Fragments of Horror
Junji Ito is so scary Del Toro and Kojima wanted his help on the now defunct Silent Hills. I myself have loved his worked since high school where I was scared and grossed out by Uzumaki and Gyo. Now Ito is back and from what he even wrote in the afterword of this new book new it had been a long time, heck he's editor died a few years back with this book beinguncompleted.
Later this October you can pick up his horror cat lover manga Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon & Mu. The stories in that manga of cat love mixed with his horror art will give you chills. For reference, one of the cats in the manga he owned has already died since this new title has come out. *Strangely, this book and that one are coming out from separate publishers.
Enough Ito backstory, let's get to Fragments of Horror. You have to give credit to the Viz publishing for the embossed cover in near translucent white. If you ever hold it up and let light reflect you'll see uknown horrors on the cover. A nice trick with this treat of a book.
In this collection you'll find short horror stories that all becoming nauseating as they go deeper in. Ito's art wildly gouges at you to say, "Wow," out loud. Many of the stories are based on relationships gone bad, a common occurrence in horror stories here and in Japan. I don't think anything that bad has ever happened to someone though. Like seeing Hell open up before them and what not.
My favorite story of mislead love is "Red Turtleneck" where a young unfaithful man has to keep his head up...or it'll come off! After dating a freaky chick, she performs a special act on his head, the only thing keeping it attached is his arms to his body. It doesn't stop there as this witch tortures him to keep his head on. You'll flip through every page wondering if the guy will, well, lose his head!
For freaky, nothing gets past a story of a well kept wooden home in "Wooden Spirit." Time for some freaky sex with a house.
Not all stories are horror gems. Some stories were more just odd than scary. Ladies who want to have themselves cut open are more odd than frightening to me. The collection does let you choose from many tales and a least one will keep you up at night. One will at least creep you out with Ito's utterly ugly faces he draws out.Fragments of Horror makes me want to have a Junji Ito horror anime. A new horror story each week. A new gross face to become a meme on the net. Come on Ito, we all want more. Oh, and welcome back to the US, its been a while.
