STRANGE PICTURES Vol 1 is a slow burn, psychological horror manga adaptation of the book of the same name by the enigmatic Japanese writer, Uketsu, who’s teamed up with artist Kikou Aiba, to give this story new life in a different medium. The minimalistic art style and haunting visuals to create a volume 1. that sets up what is promising to be a chilling and moody ride.
College student, Sasaki, is approached by his fellow Paranormal Club member and schoolmate, Kurihari, to investigate a mysterious blog he’s stumbled upon online. The blog is the work of a devoted husband and soon to be father, chronicling his family’s journey. When the blog takes a sudden tragic turn, Sasaki and Kirihari piece together the mystery of the drawings left behind by the blog creator’s wife and why they may be the key to unlocking a horrific truth.
The growing popularity of manga in the United States and other countries outside of Japan cannot be overstated, with manga comprising approximately 43% – 49% of the comic book/graphic novel market share in the U.S. alone. My personal thoughts on why is because in the United States, mainstream comic book culture is synonymous with mainly superhero comics. Manga, however, is an all encompassing aggregate of stories that cover almost every imaginable genre. There’s sports manga, fantasy manga, action and sc-fi manga and, for the focus of this review, horror manga. But we’ll come back to that.
Traditional comic readers are starved for narratively diverse stories beyond what the Big 2 (Marvel and DC) have been offering for close to a century. Manga feeds that hunger and many of the smaller comic publishers are seizing upon that opportunity by offering more diverse titles as well as importing Japanese manga into their lineup. That brings us to Strange Pictures which is published by Titan Manga, the manga division of the London based Titan Publishing Group.
But, does Strange Pictures get a hall pass simply by virtue of being in the manga cool kids club? Of course not. It does, however, earn its place. The story is a gradual, methodically paced work that slowly builds the mystery upon itself. The answers, as they are unraveled by Sasaki, confront the reader with even more questions that compel you to keep reading.
One’s gut reaction would be to compare this book to works from the most well known and one of the most prolific horror mangaka (manga creator), Junji Ito. I, however, don’t feel this book has much in common with that style of storytelling. Ito’s work is visceral and bombastic and quickly leads the reader to the initial gut punch. Strange Pictures doesn’t do that. It has more in common with slice of life Manga stories but with an unsettling core that gradually approaches the surface over time. One particular chapter where Sasaki and Kurihari are decoding the mystery of the drawing creates a palpable suspense because of how the preceding pages build the tension before showing you the final image the drawings combine to reveal. The story asks you to invest your anticipation and patience and I think–or very much hope–the next volume will create an even greater swell of anticipation and payoff.
On the down side, as with many English translated works, the dialog can be a bit stiff and on the nose. It creates the same feeling you get when watching a movie that is poorly overdubbed. One could argue that this is part of the charm of consuming translated works. So, this may or may not bump up against your own sensibilities. Also, as mentioned earlier, the artwork has a very minimalistic approach. While this is an obvious stylistic choice of Kikou Aiba, at some points, I think the details are a bit too sparse and could use more rendering, especially on the more pivotal moments in the book.
Clocking in at 160 pages, it’s still a very quick read. The ending arrived so abruptly that I swiped at least three times on my tablet before it registered that I’d reached the end of the volume. I’m definitely looking forward to where this story goes. Overall, if you enjoy psychological, atmospheric horror comics, you’re likely to enjoy Strange Pictures. On sale now.
