Crossing Midnight
Encyclopedia
Crossing Midnight was an American horror/fantasy comic book
series
set in contemporary Japan. It was written by Mike Carey and illustrated by Jim Fern and Eric Nguyen
, with covers by J. H. Williams III
. Vertigo, a DC Comics
imprint
, published the series. It was canceled due to poor sales, and the series concluded after 19 issues.
Carey has said the series was born out of his love for Japanese and Korean films, such as My Beautiful Girl, Mari
, and horror manga
by creators such as Junji Ito
, Hideshi Hino
, and Shigeru Mizuki
. Carey's version, however, is still intrinsically western. It is, he says, "Hans Christian Andersen
's The Snow Queen
set in Nagasaki
."
Nagasaki twins Kai and Toshi are born either side of midnight, an unexpected result of their father's frivolous prayer at their grandmother's shrine. As they grow up, Toshi becomes seemingly invulnerable to harm; a fall onto railings as a child causes the spikes to bend while she walks away unscathed. Kai himself proves impossible to injure with a knife. Another strange event affects them years later, when they and a childhood friend, Saburo, find themselves entering a magical fantasy world through the Sanno Shrine
. When Kai spots a strange man stalking them, the twins run back to the real world, accidentally trapping their friend behind them. Still later, as teenagers, they find themselves once more confronted by the man from the fantasy land. He is Aratsu, a god of swords, and has come to collect Toshi as payment for their father's prayer years before. Toshi refuses, so Aratsu kills her pet dog.
This causes two policemen, the mysterious detective Sato and the mute detective Yamada, to investigate. They begin to follow Kai around and it is implied that they know more about what is happening than he does.
After refusing Aratsu again, Toshi decides to rid herself of him by stealing a gun from a young thug named KK, who threatens to kill her in retaliation. Meanwhile, Kai finds himself taken back into the fantasy world by Saburo, who has not aged since he was last seen. Saburo now serves a red dragon named Lord Rinjin who is the mortal enemy of Aratsu. Rinjin tells Kai that if Toshi refuses Aratsu a third time, he will have to leave her alone. He tells Kai to ensure that this happens or there will be trouble. Toshi does refuse Aratsu a third time, shooting him for good measure. However, the bullets only graze him and he slices her mother into pieces as retaliation.
Toshi follows Aratsu into his palace and says that she will join him provided he restores her mother to life. In her bedroom, Kai's mother's body reforms itself but she remains unconscious. the story ends with Toshi following Aratsu to begin her new life.
Kai's mother is under observation at a local hospital, where she remains unconscious and covered with scars from Aratsu's swords. Kai's grieving is interrupted by a gang of evil imps, which start to consume pieces of his mother's memory. They run when Kai attacks them as they fear his touch, but soon find weapons in a part of the hospital that is closed for renovation. He is saved by Nidoru, goddess of needles, who dispatches them with ease.
She reveals that she is aware of the debt owed by Kai's father to Aratsu. She also explains that the imps were attracted to his mother's soul, which was also cut apart by Aratsu's swords - shredded souls being easier to consume. She also explains that she and her master were the only 'shepherds of point' not to bow to Aratsu. As punishment, he killed her master. She says that if Kai agrees to help her take Aratsu down, she will sew his mother's soul back together and try to save his father, who is destined to die in a yakuza
shoot-out that day. He agrees and his mother wakes up too late to stop him from walking off with Nidoru.
In his mansion, Aratsu slices through Toshi with a special sword, cutting away both her past and future, leaving her existing in an eternal 'now'. He says that if she displeases him, he will allow that time to elapse and she will vanish. He also gives her a new name, Hasharito or 'little insect', and tells her never to think of her old name. Despairingly, she agrees.
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
series
Ongoing series
The term "ongoing series" is used in contrast to limited series , a one shot , a graphic novel, or a trade paperback...
set in contemporary Japan. It was written by Mike Carey and illustrated by Jim Fern and Eric Nguyen
Eric Nguyen
Eric Michael Nguyen was an American professional storm chaser, meteorologist, and photographer from Keller, Texas, United States...
, with covers by J. H. Williams III
J. H. Williams III
James "Jim" H. Williams III, usually credited as J. H. Williams III, is a comic book artist and penciller. He is known for his work on titles such as Chase, Promethea, Desolation Jones and most recently Batwoman.-Career:...
. Vertigo, a DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
imprint
Imprint
In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...
, published the series. It was canceled due to poor sales, and the series concluded after 19 issues.
Carey has said the series was born out of his love for Japanese and Korean films, such as My Beautiful Girl, Mari
My Beautiful Girl, Mari
My Beautiful Girl, Mari is a critically successful South Korean animated film. It follows the story of a young boy during summer vacation and ascends into flights of surrealistic fantasy, which may or may not be dream sequences.-Plot:Kim Nam-woo struggles through life as people around him...
, and horror manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
by creators such as Junji Ito
Junji Ito
is a Japanese horror manga artist best known for his series of short stories about Tomie, an immortal girl who drives her stricken admirers to madness, and Uzumaki, a three-volume series about a town obsessed with spirals.-Biography:...
, Hideshi Hino
Hideshi Hino
Hideshi Hino is a Japanese manga artist who specializes in horror stories. His comics include Hell Baby, Hino Horrors, and Panorama of Hell...
, and Shigeru Mizuki
Shigeru Mizuki
is a Japanese manga author, most known for his Japanese horror manga GeGeGe no Kitaro . A specialist in stories of yōkai, he is considered a master of the genre...
. Carey's version, however, is still intrinsically western. It is, he says, "Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...
's The Snow Queen
The Snow Queen
The Snow Queen is a fairy tale by author Hans Christian Andersen . The tale was first published in 1845, and centers on the struggle between good and evil as experienced by a little boy and girl, Kai and Gerda....
set in Nagasaki
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the second half of the 16th century on the site of a small fishing village, formerly part of Nishisonogi District...
."
Plot
Note: The following synopsis broadly covers the events of the first four issues.Nagasaki twins Kai and Toshi are born either side of midnight, an unexpected result of their father's frivolous prayer at their grandmother's shrine. As they grow up, Toshi becomes seemingly invulnerable to harm; a fall onto railings as a child causes the spikes to bend while she walks away unscathed. Kai himself proves impossible to injure with a knife. Another strange event affects them years later, when they and a childhood friend, Saburo, find themselves entering a magical fantasy world through the Sanno Shrine
Sanno Shrine
The , located about 900 metres south-east of the atomic bomb hypocentre in Nagasaki, is noted for its one-legged stone torii at the shrine entrance.-Torii:The well-known was one of the unanticipated consequences of the atomic bomb blast on August 9, 1945....
. When Kai spots a strange man stalking them, the twins run back to the real world, accidentally trapping their friend behind them. Still later, as teenagers, they find themselves once more confronted by the man from the fantasy land. He is Aratsu, a god of swords, and has come to collect Toshi as payment for their father's prayer years before. Toshi refuses, so Aratsu kills her pet dog.
This causes two policemen, the mysterious detective Sato and the mute detective Yamada, to investigate. They begin to follow Kai around and it is implied that they know more about what is happening than he does.
After refusing Aratsu again, Toshi decides to rid herself of him by stealing a gun from a young thug named KK, who threatens to kill her in retaliation. Meanwhile, Kai finds himself taken back into the fantasy world by Saburo, who has not aged since he was last seen. Saburo now serves a red dragon named Lord Rinjin who is the mortal enemy of Aratsu. Rinjin tells Kai that if Toshi refuses Aratsu a third time, he will have to leave her alone. He tells Kai to ensure that this happens or there will be trouble. Toshi does refuse Aratsu a third time, shooting him for good measure. However, the bullets only graze him and he slices her mother into pieces as retaliation.
Toshi follows Aratsu into his palace and says that she will join him provided he restores her mother to life. In her bedroom, Kai's mother's body reforms itself but she remains unconscious. the story ends with Toshi following Aratsu to begin her new life.
Kai's mother is under observation at a local hospital, where she remains unconscious and covered with scars from Aratsu's swords. Kai's grieving is interrupted by a gang of evil imps, which start to consume pieces of his mother's memory. They run when Kai attacks them as they fear his touch, but soon find weapons in a part of the hospital that is closed for renovation. He is saved by Nidoru, goddess of needles, who dispatches them with ease.
She reveals that she is aware of the debt owed by Kai's father to Aratsu. She also explains that the imps were attracted to his mother's soul, which was also cut apart by Aratsu's swords - shredded souls being easier to consume. She also explains that she and her master were the only 'shepherds of point' not to bow to Aratsu. As punishment, he killed her master. She says that if Kai agrees to help her take Aratsu down, she will sew his mother's soul back together and try to save his father, who is destined to die in a yakuza
Yakuza
, also known as , are members of traditional organized crime syndicates in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them bōryokudan , literally "violence group", while the yakuza call themselves "ninkyō dantai" , "chivalrous organizations". The yakuza are notoriously...
shoot-out that day. He agrees and his mother wakes up too late to stop him from walking off with Nidoru.
In his mansion, Aratsu slices through Toshi with a special sword, cutting away both her past and future, leaving her existing in an eternal 'now'. He says that if she displeases him, he will allow that time to elapse and she will vanish. He also gives her a new name, Hasharito or 'little insect', and tells her never to think of her old name. Despairingly, she agrees.
Collected editions
| # | Title | ISBN | Release date | Collected material |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cut Here | ISBN 1401213413 | June, 2007 2007 in comics -January:*January 10: Superman & Batman vs. Aliens & Predator released.*January 24: The Boys is canceled with issue #6.-February:*February 2: Newsarama reports that The Boys has been picked up by Dynamite Entertainment.... |
Crossing Midnight #1-5 |
| 2 | A Map of Midnight | ISBN 1401216455 | February, 2008 2008 in comics -January:*January 9: Teen Titans: The Lost Annual, delayed since 2003, is published.*January 23: Hellblazer #240, marking the 20th anniversary of the series, is released.-February:... |
Crossing Midnight #6–12 |
| 3 | The Sword in the Soul | ISBN 1401219667 | October, 2008 2008 in comics -January:*January 9: Teen Titans: The Lost Annual, delayed since 2003, is published.*January 23: Hellblazer #240, marking the 20th anniversary of the series, is released.-February:... |
Crossing Midnight #13–19 |
External links
- Review of Crossing Midnight #1, 4, 4 and 5, Comics BulletinComics BulletinComics Bulletin is a website with an emphasis on the American comic book industry, updated daily with news, reviews, interviews, and editorial content. Coverage ranges from mainstream to independent/small press comic book and graphic novel publishers.-History:...