Screentone Nightmares: Beyond the Bad Dream
Welcome back to Screentone Nightmares. This week we’re taking a look at a manga I picked totally at random. This is a single volume anthology of stories from mangaka Sachiko Uguiso called Beyond The Bad Dream. All of these one shot stories were originally published in the magazine Comic Tokumori between 2009 and 2017. Uguiso’s stories have also been collected in the manga Carnival of Blood and Bone and The Fraudstein Twins, and she has two completed series, You Will Hear the Voice of the Dead and Children, Don’t Play in the Dark. Currently she is working on an ongoing series started in 2020 called Heart-throb Sacrifice.
This anthology collects ten unrelated stories of the supernatural and the macabre. Our first tale, “Tamashii and Me”, relates the story of a boy plagued by a Japanese children’s mascot called Tamashii (inspired by the real-life mascot Funassyi, apparently. Google that shit.) This one was a good start to the collection and featured some unsettling childhood imagery that then spiraled into the bizarre when the boy’s estranged father appears and begins to slaughter cute mascots in gruesome ways. Next up we meet a young couple who move into an old house with strange stains on the wall in the aptly titled “Stains of an Old House”. What are these stains? You won’t guess it in a million years, but a dude gets bitten in half. It’s pretty rad. Chapter three is called “Her Suitcase”. This is one of the less noteworthy tales but it’s still a mean and effective little piece of sickening revenge. The next two stories are my favorites. In “My Friend” a woman can’t help but mislead her absurdly gullible friend with little lies meant as pranks. But can someone believe a lie so absolutely that it becomes true? Apparently so and with vomit inducing results. “Seance on a Wet Night” tells the story of a couple seeking closure after their young son’s death. They seek out a medium who can summon the dead but once the spirit of her son is in front of her, the mother is not prepared to let him go again. This one goes to bizarre, Junji Ito-esque lengths with its concept. The results are fantastic and, I dare say, Lovecraftian. That covers the first half of the collection and if those synopses and the invocation of two of the genres greatest writers aren’t enough to reel you in then maybe my hand picked gallery of artwork can seal the deal.
I really dug these stories. There’s nothing wildly out of the ordinary for horror fans here but there’s a wonderful balance of the grisly and the whimsical. Uguiso’s art is playful and more in the realm of charming and cartoonish than realistic and striking. Still, there are ugly, upsetting moments. A girl butchers her brother’s puppy in front of him to feed their parents who have been turned into zombies. A serial killer fishes the guts out of his latest victim to rub their warmth on his face. At times the style can really emphasize the ludicrous horror you're witnessing. This is a perfect autumnal read when you want something spooky that doesn’t get into grueling, psychological territory. It’s perfect for the Halloween season. I can’t wait to dig into more of this mangaka’s catalogue so expect future updates on my exploration of her work!
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