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Smith, Ryan Cecil – Two Eyes of the Beautiful #2
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
Smith, Ryan Cecil – Two Eyes of the Beautiful
Two Eyes of the Beautiful
One more reason to love working on this website: a couple of days ago I reviewed a fairly bad anime-style comic and said that, generally speaking, I wasn’t a big fan of that sort of thing. Anime in comics, that is. Of course, manga can often be a completely different thing, as this issue is tremendous. Well, except for a few printing problems, or actually just the one that makes some of the pages darker than they need to be. There’s only one place where the lettering becomes illegible, and then only briefly, so it’s not that big of a deal. Just figured I’d start things off with a complaint. This is the story of a young movie star who has a horrible flesh-eating disease. Her only concern is saving her beauty, and she’s very clear that she’ll do anything to accomplish this. An extremely shady doctor tells her to leave public life entirely, move to a remote location with her young daughter and await further instructions. The world, naturally, notices her disappearance but eventually concludes that they must be dead. Her daughter has been having trouble adjusting (as it’s hard to make friends when your mother is terrified of being recognized) but does make friends with a young girl from the local orphanage. Finally, there’s a phone call from the doctor: they need a healthy, beautiful young girl that they can use for any purpose they wish. Once again I’m in danger of telling the whole story here, and that ain’t right. The rest of the issue deals with a mad struggle and authority figures and their reaction to fame, or I’m reading too much into it. One thing: there is a second issue coming, correct?  Because if this is just a one-shot I have a serious problem with the way this thing ended. Assuming this is part of a larger series, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s creepy in a big way, and there’s still the big overriding mystery of how exactly they plan on making the movie star beautiful again. If this is the only issue… well, that’s just mean. No price, and the man sent it from Japan, so I have no idea of the exchange rate. Isn’t $3 a good guess? I think so. It’s probably correct, give or take a dollar.
