Smith, Ryan Cecil – Two Eyes of the Beautiful #2

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Two Eyes of the Beautiful #2

Huzzah for a second issue!  I got the first one a while ago (please don’t ask me to remember exact dates when I received comics) and loved it, and this issue only solidifies that love. Right away you should be able to tell by that cover if you’ll be interested.  You have an angry dog, a melting face, a chainsaw and a pair of scared eyes.  Draws you right in.  I should also mention that this is based on a manga called “Blood’s Baptism” by Umczu Kazuo that is apparently unavailable in English, so kudos to Ryan for putting out his own take on this.  Things start off with an excellent two page recap of the previous issue, something more people should do, but regular readers already know my thoughts on that subject.  From there we see the mother reminiscing about her beautiful past, then catching a stray dog and dragging him to the attic (past her hiding and terrified daughter Sarah).  Sarah thinks this may be a dream, but the blood dripping from the ceiling convinces her.  She somehow manages to fall asleep and wakes up to it all being cleaned up, but her mom still has the marks on her arms from where the dog lashed out. Sarah decides that it’s time to get serious, so she goes through an elaborate process to get ready for the day.  Yes, I used one of them for the sample, as it’s so quintessentially manga that I couldn’t help using one of the few non-creepy or violent pages. So Sarah works up the courage to check out the attic after her mom goes out and finds… I’m giving too much away again, aren’t I?  Dammit.  The last issue of this series was creepy as could be, this one actually ups the ante and ads “disgusting” to the mix. The few printing problems I noticed the last time around are gone now and the art is fantastic, just absolutely perfect for the story.  There’s one more issue in this series coming, so you should really get the first couple now so you’ll be ready.  Assuming you like this sort of thing, I guess, but who doesn’t like tense and creepy manga?  $5ish