Review: Scary Book Vol. 1: Reflections

Scary Book Vol. 1: Reflections
By Kazuo Umezu
Published by Dark Horse Comics. $13.95 USD

Kazuo Umezu is known as "the Stephen King of manga," and I suppose that's true as far as it goes. But as an introduction to his large body of work, Vol. 1 here isn't exactly leading with The Shining or The Stand. More like, well, a dozen other King books that you probably liked well enough but can't really remember what they were about now.

This volume has two stories, but the longer one is where it gets its "Reflections" portion of the title. A cute teen girl (is there another kind in manga?) discovers her reflection in the mirror is so jealous of her life that it finds a way to escape into her world. This creates the curious phenomenon of the reflection taking her place and her own family and boyfriend not recognizing her. Across 174 pages--with up to ten panels per page--Kazuo drags this one out, including some bizarre physical comedy that takes one right out of it. Creepy, evil teen girls are another staple of manga, and of J-horror films, but while individual panels were well-drawn I was never drawn into the intended terror. It was entertaining enough for the first hundred pages or so, then really took much too long to wrap up.

The second story, "Demon of Vengeance," is about a samurai who endures the cruelty of his master, including the torture and murder of the samurai's own son, which sets him on the path of revenge. His attempts fail, costing him his legs, but still he does not give up. It's melodramatic and even a little silly, and it's also not really horror, but it was also efficient and more involving than the main story. Kazuo here establishes that he has real talent, so I'll cautiously hope it flowers even more in later volumes.