Hungry Ghosts is a graphic anthology researched and written byJose Rose and Bourdain and illustrated by everyone else. The stories are retellings of ancient Japanese legends; weird-ass endings, constant breaks in logic, awesome baddies. It’s a flawlessly drawn fever dream. I burned through it within an hour and felt woozy for the rest of the day as I glanced in reflections convincing myself, no, not possessed as of yet. Just shadows. Probably just shadows and Fall feelings.
He was clearly haunted and fought war-hero-hard to find the gem in any thorny shit mound. And it’s not only the amount of gems he found, but the consistency of return; to the thorny shit mounds, to the states of ‘unrest,’ to the nightmares for more. See? They’re in there. The gems are in there. Always leaving a piece of himself behind, but gaining another piece, which he would then share with the world.
Damn. I told myself I wasn’t going to eulogize him. Like I just wanted to review the book. But I dunno, felt dishonest not to.
But okay, back to the book: top-shelf illustrators, ancient Japanese ghost legends, fun gore, delicious recipies in the back. It’s sort of perfect.
Also worth looking into is the Rose/Bourdain project that precedes this one, Get Jiro. Ultraviolent sushi chef heroics ftw!
Review on the new King book, The Outsider coming soon!
jj
Spook du jour 