Horror comics have been around for decades, but Anthony Bourdain brings it to a whole new level in Hungry Ghosts as he makes playing with your food scary. Hungry Ghosts, published by Berger Books, an imprint of Dark Horse Comics, on October 2, 2018, is a collection of short inter-connecting horror stories that use food as the main ingredient to scare you. Much like the chefs who are telling these stories to one another Anthony Bourdain alongside writer Joel Rose bring in a brigade of talented artists including: Sebastian Cabrol, Sal Cipriano, Vanesa Del Rey, Francesco Francavilla, Irene Koh, Leonardo Manco, Alberto Ponticelli, Paul Pope, Mateus Santolouco, and Jose Villarrubia to deliver a scary night cap that you soon won’t forget at your next meal.
Background:
Dating back to the seventeenth century Edo Period, the game, Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai (100 Candles) was played upon the samurai class. The game served two purposes: the first as a form of entertainment to pass the time and the second to see which samurai(s) could tell and stomach the most horrifying stories. The rules of 100 Candles are simple. 100 candles are lit and a person begins to tell a story involving spirits, demons, or ghosts. At the end of the story they go into a separate room and blow out one candle and look into a mirror to see if they became a demon, spirit, or ghost. With each story being told, assuming you did not transform into a demon, spirit, or ghost, the room would become darker and darker as more and more candles are blown out. This would continue, as the stories became more horrifying, until there were no more candles or until there were no more people to play.
Summary:
Anthony’s Bourdain’s Hungry Ghosts is the story of eight chefs playing Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai (100 Candles) at a charity event they were called to cook for. Each chef has the goal of telling a story that is more terrifying than their predecessor did to not only entertain their host but for an ulterior motive. These stories utilize different combinations of food alongside skeletons, pirates, animal spirits, Kappas, human body parts, troubled spirts, and jikininkis who are devourers of human flesh. With each passing story, the horror level increases as the chefs are inching closer and closer to their ulterior motive which is to become the creatures they told stories about and devour their human host and his guests. This captures the idea that the stories they told were not stories, but rather truths that demons, ghosts, and spirits do exist.
Significance:
Hungry Ghosts is considered to be Anthony Bourdain’s last work before he passed away, and in many ways, provides insight into what he was experiencing. The graphic novel has several reoccurring themes being retold across a variety of stories including the morality of people, gluttony, and good and evil. Given the fact that Bourdain was a writer who was very involved in each of his projects it is only natural to assume that he was feeling these themes in his personal life and this provides insight into what he might have been experiencing before he committed suicide. Furthermore, the graphic novel is a nice change from the traditional American horror comics as it takes a manga Japanese approach in both the writing and illustrations with elements of American style comics interjected subtly. This style is unique and really plays well to the overall theme of the story as it further cements the stories and the ghosts, spirits, and demons in this book. Finally, this graphic novel features a variety of artists who all have different styles and approaches on how to draw, color, letter, and tell a story. This ensures that no two stories will be the same and that you will be exposed to a variety of styles and approaches as you tear through all eight stories about ghosts, spirits, demons.
