Danica Davidson Archives - Cemetery Dance Online

Review: Ibitsu by Haruto Ryo

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 28, 2022January 15, 2022ReviewsDanica Davidson, Haruto Ryo, Ibitsu, Reviews, Yen PressLeave a comment

Ibitsu by Haruto Ryo
Yen Press (July 2018)
416 pages; $20 hardcover, $9.99 ebook
Reviewed by Danica Davidson

Ibitsu comes from the Japanese word for “twisted,” and it follows a creepy urban legend. The main character Kazuki is walking along at night when he sees someone dressed in Gothic Lolita style sitting in the garbage. Lolita is a fashion style in Japan with lots of frills and Victorian influences that has multiple substyles. One of those substyles is Gothic Lolita, where the frills and little girl look is also strongly influenced by gothic, morbid and dark imagery.

Kazuki thinks she’s creepy, especially because it looks as if blood might be seeping from her, and it looks as if her arm had been ripped open and then sewn back together. She asks him, “Would you . . . have a little sister?”Continue Reading

Review: TKO Presents: Tales of Terror edited by Sebastian Girner

Cemetery Dance OnlineDecember 1, 2021November 21, 2021ReviewsDanica Davidson, Reviews, TKO Presents Tales of TerrorLeave a comment

TKO Presents: Tales of Terror edited by Sebastian Girner
TKO Studios (November 2021)
180 pages; $19.99
Reviewed by Danica Davidson

TKO Presents: Tales of Terror is a comic book anthology with nine different short stories. It’s in the vein of Tales from the Crypt in that each story is self-contained, each story has a twist, and they’re all snippets of horror in bite-sized pieces.Continue Reading

Review: Gyo by Junji Ito

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 11, 2021August 10, 2021Graven Images, ReviewsDanica Davidson, Graven Images, Gyo, Junji Ito, ReviewsLeave a comment

Gyo by Junji Ito
Viz Media (October 2018)
400 pages; $22.99 hardcover, $15.99 ebook
Reviewed by Danica Davidson

Tadashi and Kaori are taking a vacation at Tadashi’s uncle’s beach house in Okinawa, but things quickly turn into a nightmare. Tadashi is peeved by how close some sharks get to him while he’s out scuba diving, yet when they return to the beach house, Kaori can’t stop complaining about an awful death smell. Tadashi tracks the stench to a very strange creature he finds in the house — a fish with mechanical, buglike legs. He kills it and puts it into a plastic bag, although it keeps moving and keeps trying to come after them.Continue Reading

Review: John Carpenter’s Tales for a HalloweeNight Vol. 6

Cemetery Dance OnlineJune 7, 2021June 6, 2021ReviewsColumns, Danica Davidson, Graven Images, Reviews, Tales for a HalloweeNightLeave a comment

John Carpenter’s Tales for a HalloweeNight Vol. 6
Storm King Comics (October 2020)
184 pages; $25 paperback
Reviewed by Danica Davidson

John Carpenter’s Tales for a HalloweeNight Vol. 6 offers up thirteen tales of terror in a solid graphic novel horror anthology. It’s the type of graphic novel many people would enjoy curling up with at Halloween time. Or, if you’re a Cemetery Dance reader, it’s the type of graphic novel you could enjoy curling up with any time of the year.Continue Reading

Review: King of Eden by Takashi Nagasaki and Ignito

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 19, 2021May 18, 2021Graven Images, ReviewsColumns, Danica Davidson, Graven Images, Ignito, King of Eden, Reviews, Takashi Nagasaki, Yen PressLeave a comment

King of Eden by Takashi Nagasaki and Ignito
Yen Press (September 2020)
384 pages; $24 paperback
Reviewed by Danica Davidson

In Spain, some police officers find a mountain of grotesque bodies that no longer look quite human. One man, a Korean archeologist named Teze Yoo, is there to burn the bodies. He’s taken into police headquarters for questioning, where he tells police they must evacuate the area, because it’s a virus that attacked all those people, and then he starts talking about the world’s first murder. He asks the police if they’ve ever heard of the neuri, because all this began with them. Some sort of human-turned-beast attacks the police department and Teze walks off into the night.Continue Reading

Review: Daphne Byrne by Laura Marks, Kelley Jones and Michelle Madsen

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 28, 2021April 25, 2021Reviews, The Comic VaultColumns, Danica Davidson, Daphne Byrne, DC Comics, Hill House Comics, Joe Hill, Kelley Jones, Laura Marks, Michelle Madsen, Reviews, The Comic VaultLeave a comment

Daphne Byrne by Laura Marks, Kelley Jones and Michelle Madsen
DC Comics (November 2020)
160 pages; $24.99 hardcover
Reviewed by Danica Davidson

14-year-old Daphne Byrne lives in a world where she doesn’t belong. Her father was the only person who understood her, but he died in a disgraceful way, a way that gives gossips plenty to talk about. This is 1886 in New York, and Daphne’s morbid, literate, precocious personality doesn’t fit well in a time and place where women are expected to be docile and obedient. The other girls at school all make fun of her, so she doesn’t fit in anywhere.Continue Reading

Review: Shiver by Junji Ito

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 22, 2021February 21, 2021Reviews, The Comic VaultDanica Davidson, Graven Images, Junji Ito, Reviews, ShiverLeave a comment

Shiver by Junji Ito
VIZ Media (December 2017)
400 pages; $22.99 hardcover, $15.99 ebook
Reviewed by Danica Davidson

Junji Ito is one of Japan’s top horror manga creators. His short story collection Shiver — which at almost 400 pages of length is longer than average for manga — gives a glimpses into what makes him so popular.Continue Reading

Review: Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Blood #1

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 12, 2021February 11, 2021The Comic VaultAhoy Comics, Columns, Danica Davidson, Edgar Allan Poe, Snifter of Blood, The Comic VaultLeave a comment

Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Blood #1
Ahoy! Comics (October 2020)
32 pages; $4.99
Reviewed by Danica Davidson

Following their Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror line of comics, Ahoy Comics is releasing Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Blood. These are all anthology comics, so people can start reading them anywhere in the series.

The first issue of Snifter of Blood contains the stories “The Black Dog,” “Atlas Shrugged,” “Werewolf Hangover,” “Finally,” and “Deep Cover.” The first two are comics with sequential art, and the last three are flash fiction with an introductory illustration. While each story has something of its own tone, they all similarly have twist endings and moments of humor in the midst of horror. Edgar Allan Poe, like the Crypt Keeper for Tales from the Crypt, gives some commentary and introductions to stories.Continue Reading

Review: Remina by Junji Ito

Cemetery Dance OnlineDecember 15, 2020December 12, 2020Graven Images, ReviewsColumns, Danica Davidson, Graven Images, Junji Ito, Remina, ReviewsLeave a comment

Remina by Junji Ito
VIZ Media (December 15, 2020)
256 pages; $19.99 hardcover, $15.99 ebook
Reviewed by Danica Davidson

At first it looks as if everything is working out for 16-year-old Remina. Her father, a scientist, won the Nobel Prize for discovering a wormhole. When an unknown planet from a different dimension comes through the wormhole, it makes her father even more famous and celebrated, and he names the planet Remina after his daughter. Buoyed by this fame, Remina the girl uses it to get into the entertainment industry and became a celebrity in her own right.

But then the planet Remina keeps heading toward earth, moving faster than should be possible. Moving faster than the speed of light, even. As it goes, it destroys the planets on its path. It appears to have eyes that look out, and giant tongues that can attack planets. It doesn’t take people long to figure that the planet Remina will destroy earth as well.Continue Reading

Review: Mieruko-chan by Tomoki Izumi

Cemetery Dance OnlineDecember 14, 2020December 6, 2020Graven Images, ReviewsDanica Davidson, Graven Images, manga, Mieruko-chan, Reviews, Tomoki IzumiLeave a comment

Mieruko-chan by Tomoki Izumi
Yen Press (November 17, 2020)
146 pages; $13 paperback, $6.99 e-book
Reviewed by Danica Davidson

Mieruko seems like an average high school girl, but she keeps seeing hideous monsters wherever she goes. She’ll be standing out in the rain waiting for the bus when she’s joined by a monster with socket-less eyes, a gaping gut, and faces staring out from its insides.

“Hey, can you see me?” it asks her. “You can see. Can you see?”Continue Reading

Review: Sadako at the End of the World by Koma Natsumi and Koji Suzuki

Cemetery Dance OnlineNovember 16, 2020November 15, 2020ReviewsColumns, Danica Davidson, Graven Images, Koma Natsumi, manga, Reviews, Sadako at the End of the World, The RingLeave a comment

Sadako at the End of the World by Koma Natsumi and Koji Suzuki
Yen Press (November 17, 2020)
146 pages; $15 paperback, $6.99 e-book
Reviewed by Danica Davidson

Sadako, the vengeful ghost villain from The Ring franchise, gets a new twist to her story in the manga Sadako at the End of the World.

The Ring started out as a 1991 novel written by Koji Suzuki (and is available in America from the publisher Vertical), and that spawned off into more books and then movies. Japan made two movie adaptations and South Korea made one before the franchise made its way to America with a 2002 Hollywood movie adaptation starring Naomi Watts. In America, “Sadako” was changed to “Samara Morgan.” The obsession with Sadako and The Ring franchise continues in Japan, where their most recent movie in the franchise (called Sadako) came out in 2019.Continue Reading

Review: The Witch and the Beast by Kousuke Satake

Cemetery Dance OnlineNovember 4, 2020October 31, 2020Breaking NewsColumns, Danica Davidson, Graven Images, Kousuke Satake, Reviews, The Witch and the BeastLeave a comment

The Witch and the Beast by Kousuke Satake
Kodansha Comics (October 27, 2020)
192 pages; $12.99 paperback, $9.99 e-book
Reviewed by Danica Davidson

The Witch and the Beast opens with a question: “Do you know how to break a witch’s curse?” It gives two answers: “Method 1: A loving kiss from a prince on a white horse. Method 2: Hope the wrathful witch has a change of heart.”

But the manga is quick to assure us that these methods are nearly impossible to work out.Continue Reading

Mark McKenna on the EC-style Horror of ‘Combat Jacks’

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 30, 2017October 29, 2017InterviewsCombat Jacks, Danica Davidson, Interviews, Mark McKennaLeave a comment

Mark McKenna got his professional start in the graphic novel world in the mid-’80s and has since worked on almost 600 comics. Drawing and inking for DC and Marvel kept him in the world of household-name superheroes, but McKenna has also published creator-owned horror comics for both adults and children. With Halloween just around the corner, Cemetery Dance caught up with McKenna to talk about his creations, how he approaches horror comics, and how he was influenced by early horror tales from EC.Continue Reading

Q&A: ‘Channel Zero: No-End House’ Creator/Showrunner Nick Antosca

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 20, 2017September 19, 2017InterviewsBrian Russell, Channel Zero, creepypasta, Danica Davidson, Interviews, Nick Antosca, No End HouseLeave a comment

Last year the horror anthology series Channel Zero spooked audiences on SyFy. Now season two, called Channel Zero: No-End House, is set to premiere on SyFy tonight at 10 p.m. EST. Nick Antosca, the creator of the show, got his professional start writing horror books, and he said the new season has a John Carpenter feel and is inspired by Brian Russell’s creepypasta tale, “NoEnd House.” He also told Cemetery Dance Online about his literary inspirations and how he approaches writing horror, no matter the medium.

(Q&A conducted by Danica Davidson)Continue Reading

Robin Furth and the Comic Side of The Dark Tower

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 2, 2017August 2, 2017InterviewsComics, Danica Davidson, Dark Tower Week, Interviews, Marvel Comics, Robin Furth, Stephen King, The Dark Tower2 Comments

Robin Furth doesn’t live in Mid-World, but it could be argued she knows it better than the characters themselves. After working as Stephen King’s research assistant, Furth published Stephen King’s The Dark Tower Concordance, has written the graphic novel adaptations of The Dark Tower series for Marvel Comics, and is a consultant for the new film The Dark Tower and the TV series that will follow. As an avid folklorist, a fan of comics and King’s own go-to expert on all things Roland Deschain, Furth is the perfect person for all these jobs. She spoke to Cemetery Dance Online about her books, graphic fiction as a medium, and what she thinks about the upcoming movie and Idris Elba as the lead.Continue Reading

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