Saturday, January 6, 2018

'Gyo' is nightmarish but not horrific

Gyo (Viz Media, 2015)
Story and Art: Junji Ito
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

While vacationing in Okinawa, young couple Tadashi and Kaori are set upon by bizarre, murderous fish with legs. Soon, all of Japan is under attack by the mysterious creatures from the sea.


Junji Ito has the honor of having written and drawn some of the very few (perhaps the only?) comics that are scary on the level of the pure written word, movies, and live performances, with "Uzumaki" being his masterwork. While 3-8 page comics stories can sometimes come close to competing with other genres with the level of horror they might inspire in readers, so far no other long-form comics I've come across have managed to do so. That includes "Gyo."

"Gyo" was originally published in serialized form in the Japanese anthology title "Big Comics Spirit" during 2001 and 2002. It was Ito's final excursion into horror before taking a decade-long break from the genre (returning to horror by writing and directing a film adaptation of his most famous series, "Tomie" in 2011, and afterwards to comics). The art is as solid as in any of Ito's prior work--with some scenes being every bit as nightmarishly disturbing as the best found in his "Flesh-Colored Horror" anthology. Unfortunately, that's as far as it goes.

There is nothing in "Gyo" that rises to the level of dread, and outright horror that leaped off page after page. The best we get here is creepy transitioning into disgusting, but no actual horror; "nightmarish" is the best way to describe the events of "Gyo", I think. This may stem from the fact that a character we're supposed to feel sympathy for is so annoyingly, repulsively neurotic that the reader is almost delighted when she suffers her predictable fate. (All I could think about while suffering through her hysterically berating her very patient boyfriend over and over and over was, "The sex must be great"--but I'm not sure he getting much of that, so I don't know where their could possibly have been a relationship between these two main characters.)

Art-wise, "Gyo" is up to the high standards of Ito's other works. The illustrations are crisp, and even the most chaotic, bizarre scenes flow clearly and are easily followed by the reader. Further, his style remains a nice bridge between "manga" and more western-looking art, so even those who claim to hate Japanese comics should be able to enjoy his work. (Just know that there are better examples of it.)



Sunday, December 17, 2017

The Milla Jovovich Quarterly

I've been a huge fan of Milla Jovovich since I first became aware of her, probably in "The Fifth Element." For a while, I was doing "The Milla Jovovich Quarterly" here at Shades of Grey, but I started to run low on interesting black-and-white pictures, so I stopped.

I now resume scheduled Milla Jovovich appearances with a post every year on her birthday! Here's hoping her 41st birthday is a happy one!


Thursday, November 23, 2017

Friday, October 27, 2017

Halloween is Coming!

Here's Debbie Reynolds, wearing a Sexy French Maid costume and hugging a pumpkin. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever, so this is an all-in-one Trick-or-Treat?


No matter what, though, she seems like she's ready for Halloween! How about you?

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Picture Perfect Wednesday:
Halloween is Almost Here!

Myrna Loy is checking the cards. She thinks they are foretelling a frightfully fun Halloween for you and your friends! Are you ready?


Meanwhile, lots of preparations and rushing on brooms is taking place here at Shades of Gray! Like Anne Jeffreys, we're counting down the minutes to the Big Day!

Monday, October 2, 2017

Halloween is coming, and here's something to help get you in the mood!

For the past several years, over at the Terror Titans blog, I have posted a short horror film every day in October. While preparing this year's line-up, I came across "Revestriction," a short film that won awards at the Cannes Film Festival in 1990.

Seeing that it's in black-and-white and a fabulous pastiche of the low-budget horror films from the 1950s and 1960s--many of which you'll find reviewed here--I thought this was the best place to share it with all of you.

Revestriction (1990)
Starring: Bernadette Coqueret
Director:Barthelemy Bompard
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

I'll be posting more Halloween treats randomly throughout this month, but you can get a regular dose of horror by stopping by Terror Titans every day after 4:44pm (Pacific Time) from now until the Big Day on October 31!

Sunday, October 1, 2017

There are 30 Days to Halloween...

... and Nancy Carroll is slightly annoyed that the Spirit of Halloween is already bugging her for candy.

Are you getting ready for Halloween?


Tuesday, September 19, 2017

NUELOW Games has just released another royalty-free art pack

If you're a small publisher looking for royalty-free art to round out your book, or a lover of black-and-white line art with a pulp-fiction flavor, the latest art pack from NUELOW Games might be just what you're looking for.

Cover for NUELOW Stock Art Collection #18. Illo by Lee Elias
This set contains more nudity and graphic violence than previous collections (as the title might hit at), so it has been put behind the "adult content" wall in accordance with NUELOW Games's distributor's policy. I'm posting a few samples of the 42 included drawings here. You can preview the entire set at the listing page either at DriveThruRPG. The very liberal usage license included with purchase can also be read in full there. (Basically, the illustrations can be used in just about any fashion you can think of, except for inclusion in other clip art packages.)

By Rais

By Xavier Villamonte

By Rod Ruth

For more previews, or to get your copy of NUELOW Stock Art Collection #18: Sex and Violence, click here.

Tuesday, July 4, 2017