Tombs

This trick-or-treat bag of terror tales from horror master Ito (Uzumaki) is spiked with dark humor and dream-logic absurdity. “Tombs” sets the tone, set in a town where tombstones sprout spontaneously from the spots where people die, forcing the living residents to navigate streets and home interiors choked with grave markers. In “Clubhouse,” teenage girls are possessed by the ghosts of student radicals past (“We can use all the comrades we can get”). “The Strange Tale of the Tunnel” begins as a classic ghost story before taking a sharp turn into bizarre science fiction. “Slug Girl” presents the simple yet profoundly disturbing character of a girl cursed with a slug for a tongue, and the standout “The Bloody Story of Shirosuna” follows a young doctor to a village with a strange relationship with blood. As always, Ito’s fine-lined art has an elegant neo-gothic appeal. He fills his pages with moody neighborhoods, pretty girls with haunted eyes, and grotesqueries that range from a massive man-eating sea monster to little floating hair balls that broadcast people’s secret thoughts. Though not necessarily the very best work from the prolific, endlessly imaginative artist, this is one of the stronger selections of his short manga, one that Ito’s and all horror fans won’t want to miss. (Mar.)