Masters of Horror - Pt. 1, Strange Embrace

It's a full two months til Halloween but why not start early? This will be part one of a series of the best of horror manga and comics that have come my way over the years and it's a pleasure to bring some of the most mind-fucking things to ever see print. So far, I can only confirm Junji Ito, H.P. Lovecraft and Mike Mignola, but who knows what else will pop out of the woodwork over the next two months.

I commence with David Hine's Strange Embrace - originally written and drawn in 1993 as a black and white but re-published as a full color compilation in 2007. This is what put Mr. Hine on the map, and prepped him from avant garde writing towards more mainstream titles such as Brave and The Bold and X-Men. I'm sure that if Marvel or DC had asked him to tap into the visceral horror and psychological dementia that he mustered with Strange Embrace into their own titles, I think he held it in check. He has never done anything close since.

Strange Embrace is a tale within a tale. An innocent boy is lured by a sociopathic spirit medium who himself weaves a tale involving obsession, insanity, self-abuse, suicide and manipulation. Focusing on an antiques dealer who succumbs to the worship of heathen African totems, the story pans out to the immediate family around him and shows how far the rabbit hole falls. It seems that with each issue, the macabre is scaled up a notch and all the pieces start to fit into the puzzle of why and how 1) the boy was pulled in, 2) the interest the crazy spirit medium has in the antiques dealer, and 3) the final fate of the antiques dealer and his family. I have to say, I love horror - and it pleases me immensely when a comic series, that medium that would have the most pacing and editing problems inherent in a horror narrative, can leave a sickly feeling upon finishing a story. There is no redemption here, no happy ending, just a very disturbing 3-dimensional tale.