Space Usagi: Yokai Hunter
In this one-shot, Usagi Yujimo must face off against a full gallery of Japan’s most famous yokai and yurei! Here, he’s helping a family get back their daughter, and when they tell him she’s been spirited away to a haunted castle, he shows no fear.
When Stan Sakai offers a story within a story, I wasn’t sure if he’d finish it. When considering the action abruptly ends, I’m left yearning for more! The way he interprets the supernatural world is similar to Gegege no Kitaro. Maybe it’ll get addressed in Space Usagi: Death and Honour, which releases next month.
Star Wars: Tales from the Death Star
After LEGO Star Wars offered its own seasonal animated specials, I often wondered if there would be more. After the holiday special, terrifying tales and summer vacation, Dark Horse Comics is taking the reins and will soon offer their own take on this tried and true formula. Instead of humour, what’s presented is very chilling.
There are five spooky narratives in total. Unlike other releases which include a title to introduce each chapter, there’s none here. Fortunately, the segway from one story to another is easy to spot. Intertitles are used to introduce each new chapter, and I get to see how the Empire has taken over other new worlds.
Those citizens are put in chains and put into slave labour camps! The brilliant part of this anthology concerns looking at just how bad the Empire is. But as for those who’ve died, there are two ways they can return to the realm of the living. As a result, I’m curious if the spectres featured here are Force ghosts or something else! I suspect they aren’t.
There are plenty of glorious moments of tension, delivered much like Ridley Scott’s Alien. When considering there’s even a zombie style flick, perhaps Resident Evil (the original) film can be considered too. The two stand out tales involve how that one-eyed garbage monster got into the trash compactor’ and what may have gone on in Grand Moff Tarkin’s head prior to arriving at Yavin. His backstory is one I’ve been waiting a long time for!
When considering all the deaths that not only he and The Empire handled, I’m rather surprised that what’s offered in this story didn’t happen sooner! The trope of spirits coming back for vengeance is nothing new in any narrative. However, to finally read about angry ghosts haunting this universe certainly took its time. Writer Cavin Scott gets to address it as though it was like an episode of The Clone Wars.
In Conclusion:
Although these three issues are official Halloween releases, there are plenty of other titles that sort of fits in the spooky release schedule. To wrap up this list, readers might also want to consider Canary, a narrative set in the weird west concerning a collapse of a mine; The Midnite Show, where the monsters of cinema emerge out of the projection; and The Many Deaths of Barnaby James trade paperback. Oh, and the fourth volume of Vampire Hunter D Omnibus will soon be out too!
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