Back in the 1950s, the publisher that would someday be Marvel Comics was known as Atlas Comics. One thing that Atlas was known for was volume, in that it had a tendency to jump on various trends and flood the market with a given genre, before canceling all those books to jump on the next trend. When the Korean War began in 1950, the trend Atlas milked was war comics.
Did I mention volume? The foreword to “Atlas at War!” notes the publisher released 125 war stories across 17 titles in 1952 alone, and in 1953 Atlas released as many as 14 war titles a month!
DC Comics has launched a horror line called Hill House Comics, starring writer Joe Hill, beginning with “Basketful of Heads” ($24.99). You might wonder why this Hill fella rates his own line of comics, but you can stop wondering when I whisper that he’s the son of Stephen King, which he does not advertise.
Nor should he, as he can clearly stand on his own. “Basketful of Heads” is not only scary, it’s a thrill ride full of memorable characters and plot twists that even this veteran didn’t see coming.
Yokai is a Japanese catch-all term for supernatural critters and monsters in the island nation’s folklore. If you didn’t know that, don’t feel bad: I didn’t know it either until I read the book.
Not that I am entirely unfamiliar with cool Japanese mythology. Marvel Comics has introduced numerous Japanese deities over the years. And Dark Horse’s Hellboy stories find inspiration all over the globe, including nukekubi, Japanese creatures who look like humans, but whose heads detach at night and fly around looking for victims to consume. The nukekubi were truly chilling when I ran across them in “Abe Sapien: Drums of the Dead” (1998), and again in the animated “Hellboy: Sword of Storms” (2016). To read about them in their original context is even more exciting.
