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Graphic Novel Review: Lot 13 by Steve Niles, art by Glenn Fabry

Lot 13 - Niles, Steve

Lot 13 by Steve Niles, art by Glenn Fabry

Dark Horse, 2023

ISBN: 9781506734484

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy: Bookshop.orgAmazon.com

 

 

The story opens in 1670, in Fairfax, Virginia. The bodies of the Wyatt family are on trial. The father, Robert, stands accused of murdering his family before committing suicide. The court ultimately finds him guilty of mortal sin and cast their bodies into unhallowed ground for eternity.

 

Time switches abruptly to the modern day. A married couple are finally ready to move into their dream home. Their three children aren’t as ready as their parents to leave their friends and apartment, but they will get used to the idea in time. The family load up into the moving van, and head to their new home in Fairfax. Unfortunately, when they arrive, the house isn’t ready to be occupied, and the cozy family has to find other accommodations. After an accident on the road, they come across an apartment building, where they are welcomed by an elderly man. When they start seeing things, the secrets of the mysterious building emerge, and they find themselves fighting for their lives.

 

The story is okay, but not great. It is good if you just need some gore. Some things don’t line up or even get addressed. For instance, when the family hits what appears to be a child in the middle of the road with the moving van, gore is all over the front of it and the road in one panel, and in the next it is gone. There is no viscera on the hood, no body parts littering the road. There is also no discussion over what just happened, just the son pointing at a random building nearby advertising apartments to rent for a night to a year. The family just appears to forget what they just saw. The incident is never spoken of afterward. Weird things happen in the building, and some of it is treated in a similar manner. It makes me wonder if the family often has mass hallucinations to make them just gloss over such things.

 

It took me a minute to remember the name Glenn Fabry. I admit I am really bad with names. As soon as it hit me, I knew the art was going to be intense. His covers for Preacher are incredible, and his art in general is fantastic. Fabry goes above and beyond with the amount of gore in this one. Highly recommended, more for the art that the story

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

 

Graphic Novel Review: Let Me Out by Emmett Nahil, illustrations by George Williams

cover art for Let Me Out by Emmett Nahil

 

Let Me Out by Emmett Nahil, illustrations by George Williams

Oni Press, 2023

ISBN: 9781637152362

Available: Paperback, KIndle edition

Buy: Bookshop.orgAmazon.com

 

It’s 1979. Mitch wakes up after a terrible assault near the local Y. His friends scold him for going there alone and take him home to recuperate. There’s also been a murder in the quiet suburb of Columbiana, New Jersey. The body of Pastor Holley’s wife, Kelly, has been found with demonic sigils carved into her body.

 

New Jersey Sheriff Mullen and FBI Agent Garrett partner up to investigate the case. At least, that’s how it appears to the locals. Behind the scenes, they are devising a Satanic Panic cover to conceal their own crimes. They set their sights on a group of queer punks; Mitch, Lupe, Terri, and Jackson.

 

Sheriff Mullen hears a rumor that Pastor Holley records extra sermons for himself, and confronts the priest about them. It takes a little convincing, but Father Holley turns over some of the tapes to be played on the local radio station. A federal agent issues a warning, announcing the lurid details of satanic rituals, and asks teenagers to keep an eye out for anyone different. After a violent altercation between Lupe and the manager on duty at the local grocery store, the authorities quickly pin Kelly’s murder on the teens. When the friends flee to a cabin in the woods, they find the building gone and a bloodstained pentacle embedded in the ground. Mitch knows they aren’t alone out there.

 

I love a good Satanic Panic plot. With a diverse cast of characters, each with a unique personality and story, Let Me Out has a unique angle on the “devil in the details”. There is good LGBTQ+ representation, as well as people of color. There are parents and adults who are not accepting of their children, which is difficult to stomach, but is a painful reality some LGBTQ+ teens face. As hard as it was to confront on the page, I am glad that Nahil didn’t shy away from that. The character designs were really good and well rendered, as were the backgrounds and sweeping landscapes.

 

Nahil and Williams opted to include trigger warnings at the beginning of the book. I know there have been conversations in the horror community about the idea of including these warnings in general. My view is that if it makes someone’s enjoyment of a book better to have a warning, I have no problem with that. For those of us who are library workers, we are probably familiar with Ranganathan’s Five Laws of Library Science. Content warnings align well with three of the five laws: every reader their book; every book its reader; and save the time of the reader. Highly recommended.

 

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

 

Graphic Novel Review: Fragments of Horror by Junji Ito

Fragments of Horror - Ito, Junji

Fragments of Horror by Junji Ito

Viz Media, 2015

ISBN: 9781540050465

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition

Buy: Bookshop.org |  Amazon.com

 

 

Junji Ito’s Fragments of Horror, consists of eight original manga horror stories published in Nemuki+ in 2014, created after a hiatus from horror. Tales have a wide range in terms of content and atmosphere.

 

In “Futon,” new wife Madoka is lamenting her husband Tomio’s strange affliction. He refuses to come out from under his futon because of strange visions. Soon, Madoka experiences her own visions. Is there something supernatural going on, or is there a more mundane explanation for the strange occurrences the couple is witnessing?

 

Megumi and her father are quite proud of their old house and accept a new boarder in “Wooden Spirit.” The young woman eventually charms her way into the family, but it isn’t Megumi’s father that is attracting her affection.

 

“Tomio: Red Turtleneck” is one of the strangest stories in this anthology. Tomio returns to his ex-girlfriend Madoka, desperate for help. He has his hands covering his ears when he arrives at her house. At first, she tells him to return to “that woman” when the story turns to three days earlier. We see Madoka breaking up with Tomio for being unfaithful with a fortune teller they consulted. He goes back to the fortuneteller who turns out to have a unique collection, and she wants to add Tomio. If he removes his hands from his head, she will surely get her new addition.

 

“Gentle Goodbye” is a touching story, a departure from Ito’s usual horror fare. Riko, who is afflicted with nightmares of her deceased father, marries Makoto Tokura, although the family disapproves of their marriage. When she sees ghosts in the familial home, Makoto explains that his family has the ability to create afterimages of family members who have passed on. Through this ability, Riko discovers the shocking secret about her own nightmares.

 

In “Dissection-chan,” a class in the dissection lab at Chuo Medical University is preparing to dissect a cadaver. When they open the body bag, however, the body within is not dead. One of the students recognizes her as a childhood friend, and when the young woman realizes who he is, she won’t leave him alone, begging him to cut her open.

 

Rescued and injured hiker Kume is taken to the hospital in “Black Bird.” When he reveals how long he was lost- for a month– nobody can believe it. Then, there is the strange woman who visits him and feeds him every night..

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“Magami Nanakuse” is a somewhat problematic story in this anthology. Kaoru Koketsu finally meets her favorite author, the titular Magami. The author is strangely obsessed with people’s nervous tics and uses them as a sort of muse for their work. They’ve gotten bored with the current run of tics their associates have and needs to find new ones. Hence the reason for Kaoru’s presence. Can Kaoru provide the ultimate tic the author is searching for? The problematic part of the story is that it is revealed the villain is a transgender woman, where the main character exclaims, “She’s a man…?” with a disgusted facial expression. It could also be a look of surprise–it really can be viewed both ways. The character is written as a fairly distasteful person. Regardless, this could have been written without the “man in a dress” stereotype.

 

In “Whispering Woman,” Mayumi cannot make decisions on her own. She requires someone to tell her what to do constantly. Mitsu Uchida has been hired as the girl’s latest attendant. Mitsu has an uncanny ability to be at Mayumi’s side at all times, despite the fact that her health is clearly being effected. Mitsu becomes frail and emaciated, but she is faithful to her charge. What would happen if Mayumi’s external voice fails?

 

Fragments of Horror isn’t my favorite Ito collection. It feels like more of an exercise or warm-up to get back into his rhythm of horror. However, I would recommend this for the Ito completist. There are a few strong chapters, such as “Tomio: Red Turtleneck”, “Gentle Goodbye”, and “Dissection-chan”, so it is worth reading. Just do not expect Ito’s best work in this volume. Recommended.

 

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker