Comics Bulletin logo
Search
  • Columns
    Random
    • Top 10 Horror Films 1970s

      Shelly Atomic
      October 11, 2012
      Columns, Top 10
    Recent
    • Revisiting the Witchblade/Fathom/Tomb Raider Crossover

      Daniel Gehen
      February 8, 2021
    • The Full Run: Usagi Yojimbo – The Wanderer’s Road Part 2

      Daniel Gehen
      December 4, 2020
    • The Full Run: Usagi Yojimbo – The Wanderer’s Road Part 1

      Daniel Gehen
      October 30, 2020
    • What Looks Good
    • Comics Bulletin Soapbox
    • The Full Run
    • Leading Question
    • Top 10
    • The Long-Form
    • Jumping On
    • Comics in Color
    • Slouches Towards Comics
  • Big Two
    Random
    • 1.0

      Watching the Avengers: Avengers Standoff Assault On Pleasant Hill Alpha #1

      Shelly Atomic
      March 11, 2016
      Big Two, Big Two Reviews, Marvel Comics
    Recent
    • 3.0

      Review: X-MEN LEGENDS #1 Delivers A Dose of Nostalgia

      Daniel Gehen
      February 22, 2021
    • 4.5

      DCeased: Dead Planet #7 Presents a Hopeful Future (Review)

      Daniel Gehen
      January 22, 2021
    • Retro Review: Detective Comics #826 Remains a Holiday Classic

      Daniel Gehen
      December 3, 2020
    • DC Comics
    • Big Two Reviews
    • Marvel Comics
  • Indie
    Random
    • 4.0

      Review: Count Crowley - Reluctant Midnight Monster Hunter #1

      Shelly Atomic
      October 22, 2019
      Dark Horse, Indie, Reviews
    Recent
    • 4.0

      Review: Beast Wars #2 another chance to change the past

      Stephen Cook
      March 3, 2021
    • 4.5

      Review: THE LAST RONIN #2 Hurts So Good

      Daniel Gehen
      February 19, 2021
    • TIME BEFORE TIME—A HIGH STAKES TIME TRAVEL SCIENCE FICTION SERIES SET TO LAUNCH THIS MAY

      Daniel Gehen
      February 19, 2021
    • Reviews
    • Archie Comics
    • Boom! Studios
    • Dark Horse
    • IDW
    • Image
    • Oni Press
    • Valiant
  • Reviews
    Random
    • 4.5

      Grendel: Behold the Devil #3

      Shelly Atomic
      January 19, 2008
      Reviews
    Recent
    • 3.0

      Review: X-MEN LEGENDS #1 Delivers A Dose of Nostalgia

      Daniel Gehen
      February 22, 2021
    • 4.5

      Review: THE LAST RONIN #2 Hurts So Good

      Daniel Gehen
      February 19, 2021
    • 2.3

      Review: SAVAGE #1 Needs Taming

      Daniel Gehen
      February 16, 2021
    • Singles Going Steady
    • Slugfest
    • Manga
      • Reviews
    • Small Press
      • Reviews
      • ICYMI
      • Tiny Pages Made of Ashes
  • Interviews
    Random
    • Super '70s and '80s: Sea World Superheroes

      Shelly Atomic
      November 3, 2011
      Interviews
    Recent
    • Interview: Jon Davis-Hunt Talks SHADOWMAN

      Daniel Gehen
      June 8, 2020
    • Interview: Becky Cloonan talks DARK AGNES and Her Personal Influences

      Mike Nickells
      March 4, 2020
    • Simon Roy

      Interview: Simon Roy on His Inspirations and Collaborations on PROTECTOR

      Mike Nickells
      January 29, 2020
    • Audio Interview
    • Video Interview
  • Classic Comics
    Random
    • Xenozoic

      Shelly Atomic
      November 7, 2011
      Classic Comics Cavalcade, Columns
    Recent
    • Countdown to the King: Marvel’s Godzilla

      Daniel Gehen
      May 29, 2019
    • Honoring A Legend: Fantagraphics To Resurrect Tomi Ungerer Classics

      Daniel Gehen
      February 15, 2019
    • Reliving the Craziest Decade in Comics History: An interview with Jason Sacks

      Mark Stack
      January 2, 2019
    • Classic Comics Cavalcade
    • Classic Interviews
  • News
    Random
    • Keeper is Serial Killers and football: quite the combination

      Shelly Atomic
      June 5, 2014
      News
    Recent
    • TIME BEFORE TIME—A HIGH STAKES TIME TRAVEL SCIENCE FICTION SERIES SET TO LAUNCH THIS MAY

      Daniel Gehen
      February 19, 2021
    • Image Comics and TMP Announces SPAWN’S UNIVERSE

      Daniel Gehen
      February 18, 2021
    • SAVAGE DRAGON IS A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH THIS MAY

      Daniel Gehen
      February 17, 2021
    • Press Release
    • Kickstarter Spotlight
  • Books
    Random
    • Jeff Lemire's 'Roughneck' is a Journey to a Wilderness as Bleak as its Characters

      Shelly Atomic
      April 11, 2017
      Books
    Recent
    • Collecting Profile: Disney Frozen

      CB Staff
      November 22, 2019
    • Collecting Profile: NFL Superpro

      CB Staff
      August 31, 2019
    • “THE BEST OF WITZEND” is a Wonderful Celebration of Artistic Freedom

      Daniel Gehen
      September 15, 2018
    • Review: ‘Machete Squad’ is a Disappointing Afghan Memoir

      Jason Sacks
      July 31, 2018
    • Review: ‘Out of Nothing’ is the Antidote to Our Sick Times

      Jason Sacks
      July 23, 2018
    • Review: ‘Bizarre Romance’ Shows Rough Edges in the Early Days of a New Marriage

      Jason Sacks
      July 10, 2018
What's New
  • Review: Beast Wars #2 another chance to change the past
  • Collecting Profile: Blue Beetle
  • Review: X-MEN LEGENDS #1 Delivers A Dose of Nostalgia
  • Collecting Profile: Kraven the Hunter
  • Review: THE LAST RONIN #2 Hurts So Good
  • TIME BEFORE TIME—A HIGH STAKES TIME TRAVEL SCIENCE FICTION SERIES SET TO LAUNCH THIS MAY
  • RSS Feed
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Contact Us
  • Write for us!
  • Visit Video Game Break!
Home
Columns
Keeping It Ghastly

Keeping It Ghastly: Hino Horror vol 6 Black Cat

Shelly Atomic
November 6, 2015
Keeping It Ghastly, Keeping It Ghastly, Manga

black cat

Between the gore and gaped mouth screaming within the majority of Hideshi Hino’s series, Hino Horror, lies a profound understanding of human nature. More specifically, what does human nature look like to an outside observer? A cat, perhaps. Better yet, a black cat. A creature cursed from birth to be shunned for bringing bad luck. Through the eyes of the furry narrator, Black Cat, comes a story about strange and tragic people trying to cope with the unfair and often violent lives they make for themselves.

Black Cat is vol 6 of Cocoro Books’ 2004 series, Hino Horror. Like so much manga it was only carried by one company that has since gone belly up, but thankfully it and the other volumes of Hino Horror are readily available in most used bookstores. Previously I talked about Hino Horror vol 5: Bug Boy. Like vol 5, vol 6 follows a character that is powerless to stop what is happening around him and must come to his own conclusions about his place in the society that has shunned him. But Black Cat differs from Bug Boy in several ways. At center stage is the narrator of each book. Both Bug Boy and Black Cat are outcasts from the start and find comfort in aloof isolation; but while Bug Boy comes to his own final conclusions about the world around him, Black Cat remains aloof asking himself, “Human beings… what are they really?”.

(Spoilers) Overall Bug Boy ends with few questions left. Like Frankenstein’s monster, the main character comes to a concrete conclusion that his death is the only solution. Black Cat, however, continues to live his life and is only left with little resolution and mostly more questions. Questions which can’t be answered. Therein lies the horror of Hino Horror vol 6. Bug Boy comes to terms with the injustice of life and the responsibility of ones actions. Black Cat never goes beyond an observer, and yet even by distancing himself from harm he can’t remove himself from being a discrete actor in his world.

I like to think that this is perhaps attributed to the difference between the eyes of the observer. Bug Boy is about a human who becomes a monster after he’s been human long enough to create some kind of standard for acts of evil versus good. Black Cat isn’t human, and thus looking in on our world he can’t infer things beyond the gut reactions of scared, shocked, hungry and inquisitive. At no point in Black Cat does the titular observer make a judgement call of good versus evil, leaving one to wonder if good and evil are a concept that are learned, not intuitively known. If the impassive stare of a cat is the most sympathy we can expect from someone on the outside of our world.

Black CatHideshi HinoHorrormanga

Share On:
Tweet
Raymond Briggs, Part Four
The Full Run: Hickman’s ‘Avengers’ #27 and 28

About The Author

mm
Shelly Atomic

Shelly Atomic is stupidly deep into two types of nerdiness: horror stories and Cold War history. When she's not working as a research assistant on oncology clinical trials Shelly loves raiding used book stores, tracking down out of print manga, polishing her History Master's thesis in hopes of getting it published someday, and noodling around on her harp.

Related Posts

  • 3.0

    Alien: The Original Script #1 – This One’s For The Fans

    Jason Jeffords Jr.
    August 7, 2020
  • Unlocking This Week’s Vault – March 4th Edition

    Jason Jeffords Jr.
    March 3, 2020

Support Us!

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Friends of the Site

  • SOLRAD
  • Your Chicken Enemy
  • Psycho Drive-In
  • Women Write About Comics
  • The Beat
  • Loser City
RSSTwitterFacebookgoogleplusinstagramtumblr

Comics Bulletin is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for website owners to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, audible.com, and any other website that may be affiliated with Amazon Service LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate, Comics Bulletin earns from qualifying purchases.

All content on this site (c) 2018 The Respective Copyright Holders