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  According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but by a pattern: uzumaki, the spiral: the hypnotic secret shape of the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!

Halloween month has ended!

EDIT: This might show as a fresh post.  I'm being stupid and thought it hadn't published, but it may actually have published.  Apologies for the brain melt.
-------------------------------
Hi everybody.  October is over and with it our Halloween month.  We haven't published as many reviews as we wanted, blame real life for getting in the way.  But I hope you have enjoyed those we have posted.  You can view everything with a Halloween tag by clicking here.

October is also Black History Month, and we really didn't make enough of a fuss about this.  Again, blame real life for getting in the way.  However, if you do want to read stories about Black characters, click here to view everything with a CoC (Characters of Colour) tag.

Thanks for reading!

Halloween month is upon again!

It's October and that means all things spooky and creepy out to play, which means that we do a horror themed month!  So, expect some scary books dotted amongst the usual clutch :)

And so we come to Halloween

We hope you've enjoyed this little tour through the scary and weird of the comic world.  It all seems to have become rather zombie orientated - maybe next year we'll try for a broader selection.

To recap, we had our original post linking to previously reviewed books that fitted in with the Halloween spirit, we've had intense drifting classrooms, a whole range of vampires, some quite frankly surreal stories by a guest reviewer, teenage zombie fights, a sci-fi story, zombie superheroes and an introduction to one off specials.

Had we the time, we would also have mentioned The Walking Dead, Scarecrow Year 1 (the counterpart to Two Face Year 1), Uzumaki bu Junji Ito, Batman: the Long Halloween and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, amongst others.  I'm sure we'll be covering them later, but if you like what you've read about so far, check the above out anyway!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween specials from DC

Usually we at New readers don't feature individual issues but on this occasion we will break with tradition and mention a few.  Here we go...

Each year DC put out special Halloween issues.  They contain several short stories featuring various characters having Halloween themed adventures.  If you wanted a quick and not too expensive way into each publisher's universe, you could do worse than picking up these issues.

DC's book is titled DC Universe Halloween Special 2010:

It's Halloween!

Prepare for theme month number 3 - Halloween!


For the remainder of this month we will do our best to bring you reviews of the spooky, the scary, the gory and the weird of the comics world.  I can promise you a minimum of zombies, otherworldly dimensions, vampires and replicating schoolchildren.

To whet your appetite, here's a roundup of the Halloween esque collections we have reviewed previously:

Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things

written and drawn by Ted Naifeh
Publisher: Oni Press

“No, I mean it. No adventure, no little schemes. I don’t want to come home and find you’ve sold your parents into faery servitude.”
- Uncle Aloysius

What’s It About?
Courtney Crumrin is the daughter of two desperate social climbers who have been living beyond their means for far too long. Having run our of credit cards, the Crumrins are moving to Hillsborough to live rent-free in the mansion of great-uncle Aloysius, who needs caring for.

It would be bad enough for Courtney living in a dark, creepy old house and being looked down on by all the rich kids at her new school but there are also strange creatures… “Night Things” her Uncle Aloysius calls them, and a whole world of magic for her to discover.

Dubious Tales

a webcomic written and drawn by Andrew James

What’s It About?
22 Barton Terrace, Ruskton-Over-Routhe: a typically run down student house with some pretty damn odd students living in it. Meghan wants to forget her old life; Owen is looking for a purpose; Caitlin may or may not have spent her youth fighting demons made of tin foil; Sarine may be more than a little dangerous; and Darren has a tragedy mask permanently superglued to his face.

Dubious Tales combines relatable stories of a group of students making do and getting by with more surreal and supernatural elements creeping in over time.

Scary Go Round

Scary Go Round
written and drawn by John Allison

What’s It About?
Tackleford, Yorkshire. Not the most normal town in the world: there’s goblins, a Satanic nunnery, a very creepy child is telling people “Things are going to change” and at one point a time machine is installed in a teapot.

Scary Go Round follows the adventures of a large cast in Yorkshire’s most surreal and unpredictable town. Originally updated five days a week from 2002 to 2009, the entire archive is still available online.