Tag: Junji Ito

WWW Wednesday – May 7, 2025

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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

On Monday, I started reading A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers, the second Monk & Robot book. Unfortunately, it’s been something of a busy week with work so far, so I haven’t had a lot of time to read much more than about 20 pages of it. Still, I love how much this is picking up pretty much right where the first book left off, flowing together pretty seamlessly. As much as I like this, it does however highlight my suspicion that the entire narrative these books will cover could have been one novel instead of two novellas. At least I have the personal benefit of reading them back to back. It’s not wasting any time either, as Sibling Dex and Mosscap have already made their way into a town as part of the latter’s quest to learn about humanity.

Recently Finished

At the end of last week I finished reading Uncanny: The Origins of Fear by Junji Ito, the manga author’s autobiography. After getting a good amount of background on Ito’s upbringing and experiences getting into the industry, he spent a few chapters reminiscing about specific stories and breaking down his thought and design processes, which provided especially interesting insight. I’ve encountered this before in the afterwords of some of his books, but I was struck by how sincere and humble Ito is as an author and artist, unafraid to admit when he feels he could have developed something better or had to cut corners, as well as highlighting his own perceived shortcomings more generally. It was also amusing that he admits to often having an idea for a certain horrific image first and then constructing a story to get him to it, which is an observation I’ve made in the past when reading his stuff; it was oddly vindicating. This book has renewed my interest in his manga a little, so I may pick up some of the collections I let pass me by.

Reading Next

I’m not quite sure what novel I will read next, but I have a graphic novel from the library that I will read soon so I’m not hanging onto it for too long: Dark Entries by Ian Rankin and Werther Dell’Edera, a graphic novel about John Constantine. I’ve not read many books featuring Constantine, but Rankin has been on my radar since my aunt told me he’s one of her favourite mystery authors. I found this book after having a random browse of the graphic novel section at the library and it caught my interest enough to take it out.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – April 23, 2025

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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Last week I started reading Uncanny: The Origins of Fear by Junji Ito, the horror manga author’s autobiography. I don’t know why, but I really did assume this was more of a hybrid book with more graphic novel elements, but it really just has pictures. I have in fact committed to reading an autobiography, which I hadn’t planned on doing, but here we are. So far I’m really enjoying it, at 65 pages in, though I still feel like I’ve only just started it. It was interesting to learn that some of his earliest exposure to horror was thanks to his sisters’ shojo manga magazines (manga for teenage girls), which sometimes included horror stories. I would’ve thought horror would be confined purely to its own publications, but as a long-time horror fan and friend of women who love horror too, the idea of shojo magazines including horror sometimes makes a lot of sense to me.

Recently Finished

Last week I finished reading The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett, an illustrated Discworld novella about Cohen the Barbarian and his Silver Horde on an adventure to return fire to the gods (with interest) and the brave men boldly going where no one has gone before in order show up in time to stop them. It was funny to eventually realize that this book seems, at least partly, to be a vehicle for Pratchett to have the characters take a jaunt through space (even if it’s just orbiting the underside of A’Tuin the world turtle, with an unplanned stop on the Moon). It was a fascinating exercise in creating a plausible scenario and means for characters of this world to actually embark on such a journey, and I must say he did a stellar job in making it all plausible without fundamentally changing anything about this fantasy world. I still prefer the more traditional, full-length novels, but this was an excellent debut for Paul Kidby as illustrator to the series, who visually realizes the characters better than they ever have been before.

Reading Next

My only solid plans right now are to read A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers next, as I’ve mentioned in previous weeks, since I have to return that book eventually.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – April 16, 2025

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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

I’m still making my way through The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett, and I’m really surprised at how slow progress has been, what with how heavy it is on illustrations. It almost feels like a hybrid between a graphic novel and a novel, though it obviously leans much more toward the latter. I have had a bit less reading time this past week or so, however, as I haven’t even had a chance to read more of it since Friday. This is considered a Rincewind novel, but it really feels more like an ensemble. I really enjoyed a recent scene where he talks with Corporal Carrot, as I don’t believe they’ve ever crossed paths before; the main characters typically keep to their one sub-series rather than getting involved in the same ordeals. Their interaction was especially funny because it’s essentially a meeting of opposites, one being the ultimate pessimist and the other a determined optimist.

Recently Finished

Yesterday, I read through Life After Life by Joshua Barkman, the artist behind the False Knees web comics. This is the latest book collecting his “Kneesvember” comics, where he draws and posts a portion of the comic every day throughout the month of November. It’s a straightforward little tale about three chickadees in Montreal after humanity has died out for unknown reasons, embarking on a quest to find peanuts, a food they were only ever given by humans. It was a delightful little odyssey full of humour, peril, and heart. I have a particular affection for it because at the conservation area where I go for a weekly walk, I often hand-feed the chickadees, which are the very same species as the ones depicted here, I believe. Rest assured, when I feed them peanuts again I will be thinking of Pips, Fuzzie, and Patches.

Reading Next

I was considering buying this book, but as it turns out, Uncanny: The Origins of Fear by Junji Ito was available at the library, so I decided to just borrow it instead. Unlike typical Ito books, this is autobiographical, which is why it captured my interest better than yet more collections of his work, which I’ve been bit burnt out on for a while now. All the same, I’m looking forward to gaining more insight into his creative process and influences. I’ve still got a reservation on A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers coming in soon too, which I will start after I finish The Last Hero.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – October 18, 2023

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www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Alien 3 First-DraftI’m still in the middle of reading Alien 3 by Pat Cadigan; though I’m only about halfway through, I feel I’ve made decent progress over the last couple of weeks, all things considered. I didn’t get much reading done last week though, hence the absence of a post, due in large part to me going out of town to visit family and friends for my birthday and Thanksgiving. At any rate, I’m enjoying this book quite a lot, as I feel it follows up on the lore really well, expanding on it in some ways better than the film we got. There is one caveat that makes me happy this screenplay didn’t end up getting made, however, as for some reason Gibson’s creative choice with Ripley has been to stick her in a coma; nobody puts Ripley in the corner. Besides that, I’m enjoying its focus on Bishop and Hicks, who otherwise meet an abrupt end in the films, making the focus on them a nice AU treat.

Recently Finished

TombsI postponed getting this post written today because I was determined to finish reading Tombs by Junji Ito. I was hoping to do so this morning, but sleepiness got the better of me (I work nights, so it was bedtime). It does not come as much of a surprise that I quite liked this collection; the VIZ collections with the tag “Junji Ito Story Collection” on the spine have tended to be my favourite, and this one was actually better as a whole than the last couple. This collection had some stories I’d actually gone out of my way to read before, but I did so for a reason, as they’re quite good ones, like “Washed Ashore”. What I found best about this collection was how much its weirder stories were left unexplained, as explaining too much has been a problem with a lot of his other (I believe more recent) stories.

Reading Next

My Halloween reading plans are progressing nicely, though I’m a little worried about getting Alien 3 done on time. I’m also hoping I can get through all or most of The Haar by David Sodergren on Monday when I have a longer stretch of reading time. Even though we’re getting into late October, I still have plenty of time overall, so I’m optimistic.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – October 4, 2023

RyanLeave a comment
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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Alien 3 First-DraftSince last week, I’ve started to read a couple of new books. First is Alien³ by Pat Cadigan (I don’t want to use the longer title that specifies what it is every time), one of the books I’ve chosen to read for the Halloween season. Right off the bat, I’m enjoying this a lot as an alternative third installment in the Alien film series, most especially because of a scene where a character behaves more sensibly in response to somebody getting a facehugger on their head than anybody else in the franchise; she essentially says “Damn, an alien ate Boris’s face,” and then shoots the facehugger and disposes of the man’s body through the airlock. I’m looking forward to seeing how this story develops.

on-a-sunbeamI also started reading On a Sunbeam, a graphic novel by Tillie Walden. I’ve had this book on my to-read list for a while now, though my interest hadn’t been piqued quite enough to actually pick up a copy. While I was picking something else up at the library a few weeks ago, I noticed they had a copy, so I decided this was the perfect opportunity to make myself read it. So far it’s been an interesting enough coming-of-age story, telling two plot lines about a young woman’s present working with a restoration crew and past at a boarding school. I really like the stylistic depiction of space structures and vehicles, such as many ships resembling large goldfish.

Recently Finished

Nothing this week.

Reading Next

WitchavenI actually have a lot of more immediate reading plans on the go right now for October. The next book I want to make sure I read is The Haar by David Sodergren; I’m really curious about this author and it’s short enough that I think I can squeeze it into my reading schedule this month if I spend my time right. I really love the cover too, so part of me weirdly needs it to be good to coincide with that. I also intend to finally read Tombs by Junji Ito, a story collection that I’ve owned for many months now. I’ve been tentatively planning to read it for a while now but haven’t felt motivated. Now, it is at least on theme with the season.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – April 12, 2023

RyanLeave a comment
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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

American PsychoI’ve made only a small amount of progress on American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis since last week, and it honestly felt like not a lot remarkable has happened, except for an attempt on taking the life of an associate whose girlfriend he’d been sleeping with, which ended up taking a homoerotic turn that left Bateman bewildered and pathetically seething and his would-be victim not murdered. It seems to me that a lot of this is establishing how he does pretty much whatever he likes in life without consequences, which is not really surprising, but I’m hoping the emphasis means I get to see some good squirming on his part as they start to catch up with him. It’s hard not to assume snippets of the film that I’ve come across won’t come into play, which is fueling some of this speculation.

Recently Finished

Twistwood TalesLast night I decided to read through Twistwood Tales by A.C. MacDonald, which is a recently released book of comic strips. I first came across the author/illustrator online, as these were originally web comics, and I’ve been following them for a while now. This collection appears to include original work as well, though the book only collecting work that already exists online would not have deterred me from picking it up. I’ve got a soft spot for creepy yet endearing in worlds that follow weird fairy tale logic, and this world appeals to that perfectly. Though many are short strips, included is a fairly lengthy story as well, which has me hopeful that perhaps we can expect to see more longer tales set in this world in the future.

Reading Next

TombsThe other day I picked up a new Junji Ito story collection that I had pre-ordered called Tombs, so I’ll probably be reading that soon. Collections of this binding style have appealed to me more often than others, so I’m hopeful that I’ll like this one. My fervor for Ito’s work has diminished a lot as I’ve read more and more, so I’m honestly not nearly as excited to read this one as I would have been in the past. Though I maintain that some of his work is legitimately brilliant, it bums me out a little that my enthusiasm has become so subdued. I can’t help but wonder if it would be different if I had moderated myself more.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – October 26, 2022

Ryan1 Comment
www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

For the time being, A Carnival of Snackery by David Sedaris is still shelved.

Pet SemataryI’m still in the midst of Pet Sematary by Stephen King. I’m a little bummed out that I likely won’t even have it finished before Halloween, but I’m also kind of just accepting that. Work has been a lot busier the last couple of months, and I’ve been hit with a few life events, so I’m actually managing to cut myself some slack, at least for now. I was surprised to find that the death of Gage is something that has already happened once we learn about it. It isn’t an event that unfolds in real time in the narrative. I think this was interestingly done, as we still learn much of how it went down, but from Louis’s pained recollection of it. It reads like remembering a real traumatic event, where your memories treat it like it happened to somebody else.

The King in YellowI also managed to start reading The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers, a work of weird fiction from the late 19th century. So far, I’m a little disappointed to find that the author has some distasteful views that he’s injected into the text from the get-go. I’m not really shocked by it or anything, it’s just disappointing that this genre seems to have authors that cannot help but espouse their views to such a degree. Just tell me the story about the play that drives people nuts, I don’t care about your vision of 1920s America and what has been done to what minority groups to accommodate this vision. Uncanny that he predicts a war with Germany having been a big historical event, though, considering this was published in 1895. I’ve not gotten far enough into this to comment on anything else. The prose is better than Lovecraft so far, at least.

Recently Finished

Black ParadoxLast night I read through the entirety of Black Paradox by Junji Ito, the latest book of his published in North America by VIZ. Turns out this book was originally published in 2009, so my suspicions that this was much newer were actually unfounded; I’d just never heard of this book before. All in all, it was pretty good. The book definitely had its spookier moments and disturbing imagery, but it is more of a weird thriller than a horror book. Based on the first chapter, I was a little worried that it would be too all over the place, but it quickly found its footing. I won’t spoil how things play out, but I must say that this book about four people who decide to carry out a suicide pact together did not at all go the way I was expecting.

Reading Next

Beautiful DarknessIt would seem that most of my hopefuls for October won’t be happening this month, though it’s not that surprising. I won’t harp on that further. In any case, I have yet another graphic novel I want to check out before Halloween. It’ll be November by the next WWW post, but we’ve still got some time until the 31st, so I’m confident I can make time for it. The graphic novel in question is Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann and Kerascoët. I’ve already read the prologue, just to give it a quick glance, and there is a beautiful contrast between the art style and characters and the content, considering I see that a bunch of cute, pixie-like people seem to be living in the corpse of a little girl lying in a field. I’m eager to dig into the story further.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – October 19, 2022

RyanLeave a comment
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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Pardon the brief hiatus from last week, I was out of town until late into the week visiting family for my birthday and Canadian Thanksgiving. I read another year’s section in A Carnival of Snackery by David Sedaris in that time, though I’ve since put the book aside to focus a little more on horror. Not that I’ve actually started anything else, but you live and hope.

Pet SemataryI’ve been continuing to make my way through Pet Sematary by Stephen King, though I’ve not been able to make as much progress as I’d have liked over the last two weeks; I never truly am able to get reading done when I visit home, no matter how much I hope I may. Last night I reached the end of the first section of three in the novel, which takes up the majority of pages. I’m sure people with even a passing awareness of the book know what happens in it, but I was surprised to find that King outright tells you in the book too before anything actually goes down. I have to wonder if it was him giving fair warning to his readers, as the tragedy may be too much for some, giving them an opportunity to back out before they are too upset by it.

Recently Finished

Nada.

Reading Next

Black ParadoxAnother Halloween read I have lined up that I’m actually confident I will be able to read this month is Black Paradox by Junji Ito, a newly published story of his in English by VIZ media. I just picked up my preorder of it, which I wasn’t sure would arrive before Halloween or not, so I’m happy I’ll be able to read it for the season. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anything about this story before, so I suspect it is another newer work rather than a translation of something older, but we’ll see. At any rate, it’s rather shorter than some other collections, so it won’t take me too long to get through. I’ve experienced diminishing returns with his work, so I’m only cautiously optimistic about this book.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – July 20, 2022

RyanLeave a comment
www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

The Dictionary of Obscure SorrowsUnfortunately, I’ve not made any further progress in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig since last week. I do however have another word saved that I can share, for what its worth, since I’m enjoying sharing some of those here. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them. The word this week is lockheartedness, “the atmosphere of camaraderie when people are stuck together in a certain place—a stalled elevator, a shelter during a storm, the sleeper car of a train—which leaves them no other option but to be present with each other, with nowhere else to go, and nobody else to be.” (From locked up + fullheartedness.)

Dark Lord of DerkholmI’ve made progress in Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones, though only about 20–30 pages. They’re still preparing their world for the arrival of the pilgrim tours, and poor Wizard Derk is under an incredible amount of stress. I really feel for the guy; he just wants to take care of his family and create new animals, not turn his entire life upside down for rich jerks who want to run roughshod over an entire world. He’s like a wholesome Shou Tucker (if you know, you know). I’m wondering if this will make him snap, and he will become a proper Dark Lord, rather than just pretending to be one. Only time will tell. I really don’t know what to expect from this, and that’s exciting on its own.

Recently Finished

The Liminal ZoneOver the weekend I read through The Liminal Zone by Junji Ito, which is the latest collection of some of his stories to be published in English. The book includes four newer stories by the artist, which were more recently published in a digital publication, so they’re longer than his typical short stories. I have weirdly mixed feelings about this collection. I’ve certainly read worse, and a couple of these have really good premises, but I just didn’t really get into reading this one. Worse yet, in the afterword Ito himself remarks about how he thinks his best ideas are behind him. It was honestly a little poignant. I’m not sure if I even want to review this one, but I’ve reviewed every other book of his I’ve purchased over the last several years, so perhaps I would be remiss if I skipped this one.

Reading Next

I’ve not fully made up my mind on what I want to read next. I’ll be on holiday next week without convenient access to a computer or the Internet, so I likely won’t have one of these posts up next week. Just a heads up.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

Comic Book Review – Deserter by Junji Ito

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Deserter

Deserter by Junji Ito is the latest collection of stories by the horror manga author to be published in English by VIZ media. This collection of 12 short stories features some of the author’s earliest works, including a tale of people with appetites for bizarre and unsettling food, another about an army deserter from World War Two who is kept in hiding by a vindictive family for eight years after the end of the war, and a story about a man who refuses to sleep, lest he allow his dreamworld counterpart to take over his body in the real world.Read More »