Junji Ito – Museum Of Terror

A surprisingly entertaining collection of early manga work from J-Horror luminary Junji Ito, best known for the startlingly original manga ‘Uzumaki’.

This first volume in the Museum Of Terror series introduces the seemingly indestructible teenage psycho-girl ‘Tomie’. Tomie, narcissistic and manipulative in the extreme, is murdered by her classmates only to make a vengeful return, cue a bizarre series of psychological torturing and gory deaths.

While Uzumaki readers might find Ito’s story and artwork cruder here than they are used to, it’s difficult not to marvel at his rapid development in storytelling as the pages fly by, he really has a special flair for depicting the gruesome in original and imaginative ways.

Effective horror in comics is extremely difficult to achieve, and Ito succeeds in his work at least as well as the likes of Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing or the old EC horror comics line. I’d certainly put Ito up there with any creator in the horror genre, in ANY medium.

Unfortunately the many screen adaptations of Ito’s work (6 Tomie movies and counting!) have been pretty rubbish, steer well clear of those and stick with the originals.

Published by Dark Horse, 376 pages.

BUY:
Museum Of Terror at Amazon
BROWSE:
Junji Ito fansite

Words by Kurt Vile