So far, This is JunjiThe name is so ubiquitous not just in the comics, but in horror movies as a whole, that explaining who he is is almost pointless. The four-time Eisner Award winner has created one iconic horror comic after another. His latest work in English is a stand-alone collection of short stories titled ” alley. More specifically, the book itself is called alley, and one of the short stories in the book has the same title, but there are nine other short stories in the book. They are both one chapter long.
The eponymous story is about a room overlooking an alley where the new tenants can sometimes hear the voices of children. Others follow a hastily turned hotel with a hot spring that attracts strange patrons, a father who would never consent to his daughter’s boyfriend marrying, a house covered in mold and with no caretaker to be found, And a town with no roads and no privacy.
As a personal story and broadly speaking, alley It’s exactly what you’d expect from Ito: eerie and typically unsettling. While I wouldn’t rank any of these as Ito’s best ever work (which, to be fair, is a high bar), they are still enjoyable. Plus, with so many pieces in this book, we see him flexing his muscles in various genres from psychological horror to body horror, bringing it to life through his expressive and creepy art style . My favorite story in this collection is alley and Moldalthough smokers club and roadless city Easily the weakest of the bunch.
None of the stories in this book are Ito’s most famous (but, again: high standards), and it’s so short that almost none of them (roadless city is the exception; while that’s not to say that its story is complex, it requires more setup than other stories) that feature any particularly complex story. But I think it’s good for them. One of Ito’s hallmarks is his ability to come up with ideas on paper that sound simple (sometimes because they are simple), and how unsettling his stories can be. alley There is no difference in this regard. He’s often able to do this through his signature art style. What must be said, however, is how his obvious skill in composition and creating a certain atmosphere helps. That’s a long-winded way of saying it anyway, it’s the simplicity of these stories and concepts that exists in most stories. alley That combined with Ito’s, well, Ito-isms helps give these little stories (Halloween-sized, if you will) an extra punch.
However, alley As a collection, it feels a bit disjointed. Too often, it’s easy to think that the book’s subjects, if any, are enclosed spaces—such as hospitals and houses. In fact, this is true of most of the stories in this collection. But then the story is like bloodline, bless, smokers cluband memory throughout, and this underlying theme does not apply. I guess you could try to argue that every previous story was about closed spaces within the heart or mind – and to be fair, I guess that might apply to bless maybe to a lesser extent memory. But this feels a bit far-fetched bloodline and smokers club. However, for me, the lack of a clear throughline made the series feel fragmented.
I realize that the lack of substantial connective tissue won’t matter to every reader – in fact, I can easily imagine some readers might enjoy this alley. However, having a level of curation and cohesion can make a collection of short stories feel stronger, especially when they are all written by the same creator. It helps confirm that, yes, these stories, while all standalone, still belong together, and it can significantly enrich the reading experience. alley This does sometimes happen, but it feels like just as quickly as it enters the zone, it leaves it too.
watching alley Relative to Ito’s other works and the compilation as a whole, alley is one of the less eye-catching ones. While several of the individual stories here are sure to keep you up at night, as a collection it’s also sure to keep you up at night – wondering what connections there are beyond their authorship, say, Mold arrive smokers club. Even so, there’s something powerful about releasing all these stories in the same collection. It allows readers to experience several different types of horror in one convenient book – it’s a horror sampler platter of sorts. Even if some of the foods on your plate don’t necessarily feel like they go with other foods, they’re still delicious and sure to whet your appetite.
