Trick or Treatment.

I'm late with my Halloween wrap up. For a change, it's not because I'm hungover. Just a lazy day.

100 bucks for a pumpkin! And it was too big to take on the subway.

The highlight lowlight of my day yesterday was receiving a Flu AND a Covid vaccination both in the same arm. I felt no real ill effects other than a lackadaisical attitude toward the rest of the day. I did the shopping and handed out some candies to random costumed passersby. The cutest were a mother/ daughter duo who wore matching Cop outfits, including kiddy cuffs. This quintet agreed to have their photo taken.

These are the treats I handed and eared and nosed out (Body parts gummies). 

When last we spoke, I was just about to retire before watching Hunger Games Battle Royale. I don't remember much about the movie though it was nice to see it with subtitles so I could figure out what was going on. Director's cut: though I'm not sure what footage was added/subtracted. Seems like there were more shots of their JHS before they were kidnapped to the island. If you've never seen it, watch this trailer and see why I mistook it for Hunger Games.

But before I watched this, I viewed another movie called Kwaidan. (Click for the Wiki page.)

It has four ghostly tales and my favourites were as follows: "The Woman and the Snow", now let me interrupt for a commercial from Yokai.com.

雪女 (ゆきおんな) or Yuki Onna is a Snow Woman. This description sums her up rather well. "Yuki onna prey on travelers lost in the heavy snowstorms that blanket the Japanese Alps in winter. They have an otherworldly beauty, with long black hair and dark, piercing eyes. Their skin is ageless and as white as snow, but their bodies are as cold as ice. A mere touch is enough to give a human a deep, unshakable chill. They feed on life force, sucking it from human’s mouths with an icy breath that freezes their victims solid." Check out that link for more info.

In the Kwaidan tale, a woodcutter named Minokuchi falls prey to AND falls in love with a Yuki Onna. At about the 3:20 mark of this video, you can see the highlights of the story.

The other story was regaled to me by two different students of mine. I asked my adult classes to tell me a Yokai or Ghost story and they both came up with similar versions of this tale, "Hoichi, the Earless" which is the third story in Kwaidan.

Once again, our sponsor interrupts.

耳なし芳一 (みみなしほういち) Mimi Nashi Houichi or Hoichi the Earless. "Hōichi was a blind biwa master who resided at Amidaji, a Buddhist temple in Shimonoseki. He was renowned for his skill at performing The Tale of the Heike–particularly his rendition of the Battle of Dan no ura and the death of the child emperor Antoku. His playing was said to be so splendid that he could even make ghosts and demons cry."

Although there aren't any subtitles, this story is fairly easy to follow.

I know I promised to present Junji Ito's works daily, well that plan didn't work out very well. I need to plan ahead better. Here are the covers of a few of his works that I purchased for a few hundred yen weeks ago. Someday, I hope to read them so I can get my money's worth. (Note: a few covers have been shown before.)

Speaking of covers, I was planning on showing lots of Phantom Stranger, Deadman, Spectre, etc. I didn't get around to them very often.

 

 

That's enough for now...

All in all, a pretty good Halloween day yesterday and I went to bed and had a good night's sleep, even with the sore arm.

Be sure to wander over to the main page of Countdown to Halloween to find other bloggers' missives.

I'm going to take a break and then do a Round-up of a lot of tidbits that I intended on showing earlier. 

Only 333 days until the next Countdown to Halloween!

What Did You ex-Spectre?

Before I decided on daily Junji or Yokai entries, I had planned on adding covers of some of the comics I have at a friend's in Canada, on consignment or here with me now. BUT, I forgot to add a comic yesterday. So I revised yesterday's blog entry to include a comic and I found a new snake.

So without further ado, here are a couple of comics for your perusal.

Too bad, there's that nasty 7 encircled on the cover in ink. I gently scrubbed with an eraser. Meh. A little better.

These two comics are probably the oldest rarest ones I own.

So what's the deal with spooks today? I watched the first episode of Junji Ito Maniac: Tales of  the Macabre. Not very spooky, but kooky and all together ooky. I detect a tribute to Charles Addams incarnation of his eponymous family. This wacky family conduct a séance to speak to their dear departed dad. 

Here is the title card for the Netflix show.

"The Strange Hikizuri Siblings: The Seance"(The Strange Hikizuri Siblings: The Seance)
Transliteration: "Kaiki hikizuri kyōdai: Kōreikai" (怪奇ひきずり兄弟・降霊会)

A photographer with an interest in spirits and ghosts pays a visit to the very strange and creepy home where the six Hikizuri siblings live. (Scammed from Wikipedia.)

Here is the manga where they first appeared.

I must say, the manga transfers to anime rather well. If you can track down the series, the episodes are only 22 minutes long, so easy to digest in small bites. If you can't, here is the author commenting on this episode. Lots of spoilers!! (Doesn't Mr. Ito bear a resemblance to the older son?)

Speaking of ghosts, here are some Gatcha with ghostly features.

 

For a Yokai, beware the Azuki Baba (Another BABA!). This old hag washes red azuki beans in the river while singing a ghastly song. Turn away once you hear it begin or she'll EAT you! 

(Mwaa-haa-ha!)

I'm certain I could have dug through the archives for a more ghostly yokai, but I'm doing this alphabetically.

I don't really have a spooky treat handy, so how about some stickers? This shop exclusively sells stickers and there's a new statue in front of the entrance.

Click around at B-Side Label and you may find a sticker you like and they do do international shipping.

That's plenty for today's entry, I'll ask you to scoot over to another blogger's page, this time it's Deadpan Flook...

More comics and Junji and gatcha and yokai and other stuff tomorrow!

Adams hame.

All over the netverse today, there have been tributes to one of the all time great artists, Neal Adams. (That link will take you to an interview with his long-time collaborator Roy Thomas.) For me, he was the ultimate Batman cover artist, with a favourite of mine being his Manbat covers. (And that link will take you to a previous post of mine with some Manbat covers.) 

Alas, I don't have access to my personal collection because they're gaining dust in a friend's basement in Toronto, and since I don't want to scam photos from the internet, I will offer what meager examples of his work I have on hand. Here thanks to the Showcase Presents collection, I present Adams' covers of The Phantom Stranger in glorious black and white! Feel free to print them off and get work on colouring them yourself.

Starting with Showcase #80. (If you'd like to see these in their full-coloured glory, go to the GCD.)

Followed by Issues 3-21...

     

     

     

     

     

     

(As an aside, #14 is probably my favourite of the bunch!)

     

     

     

If anyone would like to buy this for me, I'd be happy to show off the next 21 covers. 

I'm proud to say that this is one of the few series in which I've managed to score all of the issues, though they are languishing in that aforementioned basement, along with several of his Batman covers and most of his Spectre ones as well. Requiescet in Pace Mr. Adams and thanks for the many years of entertainment.