Go ho ho! Welcome, apprentices, to Beat’s Bizarre Halloventure. Every week this october, three monstrous writers will recommend their favorite spooky books and series from Japan, Korea and elsewhere. This week we have a mysterious mansion, eyes, and, of course, spiders!
Count Tachibana
Writer/Artist: Kakki
Platform: Lezhin
Boys’ Love fans don’t have much in the way of Halloween-y reads, because homophobia is already horrifying enough and the world doesn’t need more of that. While the most popular horror BL manga series right now is The Summer Hikaru Died, my own recommendation this Halloween would be a manhwa called Count Tachibana.
Written and illustrated by Kakki and available to read on Lezhin, Count Tachibana is a historical tale set in colonial Japan. A young Korean boy named Yonghyun lives quietly in a village with his parents. Every year, he is invited to a mysterious mansion high up in the mountains: the residence of Count Tachibana. Yonghyun spends his days there with Tachibana Sho, a young boy who has never stepped foot outside of his mansion. Sho longs for freedom, so Yonghyun hatches a plan with him to escape. But the mansion holds more secrets than either of them realize—and it will do anything to stop the young Tachibana from leaving.
Count Tachibana is beautifully illustrated and unique. Its art is reminiscent of the 1930s which is befitting of the era where the story is set. I found myself absolutely enthralled by the details and coloring; I haven’t read many other manhwa that make me feel as nostalgic as this one.
I enjoyed following Sho and Yonghyun’s childhood friendship as they tried to solve the mystery of the Tachibana mansion. As they grow older and go their separate ways, the series focuses more on their individual growth as they come to terms with the secrets they uncovered. They then reunite in the last few chapters. It’s a natural, comforting progression.
The plot is by no means an easy read. I found myself having to reread panels and previous chapters to orient myself in the story. There are so many different characters, with their own plot-lines and hidden motivations, that it can be hard to keep up. Still, Sho and Yonghyun’s personalities act as a much-needed anchor. This is one of the more intriguing mystery stories that I’ve read. — Hilary Leung
3X3 Eyes
Writer/Artist: Yuzu Takada
Translation: Toren Smith and Toshifume Yoshida
Letterer: Wayne Truman
Publisher: Dark Horse
If there was ever a manga that begged for completion in the United States, it’s 3×3 Eyes. The story of the Sanjiyan Unkara Pai and her Wu companion Yakumo remains unfinished here. Which is a shame because it’s certainly a series worth completing.
The series begins when Yakumo meets Pai, an odd girl who knew his estranged archaeologist father. She claims to be a demon, a Sanjiyan, and seeks Yakumo to help her become human. When her pet monster Takuhi accidentally kills Yakumo, she transforms him into her immortal companion by bonding him to her soul. Now Yakumo is obligated to help her, because if she becomes human, then so will he.
The series was one of the earliest to be translated here in the US by the pioneering Studio Proteus–and for good reason.. The early years of the series saw artist Yuzo Takada hop between genres as disparate as body horror and drawing room mystery, leading to an unpredictable manga. Because this is a horror comic, Takada also draws some truly gnarly looking monsters for his heroes to encounter.
The relationship between Pai and Yakumo keeps 3×3 Eyes moving even after the series becomes a series of constant battles. They may be tied together by circumstances in the early chapters, but as the series progresses, they come to care deeply about each other. Yet 3×3 Eyes was only published in the United States up to Volume 8. American fans deserve to see whether its central pair finally gets to be human. — D. Morris
Little Mizzi Muffet and The Spider King
Writer/Artist: catfish
Platform: WEBTOON
Gather round, children, as I quote one of my favorite lines from Nightwish’s song “Spider Silk”:
What did you weave during the moonlight hours?
Did you create or did you wait and trap the unaware fly?
Sucking him dry…
The lyrics might refer to the titular spider, or to nature’s power to destroy and create life. Just like a spooky, spidery webtoon I might name that’s about lives being put in danger by other people’s decisions. Really though I just wanted to quote from this song, because I like it a lot!
Little Mizzi Muffet and The Spider King is a long running webtoon created by catfish on CANVAS. It is a supernatural horror series about the titular Mizzi Muffet, a 17 year old girl with arachnophobia. What could possibly make that phobia even worse? A literal Demonic (and hot) spider king making you his bride! Poor Mizzi being trapped in a web of circumstances and death that stem from her own efforts to not give an inch of her own agency to the Spider King. But not all of these unfortunate circumstances are the Spider King’s doing, hinting at other supernatural powers at play.
This series has been ongoing for nearly 10 years now, and the art has come such a long way. catfish’s style in the early chapters is reminiscent of manga published by Tokyopop as well as Hiveworks webcomics. There’s just something about how it looks, whether that be the character designs or the black and white coloring with greyscale screentones, that gave me a nostalgic feeling.
The webtoon is also a product of the old style by which webcomics were made. Each episode consists of a page with five to seven panels reading from left to right. By the latest chapters, the art has evolved away from this aesthetic to something more webtoon-like. Which is funny considering that catfish‘s linework, detailing and black and white coloring are still the same. You can still see the DNA of the earlier chapters, but the newer chapters still look distinctly different. That’s just part of the charm when it comes to long-running comics.
But don’t let the art style fool you, this is a Beat’s Bizarre Halloventure pick for a reason. The horror in Little Mizzi Muffet and the Spider King comes from seeing just what Mizzi has to endure. From seeing her friends being hurt and killed, to fighting for her life against murderers. The series isn’t afraid to show the gruesome details in a way that pushes the Young Adult age rating. But catfish also sometimes hides those details through clever blocking and framing within panels.
The majority of webtoons last only three to five years at most with two or three seasons. But because this webtoon was cut from the cloth of older webcomics, it has gone at its own pace. That catfish is this dedicated, to continue telling this old-fashioned story after so long, shows the passion she has for this series. Aside from the supernatural premise, I recommend reading this story just to experience a slice of the artist’s life.
If you love tragic innocent characters, supernatural, horror, cute yet at times dark art, and most of all spiders and hot demons, then you should give Little Mizzi Muffet and The Spider King a read. Like the final chorus of Spider Silk goes:
Spin away (Spin away), spin away (Spin away)
Spin away (Spin away), spin away (Spin away)
Until next time, my adorable birb nerds! — Justin Guerrero
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