Tombs: Junji Ito Story Collection

January 30, 2023
This trick-or-treat bag of terror tales from horror master Ito (Uzumaki) is spiked with dark humor and dream-logic absurdity. “Tombs” sets the tone, set in a town where tombstones sprout spontaneously from the spots where people die, forcing the living residents to navigate streets and home interiors choked with grave markers. In “Clubhouse,” teenage girls are possessed by the ghosts of student radicals past (“We can use all the comrades we can get”). “The Strange Tale of the Tunnel” begins as a classic ghost story before taking a sharp turn into bizarre science fiction. “Slug Girl” presents the simple yet profoundly disturbing character of a girl cursed with a slug for a tongue, and the standout “The Bloody Story of Shirosuna” follows a young doctor to a village with a strange relationship with blood. As always, Ito’s fine-lined art has an elegant neo-gothic appeal. He fills his pages with moody neighborhoods, pretty girls with haunted eyes, and grotesqueries that range from a massive man-eating sea monster to little floating hair balls that broadcast people’s secret thoughts. Though not necessarily the very best work from the prolific, endlessly imaginative artist, this is one of the stronger selections of his short manga, one that Ito’s and all horror fans won’t want to miss.

February 17, 2023
As in many of Ito's past works, the supernatural occurrences that fill the pages of this manga anthology of Ito's short stories are inescapable and fueled by the characters' jealousy, rage, and hubris. The collection includes short stories that are quite infamous among Ito fans, including "Slug Girl" and the titular "Tombs," which were both originally published in the mid-1990s. In this, Ito evokes anxieties about guilt and death rituals neglected, loss of bodily autonomy, scientific experimentation, and the wavering lines between the living and the dead. Ito's signature artwork, made of heavy black lines and visceral detail, is clearly on display in this collection. The disturbing visuals, be they of a human transforming into a grave marker after their death, a young girl's head used as a shell for a slug, or a sea monster engorged with hundreds of people, are grotesquely enchanting. This is a collection that will please any Ito fan and may even intrigue newcomers to his distinctive work and style.

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