shame, and then she meets a former witless minion (who defeats her and ties her up of course).  This does not prove to be a problem as get together, start having lots of orgasmic sex and develop a comfortable living arrangement. Later on they are joined by a caged demonlord and a ninjette best friend.

It's a mixture of domesticity, superheroing, romance, passionate sex and mean teammates.

Megatokyo

Writer and artist: Fred Gallagher
Co-creator and original co-author: Rodney Caston
Featuring additional material
by Dominic Nguyen and Sarah Gallagher

What’s It About?
Piro and Largo are two American gamers who make a scene at the E3 Gaming Expo and feel the need to leave the country for a while. Boarding the first available plane they find themselves broke and trapped in Tokyo until they can earn the fare home. The Tokyo city of Megatokyo is a loving pastiche of manga story conventions.

LGBT History month closes

As February ends so does our second themed week.  We hope you've enjoyed the series and that you've found some interesting books to follow up.  We think we've pointed out a few special gems over this last week and previously, so as a recap here is a list of comics featuring LGBT characters:

The Moon and Sandals (as part of LGBT history month)

It's LGBT history month in the UK.  To celebrate, we thought we'd recommend some books featuring positive portrayals of Lesbian. Gay, Bisexual, Trans people.  To see books we've featured in the past, go here and scroll through the entries.
On with the review...

 

Writer and Artist: Fumi Yoshinaga

What's it about?
This is a Yaoi title.  Yaoi means boys love and is the name given to manga about male couples.  Yaoi can be explicitly about sex, or can be more about the relationship side of things.  Some of it can be a coming out narrative, some of it can just be two men getting it on.  A lot of it is written by women, for women.  The female equivalent is called Yuri.

As for this particular Yaoi book, this is a classic romance story of first love and first relationships.  Kobayashi is a student with a crush on newly graduated teacher Mr Ida.  Kobayashi finally plucks up the courage to confess his feelings to Ida, and ends this proclamation with a kiss.  Unfortunately, things do not run smoothly as Ida's ex arrives back on the scene.  All is not lost for Kobayashi as he gets to know student Narumi.  Narumi is cute but a loner, he reluctantly agrees to tutor Kobayashi in return for lunch.  Feelings develop but bring back painful memories and the budding relationship could go either way.

This title does contain some sex, but it's not particularly explicit and a lot is left to the imagination.  However, I have labelled the post mature readers because I don't think it's particularly suitable for young teens or children. 

Love Roma

Writer and artist: Minoru Toyoda 

What's it about?
Quite simply, it's a Japanese manga about a fledgling high school romance.   The book opens with Hoshino asking Negishi on a date, at lunchtime, in front of all their classmates.  Negishi is a little surprised at this as she has no idea who Hoshino is.  Nevertheless he convinces her to go on a date with him.

The rest of the book covers the standard relationship stuff - the first kiss, meeting the parents, love rivals, fortune telling, and ahem, a battle of the lunches.  Maybe not quite so standard then!  After all, Hoshino is not your usual high school boy.  He is very honest, very earnest and not quite accustomed to social conventions.  Negishi often finds herself embarrassed by him and his actions but as they get to know each other she becomes quite fond of him.  Then you have you the best friends - scheming Yoko and cool Tsukuhara - who are doing all they can to make the relationship flourish.

Add to this mix a few other memorable characters which I shall leave you to discover, and you've got a great cast to flesh out an interesting story.

Azumanga Daioh volumes 1 to 4

All books are available in English but actual covers may vary dependent on the publisher.

Writer and artist: Kiyohiko Azuma

What's it about?

A group of Japanese schoolgirls plus two of their teachers journey through three years of upper secondary school in Japan.  Meet the girls:

Sakaki: Quiet, tall and prone to constant attack from the various cats and kittens which she finds so adorable.

Chiyo-chan: Child prodigy.  Aged 10.  Chan is an honorific used to express cuteness.  It is often used for babies, young children and teenage girls.  To address an elder or teacher using 'chan' would be quite rude.

Osaka: Not too bright, and spends the majority of her time spacing out (and obsessing with Chiyo's pigtails).

Love as a Foreign Language

Love as a Foreign Language

Written by J. Torres
Art by Eric Kim
Grey tones by Nicolas Gardeazabal

What’s It About?
Joel: a Canadian graduate teaching English as an additional language in Korea and hating every minute of it. The first chapter opens with a brief narration examining culture shock as one of the natural stages by which a person adapts to another culture and then presents us with Joel. Joel is a man seemingly trapped (perhaps by his own design) within his own culture shock, as he tries to decide whether to stay in Korea for another year or return home to his own culture and sanity.

And then the school hires a new secretary, Hana, and his decision gets that much harder…