In the end, Uzumaki succeeds as a creepy graphic exercise. In contemporary terms, the only American comic book writer/artist to successfully work this turf is arguably Charles Burns, who also brings a tone of camp detachment to the proceedings that I don't detect in Junji Ito. I can see why manga boosters have put Ito in the top of introductory list: his art's accessible, while his plots - though occasionally opaque on the background details - work a realm of dread most older readers will recognize. Me, I've headed from finishing the spiral books straight into Ito's earlier series, Tomie. The work's measurably rougher, but it's still nicely (this last was inevitable, gang!) twisted.

(Originally posted in Pop Culture Gadabout.)