Anthony Bourdain's Hungry Ghosts is a horror anthology comic book, published by Dark Horse Comics in October 2018.
On a dark, haunted night, a Russian Oligarch dares a circle of international chefs to play the samurai game of 100 Candles—where each storyteller tells a terrifying tale of ghosts, demons and unspeakable beings—and prays to survive the challenge.
Inspired by the Japanese Edo period game of Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai, Hungry Ghosts reimagines the classic stories of yokai, yorei, and obake, all tainted with the common thread of food. Also, if the title wasn't already an indication, each story has a corresponding recipe by Anthony Bourdain.
Including stellar artists Sebastian Cabrol, Vanesa Del Rey, Francesco Francavilla, Irene Koh, Leo Manco, Alberto Ponticelli, Paul Pope, and Mateus Santolouco as well as amazing color by Jose Villarrubia, a drop-dead cover by Paul Pope.
This comic provides examples of:
- Accidental Child-Killer Backstory: The trattoria owner in "The Heads" explains that he once sold cheap cheese which fatally poisoned a customer. The illustration shows a young boy coughing up blood while the owner looks on in horror. This tragedy led him to live a better life, eager to help people like the protagonist. It's all a lie to gain sympathy and trust. The owner, a demon in disguise, does not want to help the protagonist so much as eat him.
- Ambiguously Evil: It is implied that the wealthy Russian host in the Framing Device is guilty of some grave action to receive his fortune and his fate at the end is his Karma Houdini Warranty."What's the saying? Behind every great fortune there's a great crime, right?"
- Even Evil Has Standards: The French chef's tale mentions that the chefs take out their frustration on those lower in the kitchen hierarchy. They do, however, make sure that it's all in good fun and everyone can laugh afterward. Molestation and sexual harassment are where they draw the line, and one Kappa delivers comeuppance in Papa Wolf mode on behalf of an apprentice who had a chef putting fingers in his anus.
- Framing Device: The premise of the graphic novel includes a wealthy Russian billionaire hosting a banquet for his rich friends in New York. After dinner is finished, the guests and the billionaire's disgruntled kitchen staff play Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai, a Japanese parlor game where they all tell horror stories by a mirror and one-hundred candles, blowing out a candle for every finished story. The chefs go first.
- French Cuisine Is Haughty: The French chef in the Framing Device is portrayed as a stereotypical Angry Chef, made a lot more understandable in "Deep" where he tells how the kitchen he was apprenticed to was a Chain of Harm where chefs would take out their frustration of their inferiors, the apprentices at the very bottom of the hierarchy.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- In "The Starving Skeleton", a chef had refused to fix something for a starving man, only for that man's undead spirit to return and eat him as revenge.
- The titular pirates in "The Pirates" made it no secret that they all intended to rape the woman they find adrift in the ocean. In-response, the woman (revealed to be a Sazae-oni) steals all of their testicles and swims off with them.
- In "Salty Horse", a Spanish Lord develops an insatiable appetite for horse-meat and has every single one of his horses - including the foals - killed, cooked and eaten. One of these horses manifests as a vengeful spirit and possesses him. If the story-teller is anything to go by, the rest of his life was very unpleasant.
- At the end of "The Heads", a mugger tries to mug the protagonist after he had been through hell escaping the Rokurokobi and being accused of murder. He then gives him the detached head as compensation, where it comes to life and eats the mugger.
- In "Deep", a particularly sadistic chef that sexually molests his apprentice has his shirikodama ripped out of his torn-apart carcass and eaten by a Kappa.
- In "The Snow Woman", the Yuki-onna spares the man - even has sex with him - in exchange for not speaking of it to anyone. Years later, he confesses of his encounter to his wife. His wife turns into the yukionna and freezes him to death.
- In "The Cow Head", the starving villagers kill and eat the kudan that had done nothing to them. Then youkai all burst out of their stomachs.
- The chefs in the Framing Device reveal themselves as youkai and cook and eat their hosts, doing so to punish them for their Conspicuous Consumption.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: The Sazae-oni in "The Pirates" is portrayed as having the ability to switch between a Redhead In Green and a monstrous lobster-esq form.
- Our Minotaurs Are Different: The Kudan from "The Cow Head" looks less like its traditional portrayal - a cow with a human face - and more like a minotaur.
- Papa Wolf: One chef comforts an apprentice who was molested by his superior. Then he proceeds to repay the favor to said chef, revealing he was a Kappa.
- Real After All: Most of the dinner guests are amused by the ghost game as they listen to the chefs. The last page reveals that all the chefs were demons, and they turned the guests into a feast.
- Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: The Horror Host is an unnamed female youkai with scraggly black hair and an orange floral kimono, later revealed to have been one of the chefs as a human disguise.
- Villainous Glutton: The Spanish Lord in "Salty Horse" is made to look more and more grotesque and unhinged as the story goes on, his desire for horse-meat turning him into a fat, rabid monster.
- Youkai:
- "The Starving Skeleton" features the creation of a Gashadokuro, made when a chef refused to feed a starving homeless man.
- "The Pirates" stars a Sazae-oni, a crustacean mermaid-esq creature that steals a crew of pirate's collective testicles.
- "Salty Horse" features a horse-based Tsukimono, a malevolent animal spirit that possesses people.
- "The Heads" features Rokurokubi, more specifically the kind where their heads detatch.
- "Deep" stars a Kappa.
- "Boil in the Belly" stars a Bakemono, a snake-like monster that possesses a young man.
- "The Snow Woman" stars Yuki-onna, a snow woman.
- "The Cow Head" stars a kudan, who tries to warn the villagers of a disaster, only for the villagers to kill and eat him. From their stomachs various other youkai burst out, including a Tengu, a Bakemono, an Ushi-oni and a Hitotsume-nyūdō.
- The epilogue reveals that the chefs are all youkai in-disguise, including a Hitotsume-nyūdō, an Ushi-oni and a Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl.
