Z. (confession)

***

Two months ago I kicked out of my house the man I believed to be my best friend of years. It was, I see this now, the last crumbling of a structure that had been slowly eroding for decades. 

I met Z in Secundaria, the equivalent of Junior High, somewhere in the mid-90’s, through a common friend. Back then, and for quite a while later, it was hard for me to make any friends at all. Perhaps that is why I was surprised when he called me and invited me to the movies. The first friend I actually saw outside of school. 

Sometimes we’d hang out with a couple other friends of his; other times, it was just the two of us. He was nice and a bit strange, just like I felt I was. I am left-handed, tall for the Mexican standard, I use hearing aids and back then I wore glasses. I am also gay, and at the time I was definitely not out of the closet. 

He simply had hobbies that were unusual in our somewhat religious school. He liked Trova music and frequented left-wing political circles. 

Even then he had two peculiar habits: One, he often came to my house and into my room, but I was rarely allowed into his house (the first times he made me wait in a corner while he went inside for money or other things) and he never once showed me his room. And two, he was always late for everything, always with an excuse placing the blame on somebody else. 

We remained friends after Junior High, after High School, after College… We followed different majors (him, Biology; myself, Philosophy, then Literature); in all our years in the same school we were never in the same classroom. Yet we kept in touch. We had so much in common. We liked the same movies and tv shows, for instance. And he was the one who encouraged me to start attending concerts and other mass events. 

I came out of the closet around 23 or 24 years of age. Z was, I think the third person I told. Supposedly he took it well, but the very next day he told me that he was so shocked he had told his family and that mis mother forbade him from seeing me again. This, of course, made me furious at her for years. Though now I question his story. 

Before me, there was a mutual friend who also came out of the closet. And another, now that I remember. Both times, Z said he was open-minded and that he supported them… but he panicked every time he remembered them. He was convinced they both “had the hots for him”. 

…right now, I had to stop writing because as I remembered, it came to me that it wasn’t just one friend. Or two. There were so many friends and acquaintances who turned out to be gay! And every single time, Z said he was comfortable with them, that he was so open-minded…

He was convinced that every single one of them wanted to fuck him. 

He believed this about a girl who happened to be friends with another girl he had the hots for. “I bet she’s a lesbian and wants to fuck her,” he told me so many times. 

Only now do I realize just how far his pettiness went. 

***

About four years ago, I started seeing a therapist. As is often the case, lots of resentments and grudges came out, so many more than I expected. At some point I realized that I, quite simply, was sick of Z. 

But I always found it hard to say no to him. Funny, I told myself over and over, why just him? Because of affection? 

I know now that wasn’t it. It’s just that the man was very skilled at manipulating and over the years he had made so that none of his friends could say no to him. If we did, he argued thousand of times, invented stuff, insisted, would not let go of what he wanted. And he was so clever, we all thought, “he’s not the problem, I’m just too soft.” 

Thus, about two years ago, I went to see Z with the intention of telling him we were done —just like he wanted when I came out to him. I found him all weepy. He told me they were kicking him out of his house and could I take him in? 

His living situation was peculiar, so he thought. Actually, it was a very common situation in Mexico and in so many parts of the world. He lived with his mother, an aunt and a cousin who back then he called his sister since they had grown together. When his mother died, the cousin, who by then had moved out, came back with her husband and daughters in tow. Z claimed they were kicking him out because there was no place for him anymore. I believed it was because he had finished his studies over ten years ago and still could not finish his Thesis and get his title, nor a job. Neither was the real reason, I would find out much later. 

That night, I agreed to let him move in. I was living in an apartment and the time and had a lodger, who graciously agreed to let this guest crash in the couch. 

Being fair, this was a nice situation for a while. So many movie and tv nights, long talks about this and that…

But it was the last happy time with Z. And it hurt me in a lot of ways, which I am only beginning to understand now. 

He screwed up my diet and schedules. As he had no job and did not study, he went to sleep very late at night, sometimes at the crack of dawn. Spent most of the night watching TV. He insisted I joined him. He also managed to nudge me into feeding him, and into us drinking alcohol practically everyday. In very little time he polished off a lot of bottles I kept for a special occasion and just by insisting he managed to make me buy a cake every week, which usually was gone in a couple days. 

My diet and schedules were messed up and I was in a foul mood most of the time. And I didn’t even notice why. 

In all the time he lived in my house, Z never paid a single bill, even if I gave him the money for it. He would not check the mail, inventing any excuse for it. He couldn’t even open the door to let in the plumber, the electrician… nothing. All he agreed to do to help around the house was to wash the dishes. And that, only if I played music to entertain him. How many times I came home in the evening or at night and found him with the drapes closed, watching cartoons in his pijamas! Most days he wouldn’t bathe or get dressed. Unless he was going to see some girl. He would not get his title, having finished his studies over thirteen years ago now. A mutual friend got him a job as a high-school tutor. He dropped it shortly with the excuse that he had to spend that time with his girlfriend. 

When my lodger left, things got even worse. Z took over the spare room, but not to sleep in it. He used it to store all the stuff that until now he had distributed through several friends’ homes. It’s hard to paint a picture so extreme it sounds unreal: The man did not own a single piece of furniture, but he was never able to get rid of a single item of clothing, book and mementos. Such as empty bottles in remembrance of a party. The room was filled literally to the brim: It was impossible to open the door or the window. It could not be used to sleep in, nor for anything. Soon it stunk, and became filled with flies. 

Two and a half years. All that time in an increasingly worse situation that I had wanted to end in the first place. There was no reasoning with him: If you lectured him, he either blamed others, spun endless speeches and ultimately cried (it’s hard to describe a thirty-something man bawling like a child) and swore he’d fix the situation. He worked enthusiastically on it for one or two days, then lost interest. 

It all ended with a long, long conversation we had in September of the year 2019. I had the whole day off, so I sat down to him for an important talk. I pointed out five different things he had done and how he blamed somebody else for each one. That it was always somebody else’s fault, never his own. What is remarkable is that I actually thought we were doing well, that I had finally made him see things clearly. Late at night one last subject came up: That of late he wasn’t just late for all social meetings. He did not arrive at all. He said he would, but he simply did not, without notice or reason. 

He said he had just reconciled with a girlfriend and that we might as well never invite him to anything because from now on he would spend every minute he had with her. His answer shocked me so much I told him that if he was going to be this irresponsible, he could not stay in my house. Not for the end of the year nor for the end of the month. That he had to leave immediately. 

He said: “Admit you think I’m gay and you want to fuck me!”

Something broke inside of me. 

The next day he was unusually cuddly: He hugged me all the time, telling me that I was his best friend and what would he do without me. I realized that years ago, such a thing would have been endearing. Of late, it would have been gross, because of his lack of higiene. But now… I felt nothing. Nothing at all. 

The day after that, I ordered him to give his copy of the key and to leave. That he could still come over later to get whatever he needed for the weekend and then to send somebody to get his stuff. He stayed over till two in the morning, and only because my patience ran out and I kicked him out again. 

The next morning, he said he would come over with a moving truck and that he would move with some relative in another state, who would give him employment. He arrived with a taxicab and a friend. As exaggerated as this may sound, it took from five in the afternoon to five in the morning to get all of his stuff out. Without a single break. 

It took me all weekend to do some deep cleaning in the room, starting with bleach. 

And there was still the worst part left: Talking about what happened with our mutual friends. Once we compared notes we finally discovered the true problem: He had lied to me and to all of us for years. 

Since he concluded his studies in 2005, he started several Thesis, one after the other. Every time he wound up having a fight with his advisor, and always blamed them. One he even accused of trying to seduce him. 

All lies. The truth is that he was unable to finish any of those projects. Like everything in his life, he began with enthusiasm, lost interest and then invented excuses to never finish but never make a clean break, either. He made a lot of enemies at the Academy, and till the last second he was convinced it was because of his “unusual” tastes. What were those tastes? According to him, the music he liked and the Spaniard poetry he read. 

He said he was kicked out of his house because his relatives were mean. I thought it was because he was so lazy. Both were incorrect. 

Ever since his mother died, he took stuff from the family’s safe, where his mother and aunt kept every valuable. What did he do with all the gold, silver and other valuables? He pawned them. Z never learned another way to make money. And money for what? To live his everyday life as he always had, plain and simple. Riding around the city in a taxicab. Going to concerts. The movies. Short travels by bus. Nothing else… for years and years. By the time his relatives discovered what he had done, all the pawn tickets had expired. It was impossible to get back even a single one of their valuables. And again, all that money he spent simply in living his life the only way he knew how. He was unable to accept that his mother’s death changed his situation completely. That he was no longer a child under care of his mommy. That he could no longer do the things he was used to. 

The girlfriend he said he had gotten back with was in fact the only girlfriend he ever had. He used to tell so many stories, which turned out to be false as well. All were about girls that he had only had one date with, or a one-night stand or that he simply fancied. None of them were ever a formal relationship. Every single one of those romances existed entirely in his head. He was convinced he would marry this last, real girlfriend. He never noticed that every time he said they would marry soon, she looked at him shocked and uncomfortable. 

He was always a liar and manipulative. Over the years he became completely delusional. 

What I cannot forgive was that last comment he made. That for years he pretended to accept me and deep down he never trusted me, just like he never trusted any of his day friends. He said he was open-minded, but he also said ridiculous things like that he himself felt like a minority because supposedly he was discriminated for… his taste in music. 

Nor can I forgive the way he made me feel insecure for so many ears. How he criticized my skills, my height, my choices in life, mi sexual preference. How he convinced me that every gay person he knew was a pervert that all his straight friends were homophobic. How successfully he isolated me for years. 

All of us who knew Z at one point believed him to be gay. He was always offended by that. According to him, not because of the preference, but because it offended him that people were so stupid and got him so wrong. 

Where did all his insecurities come from? How can somebody be so stubborn he would rather live in a fantasy world than solve simple problems? I don’t know and in his case I don’t care anymore. 

And so I am left, trying to piece my life back together. Thinking how many years I have lost trying to please a man so insecure he preferred us both to sink into mediocrity. 

***

Hell House

- Hell House. Richard Matheson. Four "paranormal investigators" -- Dr. Barrett and wife Edith, evangelist Florence and former wonder child Fischer --are given a strange assignment by a surly, dying millionaire: To spend one week at Belasco House, often called the Mt. Everest of haunted houses, or more famously Hell House, and determine once and for all whether there is indeed life after death. For Barrett and Florence, this is a golden opportunity to prove their respective, and clashing, beliefs completely. For Edith, it is a trap waiting to destroy her. And for Fischer it's coming back to the house that killed his companions twenty years ago and left him babbling on the doorstep. None of them are ready for the many nasty surprises Hell House has in store for them...

A highly influential work from an already essential genre writer, Matheson being the author of "I am Legend", "A stir of echoes", "Bid time return", "What dreams may come" and several famous short stories such as "Nightmare at 20,000 feet", "Duel", and so many stories that became classic episodes of The Twilight Zone. But Hell House is also one of the most over-the-top haunted house novels you will ever read, so excessive and loud it almost descends into self-parody at times. 

Does this mean it's a bad novel? Not quite. It's been argued that this book feels like Matheson's answer to Shirley Jackson's essential "The Haunting of Hill House" (the cast is superficially similar, down to the mysterious, almost ethereal couple in charge of our heroes' meals. Both houses share a similar nickname as well as a vaguely similar architecture, there are several direct callbacks...) --but unlike, say, Lovecraft writing "At the mountains of madness" as a pseudo-sequel (and more or less fanfic) of Allan Poe's "The narrative of A. Gordon Pym", Matheson seems to want to "masculinize" what he surely perceived as an intimately "feminine" novel. 

The contrast almost reads like comparing Emily Dickinson to Walt Whitman. So like them, where Jackson whispers and intimates, Matheson shouts and bombards. Hill House was haunted by subtle, ethereal, barely-seen apparitions. Hell House is haunted by very physical, VERY horny ghosts that loudly state their desires. Where Jackson hints at sexual repression between all four researchers, Matheson makes that sexual repression the very crux of their downfall and, ultimately, the source of the haunting. 

The result is a raucous, very dated novel that displays the author's issues so nakedly it's rather unpleasant at times --yet remains an ultimately satisfying read for genre fans. It's quite influential on late twentieth-century horror for a reason, after all. 

New acquisitions

- 100 Greatest Graphic Novels. Katrina Hill & Alex Langley. 

- Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession. Alice Bolin. 

- The World’s End + Doomed to Die + The Little Shop of Horrors. 

The Haunting of Hill House

- The Haunting of Hill House. Shirley Jackson. Dreamy, somewhat childlike Eleanor has been invited to take place in a most unusual experiment: to spend a summer in famously haunted Hill House along with paranormal researcher Dr. Montague, psychic Theodora and salacious Luke, the next in line to inherit Hill House. Eleanor sees in the experiment an escape from her nightmare of a regular life, while Montague seeks to exploit her untapped psychic abilities. But Hill House offers neither escape nor answers and soon it will feed on these people’s obsessions, seeking to consume the loneliest soul amongst them…

Classic haunted house novel, a landmark in the Horror genre from an often hard to classify writer. This book is every bit as good as you have heard and more. Forget for a moment the many screen adaptations (while recognizing the power of the 1961 movie and of the recent Netflix tv series): This unique novel needs to be experienced on its’ own terms, beyond expectations, fame, and considerations for genre. 

A spooky tale very much recommended for the season. 

A head full of ghosts.

- A head full of ghosts. Paul Tremblay. Fourteen-year-old Marjorie Barrett has been displaying bizarre, increasingly disturbing behavior. Undiagnosed illness or demonic possession? Either way, her family does not have the means to treat it properly. Father John’s borderline zealotry and mother Sarah’s skepticism both crash against the harsh reality of poverty. And so, they opt for an unlikely solution: Allow themselves to be filmed for an horror reality tv show called ‘The Possession’, which will culminate with a live broadcast of an exorcism! Years later Marjorie’s younger sister, Meredith, is giving a tell-all interview even as blogger Karen reviews “The Possession” episode by episode —will they solve the puzzle at the heart of the real horror that went beyond the existence of demons? 

What could easily be mistaken for yet another run-of-the-mill possession tale is quickly revealed to be much more interested in meta-textual games than in cliché scares. Much is made of the tropes found in famous horror fiction and the ways in which they shape our own expectations of where these stories are supposed to go. Much, too, of the often exploitative nature of mass media, be it reality tv, viral publicity, paid rabble-rousers at protests, assorted clergy and medical personnel hired as publicists... 

Now, one problem with the book is that for most of it it’s very interesting… but never quite scary. The actual possession often strikes us as unconvincing. And while we feel for eight-year-old Meredith (or “Merry”, hint-hint), for most of the book she fells less like a survivor of trauma than as an adult romanticizing her childhood memories. 

All of which is, in fact, part of this book’s ultimately clever misdirection…

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Because as it turns out, every voice we have been hearing in this book, every ghost in the head (or in the machine?) is Merry herself. Blogger Karen is a pen name, and both past and present are narrated by her. And it’s only in the last chapters were we discover how carefully she has crafted a story to cover the real horror. 

And what is the horror? Not the possession, but that a month after “The possession” ended, John supposedly poisoned and killed himself and his family, with Merry the only survivor. 

Except, that is also a lie. Merry is the one who poisoned them! 

Why, the reader is immediately compelled to ask. Under orders of Marjorie? Because Merry was the one possessed all along? 

We don’t know and we can’t know —because what we do know is that she has perfected the technique of using stories to hide the truth, whatever it might be. Even as a child, she and Marjorie would make up yarns to hint at what they were planning to do and what they desired (a story about pets, a murder mystery about a wicked father). As Karen, she is able to separate herself from her own real life in order to turn it into a Gothic tale, disturbing reporter Rachel in the process. 

Even in the midst of her confession, it would seem that we have been distracted by a “is the girl possessed or not” yarn so we would fail to notice the other story: “Is the father having a breakdown and everybody failed to notice?”. But even that is a story, half-remembered memories rearranged into a seemingly coherent narrative. 

Perhaps the head full of ghosts is that of Merry, and that of Marjorie and probably that of Rachel as well: It is the head of the story-teller. 

SPOILERS END

The result is a book that recalls the best carefully constructed fictions of Ira Levin, Peter Straub and even the best William Peter Blatty —not that of ‘The exorcist’, but that of the much-maligned and quite underrated “Twinkle, twinkle Killer Kane” (rather than his own more banal remake, “The ninth configuration”). An intriguing read, more recommended for fans of ‘weird fiction’ than of only horror per se. 

P. S. For those interested in literary themes, notice the recurrent allusions to Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s classic gothic yarn (or is it?) “The yellow wallpaper”, and see if you can deduce how it ties to the story we have been reading. 

Big Little Lies.

- Big Little Lies. Liane Moriarty. Sidney, Australia. Pirriwee Public School is the ideal place for children, learning in view of the ocean and with a zero-bullying policy. Well, it would be ideal if not for the parents. Their constant, almost feverish competitions and petty fights with each other. That sometimes lead to violence even amongst their children. That sometimes lead to wrong accusations. That sometimes lead to murder...

A mix of social satire and chilling thriller, peopled with unforgettable characters and plenty of dark humor. While some of the plot twists can feel over-the-top, the novel is at its' best when examining the haunting consequences of domestic abuse. As one character remarks, there are so many levels of evil in the world. Recommended overall. 

Later adapted to a TV series that's itself worth a look, despite the change in setting. 

Rocketman (2019).

- Rocketman (UK / US. Dir. Dexter Fletcher, 2019). The life and times of Elton John --specifically, his neglected childhood, rise to fame, successful partnership with Bernie Taupin, torrid relationship with John Reid, and his constant battle against addiction and excess. 

Part biopic, part full musical, this movie is above all an amazing spectacle. This would almost be trivial were it not also about a key figure in Queer culture. This is listed as the first major Hollywood production to feature a gay male sex scene on-screen (of course, the fact that it took until freaking 2019 for that says a lot about how retrograde mainstream culture has always been. Still...), and wears its themes on the sleeve. 

Very much a recommended film, as both musical and movie in general. 

*

Us (2019).

- Us (2019. Dir. Jordan Peele). The Wilsons (father Gabe, mother Adelaide, daughter Zora and son Jason) take a vacation in Santa Cruz, despite Adelaide’s misgivings. As a child, she had gotten lost in a hall of mirrors —and seemingly came to face to face with her doppelgänger. Perhaps it was just her imagination —or perhaps not, because that very night the Wilsons find their home invaded by four strangers… who are their exact replicas! 

Director Peele’s follow-up to his groundbreaking “Get Out” is another terrific horror movie. The chilling atmosphere and complex script are buoyed a fine cast (in particular lead Lupita Nyong’o), all effectively giving double performances: The laidback, often kooky real people and their deranged evil duplicates. Much has been discussed about the movie’s themes and message, not to mention the divisive third act. I would argue that “Us” simply follows a tradition of strong, challenging horror films that invite multiple viewings. To be sure, it’s one of those movies where the last twist forces you to reconsider everything that’s gone before in a whole new light. 

All in all, a terrific horror film, recommend both for genre fans and not. 

Panic.

- Panic. Lauren Oliver. The impoverished town of Carp, New York, has an annual tradition: the Panic game. During the summer, all willing high school graduates will compete in a high-risk series of dares for a jackpot that might give them a chance to flee their stifling town and start a new life. Heather, out for meaning and Dodge, out for revenge, are seemingly the strongest contestants this time. But life is full of harsh, unexpected twists and turns…

Oliver, of “Before I fall”, gives us another YA thriller with a finely developed teenage cast. The plot is intriguing, though a couple plot twists are fairly easy to guess and the resolution is somewhat unsatisfying. But the real virtue is the characters, their believable motivations, contradictions and increasing desperation as the game draws to a close. 

While not quite on par with “Before”, this is nevertheless a perfectly serviceable suspense yarn, worth at least one look. 

Grandpa's monster movies.

- Grandpa’s monster movies (Deadtime stories #10). A. G. Gascone. Snooty city cousins C. T. and Lea are not having a good time at their family reunion. Oh, Grandpa and Grandma are okay, mostly on account they serve fried chicken. But the lower-class uncle and his wife and kids who eat stuff that doesn’t come out of a KFC? And the single uncle who likes animals and happens to be very hairy! They keep EXISTING and, like, not apologizing for it, how dare they! And there is also a man-eating monster on the loose, but really, that’s noting compared to the fact that these poor privileged middle-class kids are expected not to spit on their ugly poor relatives. The horror. 

“Deadtime Stories” was one of several children’s horror knock-offs that littered the 90’s in the wake of the success of “Goosebumps” (and several predecessors). Some, like “Shivers”, tended to be even better than the series the publishers wished to ape. And some, like this series offered by sisters Annette and Gina Gascone under a shared pen name, reminds us that 90% of everything is at best mediocre. 

To be sure: In terms of plot itself, this book is neither particularly bad or good: It’s a fairly standard monster story that takes a specific horror sub-genre ant presents a somewhat watered-down version to make it suitable for —not for children, exactly (good authors for children know that they are often much more resilient than adults and teenagers), bur rather suitable for mainstream publishers. The genre in question here is equal parts “Southern Gothic” (as the name implies, Gothic tales set in rural South US) and what one might call “Hillbilly horror”. 

And it’s this second part that is the problem: The atmosphere and the violence might be toned down, but the classicism inherent in the sub-genre is present in full (the only thing not applied is anything sexual —and frankly, the book is *this* close to insinuating that one set of characters are inbred and that the single uncle is a zoophile). Every description of the rural, blue-collar characters is meant to evoke revulsion from the reader, or at the bare minimum a nervous titter. I have seen at least one review that comes this close to agreeing with this viewpoint, too. Small surprise. Appealing to the lowest common denominator usually finds the vilest kind of sympathy. 

One might say —okay, but what if we ignore all of that and just focus on the monster part? Well, first, it’s difficult, because the book is 90% gross descriptions of relatives, 10% plot. And the plot itself is… undercooked, to say the least. The concept isn’t bad: A “wild pet” that has been kept captive and secret for at least three generations but which gets loose every so often and wrecks havoc. But the actual execution is riddled with plot holes: How can this creature be kept a secret when it has killed people in plain sight, even registered in film? (Why, yes, the title is literal. Grandpa kept home movies of the monster for reasons that are left as an exercise for the reader). How unfortunate does a man have to be to be stuck by lightning SIXTEEN times and also get a literal monster at an arcade? Where did that arcade machine come from and why was it in the middle of a county fair? How can one take a cartoonish plot like blowing up a monster with TNT seriously? (Some might argue that the ending is meant to be silly, but nothing in the prose suggests that the Gascone sisters are playing it tongue-in-cheek. Involuntarily hilarious is more like it). 

The result, then, is a book that is more a curiosity (an often irritating curiosity), a sampling of a specific era, than a good story on its own right. 

Golden Kamuy.

- Golden Kamuy, vol. 1. Satoru Noda. Saichi Sugimoto, a veteran of the Russo-Japanese war, has been mining for gold in Hokkaido, hoping to be able to fulfill a promise he made to a fallen comrade (well, he has a couple other reasons besides the promise). One night, he hears what appears to be a tall tale about a legendary treasure buried somewhere in the region —and the map leading to the treasure was tattooed on the skin of twenty runaway prisoners. The next morning he discovers that the story is true and he has just found the first piece of the map! Now he sets on a journey along with Asirpa, a courageous Ainu girl who seeks revenge for the murder of her father. It will be a long journey, full of dangerous forces of nature and even more dangerous men…

Terrific adventure story that benefits both from Noda’s gorgeous artwork and from a careful investigation both historical and cultural (Noda credits the help of linguist Hiroshi Nakagawa and this volume includes an extensive list of reference material on Ainu customs and history). The story is quite brutal, yet never gratuitously so. It pulls back no punches regarding inclement subzero conditions or wild animals, nor when depicting hunting and skinning of animals (…and people, when the villains get horribly creative), yet it’s presented less for spectacle than for conveying a specific atmosphere. 

Also notable is the subtle depiction of cultural prejudices —at one point Sugimoto beats up a man who calls Asirpa a “pet dog”, and to her comment that she is used to it, he replies “And why should you have to get used to it?”. Sugimoto himself was despised in his hometown for being the last of a sickly family (all neighbors shunned him fearing contagion —all but his two friends, that is). When a man from the prosperous port town of Otaru thanks Sugimoto for his military service (“It’s thanks to soldiers like you that we were able to take back Southern Karafuto. Thanks to you, this port will continue to prosper. Thank you for all you’ve done”), he bluntly replies “The merchants are the only ones getting rich”. It’s a harsh world, then and now, there and here, but ultimately what we do about it matters. 

A very recommended comic, one that I look forward to continue reading. 

Yon & Mu.

- Junji Ito’s Cat Diary: Yon & Mu. Autor J-kun has just moved into a new home with his fiancée, A-ko. But with her comes an unspeakable curse: A pair of cats. Ghastly looking, mysterious…and adorable! Can J-kun shed his dog-lover persona and win the sympathies of his new feline friends? 

In 2009, famous horror manga artist Junji Ito (Uzumaki, Gyo) delivered a comedy based on his real-life experiences with pet cats (partly on a suggestion from his Editor; partly to recapture his start as a humor comic author). The result is an unusual comic with which Ito pokes fun at his own excesses. Be they the over-the-top expressions, the characters over-reacting to any little surprise or the monstrous designs out of nowhere, it delivers a much-needed splash of cold water to fans who take his work a little too seriously. 

And outside of that, is it a good comic? Well, it’s a fairly original slice-of-life yarn, and while the comedy will probably not be as effective for people unfamiliar with Ito, it still manages to be an occasionally moving story wrapped in a bizarre exoskeleton. 

Generally, an interesting, off-beat manga worth at least a look. 

The lobster.

- The lobster (Ireland, et. al. 2015, dir. Yorgos Lanthimos). Middle-aged David has just been left by his wife. Sad, yet ordinary. Well, except that in the world he lives in, it is not possible to live in society without a partner. In fact, when you are single, you are sent to a posh hotel that is also a concentration camp, in which you have a total of 45 days to find yourself a new partner (only heterosexual and homosexual options. Bisexuality is not allowed). If not, you are turned into an animal so you can more or less contribute something to the world. David has already chosen —he wants to be a lobster. But maybe there are other options, such as the renegade singles called “Loners” —well, maybe if the hotel ‘guests’ weren’t expected to hunt Loners for sport…

The best high-concept movies are those that start with a wacky premise and play it with aplomb and seriousness (without falling into involuntary humor, that is). Here we have a dystopia that is all the more horrifying because of how convincing its over-the-top premise manages to be. In a world where non-romantic relationships are heavily discouraged and children are ‘assigned’ to quarreling couples on the premise that it will help them solve their problems, becoming an animal almost seems a sensible choice. Except that said animals are invariably killed an eaten anyway. 

A darkly comic, profoundly disturbing little movie. Very much recommended, particularly for fans of off-beat cinema. 

Yuge!

- Yuge! 30 years of Doonesbury on Trump. G. B. Trudeau. A compilation of Doonesbury strips featuring or commenting on the shenanigans of Donald Trump (hardly even exaggerated, given that the man is practically a living caricature), covering the 80’s (ostentatious yachts perpetually circling his casinos), the 90’s (said casinos driven to bankruptcy), the 2000’s (hosting a morally repulsive game show) and the current 2010’s (political circus that ended in a real life nightmare). 

As it is the “Doonesbury” strip, there are thousands of recurrent characters, and lots of arcs will be seemingly forgotten or left unsolved —although, most of them have a pretty easy to grasp personality and history. While one wishes the author’s introduction had given as much attention to the ongoing storylines and characters as to the importance of satire in general, it is nevertheless an entertaining compilation. 

It has been hailed as something of a warning (indeed author Trudeau has appeared on actual tv shows and been asked how he predicted Trump’s presidency) —yet, reading the strip, it’s rather obvious that anybody with a grasp on American history and celebrity excesses knew it would head that way. Which may say more about the public at large than about the comic strip…

Either way, the result is a book that is still worth revisiting, not just to laugh for a while but to see what disasters might yet be fixed and prevented in the near future. 

(P.S. For anybody wondering, “Yuge” is, I’m told, a stereotypical New York pronunciation of “Huge”)

Free country.

- Free country: A tale of the children’s crusade. Neil Gaiman, et. al. Overnight, the children of Flaxdown have disappeared without a trace —a phenomenon that is soon repeated in several places all over the world. Investigating the case are Rowland and Paine, detectives far more earnest than experienced, but who have a certain unique asset: they are both ghost children. Soon it becomes apparent that there is a massive conspiracy at play, involving millennia-old magic and five very special children en route to a place called Free Country. But is it a heaven for abused children or an altogether new kind of hell? 

This particular comic is something of a curiosity —not only for the high concept premise (which mixes real life tragedies like the infamous ‘Chidren’s crusade’ with the legend of the Pied Piper and a dash of “Childe Roland to the dark tower came”, plus even more ancient rhymes and fairytales), nor for the decidedly unique cast —but because it is the “collected edition” of a story that never truly was. 

You see, “The children’s crusade” was conceived circa 1992 as a crossover between the major Vertigo titles. It would involve the children of each ongoing book — Rowland and Paine from “The sandman” (and the spinoff “Dead boy detectives”), Maxine Baker from “Animal Man”, Dorothy Spinner from “Doom Patrol”, Tefé from “Swamp Thing”, Suzy from “Black Orchid” and Tim Hunter from “The books of magic”. Gaiman wrote two issues, the first by himself and the second with Alisa Kwitney and Jamie Delano, which were effectively the prologue and epilogue of the crossover. Each chapter would be covered in the Annuals for each of the other comic books. 

But… that didn’t quite happen. Most of the writers were simply uninterested in breaking their ongoing stories for the sake of an experimental crossover (to be fair, this gimmick has certainly become bloated in current times, particularly at DC and Marvel). 

Consequently, this edition features a completely new middle written by Toby Litt and Rachel Pollack, and between the three they make a coherent story… kind of. Truth be told, as a story it can be best described as “uneven”. For one thing, out of the seven intended protagonists, Dorothy is not really in the book at all, while Tefé is reduced to a couple pages-long cameo. Maxine is practically a villain because of her compressed character arc. Suzy, being left with very little to do, comes across as something of an airhead. Rowland and Paine solve the mystery pretty much by accident and then save the day thanks to a deus-ex-machina. And while Tim Hunter fares much better (he has a consistent personality and is the only one who both acts as an actual child and is actually smart enough to think before he acts), he essentially appears out of nowhere and then simply drops out of the story. 

Yet there is a lot to like here, particularly an extremely intriguing plot involving Freedom Land itself (and peopled by some truly disturbing villains). It is very tempting to imagine the entire story done again, this time without the baggage of needing to accommodate already-existing character beats and instead with characters made from scratch. 

There’s a writing prompt, for sure…

Too cool to be forgotten.

- Too cool to be forgotten. Alex Robinson. Middle-aged Andy has been trying to quit smoking. He’s tried everything, from conventional to non-conventional means. So why not give hypnosis a try? Yet he never expected to seemingly travel back in time and revive his high school years. Is this a chance for a do-over? To ask out the girl he never dared to talk to? To avoid that first cigarette? To reach out to the people he ignored back then? Perhaps. Or perhaps, it’s a journey meant to confront Andy with that one memory he kept blocking out, the root of so much grief…

Notable character drama disguised as a time travel adventure. What at first would seem to be yet another nostalgia yarn (The 80’s! Being a teenager again, with all the drama and excitement!) soon turns into a meditation on the way our memories shape us. 

I remember reading a review of this comic years ago, in which the reviewer felt that Andy’s final memory was something he surely wasn’t likely to forget. I would say I disagree with this interpretation…

MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD. 

…because despite what the title tells us, it’s not something that Andy had forgotten, it’s something he had been trying to block. In the summer of 1985, Andy didn’t just have his first cigarette. He lost his father to Lou Gehrig disease. There are tons of hints throughout the book that this is what he’s supposed to confront and that Andy is avoiding it on purpose. Several characters alude to his father or to “the situation at home”, and every time Andy gets lost in thoughts and refuses to acknowledge the mention. He cries while looking at a family picture —talking about his siblings, his mother and the dog, but completely avoiding mentioning his father. At one point he mispronounces “I did what I had to do” as “I Dad what I had to do” (the editor makes sure to point out this was entirely intentional and not a misprint). 

So what is going on here isn’t that Andy had forgotten his father nor that it was his death that lead him to chain-smoke, it’s that it was a memory he had buried so deep he had to tear down several defenses before he got to that point. 

What follows, then, is a tour-de-force scene that is not just a final talk between father and son, but a confrontation between past and future. In order for Andy to have a future, he would have to first accept the past. 

All in all, an interesting little comic that is not what it seems at first. More than worth a look. 

Drama

- Drama. Raina Telgemeier. Middle-school student Callie has one definite passion in life: Musical theater. Though she can’t sing or act on stage, she is an enthusiastic set designer. But this year’s school production comes with a new complication: Boys. Balancing drama both on and off-stage is complicated enough without having to deal with malfunctioning stage props and assorted questionings of one’s sexuality…

Charming YA drama with memorable, vividly drawn characters and a script that (not unlike good stage-plays) subtly hints at a much larger world beyond our protagonist’s journey. There are several ongoing conflicts that are only hinted at though Callie’s eyes, even as she herself navigates both technical challenges and assorted crushes. Telgemeier’s clean art style is a delight to look at. By the time one reaches the last page, we wish we could stay in this novel’s world for just a bit longer…

In general, a recommended comic, both for pre-teens and older readers.