Genre Horror
Age Rating 16+
Price $13.95
Museum of Terror volumes one and two introduced readers to the horrific, beautiful creature Tomie . . . the woman no man could resist. Now Junji Ito, creator and curator of this horrible museum, brings a new type of exhibit to thrill and chill your senses! Chiemi Amano is a beautiful girl with long, flowing hair. She arrives home with a freshly broken heart only to learn that mice have infested the space above her room. As if things couldn't get worse, one of them becomes entangled in her long locks over the course of the night! That's the last straw--she grew her hair out for her ex-boyfriend in the first place, and it's caused her nothing but trouble! But when Eri, her little sister, goes for the scissors... Chiemi's hair has other ideas.
It's a shame that Dark Horse discontinued the Museum of Terror line as this volume was easily the best so far and begins to show us Ito's true talent. For me, one of the problems of the previous Museum of Terror volumes was that it revolved around one concept, namely that of the immortal Tomie. The third book in the series shakes free of that limitation and I think this is where Ito's creativity truly shines and easily rivals the imagination of any fantasy or science fiction author. This manga has twelve stories all in all, each one unique and different and it is from one of the stories where the comic's subtitle and back cover summary, "The Long Hair in the Attic", is taken from. That's far from the most impressive story though and what's interesting here is that Ito executes subtlety in his work and not all the horror present comes from external sources but psychological ones as well.
Ito's artwork continues to be impressive and there's even one easter egg I found as there's a scene where several students were all wearing masks and Ito is able to mimic several popular anime/manga characters. Another impressive scene is in one story, where possession is a recurring theme. Ito manages to show that the characters have changed without necessarily being too overt.
Overall a great collection of horror stories and showcases Ito's true potential. Not bad for stories that were published almost two decades ago.
9